Fort Bill WC – 4X Round Up

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

The mid point of the 4X World Cup season saw wins for Jared Graves and Jana Horakova, for Graves it was his 2nd win of the season, giving him a hefty 125 point lead from Joost Wichman while Horakova now leads the series by 40 points. I don’t have official numbers but the crowds on the hill through DH practice and 4X racing were bigger than I have seen for practice day over the last decade of Fort William World Cups, the beer tent was doing a roaring trade and the MASSIVE LED screen erected in the finish arena did a great job in creating atmosphere. The sun played its part too with blue skies and glorious sunshine all day drying out both tracks making things tricky; dusty and loose was the name of the game.

One Big Fan

Horakova had a clean run through from the 1/4 finals, winning all three races and never really looked in much danger of not walking away with her second win of the season. The frustrating season for reigning WC leader Anneke Beerten continued with a 4th place, never off the podium this year but yet to see the win she is now 3rd in the standings, 90 points off Horakova. On home ground both of the UKs leading female 4Xers fared well, Fionn Griffiths and Katy Curd both made the small final ending up 6th and 7th respectively.

Womens Final

In the mens it was a fairly typical Graves masterclass, only slipping to 2nd to Tatarkovic in the quarters. For the most part he made his gate count on the long first straight. Having said that it wasn’t quite such a perfect start in the final when it mattered, him and Wichman went elbow to elbow out the start but by the end of the start straight order had been restored and it was Graves all the way with Wichman and Prokop rounding out the top 3. On home turf it was a disappointing evening for the Brits, both Dan Atherton and Scott Beaumont were edged out in the quarters.

Trick rear gear setup…reminds me of the old holeshot system

Check out Jared’s Snap…Powerhouse

On to DH finals………this morning has dawned overcast and windless, perfect for midges and rain. A little rain would not go amiss to dampen down the track which was looking particularly slippy yesterday, the midges however can get to f**K.