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UCI World Championships 2007
Fort William, Scotland
Jim - 21st October
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The Worlds were little over a month ago, and I think its fair to say one of the greatest mountain bike events ever to take place. We realised we'd never really finished off our coverage, despite day to day updates, so here's something for those of you who missed out back in September.
The DH track was spot on, the boardwalk sections adding a little something to the track, and without them it wouldnt be possible to have the awesome switchbacked sections right at the top of the hill, the rest of the track was left pretty much unchanged from previous events, bar a new wooded section which got a great reaction from the riders and was only opened a couple of days before practise day.
Jared Graves up on Aonoch Mor start gate
Rolling up to the finish arena there were banners everywhere, flags flying, sound system pumping and riders flowing into the finish after 5 minute runs, this is what makes Fort William the toughest race on the calendar, not only is the track hard work, the weather can change in a matter of minutes, one run could be in the sunshine with perfect visibility and for the next the rain and fog can blow in over Aonoch Mor reducing visibility to a few metres, and five minutes is a long time to be succumbed to this.
Theres a reason the event has won awards for the World Cup events voted for by the IMBA for the last 5 years, and thats the crowds. No where else in the world will you get 40,000 people over 5 days braving the Scottish weather for a glimpse of their nations rider fly past on their way to a possible rainbow jersey.
The top section of the course, click here for the big version
Qualifying was purely tactics, Sam Hill just cruising down and not exposing his lines to the army of team coaches armed with video cameras on the tech sections, the Worlds is a big deal. Gee Atherton pinning it down the track to qualify 2nd behind Greg Minnaar, neither of them truly at race speed though, sister Rachel also flying into 1st place qualifier by 8 seconds. Despite all this the name on everyones lips was Ruaridh Cunningham, coming from nowhere to take 1st ahead of Josh Bryceland (now a Syndicate rider at time of writing), Sam Dale having a nasty crash at the bottom of the Off Beat Wall which he was lucky to walk away from but this put him out with a bust collarbone.
Josh Bryceland just after the new hip jump
4X was the big news story at Fort William, with a Nissan helicopter in the air filimg all the action on the long course and enough floodlights to light every square inch of the 40 second track. Romain Saladini was fastest man on the day with Prokop and Lopes just behind, and Jared Graves the hot favourite to surprise everyone come Friday finals day.
Fast forward to Friday night and the arena was packed with over 6000 spectators, the lights were on and we're ready to rock. The usual suspects got through the first few heats but surprise exits were Prokop, who went down on the first corner of the old course pushing hard and an unfortunate draw for the UK riders meant they were competing against each other for a finals place and Gee Atherton and Scott Beaumont were flat out no holds barred to draw in the Semi's. Jared Graves went down with a blown tyre that wrapped around his frame attempting the quad on the last corner, I'm not sure anyone could quite believe it, he was on it to take the rainbow jersey but theres always next year.
Brian Lopes showing a clean pair of heels on the first straight
Watching the 4x action on the big screen put hairs up on the back of my neck, and seeing the TV footage on BBC2 its clear that 4x has a future on the box and after hearing friends and family talking with excitement about the racing its great to see MTB reaching the mainstream audiences it deserves.
Brian Lopes took the win in convincing style in the finals with Romain Saladini in 2nd and Jurg Meijer at the back, Lopes had a shaky qualifier coming back from 4th into second but dominated the final.
The day I'd been waiting for all week, and the reason I was standing on a freezing cold hillside with horizontal rain and my camera 'waterproofed' with a black bin bag was the downhill finals, Junior Women were first down the hill, Katy Curd had come from nowhere to one of the best in her category, as the first Brit down the hill the crowd went mental for her and the cheering could be heard all over the top section, it turns out now that she was stopped as the course was red flagged, and then told to carry on, despite the two racers behind her given a re-run. To say she was happy with second was an understatement but her time nowhere near represents her speed down the hill, big things to come.
The Junior Men, as I said before was the big one, and GBR had a commanding position over the field, the boys were at race speed and things were looking tight in the results, 5 minutes after Ruaridh passed me at the start gate, Chris Ball and the guys of Dirt School were around the radio jumping for joy and the news was confirmed, he'd done it and put the British flag smack in the middle and him on top of the podium. An unfortunate crash for Bryceland dashed his hopes but we have a strong base of racers who will take on the Elite field in a few years time.
The Elite Women was also dominated by GB riders, in the end Fionn Griffiths went huge over the Nissan jump and into 7th place, Tracey Moseley took 4th place and Rachel Atherton slotted into second place, just behind Sabrina Jonnier, not bad considering the majority of the season she has been out with injury, and had only started riding a few weeks beforehand. The Worlds went a lot like this, at the end of the season a lot of riders are carrying injuries and unfortunately GB had its fair share.
Jonnier however earnt this victory, watching her practise over and over again during the week she probably spent the most time on the track working on her lines, and the tactical move in qualifying gave her a clearer hill to race on.
Cheeky.. reason not to wear a skinsuit!
Now the big one, Elite Men. There were 20 people who couldve taken this one but in the end it came down to the dominating Sam Hill, this really has been his year, and the delaying tactics in qualifying paid off which gave him an advantage over those later on and earnt him a long sit in the hotseat waiting for the others to come down.
The seat broke off Steve Peats bike and earnt him a long ride down, and a potentially nasty injury should he crash. Greg Minnaar was the last man down the hill, and despite falling off and breaking his shoulder he managed to ride to the bottom and put in a solid time, needless to say he didnt hang around to chat afterwards. Gee Atherton managed to put in a solid time, and with the biggest cheer of the entire event hit the arena and crossed the line to take 3rd, thats another GB medal on the tally. This meant Sam Hill could get up off the hot seat and get onto the podium top step.
The prize ceremonies were brilliant, with Katy Curd and Ruaridh Cunningham getting huge applause, even though Katy was second the crowd went mental, with Florianne Pugin wondering where her applause was, and this will not be for the first time in their racing careers. We could see these two on the top step of an Elite podium given a few years and the backing of a mainstream race team.
Future world beaters, arguably the strongest GB squad in a while!
Thats the end of our coverage of the Worlds, you made it to the end. But if you weren't tuned in during the event, why not check out our day to day editorial?
Monday - build up
Tuesday - XC Relay & DH Course
Tuesday night - Opening Ceremony
Wednesday - DH Practise
Thursday - DH Qualifying & 4x practise
Friday - 4X FINALS!!
Sunday - Downhill Finals
Thanks for tuning in, keep it clicked to Fat Tyre mag.
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