Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Fort William 6-8 June 2008

For most of the time I've been riding with VC Godalming & Haslemere I've been banging on at anyone who would listen about how much of a good weekend the world cup event is in Fort William every year. I mean, it's not like it's every day that you get to see the best riders in the world rattle down the highest mountain in Britain at 40mph from about 3' away. And that's just the Sunday!

I've been heading (way) up north for this weekend for the past five years now and this year was no exception. As a keen photographer it's also an ideal event for practicing my action shooting. It also means that I'll have enough photos to encourage more club members to make the pilgrimage next year.

This year we decided to get the train. To be precise, the sleeper train, from London to Fort William. Booked early enough in advance it works out much cheaper than driving and is way less stressful than flying.

So, Thursday the 5th of June we rolled up onto the train for the 21:15 departure. Checked on, dumped the bags in the cabin and bagged a seat in the lounge. The journey time is in the region of 11hrs but, as it's over night, and the wine's alright in the lounge, you're soon nodding off.

The following morning, wake up in a small room that gently rocks back and forward and bangs you head of the wall, then remember your on a train. The best part of the 11hr journey comes next: wobble over to the window and raise the blinds. Squint and let you eyes adjust to the glare and realise that you can see nothing.

Nothing except open moorland, snowy mountains and blue sky. The perfect start to the day.

The scenic rail line into Fort William is worth hanging your head out the window for a better look. Look out for the bridges and bushes though.

After a hearty breakfast in town and a walk out to the campsite we headed up to get a good spot for Friday's event: twilight 4X racing. The rules are fairly simple: four riders clatter out of the start gate down the man made course of huge jumps, drops and bermed corners. This year I got a decent spot on the outside of one of the larger berms with a clear view up and down two straights. My plan was to get some photos of the riders coming towards me and as they turned in the corner below me. Taking photos of events like this is always a bit of a trade of between watching the racing and concentrating on getting the right shots. It is however always easy to tell when there's a british rider on the course, you can hear them being cheered right out of the start gate.
 

4X

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Did I get the photos I wanted in the end? Yeah, some of them, although my ratio of good shots to midge bites was not good after 2hrs in the evening sun.

After a few obligatory beers we caught the free shuttle bus back to the camp site for a well earned rest after all that fresh air and sun!

Surprisingly, the next day (Saturday) dawned sunny too. Two days in a row in the highlands is truly tempting fate...

After a monstrous amount of porridge for breakfast we were back up on the mountain, after a quick trawl around the event village to eye up all the shiny things we used our inclusive gondola tickets to take the easy way up to the top of the downhill course. This has become a habit now and, despite doing it every year, every time you walk down that course you wonder how anyone can get down it on a bike at all, let alone at speed!

It's also a good way of checking where the good spots might be for photos and where will be a good place to watch from (not always the same thing either)

Roughly, it's takes about an hour to walk down the 2.82km (vertical drop 555m) that includes stopping to admire the view out to Loch Linnhe and Fort William and, more often than not to stop on the top of a drop and wonder how you would even consider getting a bike down that!
 

CROSS COUNTRY

Saturday is the Cross Country race day. Cross country is probably the event the most VCGH riders can sympathise with as it's closer to the sort of riding we do on a Sunday morning. “Close” but not quite the same Surrey is not “blessed” with 2km long climbs for a start. (*This is not a bad thing on a Sunday morning, it has to be said). The guys and girls that race XC at this level at crazy-fit, laptimes for the 8km (277m vertical) course are around 22mins, for 5 laps. That's in the region of 19-20kph. To put that in perspective, this sunday's club ride will cover around 30k in 3-4hrs..

The good thing about the XC course from a spectator/photographer angle is just how close you can get to the action. It's possible walk around whole thing and follow the race first hand, or use the fire roads and linking shuttle buses to get to and from the best bits. Don't hang around in the trees though, or the midges will have you for lunch, dinner and a doggy bag for the walk home.

