NPS 2009 | Fort William

Posted: Jul 2, 2009

After a fun round 1, technical, steep and challenging round 2, it all moved on for round 3 to Fort William, famed for its speed, brutality and unforgiving nature. The sun was out, the mountains in the background glistened and, if you looked quickly, you could even catch a glimpse of ‘The Ben’, not something which usually goes hand in hand with downhill racing on this famous track.

Read the whole race report inside,

NPS Round 3 | Fort William

Words: Alasdair MacLennan, Pics: Scott at Eggraphy

With two races already run here this year, the SDA and the World Cup, the track was holding up well, with the hardworking track builders having swept all the top berms to keep it running fast. And run fast it did. With a lot of good weather recently, the course was like set concrete, providing no give and beating riders up within just a few runs. Being an NPS, this meant that the Expert and Elite riders weren’t allowed on course for the first hour of practice on Saturday so that the rest of the pack could get their runs in without a load of fast riders thundering down, those fast riders having their time alone on track at the end of the day in the last gasps of practice. Not that it was needed as the track was virtually empty in the last hour or so, many riders’ bodies having just waved the white flag and given up, the others having bikes in desperate need of TLC. As Jed Whitfield put it, you have to be rich to practice here before a race just so you can afford the repairs to the bike!


The track was itself not much changed from the normal route as there really is only one option from top to bottom with little exception. The only time anything changes massively is when the World Cup comes to town. This year, the usual straight lines had been opened up in some of the corners as well as the full new wooded section which was dry, dusty and was great respite from the punishing brutality that the rest of the hill was offering. As always, by the time you got to the start of the motorway you were absolutely hanging, good news then that the jump rather than the rock garden was in place, meaning less pedaling and more speed going into the last 45 seconds of track. Despite getting very loose by the time the first of the timed runs came round, the track was probably running the fastest it ever has for a non-World Cup race with several impressive performances from riders allowing them to dip under the five minute barrier.


Seeding runs first of all and many were thankful that they only had to start the run and not fight it out for a limited number of qualifying spots; the loose surface causing many riders to bite the dust early and the harsh surface underneath causing many punctures before riders even saw the half way point. Going out early on in the weekend were Sam Flockhart who, with bruised kidneys and a fractured wrist, spent a night in the Belford under observation and also Emma Atkinson having broken her arm right at the elbow. One unlucky rider even gave the dentist something to do after going head first into the local Granite.


From the seeding we moved swiftly onto the finals as the cloud began to move in over Aonoch Mhor. Juveniles kicked it off as always with some close racing. There was a battle between Perth City Cycles' Sam Herd and Philip Atwill for second and third spot. Sam had it edged after seeding by just over a second but in the finals, although both went over ten seconds faster, Phil took the second spot by just over half a second. In the lead by a country mile was iCycles' George Gannicott who has been making a habit out of winning recently.


After seeding the top three Youths were separated by marginally more than a second with All Terrain's Fraser McGlone in third, Empire's Lewis Buchanan in second and the other All Terrain rider, Mark Scott, in third. After the final though, it was all change as the All Terrain riders swapped places to leave Mark Scott in third whilst Lewis and Fraser were separated by three tenths, Fraser just snatching the win with a time of 5:00.


In Juniors, the times weren't quite as close as they had been in Youth but were still just as fast, the top two even breaking under the 5m barrier. Having seeded seventh, the work was all to do for Gareth Brewin in the final but manage it he did and hauled himself up into the third spot with a time of 5:04. Top seed Arran Gannicott failed to translate that to a win in the final and his 4:59 was pushed into second spot by the 4:56 of second seed, Harry Heath.


Veterans now and Cycleworld's Jerry Twigg who was third after seeding was pushed into fourth by Stevie Boyd who managed to improve by six seconds over his seeding run. Second was Jason Carpenter, whilst taking the win with a thundering 5:18 and adding another trophy to the groaning cabinet was local man Alastair MacLennan for Off Beat Bikes, having just added the European Masters Champion to the many titles he holds.


In the Masters category, Llangollen winner and trials supremo, Chris Akrigg took third place here this weekend for Mongoose/Aire Cycles with Andrew Titley took second for Kona/Sombrio, the two riders seperated by just six tenths. Having qualified down in fourth, an eight second improvement saw Chris Coates take the win for MTBCut.tv/CycleJersey with a 5:23, just over three seconds up on the others on the podium.


In the Non-Elite women, Bex Reilly was in third spot for Uplift Scotland with Angela Coates taking second spot just two seconds up for Fox Racing/Team CHR. However, taking the win and with it, fastest womens time of the day was Manon who is on a roll this year and riding very well indeed, only just missing out on breaking under the six minute barrier by seven tenths. Even more impressive when you consider that every other woman entered has raced World Cups previously.


In the Elite womens event, Helen Gaskell punctured but still ended up with third spot on the podium with her Zumbi. Haby-Blu Cann took second for CF3 whilst, having taken top spot in seeding and translating that to her maiden NPS win was Aimee Dix for Mojo Orange with a time of 6:07.


In Seniors, Ben Rodgers took third for All Terrain Cycles whilst Tom Attlee snatched second. With the win was William Jones for PS Cycles with a 5:19 although, with just 2.2s covering all three riders, it was all close racing.


Ben Hall won the SDA here just six weeks prior with a time six seconds faster than any other but unfortunately didn't get the win here this weekend. Third was as good as it was going to get for him and Perth City Cycles. Second was Jack Reading for Ellsworth with a 4:58 whilst Scott Laughland, having made it through to his first World Cup final just weeks prior took the win with a 4:57 for Castle Melamine.


An all Orange podium in Elites this weekend separated by just 2.3s with Dan Stanbridge taking third for Mojo/Orange whilst local rider Joe Barnes took second for MTBCut.tv. Also riding for MTBCut.tv and putting aside his disappointing crash in the World Cup here to take the win was the Oban based Ben Cathro. In addition to taking the win, two VIP tickets to see Metallica at Nebworth flew his way for fastest time of the day (a 4:50) with another two for the biggest whip off the Tissot in the race.


Fort William is always a challenge. Brutal, fast and long, it takes no prisoners. Any rider who does well here is fit, strong and has the ability to not only keep themselves in one piece but their bike too. It really is hard work and the hot,dry conditions didn't make it any easier for riders although the marshalls sat at the side of the track weren't complaining; normally it's either hurricane force wind or vicious midges with what seem like steel reinforced teeth trying to get a morning meal from any bit of bare skin you show.


This was another good event from SPS although the atmosphere did feel a little flat thanks to the absence of any really big names. Also, thanks to the large car park and the fact that most riders don't do many runs on the Saturday, the track felt pretty empty for most of the weekend despite 300 riders and could no doubt swallow a good few more which would perhaps give a little more buzz to the place. Still, Fort William is Fort William and is always welcome on the calender for most. The next race is the National Champs at Innerleithen on the 19th July with Caersws following on for Round 4 of the NPS in August.


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