Here it is again folks, World Cup round two. From the newest venue to one that has only been pipped by Mont Saint Anne for appearances, Fort William.
Written by Wideopenmag’s resident race head and team manager Big Dave Konstanz.
Does anyone else feel like we haven’t even started the World Cup season yet? It seems like an age ago that we were chatting about the new track at Losinj and the rock-strewn track that was set to cause chaos.
Well from the newest location on the circuit to one of the oldest locations on the circuit. Fort William.
What is there to say about Fort William that hasn’t been said before? It has featured as a World Cup or World Champs venue every year since 2002 when the mens’ race was won by Kovarik by a whopping 14 seconds and Tracey Moseley bagged the womens’ race by a more modest 6 seconds. Every year there are stories that come out of the Fort William round and last year was no different.
The woods last year through the cat amongst the pigeons. Some people liked it, lots of people hated it. A track that caused no complaint was the other way around when the rain landed at the worst possible moment, Saturday night. All those who qualified would need 2 practice runs in the event of any course changes, so it stayed as it was. Some got through, some didn’t.
Rachel Atherton crashed in practice and dislocated her shoulder putting an end to her epic winning streak and a lot of the fast men fell foul of the big muddy rut in the woods.
Greg Minnaar was the eventual mens’ winner making it a three wins in a row at the Bill and a total of seven wins there, that is not to be sniffed at. However, might the result have been different if Gwin hadn’t had a bizarre front wheel wash out just before the Hazard Hoofer, he was up at the split…
Tracey Hannah took the win in the womens’ field as the mud bog in the woods claimed more than one or two of the women that were looking to capitalise on Rachel Atherton’s absence.
The track this year.
We headed up to Fort William for the second round of the NDS and Pete headed up to the woods section that caused chaos last year and discovered all of the mud has been replaced by rock.
While the NDS used some of the new woods section, work was not complete on the entirety, so there will be fresh track, albeit not an awful lot of it, for the World Cup.
As we all know, Fort Bill is not short of rock, but one thing that it is now short of is fresh track. One thing is for certain this year and that is that there is no let up on the track and if anything the track has got faster.
It will be interesting to see how they route the track from the new ‘bike park’ style track that is under the gondola into the woods and then out onto the track above the Silverline jump, but I can imagine that it will be very similar to last year but with the rocks replacing the mud ruts. Bikes and riders are going to take a hammering top to bottom and it is going to be unrelenting.
Who did well at the last round?
Last round was a return of the American powerhouse. With three riders on the podium book-ending two kiwis, is this the way that the season is going to head?
Gwin proved that you can never count him out and he knows exactly when to switch it into full race mode and you can bet that he has some redemption with Fort Bill following his mishap last year. Dean Lucas backed up his 2nd place qualifier with the third spot on the box and was on pace all weekend.
The Bulldog was the fastest qualifier and then came down super early in the order due to the new ranking rulings. As we all know, he had a super gnarly over the bars which resulted in a broken collar bone. Rumours are rife that he has been chewing up bones as his collar bone is fixed six weeks post injury and he is back with a point to prove, he is one to watch this weekend that is for sure.
PomPon won the womens’ in Losinj with a dominant performance and a straight up head to head with Rachel Atherton. Tahnee was pipped into third by 0.2seconds by Rachel, you can guarantee that there is going to be a big battle in the womens’ category and it’s great to watch not knowing the likely outcome. Rachel took the win at the NDS a couple of weeks back, but did have some trouble with arm pump.
Ones to watch this weekend
For the men I have got a couple to watch out for:
Gwin – he’s the one with the most dialled racer head, arguably the best team behind him and one of the best mechanics in the game.
Hart – Danny convincingly smashed the competition at the NDS by a dominating margin of nearly 5.5 seconds and then stayed on doing more testing. Back under the guardianship of Dave Garland, you can guarantee that this is a world cup win that he wants under his belt.
Who do we think is going to win?
Big Dave – Team Manager.
Gwin, Hart, Minnaar
Atherton, Nicole, Seagrave
Pete Scullion – Web Editor.
Bulldog, Hart, Gwin
Pompon, Atherton, Seagrave
Jim Smith – Deputy Editor.
Minnaar, Hart, Williamson.
Atherton, Hannah, Seagrave.
You can watch the racing live on Sunday June 3rd from 12:30pm BST over on the RedBull TV wesbite.
Who’s your money on?
