Fort william SXC

SXC booked some more good weather for this event mid 20s by the feel of it and no midges
they also put on a good varied course , after i assumed it would be the fort william world cup course which is all up , followed by all down which is a bit boring really . They cut out the lazy k and sent us down some singletrack and made us climb up the fire road to the haggis trap which was evil , but not only that , they then sent us down the lovely flowing singletrack that Ruari Watt built for 10 under the ben , then onto the witches brew and immediately turning left to take us along the puggy line and up the switch backs to nessie. Back along the whole wall and up mckenzies road to the arena.

For the first lap i decided that since there is only really one easy line up the sandy brae i wanted to be in the top 3 , i seemed to hit it with relitive ease and found my self spinning away up front, not sure if that was a good thing or not but it got me up without misshap.

we settled into position at the top with Dave Henderson taking the front as per norm, Karl Mott going well and taking second place , Chris Bell taking third, Barry Wilson fourth Graeme Neagle and Me taking 5th and 6th.

climbing up to nessie on my first lap it became apparent things werent right , stomach cramps and a tight chest plagued me for the whole race from there on in and things just werent firing on all cylinders , i had little or no power to manhandle the bike about making stupid stupid mistakes and generally just feeling crap , I knew i had to finish though as id already missed a round through doing Mountain Mayhem.

Neagle punctured just before Nessie and DNFed , I made up some time on Barry on the second lap and was catching him up before the witches brew. At this point i spotted him missing the left hand turn and shooting off down the Worlds course , i shouted to him but had no idea if he heard or not.

Climbing to nessie i saw he had and wasnt far behind. I held him off for the next lap and just at the top of the sandy brae he passed me like he had a rocket up his arse , but by this point for me the stomach cramps had become hell and the race became a lesson in survial and minimising losses. I put in a 35 min lap for my last lap and literally colapsed on the bike needing my team mates to help me off it onto the ground where i felt really sick and made my way to the toilet.

found out when i got home that my mother had the same symptoms and we are putting it down to food poisoning. feeling better now though after a fast on water and toast , possibly not the best for recovery from a race ,but would rather take some muscle pain than be constantly doubled over with cramps

results were

Dave Henderson 0
Chris Bell 6 mins down
Karl Mott 10 mins down
Barry Wilson 12mins down
Terry Davidson 15mins down