It’s downhill all the way for some young cyclists

It has been 14 years since the first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup was held on Aonach Mor near Fort William. The event now attracts tens of thousands of spectators from around the world over a weekend of racing. For riders it has a formidable reputation, but is also consistently voted by competitors as one of the best venues on the World Cup circuit.

It is a fantastic opportunity for young riders to watch their downhill heroes up-close and despite the scale of the event it still manages to retain a very personal feel with professional riders making themselves available to chat and sign autographs with their legions of fans.

For some riders however, this year’s event was even more special as they had the fantastic opportunity to race on the same weekend as the professionals. Scottish Cycling organise several rounds of a “Mini-Downhill” event across Scotland in the lead up to the World Cup with riders qualifying to race in front of thousands on the same weekend as the senior riders.

This year 67 male and female riders aged between eight and 16 years made the trip to Fort William. They represented clubs from across Scotland including Perth’s own Tay Titans, the Wolfpax Riders from Strathspey and the Wallace Warriors from Stirling. They competed across four age categories on a very technical course that was just metres away from where the World Cup riders were descending.

The winners were presented with their podium places and prizes on the World Cup stage by Scottish Cycling President Alasdair MacLennan and Danny MacAskill.

Bob MacFarlane, Events Manager at Scottish Cycling, has organised the Mini-Downhill event for several years now and believes that such opportunities for young riders to race are fundamental to ensuring we develop competitive riders for the future. Indeed many of the young riders racing at the Fort William Mini Downhill, such as Charlie Aldridge and Polly Henderson, are already racing at a very high level across the UK.

For the younger riders Bob said: “The series gives young riders a chance to try downhill racing in a safe and secure environment, and having the final at one of the biggest events in the mountain bike racing calendar, where the world’s best riders come to Scotland to compete in the international level competition makes it even more memorable. We are delighted to offer our finalists this experience of a life-time.”

Ben Wipat echoed that sentiment. The young Perthshire rider had competed in all the qualifying rounds and he said “the chance of riding at Fort William was a big motivation to keep training and learning new skills through all the qualifying rounds”. The opportunity to get a taste of racing at that level at such a young age is huge and already Ben’s younger sister Jessica is looking forward to being old enough to qualify for the event next year.

As it is Jessica had an amazing weekend, the highlight for her,  being able to take a trip in the gondola to the top of the downhill course with the prolific downhill winner, Greg Minnaar in the gondola in front and the three times World Cup Champion, Arron Gwin, in the one behind. Another highlight for Jessica was getting her photograph taken with Rachel Atherton. Atherton won her 9^th consecutive world cup race in a row at Fort William to extend her overall lead in the series by 190 points.

The reverence and respect that the thousands of spectators hold for these athletes was on display when a “Ghost Ride” took place for World Cup rider Steve Smith who died on May 10 following an enduro motorcycle accident. The normally deafening crowd fell silent watching the massive screen in front of them. A camera panned down the downhill track creating a virtual descent while a picture of the “Canadian Chainsaw” was posted on the top left of the screen. The silence was broken as the commentator announced over the PA system “Long live the Chainsaw”.

It was a fitting end to a weekend of racing that remembered champions of the past, celebrated our current champions and looked to the future for the next generation of winners.