Now that’s a crowd…

There’s nothing like the sun shining down on the best riders in the world duking it out elbow-to-elbow on a spectacular 4-Cross course to draw a crowd. And Fort William saw a big one yesterday evening to cheer the riders on. The 25 second course was lined about ten deep along its whole length with cheering fans – the organisers reckon that there were about 6,000 people on site.

Of course, they were here to see racing action and they weren’t disappointed. There were crashes aplenty, including, remarkably, Brian Lopes going down on the first corner of his first run and going out in the 1/16 finals…

With 81 riders in the mens’ field there was no shortage of action. And the impressive course with a suitable selection of alternative line choices kept things very interesting indeed.

Katrina Miller shows that girls can jump…

What the crowd really wanted to see was a British victory. And unlike the XC race it was a realistic hope – Steve Peat, Scott Beaumont, Will Longden, Dale Holmes, Gee Atherton and many others were all in with a shout. No-one was all that surprised to see Steve Peat work his way steadily through the rounds, but possibly the biggest cheers of the afternoon were for Gee Atherton (Muddyfox). Totally unfazed by the riders around him, Gee got himself into the last eight in probably the strongest 4-Cross field you’re likely to see. He crashed out in the end, but with a grin and a wave. Gee’s going to go a long way…

Greg Minnaar flies to victory

Before the mens’ event was settled, though, the women had to have their turn. With only a dozen or so riders they didn’t need too many rounds. A key part of the course was a triple jump before the final corner – most riders were speed-jumping one and doubling the remaining two, but with the right line and enough bottle it was possible to jump the lot and make a pass. Katrina Miller was the only woman we saw to do the triple and was a deserving winner.

Crowd favourite in the mens’ final was of course Steve Peat. But he had his work cut out, with Eric Carter, Greg Minnaar and Michal Prokop to beat. Prokop fell early, leaving a three-rider race for the finish. The crowd yelled themselves hoarse, but Steve just couldn’t stay with the others and it was Greg Minnaar who stormed over the line first. Fair play to the crowd, he got a pretty big cheer too…