Meanwhile at the top the sound is of whirring rubber and fans as the riders settle and ready the mind for what is to come. First it is the turn of the ladies. Ragot takes the hot seat early on after an action packed qualifying run gave her an early time in Sunday’s big day. Griffiths is soon to follow but goes down on time to Ragot. A disappointment for both ladies after taking spots on the box in South Africa. Jonnier steals the hot seat and puts a healthy dent in the time. It hasn’t been a happy start to the season for Jonnier, just tears mostly (a pre–season injury to her coccyx means the French woman is off the pace). Kintner – fastest top split in quali’s – just fails to go faster than the pink one and just misses a place in the podium proceedings. Myriam Nicole looks to be having some spectacular splits but it turns out these were hastily assembled digits and she ends up fourth. Pugin does the business and sneaks in onto third but all this has been a warm up for the real excitement. The two British women who only have it to win or lose between each other. Moseley is the experienced winner here and she puts on a show for the home crowd by belting in 7.5 seconds faster than anyone so far. The crowd go berserk, but as quick as they erupt they hush as Rachel Atherton throws herself out of the gate. This is Rachel’s first WC race after shoulder injuries have kept her out of full time racing for too long. She has had a rough winter trying to contend with staying fit enough to compete whilst at the same time allowing the injuries to heal.

It has been hard for the young woman with too much energy and a potential for winning that has barely been touched. She is up by a second at the first split, but slightly down at the second. It is going to be tight. Toward the bottom the crowd cheer the lady Atherton in, but all eyes are on the rotating clock. It stops, but not soon enough, and the crowd slouch momentarily and then rise up to congratulate Moseley with a raucous display of noise. Atherton is still over the moon that she has shown she has got what it takes. Moseley takes win number two for the season (and win number five here in Scotland) and seems to be really clicking into her own gear and hitting the freeway in fifth gear with no sign of stopping.

By now the men have begun the long whirring gondola ride up the mountain; some in solitary focus, others with trusted companions. One of the first up is Affy (Dan Atherton) who is amazingly back to top flight racing and claims he has never been so nervous before a race. He said that Fort Bill and Leogang will be critical for him to find out whether he has the head to return to racing. On flat pedals, a puncture in his run halts him from setting a final’s time, but he is happy he punctured. For Dan it is a sign he was attacking the course and believes that one run was the first time he has really been able to push himself in a run.

The hot seat and fastest time is juggled about for some time but none of the seats sitters really stick with much conviction. Sick Whip Hannah then comes barrelling in with a tidy looking time and takes a pew. Several riders look like dangers with storming top split times but no one holds them together to the line until Brook ‘Bulldog’ MacDonald comes across the line with a time that looks like he has torn it limb from limb. This is the promise of the Kiwi but there are still two–dozen more riders to come down yet. Hold on to your jandles sports fans. Gracia looks like he is about to set a flipping record after a suicide off the wood huck, but instead it’s just a thumbs up on the Tissot jump. Riders filter down and all get cheers and shouts but when Steve Peat drops into his tango with the tape worm the crowd goes utterly berserk. It doesn’t matter that his time only gets him close to the perch but not on the top slot, he crowd would cheer him on still even if he dropped trousers and took a dump on the ground. The man has an aura and the crowd obey the invisible pull.