We just witnessed a history making day in more than one way among the testing conditions of the Scottish highlands. Rewinding A�a day to Saturday and 60kmph plus winds meant there was no practice or qualifying, the weather meaning the organisers would have to run it before the race Sunday morning.
So once qualifying was done there was little time for the riders (and mechanics) to be ready for racing, the crowd had started to pour in. As always there was a huge turn out of passionate fans, not fussed by the weather.
Racing kicked off under better conditions and first on course were the junior riders, always a hotly contested category. As usual crashes were a feature in the final results. The win was taken by Martin Maes who is proving to be a force to be reckoned with in both enduro and downhill, he just edged out local and 2014 medal winner at the world championships’ Laurie Greenland (who had the crowd cheering him home) and Alex Trillo finished third. A tougher day for the Aussies, Andrew Crimmins the highest placed finisher in 9th, Remy Morton 11th, Max Warshawsky 14th and Jackson Frew 21st.
Next on course were the female riders, with both Tegan Molloy and Tracey Hannah representing for Australia hopes for a strong showing were high. In the end a solid result with Tegan in 11th and Tracey finishing 7th after a crash mid run. It was almost a British white wash on the podium with 4 out of the 5 places going to locals. 4X rider Katy Curd showed she can handle any sort of bike and took home 5th place, Manon Carpenter had a huge over the bars experience but still managed to grab 4th place, Emmeline Ragot continued her strong form after winning round 1 and took 3rd, second place went to the very pink Tahnee Seagrave in her best world cup result to date and the winner was Rachel Atherton who noticeably looked the fastest and smoothest of all the ladies.
Heading on to the men and it really felt like this race was wide open, a lack of practice and the track conditions were sure to ensure that anyone could win! We saw Stevie Smith back after a horrendous run of injuries, Sam Hill was absent and is rider who has won here before. After qualifying a few ‘lesser’ known riders such as Mike Jones showed they were up to speed and in the mix.
George Brannigan took the hot seat early and enjoyed it for a while, Wyn Masters and Bernard Kerr had good results in 11th and 14th respectively. Mike Jones couldn’t back up his second place qualifier and finished just outside of the top 10 in 12th.
Aaron Gwin came down on a stormer and went ahead by almost 7 seconds, everyone was questioning whether he had done enough to win his second race in a row this season. When Gee Atherton came down with a sloppy run but was only a few seconds off Gwin it looked as though his time may be beaten, Greg Minnaar came down and took the hot seat by over a second. Now with only a few riders left on course it looked as if it would require a Troy Brosnan like effort (he is the only rider to win his maiden world cup at this course). Speaking of Troy he had a bobble in the woods and finished 6th just off the podium. Last man on the hill Loic Bruni couldn’t put a run together to claim the victory finishing 7th, this left Greg Minnaar to take his 17th world cup victory, an all time record equal with team mate Steve Peat. Aaron Gwin finished second and takes the overall lead, Marcelo Gutierrez took his best ever result with third and is the first Columbian to step onto a world cup podium. Gee Atherton ended up finishing 4th with a sore wrist he has been nursing for a while now. Rounding out 5th was Sam Blenkinsop.
A rather different race weekend but run and won! Next weekend the circus heads to Austria for round 3.
Images: Isac Paddock follow on Instagram @_paddock
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