Fort William World Cup Day 1

In its eighth year on the World Cup DH calendar, Fort William is this year host to the fourth round of the Circus after a long haul trip to the opening round in South Africa and two back to back races in the mainland European venues of La Bresse and Vallnord. As always, things will build up steadily over the weekend here, culminating in the downhill finals on Sunday but between now and then, plenty will be going on to keep you busy.Words: Alasdair MacLennan, Pics: Ian MacLennan, Video: MTB Cut Productions

Thursday started it all with late afternoon 4x training in advance of Friday's qualifiers with downhill training starting early on Friday morning. As is so often the case up here, to describe the weather as fickle would be an understatement; early week blue skies gradually changing to cloud and culminating in a massive bank of black storm clouds not long after timed training started mid afternoon for the downhillers.


Last night there was some 4x practice in advance of today’s qualifiers which showed that some of the riders were less than comfortable on the new-for-2009 rock garden. There were a number of setup changes going on amongst the riders as they tried to get their bikes working better for the rough course.


Day One at Fort William:

Fort William Day One

by MTBcut

Add to Favorites Added to Favorites Views: 3,786    Faves: 30    Comments: 6

Timed practice:

Although training started at 8.30am on Friday, not many chose to venture onto the hill that early although by midday, as the number of runs under the belt increased, so did the speed. There aren’t any major changes evident this year over what has gone before but a few tweaks here and there from the maintenance crew has increased the speed through some sections with a smoother track. Move below the tree line into the famous ‘World Cup Woods’ and you see the most noticeable change with a new line being added to replace the aging and eroded rut that has played its part over the last few years. Starting out early on as a smooth and mossy line, this soon rutted up itself and made things more challenging. By the time qualifying rolls around today this will be a section where riders will have to be careful in order not to lose time through the slippery roots as they come in off the hard packed surface the rest of the course offers. In typical style, opinion is divided with some riders admitting to ‘just not feeling it’ whilst others are really enjoying the change.


Despite the rain having the appearance earlier on in the day of missing Aonach Mhor, this unfortunately didn’t last and, by the time the top 80 men and top 20 women were on the hill for timed practice, the storm clouds had broken and the hillside was being battered by heavy rain and strong winds. As a result, the timed practice isn’t perhaps as indicative of performance as it can sometimes be owing to less than 50 men and only 9 women taking part.


Sat in the cable car on the way up the hill you could even see the tops of the trees being battered by 50mph gusts as the wind swept across the hill, long before hitting the car itself. The wind at times dropping right down before gusting strongly, there were some decidedly sketchy performances any time the wheels needed to come off the ground on the unprotected top section before reaching the shelter of the trees.


With this only ever going to be light indication of the weekends pecking order, names to note in the men's results are Mojo’s Dan Stanbridge in third on matching the same second as Steve Peat for the Syndicate. Sam Hill has been looking comfortable on the Specialized and topping the time sheet here with a margin of two seconds will go some way to putting his season back on track after a huge crash took him out of the running at the last round in Vallnord.


Brendan, who won the UK NPS round the previous weekend, looks like he will not be far behind after watching the two of them training together on Friday. In the women's, Sabrina Jonnier is currently top of the time sheets although it’s worth noting that her closest rival, Tracy Moseley, who will no doubt be challenging for the follow up to last year’s win here, elected not to put in a time.


4x qualifying:

With a much longer track put in place for the 2007 World Champs, this course more than ever is a test of a riders fitness; the old start merely the new half way marker with times around 39s for the men and 43 for the women. As with the downhill, the general layout remains unchanged from previous years although this year there is a rock slab/garden which drops into the main tabletop and which looked to be challenging a number of riders by taking them out of their comfort zone during practice. As always though, come racing and the bar was raised with a number of riders jumping the whole section to land some way down the track. Ballsy but it was far smoother than running through the rocks. Placed where it is it’s unlikely that we’ll see four riders entering it side by side but the chance, no matter how small, is still tantalising as it seems unlikely all four would come out the other side. Most riders, Britain’s Scott Beaumont included, have said that they’re enjoying the rough and tough layout of this year’s course.


Qualifying is run against the clock rather than the heats that form the 4x finals. In the timed runs, Jill Kintner took a clear lead here with her time 1.7s clear of the identically timed Anneke Beerten and Caroline Buchanan in second and third spots respectively.


In the men's qualifiers Jared Graves was third, just edging Dan Atherton into fourth position. Taking first and second respectively and separated by less than a tenth were Joost Wichman and Roger Rinderknecht.


Keep an eye out in the album as we'll be uploading more pics when we get the chance as well as updates after the downhill qualifiers and 4x final.
-Fort William Photo Gallery

-cloverleaf.pinkbike.com

-mtbcut.pinkbike.com

Posted In:
Stories Reader Stories