After the Cairns World Cup didn’t go the way I planned I headed home for about 4 weeks in preparation for the next round, Fort William. The time seemed to go really quick but I got a solid few weeks of training in. In the past the Fort Bill World Cup has treated me well. Last year at the season opener there I finished up 21st so a top 20 was definitely on the cards for this weekend. It’s always a long haul coming from South Australia to the UK it takes almost two days spent aboard the big bird. With the worst of the travelling done I arrived in Glasgow on Tuesday and Matty my mechanic picked me up and we drove the last 3 hours to Fort William. Wednesday was spent building up my race bike and new Process 153 which is sick, we got a trail ride in beside Loch Ness.. Unfortunately no monster was spotted but I’m still a believer!
As usual the downhill track is the same as the last 2 years I’ve been racing here. I won’t bore you with the details as everyone knows about the track. Fast, rough, open etc… We got to walk the track and register on Thursday. My overall was down to 22nd so I was rocking Chad Reeda��s number for the week. I was really excited to start riding on Friday, I hardly took any breaks in practice because I was having so much fun. After a few runs and a couple changes to my suspension my bike was feeling so smooth down the track it gave me lots of confidence. Qualifiers were good, the track was really dry and slippery because of the loose gravel type of surface. I had a good run and finished 19th. A good result showing what I was capable of.
It rained on Saturday night but just enough to make the track tacky so it was a little faster for Sunday! Saturday/race day is pretty much the same at every race. I do 2 practice runs then wait around nervously for finals.
It rained a tiny bit while I was going up in the gondola for my race but not enough to make a difference. I warmed up as usual and my run was really good. I felt I was on edge the top half of the track but started to fade and make a few mistakes down the bottom. I pedalled hard at the bottom but I wasn’t as strong as most of the other riders which is something to work on. I finished 14th which is an excellent result but the times were so tight if I was half a second faster I would have been in 9th position. After the weekend my overall is down to 19th which means I automatically qualify for Leogang this weekend. Last season I got my best result there with 10th so I will be looking for another top 10 this time around! Thanks to everyone that helps me; Kona Bikes, Fox Head, SRAM/Rockshox/Avid/Truvativ, Yakima Racks, Stans No Tubes, Maxxis and of course Downhill247.
Images: Jason Stevens Photography (@jasonstevensphotography or on Facebook)
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Great writing Connor.