Norco Factory Racing at Fort William 2017

The second round of the UCI MTB downhill season took us back to the historic Fort William track in Scotland. With the same top section since the first round, they added a new tweak after the deer gate to shake things up, this coupled with the grim woods section made for interesting racing.

We have had mixed results here, with a track so prone to causing mechanical malfunction and crashes it is hard to stay consistent. A good percentage of the field where either rolling down with flats or going over the bars in the tricky woods section.

Sam Blenkinsop was one to get a mechanical. After killing it all weekend Sam was looking real good on track, did lots of work to set up the bike and even did 14 runs over the weekend as he was loving the track. After a stormer in timed training he showed up in 12th but the following day stomped his run to place 6th in qualification. Sadly though, in the finals Sam suffered a mechanical halfway down, a shame as he was still in sight coming through the first split.

Joe Smith was back! After crashing out hard in Lourdes and dislocating his shoulder he was far from 100% but decided to give it a go, the rest of the season rested on wether the freshly damaged shoulder could take the punishment. Joe was looking really fast though and qualified in 28th place. Although Joe was not alone in falling in the woods on his race run, a small hole had formed chucking riders over the bars. Luckily though Joe didn’t land on his bad shoulder and, muddily, finished his run for a top 50 finish, not bad saying its been five weeks or near no bike riding.

Henry Fitzgerald, the young gun. With a mixed background also of crashing and punctures Henry was keen to show Fort William what he had got! The young Canadian could be spotted far up by his unique bike style and speed. Another rider looking great all practise but in qualification had two crashes, leaving him muddied and out of finals. Hopefully we can see what this kids really got in Leogang next weekend!