Fort William BDS is always one of my favourite races on the calendar for 2 reasons, firstly its my home track and second, it's usually a stacked entry of top world cup riders which makes for a brilliant atmosphere and a chance to compare run times with them.
My weekend started on Thursday when I rode multiple laps of the track in blazing sunshine and had it pretty much dialled by the end of the day which put me in a settled mood of confidence for the racing which lay ahead.
Saturday practice was at first delayed because the weather had changed overnight bringing with it snow and extreme winds on the mountain.
The mood in the pits had also changed with lots of riders hanging about and holed up in their pits.
It was soon announced that there would be no uplift to the top of the track and a shortened track would be run from the wall ride down which basically was a 3 corner track and a sprint down the big jumps on the motorway getting buffeted by the wind.
With the forecast looking better for race day and a good chance of racing taking place on the full track from the top of the mountain I did not practice the short track as I felt I could hit it race pace any time and instead went riding with the guys from Team Chain Reaction blasting down my local trails which was brilliant fun.
Race day came and it was apparent that the weather had not changed. The snow had not lifted of the mountain overnight and the icy wind was gusting up to 60mph on the upper part of the track, so it came as no surprise to hear that there would yet again be no uplift and the short push up track would be used.
It was disappointing, but nothing could be done about the weather and we just had to accept it and have fun racing a short track.
I pushed up for 4 practice runs which were all good until the motorway section with the big new jumps which were not easy with the wind slowing me down and buffeting from different directions and I was clearing the first few but could not find the speed for the final one.
Seeding runs had been cancelled and so we went straight to race runs. The drop in start was fairly tricky with a steep muddy rut finishing with a drop and required just to point and shoot without braking. I got a good start here and hit the pedals to get up to speed for the first tabletop jump and hit the first few corners well. A quick hop over the hazzard hoofer jump and down the rooty channel was hit at a good race pace and then it was flat out down the motorway towards the jumps which again were fine for the first 2 and then with the head wind I had to keep low on the last ones and pedal to the death.
Seeding runs had been cancelled and so we went straight to race runs. The drop in start was fairly tricky with a steep muddy rut finishing with a drop and required just to point and shoot without braking. I got a good start here and hit the pedals to get up to speed for the first tabletop jump and hit the first few corners well. A quick hop over the hazzard hoofer jump and down the rooty channel was hit at a good race pace and then it was flat out down the motorway towards the jumps which again were fine for the first 2 and then with the head wind I had to keep low on the last ones and pedal to the death.
it was all over so fast, 1min 39s but was good fun all the same. I took the win in Grand Vets and my time compared well to other categories which I was happy with.
There was a lot of support most of the way down the track with all the crowd making plenty noise which certainly livened an otherwise dull event up.
My next event is the Scottish series race at Glencoe mountain, I am already praying to the weather gods.
