The Fort William downhill course was the scene of one of Steve Peat’s big disappointments of the year, when he failed to win the first round of the Tissot/UCI World Cup in front of a home crowd. In the end, he won that series, and this weekend he returned to Fort Bill for the final round of the UK Giant NRS National Points Series. There were no disappointments this time, as he stormed down the hill to beat second-placed Chris Ball (The Clan) by seven seconds. The final round win was enough for Steve to take the series title. World Cup champ, NPS champion, National Champion and runner-up in the World Champs – that’s what we call a good year…

In the women’s event, Tracy Moseley (Kona) won the final round but it wasn’t enough to prevent Helen Gaskell (Halfords Bikehut) from clinching the overall series title.

It was a family affair in the Junior categories, with Gee Atherton (Muddy Fox/Animal) taking the men’s series and Rachel Atherton (Muddy Fox/Animal) taking the women’s.

It took a little while for the results to appear thanks to a freak computer glitch. The entry lists were somewhat bigger than usual, and the overhead of processing the data after the first runs apparently made the clock run slow during the second run. Fortunately timingmeisters Dragon Downhill had backup systems in place allowing them to figure out exactly how wrong the second run times were with the aid of a couple of day’s headscratching and a lot of scrap paper and pencils, probably. They emphasise that “the adjustments and new run times are based on facts, they are not made up.” Anyway, they got it all figured out and say that the system’ll be all sorted out for next time…

David Morgan of series coordinators Mountain Bike Racing ltd said, “We are sorry that the hardware/software used by Dragon Downhill malfunctioned but are pleased they held their hands up and acknowledged the fault. They have worked very hard to produce the revised set of results so quickly, and we hope that this incident has not spoilt your enjoyment of what was otherwise a great weekend. Please feel free to contact me either on 01626 334664 or [email protected] if you require more details on this decision.”