Fort William – day two recap
In the pits and on the hill for today’s qualifying runs
Published:
It’s been another glorious day up on the slopes of Aonach Mor, where the fastest downhill racers in the world put on one hell of a show during qualifying this afternoon.
Click here to read our recap from day one.
The Welsh wonder kid Taylor Vernon took top spot in the juniors aboard his new GT Fury while his teammate Rachael Atherton showed her dominance in the women’s category, smashing her closest rival Emmeline Ragot by a whopping 6.1 seconds to take top honours.
Although many had Aaron Gwin down as favourite, he could only manage 14th in qualifying today, just behind teammate Troy Brosnan.
For any that had seen Danny Hart’s speed in practice, it was no real surprise that he took the top spot in today’s proceedings, edging fellow Brit Gee Atherton out by 0.176 seconds, with Sam Blenkinsop storming into a strong 3rd place. After the speed Mick Hannah displayed in timed training yesterday it was no big shock to see the Aussie right up there in the mix in 4th spot and Devinci Global Racing’s Stevie Smith rounding out the top 5.
In the evening, the 4X Pro Tour kept spectators glued trackside to watch riders do battle.
In the end it was Tomas Slavik that came out on top in the mens, while young Brit Katy Curd made a pass higher up on the course to move into the lead and take the win.
Here’s some of our highlights from the day…
Authors
Rob Weaver is BikeRadar's technical editor-in-chief. Rob manages all of the testing here at BikeRadar and across our magazines, Mountain Biking UK and Cycling Plus. Rob first graced the pages of MBUK back in 2001 when working as a freelance writer and went on to start testing bikes for the title in 2007. In 2010 he joined the team full-time and has been keeping a close eye on all things test-related ever since. Rob’s expansive knowledge of bikes comes courtesy of his passion for racing. He cut his teeth racing cross-country mountain bikes in the early 90s before finding his feet in downhill. After many years competing on the UK national circuit (including a year attempting to race UCI DH World Cups), Rob realised his know-how and passion for bike setup, tech and writing clearly outweighed his racing ability. A degree in sports technology and decades of riding experience all help to give Rob a thorough understanding of what’s needed to create a great bike or product. While Rob’s a mountain biker at heart and never happier than when he’s sliding down a Welsh hillside, he’s more than happy to put the miles in on the road or gravel bike, too.
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