2008      VINDICATE THE SYNDICATE

• This was the 100^th ever World Cup race.
• The Santa Cruz Syndicate team have a field day. Greg Minnaar is first, Steve Peat in third and Nathan Rennie fourth. It was tag team domination and they celebrated as if they had already won the series!
• Matti Lehikionen slices himself up on the ‘cheese grater’.
• The Mojo team show up in rubberized skin suits. This causes some controversy, but you cannot deny that they make the riders go faster.
• There were some wind issues up top.
• Moseley crosses the line to a wall of sound to score her fourth win in Fort William.
• Fabien Barel is unlucky again, this time a puncture puts an end to his hopes.
• Jared Graves finally gets a Scottish win in 4X.

“Minnaar, Peaty, Rennie and Bryceland were celebrating as if they had won the series. This was pack mentality, wild animals celebrating a kill.”

“Fort William went from Baltic to Bahamas in one simple step…people were even getting sunburnt.”

JARED GRAVES – 4X WINNER IN 2008, 2009 AND 2010

Fort William is a place I always treat with respect, simply because it can dish out anything, I’ve had some of my biggest career highs and lows there. On my first visit in 2003 I had an almost career ending and life threatening crash which resulted in a month in hospital and it almost cost me my only remaining kidney. I returned in 2005 only to be struck with the flu, and have two epic high speed crashes in DH practice, mostly due to my lack of concentration, which made me realize how on top of everything you need to be to be at the pointy end at this place.

I thought I was 100% prepared for the 4X World champs in 2007, and maybe I was, but the track had other ideas, which made me learn in a hurry to not count your chickens!

After then, from 2008 onwards my preparation has improved, and I think that shows in my results, and I have won the 4X for the past three years. So after thinking that I was forever doomed to suck at Fort William, it’s been a great confidence booster to know I can go well there.

Fort William is for sure one of the venues that riders want to do well at, the courses always test all forms of riding so that the best overall rider will prevail, If you’re fast at fort William you can be fast anywhere, so it’s a track that riders will always want to do well on.

After three or four years travelling to a few other World Cups around the world it was exciting to have an event in the UK, and not just an XC in Plymouth but a full blown DH with a gondola. This was real progress for the UK scene and ‘not to be missed’ was the feeling I had about the first DH World Cup up at the Nevis Range. But through all the memories of the racing documented elsewhere, from Kovarik’s massive win to Peaty’s landmark victory, there is one thing that sticks in my mind about Fort William, and that is the Cruachan Hotel. The Cruachan was to become the base for all my Fort Bill visits. Through the years there was something special about this sub par dump with a shady breakfast, and don’t let the 2.5 stars on trip advisor fool you into thinking the place is even half way decent. However it had two things going for it, firstly the all–night bar for residents only! Each year this bar would be manned by a fine gent called Alex Rankin, a namesake and one of the finest bar tenders in the highlands, and it was well stocked with the finest malts. And secondly, the hotel also had an amazing manager lady called Donella and she let us bring back some friends for the after–after–party. Over the years this small gathering on the Sunday night turned into the whole god dam race after–party descending on our beloved home from home. These big parties never lasted long and Donella would shut the hotel and eject 400 people from a wrecked bar only to open up again to the residents 15 minutes later for an all–nighter. Happy birthday Fort Bill and the Cruachan Hotel (which I now hear is under new management).