UCI World Cup - Fort William, Scottish Highlands

After a top 20 finish at Round 2 of the UCI World Cup series, I'm now lying 25th overall, after racing just one round!



The weather was still damp and changeable during Sunday morning's semi-finals and the wind was blowing really hard up the course. Straight outta the gate I got into a tuck and lazied my way down without pedalling. The number of spectators on course was amazing, and they're really noisy! I caught a couple of girls up down on the fast jumpy section at the bottom, almost tyre to tyre behind one of them down "the Wall" into the finish arena. I qualified in 17th with a 5.58.21, just .19secs off of 16th place! I was pretty happy - I had finally got the sub-6 minute time I'd been after.

Tracy Moseley qualified in first, Helen Gaskell in second and Rachel Atherton in 5th, so it was looking good for a very strong Brits finish too. The men's qualification began and more Brits were setting blistering times, including Dan Stanbridge who came down super fast to qualify 8th out of over 150 riders.

The weather picked up and the sun was out by the time the final runs began. The track was much drier due to the ever blowing wind. I was amazed by the number of spectators lining the course, but that's what Fort William World Cup is renowned for! It's great to have them behind you as they shout encouragement to every rider.

I cost myself a whole heap of time in a couple of places, almost hitting the bog at the side of the track. Hauling hard on the brakes to avoid a total wipe out both times. It showed in my final result as I'd gone slower and ended up in 19th position. Even so, it's my best World Cup result to date, and I can't wait to do another one.

Fort William World Cup - Day 1

First day of practice is over and done with. The track is pretty tough, but not too holey just yet. That said, it is roughing up by the minute. I just went steady today, a first run just to check it all out and then a real fun second run getting me up to speed. Called it a day after that - it's such a physical course that it's worthwhile going easy so you still feel fresh for race day Sunday.

Saw a few of the top riders coming down the last few jumps at the end, Minnaar's whips are so awesome, and they all go so fast. In the gondola on the way up you can see the riders coming down. It's pretty awesome watching the world's best ripping it up.

The weather hasn't been so bad as it might've been. One heavy shower this morning and then intermittent sunshine. It's turned out to be a lovely day now, but bad rain is forecast for tomorrow...

Dragon Downhill Gethin Rnd 5

In mid May you might expect it to be sunny. Wrong. After a week of rain leading up to the weekend, Gethin was wet. With torrential rain the night before there were even certain parts of the track that the run-off water had turned into a mini river! Last week I made a few changes to my Marzocchi 888 forks and this was the first time I could try them somewhere really rocky. The infamous Gethin Rock Garden gave 'em a good work out and the feedback at the handlebar was "bumpy but not too bad at all". Jolly good.

A new style of uplift was in action this weekend. Dragon organiser Jason Carpenter and Masters rider Jules Poffley have been hard at work welding up a couple of trailers to hold the bikes, each one separately so it doesn't rub on another, and a couple of buses were hired for the riders to sit in. The good old Bob Gay lorries were in use too. There were some very long queues, but unfortunately it seems slower to load the bikes the new way to comply with the new Forestry Commission regulations.

First race run came and went, with lots of silly stops and setting off with one foot not clipped into my pedal. When I crossed the line I had a winning time of 3.52, and even managed 100th overall, out of about 250+, so I'm pretty stoked!

NPS 2 - Innerleithen 13/14 May

Finally got back from Innerleithen today, pretty long trip. It was a pretty mint weekend, good weather, good track, nearly ok-ish transport and an awesome result for me - 2nd place, and I'm now the series leader! Definately wasn't expecting either of those things so its doublely cool.



Tracy Mosley took the win with a huge margin of victory, and lots of people came out of the woodwork this weekend, Jaymie Mart, Anja Rees-Jones, Maria Conway and Renee Diwell. It was great to see them all and we had a pretty good field even though Rach Atherton and Helen Gaskell were away racing the Lisbon downtown race in Portugal.

The track was super technical with so many corners looking like each other so it was really difficult to remember. The seeding was a bit of a shoulder-barging-trees affair on the tight course, but I qualified second. My race run felt a bit slow but I crossed the line ten seconds faster, pretty amazed to be ushered to the hot seat with only Tracy left to come down. Coolio!