SDA Round 3 Fort William 16/17th June 2007

Round 3 of the SDA series took place at Fort William on the famous world cup downhill track. After finishing the last of his GCSE exams in the afternoon, Ben jumped in the van and headed straight up to the Nevis Range on Friday night. After staying at Perth on Friday, Ben and family arrived at Fort William early Saturday morning and got ready for the first uplifts. Fort William of course has a gondola so the riders had a welcome break from the cattle trucks and pushes to the top.

In preparation for the world cup event in September, a new top section of the track had been built which added almost 30 seconds onto the previous track. Also the 4X section at the bottom had been reconstructed so Ben set out to learn the new sections and get up to speed.

Practice got underway on Saturday morning and Ben was up on one of the first gondolas. From the new starting point, the track immediately goes over a hip jump which is built right in front of the balcony at the gondola station, so a big crowd forms here to watch the jumps. After the hip jump you hit a rock garden with one smooth line and a muddy ditch so you have to get it right.

Off the rocks and you go round a series of switchbacks keeping to the inside lines and going as straight as possible. Round the last corner and pedalling off a small launch style drop, staying low to reduce wasted time in the air. Flying down the huge long landing you hit the first north-shore (a wooden platform) used to cross the boggy sections. Here you use minimum braking to get round a set of 4 switch backs, pedalling in between, which then runs round a left hand corner which is flat and has no berm to hold the bike so the right line is required. After a couple more corners and short north-shore sections you hit the last two long north-shore straights which force you to pedal to retain your speed.

Off the north-shore and you go over a rocky straight into the first bus stop which leads into a sharp right hand corner. From the bus stop you go through the pinball section. A fast `straight with large boulders on both sides, hence the name ‘pinball’ Out of the pinball and you go down a technical shoot with rocks and potholes strewn everywhere to catch you out. This leads into the berm section. Two large switchbacks with a small straight in the middle wait with braking bumps and a series of small drops to follow. After here you go down a shoot made up of logs and chicken wire to help the tyres grip which goes round a sharp left hand corner with rocky ground to throw you off course.

From here the track goes down some more bus stops and round more berms as it weaves its way down the hill. Onto a really fast section and you fly down over a series of drops and over a fast jump. Then over a small rock slab and over another jump and you pass through the deer gate. Pedalling out of the deer gate you keep the bike low over a small wooden drop and then go down over a long slab of rock, keeping on the right line to get the maximum speed into the next drop which is nothing more than a rocky step with a rough run out.

Down the drop and the next few corners are tricky and covered in sketchy patches of rocks. From here the track goes over the rough straights with hard flat corners in between them so the right line is vital. Out of this section and you come to the rootu section which is slippy and requires maximum concentration to not slide off line. Through the rootu and you go round two steep switchbacks onto the first road crossing.

Over the road and you turn a tight left hand corner into the drop section which is a series of fast drops being careful not to miss the corners at the end. Out of the straight and you drop down and past the big wall ride over a tabletop jump. Flying over another road crossing you keep all of your speed into a fast straight. Off the drop at the end and over a small bridge leads you through a short rock garden and pas the second wall ride. Pedalling all the way down the next straight and over a small rock section leads you to the metal bridge.

Over the bridge and you pass through a section of roots and out over the final rock garden getting the right line and using the rocks to keep your speed up. Pedalling over the flat and you are down into the motorway section. Over two small launches and round a huge sweeping berm you come to the ‘Hip Replacement’ jump. Keeping the bike low right on the inside and then round the flat corner then its back on the pedals for some sprinting.

Here the jumps have been rebuilt and the first one is a short tabletop which you have to be careful not to over-jump. Then pedalling hard to make sure you clear the big double and then again to the long tabletop which requires a lot of speed to clear. Landing and its back on the pedals again cranking hard to get enough speed to clear the infamous ‘Tissot jump’ now nicknamed the ‘Navara jump’. Over the jump and you fly down a huge, steep hill with a drop in the middle reaching incredible speeds. Round the corner at the bottom and you jump into the bottom of the 4X track.

Here you are now faced with a huge jump which you can keep low on or triple up all the way. The triple jump is very hard to clear and if you come up short then your ankles are going to feel something nasty as a lot of riders found out throughout the weekend. Past the triple and a small drop and a sprint through the finish beam finishes a run on the countries most demanding track.

After practice on Sunday Ben headed up for his first race run and with a clean run put in a time of 6:02.261 and got 13th place. After some much needed rest Ben went for race run 2 and he knew that he wanted to improve his first run time. Ben did this in run 2 Ben improved his time to 5:52.500 and finished 2nd in the second runs. With the fastest run to count, Ben finished the race in 6th place in the youth category. This is his first top 10 result in the 2007 series so is now looking to improve further and get some more brilliant results like this one for his sponsors, Moonglu and Zeal Optics.