Jared Graves returns to Gold, Sam Holds Onto Leaders Jersey In Fort William
News Source: e.thirteen
Fort William was full of surprises this past weekend – one of which was the lack of rain and mud on course! Despite a rainy forecast, the Scottish highlands were bone dry for the finals at the third stop of the UCI World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.![photo]()
Another surprise in Fort William was the return of 4X racing pinner, Yeti's Jared Graves. Graves has been training on his BMX and preparing for the Olympics, but made an appearance on the Scottish 4X track, just long enough to nab the gold medal and remind everyone in the sport of mountain biking that he is still an absolute threat on big wheels. Jared was joined on the podium by e.thirteen riders Joost Wichmann (2nd) and Dan Atherton (3rd).
The women's downhill podium was overtaken by e.thirteen athletes, led by Kona's Tracy Moseley and followed by Sabrina Jonnier, Rachel Atherton, and Mio Suemasa. Sabrina's second place finish was enough for her to regain the leader's jersey for women's DH, but Rachel Atherton is right behind her. Rachel crashed in qualifying, but was able to get back on the bike and put down a third place run in Scotland, enough to keep her in the points race with Sabrina for the overall.
![photo]()
Animal-Commencal's Gee Atherton followed his success from last week's race in Andorra by making another podium appearance at Fort William. The dry version of the Scottish DH track was beating riders to a pulp, and required lots of heavy pedaling in between the rough rock sections. Gee was able to overcome the course's gnarliness and avoid a flat tire (which was the fate of more than a few top riders over the weekend) to snag second place on the podium, which brings him into contention with Sam Hill for the leader's jersey!
Gee was also joined on the podium by fellow e.thirteen athlete Sam Hill, who was able to retain his leader's jersey with a fifth place finish. All eyes are on Sam and his Monster Energy-Iron Horse team after this race, since the next race will be the World Championships in Italy—on a track where Sam decimated the competition by five seconds during the test event earlier this year. Bets are already floating whether or not Sam will be able to increase this margin even more in order to get his third set of Elite Rainbow Stripes.
![photo]()
Congratulations to all of the e.thirteen athletes who raced the rocky, dry course in Fort William this past weekend. After watching the course walk on Freecaster.tv, it was more than obvious that our riders were thankful to have the direct mount bashguard on their LG-1s on such a rough course!
Stay tuned to the e.thirteen blog for some behind-the-scenes pics from the races, including pics of Dan Atherton's titanium 4X bike, as well as the live Freecaster race coverage from Val de Sol, Italy.
About ethirteen components
e.thirteen components is a small, rider-owned and operated company that strongly supports dozens of grassroots races, series, contests and other riding events all over the world every year. Founded in 2001, e.thirteen’s innovative, functional, simple and lightweight chain retention systems have made them a world leader in this category, and the choice of top pro and amateur riders and mechanics alike. They support a worldwide distribution network and take great pride in offering devoted customer service.
Fort William was full of surprises this past weekend – one of which was the lack of rain and mud on course! Despite a rainy forecast, the Scottish highlands were bone dry for the finals at the third stop of the UCI World Cup in Fort William, Scotland.
Another surprise in Fort William was the return of 4X racing pinner, Yeti's Jared Graves. Graves has been training on his BMX and preparing for the Olympics, but made an appearance on the Scottish 4X track, just long enough to nab the gold medal and remind everyone in the sport of mountain biking that he is still an absolute threat on big wheels. Jared was joined on the podium by e.thirteen riders Joost Wichmann (2nd) and Dan Atherton (3rd).
The women's downhill podium was overtaken by e.thirteen athletes, led by Kona's Tracy Moseley and followed by Sabrina Jonnier, Rachel Atherton, and Mio Suemasa. Sabrina's second place finish was enough for her to regain the leader's jersey for women's DH, but Rachel Atherton is right behind her. Rachel crashed in qualifying, but was able to get back on the bike and put down a third place run in Scotland, enough to keep her in the points race with Sabrina for the overall.
Animal-Commencal's Gee Atherton followed his success from last week's race in Andorra by making another podium appearance at Fort William. The dry version of the Scottish DH track was beating riders to a pulp, and required lots of heavy pedaling in between the rough rock sections. Gee was able to overcome the course's gnarliness and avoid a flat tire (which was the fate of more than a few top riders over the weekend) to snag second place on the podium, which brings him into contention with Sam Hill for the leader's jersey!
Gee was also joined on the podium by fellow e.thirteen athlete Sam Hill, who was able to retain his leader's jersey with a fifth place finish. All eyes are on Sam and his Monster Energy-Iron Horse team after this race, since the next race will be the World Championships in Italy—on a track where Sam decimated the competition by five seconds during the test event earlier this year. Bets are already floating whether or not Sam will be able to increase this margin even more in order to get his third set of Elite Rainbow Stripes.
Congratulations to all of the e.thirteen athletes who raced the rocky, dry course in Fort William this past weekend. After watching the course walk on Freecaster.tv, it was more than obvious that our riders were thankful to have the direct mount bashguard on their LG-1s on such a rough course!
Stay tuned to the e.thirteen blog for some behind-the-scenes pics from the races, including pics of Dan Atherton's titanium 4X bike, as well as the live Freecaster race coverage from Val de Sol, Italy.
About ethirteen components
e.thirteen components is a small, rider-owned and operated company that strongly supports dozens of grassroots races, series, contests and other riding events all over the world every year. Founded in 2001, e.thirteen’s innovative, functional, simple and lightweight chain retention systems have made them a world leader in this category, and the choice of top pro and amateur riders and mechanics alike. They support a worldwide distribution network and take great pride in offering devoted customer service.
Author Info:
San Luis Obispo, CA, United States
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can we not have news thats not full of marketing crap?!
unfortunately this in the only coverage we get from the world cup. whether it's from e-13 or syndicate, does it realy matter?
Second and more importantly, for coverage, pictures, and video of UCI WC mountain bike events, you could always go to the actual UCI World Cup Mountain Biking website:
www.uci.ch/templates/UCI/UCI5/layout.asp?MenuId=MTUzNDI
Or you could even try the UCI Mountain Bike Channel on YouTube.
www.youtube.com/ucimtb
Good site for World Cup coverage
oh, if you want to watch the world cup live or just see highlights go to mtbcut.tv or freecaster.tv. i dont work for either, but they deserve a plufg for being there and covering it in an unbiased manner (other than the commentators plugging their team mr warner!)its usually pretty funny to boot.
Some press-release are better than others, but ike someone mentioned - some news/pictures/results is better than none - reason why I choose to post them.
We would LOVE to hit all these venues and bring you some coverage - but reality is that it's unrealistic to do that. Like in my case for example, I have a full time day job, not like I can take week long vacations just to cover an event - even if I would love to ;o)
Thanks for understanding!
- Luc