Just the odd one or two spectators

The rain that had been threatening all day at Fort William put in a more substantial appearance during the 4X racing, but it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the very large number of spectators. To give you some idea, people had been settling in to the best spots about three hours before the racing got underway…

The real appeal of World Cup 4X racing isn’t, to be honest, something that you can readily capture in words. Or maybe we’re just a bit rubbish. But it’s almost impossible to describe the process of whittling 64 riders down to one winner without things getting a bit repetitious. So we won’t even try. The racing was spectacularly close, a bunch of people crashed (but no-one got hurt), some big names didn’t get very far, some less well-known names got a long way, the crowd made a lot of noise and a couple of people won.

The women’s winner was, unsurprisingly enough, Anne-Caroline Chausson ahead of Tara Llanes, Sabrina Jonnier and Katrina Miller. Special mention to Britain’s Joey Gough who got second in the “small final” for 6th place overall. In the men’s, Guido Tschugg put in a dominant performance, winning every one of his heats on the way to the final, which he also won. Sam Hill, Romain Saladini and Robin Baloochi rounded out the final. Steve Peat was best-placed Brit, winning the small final for 5th.

Tomorrow is downhill day, and if the crowd was loud this evening they’re going to be deafening tomorrow…

Impeccable course preparation from Full Contact Racing	Heat 1 gets underway
Close racing – this is about thirty feet from the finish line	Anne-Caro was largely untroubled on her way to a win