Fort William NPS Round 3

The guys got on me for falling behind on the race reports, so I won't be letting that happen again! Make sure you check back tomorrow for Squadron Crapcam video with interviews. Special thanks to our sponsors Swinnerton Cycles in Stoke (www.swinnertoncycles.co.uk) for taking care of the team bikes after a total thrashing this weekend.

Summer is road-trippin season. On our way! Loch Lomond just north of Glasgow was a sheet of glass. Anticipation was high, Greg wanted a solid result since his last two NPSs didn't go so well, and Elliot has been shooting for a top ten all season. I tried to keep the pressure off because Ft. William is a massive course, certainly polar poles apart from Stile Cop!

An omenous cloud hangs over the summit of Anoch Mor, which is a couple hours hike from Ben Nevis, the tallest peak in the UK. This is the finish area you've probably all seen if you've followed any World Cup action in the past decade. The white glowing rectangle between the cloud and the treeline is the gondola top station, and you can see a thin ribbon of track from the top. The course is 5-6 minutes long depending on how you hit it, but it will be the hardest 5-6 minutes you will ever experience. I could not get down it without stopping at least twice to recover strength in my arms and hands. The top section gets very rocky and sucks the energy out of you, making it difficult to even pull the brakes! I was glad I wasn't racing...it is such a punisher!

We had the shonkiest pits by far! We'd lost a corner junction thingy for our expensive £15 professional gazebo, so we stuck a Berlingo in its place. Shade was necessary, the weather was tropical.

No soggy, midge infested campsites for the Squadron, only top class luxury accomodation! At least for half of us...Elliot and co stayed in a shack with an overgrown garden run by a grumpy old man and his bed-ridden housewife who was laid face down in bed in the same position all weekend. She may have even been dead, we're not sure. Ours was a pure delight though, witness my purple room in which everything was purple except the gold guilded mirror and red leather chair. Simply sumptuous, especially if you're a drag queen. (Hmm, I wonder if this had anything to do with how I minced down the track?)

Enough about beds. Greg coming over the rise right before the big compression on the motorway. Gives you some sense of the scale. You hit this flat out. (By the way, it's not actually Greg, but I figured you can't tell.)

Elliot tried to chat up these chicks. Elliot: "Hey girls, want to see me with my shirt off?" Paul: "Oh no, not again." Mark: "You can't be serious." Second girl from left: ...well just look at her face.

Greg clearing the final triple - barely! These jumps are so difficult with zero strength. Greg took the strategy of cruising his qualifying run to save energy, although 5:50 is still faster than I could ever go. He then shaved 13 seconds off for his race run for a 5:37, placing him around 25th in Juniors. That's a very solid result in perhaps the most competitive class. The top 15 in his class will move into Expert next year...maybe even Elite at the speeds they're going.

You reckon those girls were still watching from the fence? Both Elliot and Greg cleared this triple and sprinted to the finish, which I can't figure how it's humanly possible - even got a comment from race announcer Si Paton! Elliot took a different strategy and went pretty hard on his qualifier to learn the track at race speed and see where he placed. His 5:39 qualifier put him in 12th - awesome! He reckoned he couldn't go much faster than that, but then Greg came down with his 5:37. A bit of rivalry never hurts in racing. In his race run, Elliot laid off the brakes and carried more speed where his brain and body were saying NOOOOO! He shaved 8 seconds off his time for a 5:31 and first top ten finish! We were all stoked, occassionally acting decidedly unbritish, pats on the back, etc. I sprayed some stranger opening a can of Corona in champagne bottle style to celebrate. Check the video tomorrow for more!

It was an awesome weekend, loaded with great memories. Racing doesn't get any better than this! Slideshow of some pics from Andy Dunwoody, who was shooting the race for British Cycling...

And finally, here is the first ever Squadron Crapcam video from Fort William. Prepare for shaky camera work, shoddy editting, a wee bit of action from the track side, and obviously unrehearsed interviews. On the positive side, the soundtrack is IMMENSE.

Please note that I am usually the last to propose excess alcohol consumption, but it seemed warranted under the circumstances.