Minnaar Is Fort William Star

 

NPS Downhill Round 3

Fort William July 6 2008

Images & Report: Richard Robotham

Greg Minnaar loves the Fort William course and picked up another win with his usual style

 

After a break of a few weeks for the World Cup to get underway and for the World Championships, the National Downhill series returned with a vengeance as the riders took on the long, tough Fort William course.

Although several of the leading contenders were absent, the presence of former world champion and winner on the course at the recent world cup, Greg Minnaar, added a welcome star quality to the field. And Greg duly took the win in the Elite Men's race, holding off Scotland's Ben Cathro, the winner of the previous round at Innerleithen. Joe Barnes had a superb ride to claim 3rd, just ahead of Marc Beaumont.

Men's Podium: L to R - Donoghue, Barnes, Minnaar, Cathro, Beaumont

After the race, our reporter spoke to Greg Minnaar (Santa Cruz Syndicate):

"The weekend has been good, I've been doing a camp for these guys during week and coming here to race is always good, it's a good venue for racing. The weather has affected the racing as it's been wetter and made the course a lot harder and definitely slower than for the World Cup at the start of June. The slower parts were dry and dusty corners at the World Cup but this time the ground drag was a lot worse.

It's a very tiring course and is probably is one of the most physical courses in the world: it just goes on and on and there is no rest on this course and just the roughness of it makes it tough on the upper body as well."

The standard of racing was good there is always someone popping up with quick runs - I think the Scots did it today with Ben Cathro and with Mark Beaumont and Joe Barnes also having brilliant rides you can't always take it easy so you have to keep pedalling all the way down."

Katy Curd took her first senior win

The Elite Women's race saw a clash between World Cup regular Helen Gaskell and up-and-coming young rider Katy Curd. Both had a point to prove, with Helen returning to racing after a lengthy injury break and Katy keen to nail her first senior NPS win. And it was Katy who held it together, despite a few "moments", to claim the win by just over 5 seconds. Afterwards, Helen and Katy gave their reactions:

Helen Gaskell - Halfords Bike Hut:

"My earlier injury has affected me big time. I've been off for two months and this is my first race back, I kind of just wanted to ride too see how it was this weekend. I know I didn't win which I'm not happy about but I am pleased just to make it down and I feel ok. My performance today was ok but it was only a few seconds. Katy did really well and I am happy for her, I'm pleased my back is ok and I've got a bit of work to do now for the World Cups coming up in the next few weeks.

I have raced here previously a lot and the course seems to get harder and harder, it may have been a bit crazy to choose this course to come back on but if I can ride here I think I will be fine for the rest of the season"

Elite Women's podium: L to R Calamity Jayne Cann, Katy Curd and Helen Gaskell

Katy Curd - Giant:

"It was a good win today, I was a lot faster than at the World Cup a few weeks ago, I had a couple of dodgy moments on the run down, I thought I was coming of the track but I held it together. I had a good practice but it was getting a bit rough at the top with holes appearing. I knew Helen was going to push for the win so I just tried to keep it together and have a clean run."

Ben Hall near the top of the course

Ben Hall took the hotly contested Expert Men's race, ahead of Ian Cookson. Afterwards, he was clearly delighted with the win:

Ben Hall - Team CHR:

"It was a very important win for me as I've beaten the Monster rider Ian Cookson. The whole weekend has been very good the track has been well maintained, but it did get a bit rough towards the end of the weekend. It's a long course and five minutes is a long time to think about the course, you've done a lot of work before you have even got into the woods, it's a brute of a track. I don't practice full runs beforehand as it tends to tire me too much, you've just got to hang on."

Senior men's winner, Paul Goddard

 

In the Senior Men, Paul Goddard had the narrowest margin of victory of the weekend, holding off James Shirley by less than 2 tenths of a second, a tiny margin over such a long a gruelling course.

Monet Adams flying to another win

In the Women's category, Monet Adams took her second win of the series, with a big margin over runner-up Emma Wareham.

In the older men's age categories, there were wins for Mark Wilcox in the Master's and Alastair MacLennan in the Veteran's races.

Fraser McGlone, top Juvnile

Arran Gannicott produced one of the rides of the weekend in winning the Youth race

 

Amongst the younger categories, Fraser McGlone continued his excellent season with a win in the Juveniles; Arran Gannicott was a very convincing winner in the Youth race in a very impressive time of 5 minutes 9 seconds; and Gareth Brewin took the Junior race from Ryan Martin.

 

National Points Series Downhill 2008 - Round 3 - Fort William

 

Results

Juvenile Men
1st Fraser McGlone 5:36:632
2nd Greg Gilfillan 5:48:838
3rd Billy Matthews J E James Cycles 6:03:464
4th Mathew Scott Peebles CC 6:13:464
5th Bow-Jango Cann CF3 6:18:720

 

Youth Men
1st Arran Gannicott Santa Cruz 5:09:988
2nd Mark Scott Ecosse DH Racing 5:24:684
3rd Sam Flockhart Astrix/Descent Gear 5:26:384
4th Lewis Buchanan MT Cut Tv/Orange 5:27:461

 

Junior Men
1st Gareth Brewin Descent World/Santa Cruz 5:17:180
2nd Ryan Martin Descend Hamsterley 5:19:136
3rd James Scott Cycle Jersey/Burgtec 5:19:692
4th Ashley Maller Knox 5:24:782
5th Harry Heath 5:26:674

 

Veteran Men
1st Alastair Maclennan Off Beat Bikes 5:32:526
2nd Jerry Twigg Cycleworld 5:55:781
3rd Rich Simpson 5:56:380
4th Martin Crocket MSC Bikes/Descent Gear.com 5:58:897
5th Gary Burns Midlands & Borders DH Club 6:11:827

 

Master Men
1st Mark Wilcox 5:31:920
2nd Mark Weightman Leisure Lakes 5:32:870
3rd Russ Harland 5:33:992
4th Andrew Buddin Descend Hamsterley 5:34:704
5th Mark Milward Swinnerton Cycles 5:36:716

 

Women
1st Monet Adams Solid Electric Cwdown 6:51:598
2nd Emma Wareham Trek-Extreme Medics 7:09:752
3rd Angela Coates Fox Racing/Descend Hamsterley 7:26:396

 

Elite Women
1st Katy Curd Giant 5:59:019
2nd Helen Gaskell Halfords Bike Hut 6:04:430
3rd Calamity-Jayne Cann CF3 6:15:114

 

Senior Men
1st Paul Goddard 5:28:491
2nd James Shirley Off Beat Bikes 5.28:645
3rd Ross Anderson MSC Bikes/Descent Gear 5:29:360
4th Andy Woodvine Leisure Lakes 5:30:944
5th David Duggan 5:31:231

 

Expert Men
1st Ben Hall Team CHR 5:11:292
2nd Ian Cookson Pedal Power 5:14:347
3rd Rich Thomas Ancillotti UK 5:14:602
4th Joseph Horton Pearce Cycles Race Team 5:17:816
5th Scott Mears Fox/Astrix/5 10 5:20:160

 

Elite Men
1st Greg Minnaar Santa Cruz Syndicate 4:50:483
2nd Ben Cathro Mojo Orange 4:55:921
3rd Joe Barnes MTBcut.Tv.Orange 5.02.513
4th Marc Beaumont Bike Radar 5:02:513
5th Neil Donoghue Bike Radar 5:04:403

Results service by Mikrotime Sports Systems