Fort William NPS Round 3

Heading up to fort William with the weather report set for heavy rain and wind all weekend, we were pleasantly greeted by warm sunshine and dry conditions as well as a pretty much full team. It was certainly good to see Al back out and racing. After the world cup had taken place just 3 weeks ago the track was the most beaten up that it has been for the last few years. Pot holes everywhere and ruts from the amount of rain in the past few weeks had torn the track up making the already rough track even worse. From the start the track went the usual way over the world champs boardwalks and then down over the bus stops and under the gondola. From here the track was very beaten up right down to the deer gate with loose gravel and new sections of the rocks being rebuilt which were blown out in just a few runs on Saturday.

From the deer gate the track had a few new lines with the corners being cut inside through what would inevitably be Sam Hill’s lines. This weekend was an NPS first; for me anyway. The whole world cup woods section was used and was of course ripped to shreds by the wet weather. The woods were rooty and had a lot of deep ruts which caught me out in practice. Dropping over the road and down past the big wall ride lead you into the red rock section and past the small wall ride. After here the section onto the motorway was new and went straight with a wooden kicker in the track. This made the run into the motorway a lot faster and more fun.

Round the big berm and over the hip jump was fast but the lander of the hip had a lot of bad braking bumps in meaning the faster option was to land on the inside and get your drifting skills out. Over the tabletops and doubles, which are getting easier to clear every race I go to, and then a sprint into the Tissot jump lead down to the final section. Keeping a road tuck on down the off beat wall and into the 4X and it was a few cranks of the pedals to send you floating down the triple and through the finish line.

In the seeding run I didn’t go for it and could have done a considerable amount more pedalling. I came through in a time of 5:39 which ended up being a good time even for the race runs on Sunday. This gave me 17th place for seeding. On Sunday I was ready and prepared at the top and was keen to put in a flying time. Out of the start gate and round 2 corners I cranked the pedals and my chain jumped out of the top. I was still keen to race and planned to do the whole track chainless. My plan was ruined when after the deer gate my chain jammed in my wheel and I had to stop for 2 minutes to try and get it back on. This didn’t work and I rolled through the line not even bothering to look at my time or place. Not a good way to end a weekend that was going so well.