Results:
1. VOGEL Florian SUI 2:06:27 (Distance : 46.80 kms - Average speed : 22.20 km/h)
2. SCHURTER Nino* SUI 2:06:28 +0
3. SAUSER Christoph SUI 2:06:36 +9
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9. BECKINGSALE Oliver GBR 2:07:58 +1:30


1. PREMONT Marie-Helene CAN 2:00:42 (Distance : 39.00 kms - Average speed : 19.38 km/h)
2. FULLANA Margarita ESP 2:00:56 + 13
3. SPITZ Sabine GER 2:03:53 +3:10

A top 10 finish for Oli Beckinsale is fantastic going and bodes well for the Olymipcs.
 

DOWNHILL

Sunday is, for the majority of people who travel to Fort William, the big event; Downhill Race Day.

More porridge, and, surprisingly, more sunshine then we're up to the top in the gondola again. If you time this right, and I get closer to getting it every year, you can start at the top with the first of the finalists and arrive at the bottom just as the top three come in to finish.

This year there was sunshine all the way from the cafe at the top gondola station (Excellent smoothies and coffees to has to be said) to the sea in Fort William. The third day of sun in a row makes a pleasant change to the miserable, moral sapping, camera soaking weather I've endured up there on previous occasions. It undoubtedly makes it better for the riders too, being ableto see where you are going has got to be a good thing.

As with the XC course on the Saturday you can still get right up to the course, a descending stream of whistles from the marshals herald the appearance of individual riders as they make their way down the course. And, having walked, stopped and pondered how you'd pick a line down through that six foot high pile of rocks the previous day, you can stand by and watch one rider after another sail across it without even touching the brakes.

The DH course at Fort William is reckoned to be among the best and toughest in the world, walk down the course during the race and you can start to see why. Crashes, punctures, broken wheels, riders and bikes all within scrambling distance. Or closer if you're not paying attention.

So, again, to reiterate the course is 2.82km long and in that distance it drops 555m. It takes, on average a good hour to walk down. The top 19 riders made it down in under 5 minutes!

You can hear the crowd around the finish area from about halfway up the hill and you hardly need listen in to a marshal's radio to hear that another british rider has just made it to the podium as the cheers go up in volume instantly. With four british riders in the top 10 and two british girls on the podium already; by the time I made it out of the trees and across to the top of the last descent it wasn't surprising that the crowd were going nuts.

1. MINNAAR Greg RSA 4:47.15 (Course length : 2820 m / 1.75 Mile - Average Speed : 35.35 Kmh / 21.97 Mph)
2. ATHERTON Gee GBR 4:47.44 +0.29
3. HILL Samuel AUS 4:49.02 +1.87
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4. PEAT Steve GBR 4:49.97 +2.82
6. CATHRO Ben GBR 4:52.86 +5.71 20
7. ATHERTON Dan GBR 4:53.07 +5.92 18

1. MOSELEY Tracy GBR 5:20.87 200 (Average Speed : 31.64 Kmh / 19.66 Mph)
2. JONNIER Sabrina FRA 5:25.01 +4.14 160
3. ATHERTON Rachel GBR 5:26.76 +5.89 140
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8. GRIFFITHS Fionn GBR 5:46.47 + 25.60 85

The final results and podium placing show how well the UK is doing in Downhill racing, add that to the results for the other events and then consider what Chris Hoye and Victoria Pendleton and the like are doing for track cycling, and what Nicole Cook has achieved on the road... things are looking up!
 

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Unfortunately after all the excitement and highland air, it was time to get the train back. Sleeper again so some haggis for dinner in the lounge car with a civilised glass of red wine before a quick scan through 1000+ photos to see if there were any “keepers” then off to bed.

The worst part of the trip? Opening the blinds in the morning to find not the the highlands and blue sky replaced by Milton Keynes in all it's concrete glory.

Hopefully this article will encourage a larger VCGH crowd to converge on the sleeper train for next year's event (6-7 June 2009) I can't recommend the weekend enough and it's not just me, the riders themselves regularly vote the Fort William event as The Best Venue, Crowd and Event of the year.

More of my photos from this and previous years at www.pelicanImages.com

A full write up and results for this years event at www.fortwilliamworldchamps.co.uk