NEWS FOR JULY 2003

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Fort William 4-X builder is new UCI course boss

Phil Saxena and his team were responsible for building the Fort William 4-X course, which has become the benchmark for the future direction of the UCI's newest Mountain Bike Event.

His input and vision has now been rewarded with his appointment as the UCI official 4-X co-ordinator for the remainder of the 2003 season. Phil will be in charge of designing and building the tracks for the World Championships at Lugano and the World Cup Final track at Kaprun. This role within the UCI was previously filled by Franck Roman.

Phil is looking forward to the challenge he faces in the coming weeks:

"I'm really happy to have been given this opportunity. I love the sport of mountain biking and I want to take 4X to the masses. It's going to be great to work at the cutting edge of the sport and help shape it. Times have been hard for this top level of competition, but I'm confident that we can drive 4X on to the next level and become the mainstream event it deserves to be."

"4X hasn't lived up to it's potential yet and I want to make sure it exceeds everyone's expectations. With more tracks like Fort William who knows how far 4X can develop!

The permanent 4-X course at the Nevis Range ski area had crowds of more than 6,000 at the recent World Cup as the world's best riders fought their way down huge berms, table tops, step downs and the notorious lumpy bumpy triple/quadruple. The 2003 event was won by South Africa's Greg Minaar (Men) and Australia's Katrina Miller (Women).