Tracy Moseley never looked troubled over the World Cup weekend at Fort William. The conditions during practice were pretty filthy, but she was fairly relaxed about it all. Come the semi-finals she confidently qualified fastest and looked set to repeat her home-turf victory of last year.

As last rider down, she had to wait, though. There was a lot of support for one of the first riders, though – the Peats had obviously sorted out a babysitter for the weekend, as Adele Peat made a return to racing. It would have been great to see her at least get a perch on the hot seat for a bit, but Mireia Bosca Ballester was already in it.

Not for long, though. The traffic across the seat was brisk in the early stages, with Katrina Strand, Daniela Bossard, Diana Marggraff, Pascaline Reusser and Anita Molcik all having a stint. Then Marielle Saner stepped things up a level, raising the bar by a hefty 23 seconds. Her time stood for quite a while, although Britain’s Fionn Griffiths came close to beating it – it took Sabrina Jonnier to move things on again.

Just two riders later, though, and there was a British rider in the hot seat – Rachel Atherton eased out a margin of just over a second, setting a time that neither Celine Gros or Emmeline Ragot could match.

To the crowd’s delight, that meant that a British winner was guaranteed – Atherton was in the hot seat and there was only Helen Gaskell and Tracy Moseley to go. Gaskell’s run wasn’t quite on the pace, although quick enough to slot into the table just below Jonnier. Moseley’s, though, was in another league, 7.58 seconds ahead of Atherton.

So, a British one-two and three Brits on the podium. Can’t be bad…

Results

• 1 Tracy Moseley (Kona Les Gets)5:12.05
• 2 Rachel Atherton (Animal Giant) 5:19.63
• 3 Sabrina Jonnier 5:20.94
• 4 Helen Gaskell 5:22.57
• 5 Celine Gros (Alvarez Racing) 5:25.13

The Brits

• 9 Fionn Griffiths
• 16 Calamaty Jayne Cann
• 19 Emily Horridge
• 21 Maria Conway
• 29 Adele Peat