2007 mountain bike Worlds part 5

DSC01557 David Fletcher
Originally uploaded by Eldrik

Thursday's main event was the Junior Men's XC, and brought with it GB's best chance of a medal apart from in the DH and 4X events. David Fletcher had an impressive ride at the European Championships earlier in the summer but would face stiff competition from the winner that day, Thomas Litscher of Switzerland.

After the Team Relay and Junior and U23 Women's races, the course was cutting up in places, including the (pictured) muddy and rooty singletrack section after the drop-off en route to the Hole In The Wall. Lap 1 saw a succession of riders thrown over the handlebars from a combination of a deep wheel-size hole and a large root on the exit from it, which stopped the momentum of the bike but not the rider. One of those to crash was David Fletcher, causing much laughter from his watching GB team mates Annie Last and Annabel Simpson, who caught the spill on video and probably posted it on YouTube shortly afterwards.

Litscher and the Polish rider Brzozka were riding well, but Fletcher was not far off them in the early stages. Lessons learned from lap 1, almost every rider took the slower line avoiding the deep hole on lap 2 and subsequent laps, but the section still caused some problems and a number of racers chose to run it instead.

Litscher eventually escaped to victory with Brzozka an impressive second, but David Fletcher made the most of his last year in Juniors by finishing a fantastic third and earning GB's first medal in XC for a long time. Alex Paton ended up a creditable 17th, Hamish Creber was 55th, and Shaun Hurrell had the bad luck to puncture not once but twice but kept working away to finish 61st.

2007 mountain bike Worlds - part 4

Elisabeth Osl
Originally uploaded by Eldrik

After the Junior Women's XC in the morning, it was the U23 Women in the afternoon. Results from the five UCI XC World Cup races before the Worlds made Chengyuan and Liu the favourites for the U23 event, but the Bronze medal could go to any one of a number of European racers such as Tereza Hurikova, Eva Lechner, Elisabeth Osl or Nina Homovec. Most of the racers chose to warm up under cover, but Osl was out in the open, on the turbo trainer, with an interesting tyre combination of the less grippy Continental Speed King on the front and a high volume Maxxis Crossmark on the back, presumably for puncture resistance.

More rain and low cloud ensured the course remained slippery, but the conditions didn't seem to slow the two Chinese riders Chengyuan and Liu at the front of the field, even if Liu had to run up the rocky section after the start once. As expected, it soon became clear that the winner would come from one of these two, but the race for the Bronze medal was far more open, with Elisabeth Osl being chased hard by Poland's Aleksandra Dawidowicz.

Liu eventually rode away from Chengyuan for the victory, which she hopefully was pleased with, even if she didn't show it. Liu's time for 4 laps would have seen her finish 3rd in the Elite Women's race which took place 3 days later. Meanwhile just after the Finish line, Maria Osl, Elisabeth's older sister and Austria team mate, was a bundle of nerves before every race position update, almost biting her nails and staring anxiously into the distance. The commentary team didn't help her nerves by missing Osl ride past and mistakenly placing Dawidowicz in third going up the final climb, but Osl it was who came into view first and crossed the line for the Bronze.

Her smiling celebration, arms aloft, made up for the lack of joy shown by the Chinese girls, and she looked about to burst into tears as she was mobbed by her sister and Austrian team mates. It was great to see someone happy with a medal at last!

After riding from Fort William up to the Nevis Range before the Junior and U23 Women's races, once they had finished it was time to try the XC course out for myself. Despite my initial worries about a lack of grip and my own technical abilities, it was great fun. It took me a couple of attempts to clear the first rocky climb after the start without stopping, but the rest of the course was perfectly rideable if a bit slippery on places, and the downhill put a huge smile on my face. The only bit which defeated me was the drop-off before the fire-road crossing (see Flickr for a picture) - the drop-off itself was fine, but it was getting a clean run up to it through the mud beforehand which was the issue. Even some of the Elite Women were crashing here in practice, and to avoid joining them I resolved to have another go at it next time.

2007 mountain bike Worlds - part 3

DSC01502 Valentina Abril
Originally uploaded by Eldrik

Wednesday's XC racing from Fort William covered both the Junior Women and the U23 Women, covered in the next blog entry.

While conditions had been generally dry for Tuesday, Wednesday brought cloud and rain, which made the many rocky sections of the course very slippery, for example the short steep climb soon after the Start/Finish straight, pictured. Most of the Junior Women did not have the raw power to muscle up here, and had to rely on a combination of entry speed, finesse and low tyre pressures for traction. Despite this, many ran out of grip and had to run it instead.

Alla Boyko (Ukraine) was the eventual winner, crossing the line muddy and not particularly happy. GB Juniors Annie Last and Annabel Simpson both had tough races but have another year left in the Junior category, I think.

2007 mountain bike World Championships - part 2

DSC01489 Jenny Copnall
Originally uploaded by Eldrik

Monday's sunshine was, however, the last nice weather for the entire week. Tuesday dawned cold and damp, and it didn't get better once at the Nevis Range centre on Aonach Mor, height 1221m (4006ft). I was working as a XC marshal all week, and Tuesday's Team Relay event brought the first chance to have a look at the new course, altered especially for the Worlds. The views from the top of the XC course were impressive, and meant it was possible to watch riders racing up the climb from the 'Haggis Trap' cross-over tunnel to the start of the main downhill, and then see them pass me at close range.

The order of the Team Relay wasn't fixed, but each team of 4 had to consist of an Elite Man, Elite Woman, U23 man and one Junior. Most teams sent out one of the men first, except for the USA, which made working out who was actually leading a bit tricky. The GB team started well, and led at one point, but despite the best efforts of Jenny Copnall (pictured) on the final leg, faded to finish 9th. The USA meanwhile sent out Adam Craig (www.adamcraig.net) last, and he stormed through the field to win the Bronze medal. The victory went to the Swiss, who also won Gold at the 2006 Worlds.

2007 mountain bike World Championships in Fort William - part 1

DSC01471
Originally uploaded by Eldrik

After working at the MTB World Cup races of 2005 and 2006 in Fort William, 2007 was the big one: the 2007 mountain bike and trials World Championships. Nearly one week of racing, rather than the usual weekend only, with riders and media from all over the world, and live TV coverage of the Downhill finals on BBC Sport.

The train journey from Glasgow up to Fort William is fantastic, and I'd strongly recommend it to anyone - the views are amazing on a clear, sunny day.

Welcome to my blog

I wouldn't expect too much though - it's probably going to be a random series of postings regarding bikes, the occasional photo and video link, and not a great deal else, to be honest.

Hopefully there will be more people than just me reading this......