Recap: 4X Pro Tour Round 3 - Fort William
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 You know it's a big track when the racers are carrying more than 3 cogs on their cluster for 4X. Fort William's one of the few places with a permanent 4X track, and it's definitely one of the longer ones that still sees regular use. |
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| Reigning World 4X Champion Joost Wichman contemplating what comes next: retirement from 4X, and focusing more energy on filming projects. |
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| That's one way to sweep off the 4X start gate... just disconnect the air hose that drives the gate and have at it. |
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| It's interesting that the green means go, but the big red button is the one that kicks off the racing. |
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| Quentin Derbier of France was the top qualifier for the 4x and pretty much walked through the initial rounds with nary a scratch. Unfortunately, he just didn't have the horses compared to Slavik in the final. |
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| Joost the Boost was looking to walk away from the 4X scene with a win, and he consistently marched through his rounds. |
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| Katy Curd qualified 14th earlier today in the DH, but brought home some bacon with the win in the Women's Pro Tour 4X held today at Ft Bill. There were only 5 women initially entered in the 4X (Fionn Griffiths came out of a 2 year self imposed 4X retirement to add one more to the mix), but Curd was clearly a cut above the rest. She consistently smoked the remaining women with a great gate start, good legs, and superior handling skills. |
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| Thomas Slavik, like Katy Curd, not only raced the DH Qualifier today (he ended up just outside of the 80 rider cut off). but also was bringing his A game to the 4X. "The DH race was hard. I like to ride all day, but I like gravity, so I won't switch to Enduro. I'll see what I can do with the Downhill." |
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| Joost had one hell of a lead coming into the last corner of the final, and opted for the less risky line around the generous triple jump that sits just before that corner. Alas, Slavik may have raced DH today, but he still had the legs to hit the triple and go inside outside on Wichman, and seized the win. |
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| Katy Curd on the top of the box in the Women's 4X Pro Tour here at Fort William. |
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| Slavik was all smiles after taking the last corner win against Wichman. |
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| Paul Mounsey's UCI racing number is GBR19460906. Meaning he was born in 1946. That's right, a 67 year old not only races 4X but qualified 31st in a field of 32 for todays 4X race. We should all be so lucky to be able to ride like that at age 67. |
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