Location: Fort William
Event: 10-11 September 2011
Si Paton, organiser of the Halo British Downhill Series has announced the final round of the British Downhill Series - postponed due to high winds in Fort William - has been re-arranged, to take place at Caersws on October 8-9. Full details are on the British Downhill Series website.
In a statement, Paton said:
"I have made the tough and quick call to cancel Fort William. We will look to re-schedule the event to Ocotober at a different venue.
"After calling the Met Office forecaster to get a better idea of the weather for this weekend, the main concern is wind speed and direction, with predicted southerly gusts of up to 60mph.
"Southerly's are the worst direction for the gondola as the wind travels straight down the line. Friday looks like it will be OK to start with but will get worse. Being this close to Saturday our gut feeling is the gondola would not operate at all in these wind speeds. On Sunday the wind veers to a South Westerly this may be better but at those speeds we can get a funnel effect which creates a strong cross wind which would not be good for bikes on the gondolas.
"Of course we can never be certain how the forecast will affect us. There have been occasions when decisions are made and the outcome is totally different to what was predicted. The strongest wind can go to the North or to the South of us, totally changing everything. Hopefully though this will help you in making a decision."
The event was planned to be a celebration of two British riders - Manon Carpenter and Danny Hart - claiming World Championship titles one week previous.
