DH qualification has just finished here in Fort Bill. The sun’s out and it’s Gee and Sabrina that came up with the goods. 

Men’s top 10:
Gee Atherton
Greg Minnaar
Mick Hannah
Sam Blenkinsop
Steve Peat
Sam Hill
Bryn Atkinson
Matti Lehikoinen
Ben Cathro
Marc Beaumont

Women’s top 10:
Sabrina Jonnier
Emmeline Ragot
Tracey Moseley
Celine Gros
Floriane Pugin
Mio Suemesa
Myriam Nicole
Emilie Siegenthaler
Fionn Griffiths
Claire Buchar

It’s been a pretty eventful day for the UK crowd and a heap of interesting results are coming through.

Bad news first, looks like Ruaridh Cunningham didn’t make it through to the finals. Judging by his double rapid speed at the speed trap he crashed somewhere on track. Josh Bryceland was 11th, Joe Smith 14th.  Harry Heath qualied 2nd place junior behind Danny Hart who was fastest junior and 20th overall… Harry is 45th overall after that. Sam Dale qualied 58th place with a crash and just scraped in to the finals. Bernard Kerr 54th,  Aaran Gannicott 67. 

For the girls Katy Curd missed out on the top 10 but is looking good in 12th place.  Jess stone 17th, followed up by Sarah Newman in 18th. 

Here’s a quick few snaps from this afternoon…

Well looking outside at the weather, it’s cloudy, grim and crap. Today is Downhill qualifying followed by the 4X finals tonight, remember to check out Freecaster for the livecast and MTBcut have got a huge 30 metre high crane for some bird’s eye view shots, keep an eye on their site mtbcut.tv for that.

The 4X track has seen a brand new rock section which cuts down before the big tabletop jump, should make for some interesting action, especially if it rains!
Will we see one of the 18 British entrants take first place like last weekend at the Bike Radar dual slalom event or will it be Graves taking the win…? My money is on Dan Atherton who qualified 4th last night behind Graves, Rinderknecht and Wichman. Jill Kintner qualified first out of the women. Will she be able to knock Anneke Beerten off the top step tonight? Stay tuned to Wideopen to find out.

Update by Wideopen team rider Steve Larkin

Friday night was 4X qualies here in Fort Bill with Joost Wichman and Jill Kintner taking the top spots in the pissing rain. 

The weather stayed pretty dry and clear all day for DH practice but it started lashing down as the 4X’ers rolled into the gate. 

There’s been a few changes to the track since last year which made for some pretty interesting spectating. The main one is an all new rock section that bottle-necks riders through a steep rock garden. You’ve got a choice of either rolling the rocks or doubling the lot and treating it like a road gap. The shit weather and slick rocks meant that most people were taking it pretty easy and keeping their noses clean for the main event.

Top 5 men:

Joost Wichman
Roger Rinderknecht
Jared Graves
Dan Atherton
Guido Tshugg

Top 5 women:
Jill Kintner
Anneke Beerten
Caroline Buchanan
Melissa Buhl
Jana Harakova

More Mountain Biking >>

Bit late but here are some interviews from yesterday as everyone was rocking up and setting up the pits/walking the track/eating pasta and rating sandwiches. Mint.

Holy shit – we’re finally here in Fort Bill for round 4 of the World Cup. We got in to the campsite at 2am last night, got a quick bit of shut-eye and rolled up to the track for DH practice this morning.

Team Footout Flatout - Mono, Tim and Paul...

Anyway – we rolled up the hill and the riders were out cruising a few runs and getting the lines dialled. Nothing too mad just yet which is pretty normal. Unlike last year there didn’t seem to be too many people sitting out Friday practice which was great. Team UK are out in force with Katy Curd posting the fastest women’s run in timed practice, followed by Gaskell and Ffion G.  Sabrinna was fastest in timed practice with a clear 5 second gap.

Harry Malloy getting loose

Couldn't be a World Cup update with a picture of Sam Hill's arse right?

For the fellas Sam Hill posted fastest practice time, followed down by Peaty and Dan Stanbridge. Beaumont in 7th, Sam Dale in 8th, Ben Reid 11th, Gee 28th, Danny Hart 29th, Joe Barnes 32nd, Brendawg 34th, Josh B 40th, Ruaridh C in 45th. Other than that – there’s not much going on. Everyone’s keeping it pretty low key and just enjoying a few mellow runs.

The new wooded section was causing a lot of head scratching. Steve rolled up, offered some advice on cutting the lines in then cruised through for the kids.

Deacon goes down!

Warner take 3 - it might look effortless but those Freecaster updates are HARD!

Ben Reid was trucking all day. No pissing around in timed practice with 11th best time.

Tom Braithwaite...

It was a Syndicate triple bill last year with Podiums for Josh (here) Steve and Greg all taking home the goods. Same again this year?

It’s 4X qualifications now so we gotta run – check out Ste’s team blog for a bit more info and Mono’s vid. Both on the main page.

Here’s a few images that I papped today… Enjoy!

Christ – it’s 2 in the morning and we finally made it from the valleys to the fort – 500 miles, lots of crappy food, lots of piss stops, 1 monster detour, lots and lots of laughing at Mono… Oh and we had to stop at the top of every hill because Paul’s engine management light kept coming on and wouldn’t go off until you killed the engine. Good times!

We’re here now anyway… The midgies are bloody awful even at this time of night… But its not raining yet. I’m huddled in my tent updating on my mobile….. Dedication eh?

World cup day 1 for us tomorrow – stay tuned for updates all day everyday till Monday. They’ll be much less shit than this one…

Zzzzzzzz

Jamie - WO editor and midgy bate

It’s a little smaller than our usual rigs… a PUKY balance bike for my 2 year old daughter. Expect a mini writeup in Issue 10!

PUKY are made in Germany, and make a full range of kids bikes. This one I’ve bought myself, why? Because it’s well made, light and will last forever. Much better than the cheap stuff in Halfords.

Check out their site in the meantime http://www.puky.net/

More pictures here:

Elly’s new PUKY – 4/6/09

Yo! It’s World Cup weekend and the Wideopen team will be out in force at Fort Bill to bring you the latest action…

With any luck we’ll be beaming heaps of great pics, video and updates to you through the webby and our Facebook…..
There’s a tonne of coverage available all over the web so be sure to include us on your list to check out – especially if you wanna see how the UK young guns are getting on – we like them the best…

I’m currently 30 minutes into my journey and sat on a train to cardiff to hook up with paul and tim from footout flatout… Soon as we hook up we’ll start the mammoth 12 hour drive north! I’m pretty sure that’s longer than the flight to whistler. Shit. Proper updates start tomorrow… if you want to see some words from the road stay tuned. The bored’r I get the more I’ll update!

Jamie – Wideopenmag’s travel sick editor

Chances are you’ve heard about this one already but South Wales pinner Rowan Sorrell is the latest victim of shoulder troubles. Rowan had a wee crash at the BMX track and is now out of action, meaning he’ll miss this weekend’s World Cup at Fort Bill.

Get well soon mate!