#RideItOut at Fort William – BDS #2
Heading up to Scotland for the Fort William British Downhill Series is always a highlight in our racing calendar, but with the grim weather report we didn’t hold out as much hope as we would have liked for the weekend ahead, so we travelled up on Thursday to get some riding in on Friday as a team before the race.
The Elite field was stacked, with loads of UCI teams visiting the Nevis range for some World Cup practice our Elite riders Emyr and Guy had to look at this race more like a mini WC than a BDS with the regular competition. We headed up the mountain for what would be the driest and only runs on the main World Cup track over the weekend.
Ollie:
“I found the riding I did on the Friday extremely beneficial for many reasons, the fact that you get the opportunity to ride such a prestigious tough track is really amazing. Secondly, it was really good to get some riding in with the team manager Rob until the the track lived up to its reputation and managed to get the better of him.”
Headcam run from practice on Friday with Fergus Ryan chasing Guy Gibbs:
As the weather came in over the weekend, unfortunately racing didn’t take place on the full track, but we made the most of it and went for it in racing on the 1.5 minute track.
Fergus:
“ Fort William was a great weekend irrelevant of my result as I was back on my downhill bike months ahead of schedule so to be back racing was awesome, not the result I wanted but cant wait to continue racing at Llangollen Round 3.”
Guy:
“I’m working over in Norway now, so I flew over Wednesday night and drove over from Aberdeen. Managed to get 7 runs in on the Thursday with some beautiful weather, so it was far from a wasted trip for me luckily.
Fort William’s a classic, it’s the second time I’ve been here. It’s mint, so much fun. Friday was amazing as well, shame it was cut short for the track walk.”
Guy:
“Yesterday was a nice day, watching Mrs Doubtfire tucked up in the van with Emyr and a bit of Wolf of Wall Street with the rest of the team firing us up for todays racing.
Today we got told there wasn’t going to be an uplift (sad face). I’m looking forward to the finals though, it’s a good piece of track and I’m just amazed at how hard you have to pedal for the jumps and how much of a sprint the whole thing is. It’s going to be tough at the World Cup after the rest of the track!”
Bar mounted cam run of the shorter course with Elite rider Emyr Davies:
With the new rules in place from up high in the UCI, cameras are no longer allowed to be connected to your body, only your bike. So using a GoPro handle bar mount we headed up to the start only to be stopped. What are we allowed to do? Who knows the ruling? The Commissaires didn’t.
Results:
Emyr Davies (Elite)
25th – 1:24.099
Guy Gibbs (Elite)
57th – 1:28.688
Fergus Ryan (Expert)
27th – 1:41.243
Ollie Crosdil (Youth)
13th – 1:38.797
See you all at Llangollen for round 3!
Images by Sarah Barrett
To put a downer on things, unfortunately a Ride.io team rider was hit by a thief after the race, having his Transition TR500 stolen in Bath. Keep your eyes peeled please people, this bike is pretty unique. If you have any information, please contact the police or the Ride.io team manager Rob on rob@ride.io.
#rideitout