5 Things We Learned from the 2022 Fort William DH World Cup
Amaury is on his way to being the new king of Fort William
After a three year break from Fort William and some tough injuries in between, it was an amazing performance from Amaury Pierron to take his second win in a row this season and a huge third consecutive win at Fort William. Amaury now becomes the second male rider to ever win more than two times at Fort William as he closes in on Greg Minnaar's seven wins.
Since 2015 only two men have won at Fort William, with both Amaury and Greg taking three back-to-back wins each. Interestingly we also saw Amaury Pierron swap back to a full 29er setup for Fort William after taking his win in Lourdes on a mixed-wheel bike.
Since 2015 only two men have won at Fort William, with both Amaury and Greg taking three back-to-back wins each. Interestingly we also saw Amaury Pierron swap back to a full 29er setup for Fort William after taking his win in Lourdes on a mixed-wheel bike.
Nina Hoffmann could be a threat for the rest of the season
Backing up a massive win of over seven seconds at the preceding British National race there was plenty of attention on Nina Hoffmann to see if she could keep her speed up on the tricky course. Come finals day she held down an impressive run, placing first at every split and pulling almost four seconds ahead of series leader Camille Balanche. With her win in Fort William Nina ends an almost two-year gap since her first World Cup win in Maribor and becomes the first German to win at Fort William. With a decent confidence boost from Fort William it will be interesting to watch if Nina can carry this momentum into Leogang.
The course is as brutal as ever
After adding some extra gravel to smooth out the course following the British National race there was a worry that the Fort William course had been made easier for the World Cup. Come the race weekend and this was proven wrong as the always tough and technical Fort William track provided plenty of carnage with broken riders and bikes. Across the weekend we saw Loic Bruni, Jess Blewitt and more taken out on the Scottish rocks.
Throughout the event we saw plenty of riders puncturing but more unexpectedly there were quite a few drivetrain issues with riders hitting the bottom of the course with no way to pedal to the finish. We believe this could be because of big holes opening up on track in the rocks and if riders were caught off line there was a chance for some big damage to bikes in the compressions. In finals we saw the likes of Loris Vergier, Bernard Kerr and more taken out with drivetrain issues.
Throughout the event we saw plenty of riders puncturing but more unexpectedly there were quite a few drivetrain issues with riders hitting the bottom of the course with no way to pedal to the finish. We believe this could be because of big holes opening up on track in the rocks and if riders were caught off line there was a chance for some big damage to bikes in the compressions. In finals we saw the likes of Loris Vergier, Bernard Kerr and more taken out with drivetrain issues.
Jackson and Jordan almost top in Elites
Jordan Williams and Jackson Goldstone were the clear favorites heading into Fort William but once racing began things couldn't have been closer between the two flat-out young riders. Jordan took the first victory with the fastest run in timed training before Jackson fought back with the top qualifying time. On finals day the British rider came out on top at his home race by just 0.038 seconds over the almost five-minute course.
As well as an incredibly close race between these two final year Elite riders both of their times would have fallen inside the top six in the Elite Men's race. While it's arguable that the course was running slightly slower later in the day, it was still not easy conditions-wise in the morning for Juniors. It's also worth mentioning that third place Junior Remy Meier-Smith would have placed 12th in the elite as well; the future of DH is looking bright.
As well as an incredibly close race between these two final year Elite riders both of their times would have fallen inside the top six in the Elite Men's race. While it's arguable that the course was running slightly slower later in the day, it was still not easy conditions-wise in the morning for Juniors. It's also worth mentioning that third place Junior Remy Meier-Smith would have placed 12th in the elite as well; the future of DH is looking bright.
A handful of top riders didn't make finals
Interestingly we saw plenty of big names miss out on finals in Fort William, a sizeable lineup including Sam Blenkinsop, Baptiste Pierron, Chris Grice, Neko Mulally, Brook Macdonald and Aaron Gwin all didn't qualify. The Fort William course is always a tough one for riders to master and last weekend seems to have caught out more of the top riders than normal. After such a long break from round one and another few weeks until round three riders will definitely find it tough to have to end their weekends short after qualifying.
More things:
• It was a great weekend for Pinkbike Racing with Aimi Kenyon taking 3rd in Junior Women, Jackson Connely 12th in Junior Men and Ben Cathro securing an amazing 24th in the Elite Men's racing.
• One of the biggest surprises of the weekend was seeing Rachel Atherton back between the tape at World Cups. While she didn't race it was awesome to see her back.
• The venue for the 2023 World Champs has been revealed to be Fort William as part of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland.
• Gracey Hemstreet is continuing to be a big threat in the Junior Women's racing as she took a second back-to-back win in Fort William.
• Kade Edwards is a beast as after crashing in finals went on to throw down some wild tricks on the motorway section's big jumps.
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Member since Mar 16, 2017
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That's effing amazing really. Here we have the Right Amount of Stupid - PB - with their not-legendary-but-legendary Grim Donut, Levy, Kaz, and the whole Reject Crew - and their very 1st season, 2nd race, the Juniors are murdering - and Cathro didn't do too bad either...
Most of '5 thing we learned" above pretty obvious really, but the PB crew, coming outta nowhere upped numerous pro riders, entire BIG teams, and many longer-time riders out there. In the end, its all just fun and doesn't have to be taken too seriously but this is really one of those major underbelly stories that's not really getting trumpeted (in my view). Congrats PBR - this is just cool as hell the more I think about it. So when is PB gonna do a fundraiser / kickstarter for us to help pay for the team?
:'(
m.pinkbike.com/u/DoubleCrownAddict/blog/fort-william-world-cup-drivetrain-carnage-and-the-problem-with-the-motorway.html
(Just a preemptive comment for when Gwin gets on the steps later in the year)