Fort Bill hosts the Scottish Champs and boy what a course!

Fort Bill played host to the Scottish mountain biking champs and it was a refreshing change from the previous 2 years at Paisley! Anyone use to the course at the Bill will automatically think of the characteristic massive uphill, followed by the long winding man made descent! But when I arrived on Saturday I was so surprised by 2 things . . . . . the lack of midgies (it's a miracle) and the totally awesome course that unravelled right in front of my eyes! The start was pretty much same old same old, up the boardwalk, the horrible dusty fireroad climb (that still reminds me of the first 24hr race I competed in, not nice!) catch your breath over the bridge (formally from Glentress), along a flattish part of track and prepare yourself for the horrible climb . . . . . .or maybe not it was taped off yipee! The rest of the course was awesome, very little climbing (what there was it was steep and sharp) a great natural descent that put a big smile on my face from ear to ear! Well done to the course organisers so refreshing to race on landscapes that are representative of what Scotland has to offer the mountain biking community!

Race day

Once again the sun gods blessed Fort William for another scorchio day of racing (don't believe me??? Look at how blue the sky in in the picture below!)

Preparation phase:

Getting the race number sorted on the bike (left), and yes G is making sure I'm doing it right :)

Chilling out and having a laugh on the right (my arm isn't really that big!), but I will claim it as muscle!!!

Racing time

Before I knew it was 11 o'clock and off we set. Pictures below are of the start, Lee Craigie (Square Wheels) in the Blue, Sue Clarke (SIS) and myself in the Glentress Riders colours. The start was as rapid as ever up a dusty firetrack road before we looped onto the race circuit.

I had a pretty good race and felt I was riding well. Unfortunately I had a massive stack on my third lap just over cooking it slightly on the natural descent! I was wearing a GPS unit from work (GPSports Pro) which also has an accelerometer built in so you can measure the G-force during impacts. I hit a massive 12.4 G on that stack - gee whizz!!! I so would have made Emma's sequel video with that effort- ha ha! It left my handle bars slightly squint but I manged not to lose too much time and was stoked to finish 3rd in the race and 2nd in the Scottish Championships - yee ha! Sue Clarke rode an awesome racing taking the win and Lee Craigie in 2nd spot (also taking the Scottish Championship).

It was a great weekend for the team too . . . . . Lucy Grant and Katy Winton were both crown Scottish champions in the juvenile and youth categories. Lewis Kirkwood finished 4th in the race, getting a podium 3rd for the champs. Sam Waterson put in another good performance finishing in 10th. After severe blood loss from midgie bites (I didn't see any) Jake Law finished 5th in the Masters- he he! With Graeme Short picking up 11th in the vets!

Accommodation for the weekend was the Stronchreggan in Fort William where Bronwen, Graeme and family gave us a very warm welcome! Those guys have some of the best beds I have slept in away from home! Nice rooms, good food and what a view from the front room . . . the dolphins even gave us a visit in Loch Linnhe - that was pretty sweet. Check them out at : www.stronchreggan.co.uk

Great weekend, great course!

Yee ha

Les