Round 2 Fort William World Cup Final

Ben Nevis is the range, Fort William is the track, for the past 10 years "the Bill" has hosted a round of the world cup and 1 world champs, it is a place that usually has sudden showers and lots of mist, giving it a ghostly and almost haunted appearance, but there is no doubting that this track is rocky, long and very very dangerous for riders who dare to wander off line!
Some of the questions to be answered were, in the womens, could Rachel Atherton come back and put an end to Tracey Moseleys imposing form?, what is happening to the french connection?, is Tracey moseley the best female rider in the world at the moment, she of the Dalby forest cross country world cup racer, yes thats right, she is now racing world cup cross country rounds and putting in a commendable effort!
In the mens, is Aaron Gwin the real deal?, Can Greg Minnaar get equilibrium back and stop the new breed?, and what of the Australians, is Hill working his way into world cup contention( these are his least favourite tracks, south africa and the bill), can Hannah re-discover the form that seen him top qualify in south africa?
Is there a junior on the planet that can get near Brosnan at the moment?, will Rob Warner drop a clanger or an F-bomb during the race?...all these questions and more to be answered in due course!

Women Elite

This was a highly anticipated race for lots of reasons, and one of them was the form of Tracey Moseley and could Rachel Atherton get near her, and what of Jill Kintner, our beloved partner of Blue Mountains god Bryn Atkinson, which in turn makes her a Blue Mountains local and a fiercely guarded commodity!
It all started as per the script with mainly the french girls putting in good solid times until our Jill came down and sent us into raptures, her time was good enough for 6th place and looks good for the future, this time and placing will send some shockwaves through the ranks that Jill is taking this downhill seriously and putting her time into downhill!, and so came down Tracey Moseley and she put in a devestating run that put her into the hot seat by more than 7 seven seconds, this put pressure on Atherton who was last down, also it insured a British win, when the dust settled it was Moseley who came out on top with a margin of 1.721 seconds, this was true close racing at its finest. Moseley and Atherton were in a class of there own, which bodes well for British downhilling, it was also compelling viewing!!

1-Tracey Moseley- 4.43.898
2-Rachel Atherton- +1.721
3-Floriane pugin- +7.530
4-Myriam Nicole- +8.251
5-Sabrina Jonnier- +10.072
6-Jill Kintner-!!!!!!!!

Mens Elite

This would be the culmination of 4 weeks of waiting after Pietermaritzburg and the consequences of that race, how would Aaron Gwin fare after top qualifying, would the old firm of Peaty, Minnaar, Hill, Hannah and Gee Atherton stand up and return things back to normal, if there is such a thing!
Things started well for the southern hemisphere with Mitch Delfs sitting in the hot seat for so long that he was in danger of getting bed sores, only then after what seemed a lifetime( i grew a beard while waiting), our Shaun O'connor came down and dislodged him from the hot seat, Shaun cant have been too happy because the hot seat looked to have Delfs imprint on it, and so it proved as Hannah came down and booted O'connor out and proceeded to disturb the imprint with his own print!, it was great to see Sik Mik ride a very solid race, for he is riding injured after his gear failure in South Africa, but it was not meant to be as New Zealander and 09 junior world champ Brook McDonald put in a stunning time that was some 8 seconds faster than Hannahs, there were murmurs and dropped jaws everywhere when this ride occured, this was a lot faster than Gwins qualifying time, the big guns would have to pull out all stops to get him off the podium!, Sam hill had a red hot go, but came up short, the pedalling section being his undoing, the big guns came down but could not dislodge Mcdonald, Peaty had a go, but could not get near him, Steve Smith had a go with one of the wildest rides i have seen, he spent half of his race run with his balls hitting his top tube and legs dangling on the ground to retrieve his run, then Minnaar came down and took McDonalds time apart with Minnaar making up buckets of time on the long pedalling section, putting him in the hot seat by nearly 2 seconds, it was up to Atherton, Gwin and Hart to try and get rid of Minnaar, Gee Atherton looked smooth but it was too much for him, dropping him onto 4th place, Aaaron Gwin had a go but came up short as well to fall into 5th place, then came one of the great rides of the weekend when little Danny Hart went berserk to try and beat Minnaar, it was an awesome ride, it was wild, it was all over the place like a mad womans breakfast, it was blindingly quick, but it fell just short of Minnaar by 1.299 seconds, which put him into 2nd place, a well deserved result for Danny Hart, especially for having the courage to put it all on the line to go for the win, unfortunately it was the pedalling flat section which played into Minnaars hands to give him Victory, after this round, it starts to get a lot steeper and a lot more technical, which in all likelihood will play much more into the hands of Sam Hill and Gee Atherton, but for now Minnaar walks away with the spoils of victory!..Another highlight was the race run of Cedric Gracia, he was doing massive whips of deadly jumps, and the best of all was the ramp jump/drop off, he did this no-handed, it was a sublime ride, with one handers, table tops, the man is a legend!

1-Greg Minnaar- 4.43.854
2-Danny Hart- +1.299
3-Brook McDonald- +1.934
4-Gee Atherton- + 3.004
5-Aaron Gwin- + 3.193
6-Cameron Cole- + 3.748
7-Sam Blenkinsop- + 4.269
8-Justin Leov- + 4.331
9-Sam Hill- + 4.579
10-Steve Smith- + 5.823
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
21-Josh Button- + 9.499
22-Mick Hannah- + 9.579
30-Troy Brosnan(junior)- + 11.151
32-Shaun O'Connor- + 12.066
33-Mitch Delfs- + 12.080
46-Will Rischbeth- + 15.329

Todd