The luck of the Aussies.

After Paul Van der Plog’s broken chain in the junior XC race ended his hopes for a high finish, and similar results in the U23 mens race for Dan McConnell, all eyes were on the Mountain Cross course. A massive track winding through the pines and heather on the slopes of Annoch Mor, thousands upon thousands of fans lined the course or watched the action from the grandstands at the finish. With TV beaming the action out live and choppers hovering overhead the action got underway.



In the mountain cross, all the Aussies made it to the round of sixteen either through progressing or by luck of the draw. Graves looked fast all night while Rando and Strom exited in the quarters.

Caroline Buchanan pulled out the ride of her life after crashing early in her quarter final. She pulled back third, then second on the line to go through to the next round, the effort of regaining lost ground clearly taking its toll as she plowed into the fence at the back of the finish straight. Her semi final was a disaster, there was none of the snap from the gate we’re used to seeing, perhaps as a result of her frenetic quarter final. Worse, she touched bars with the Japanese rider and crashed heavily into the front of a mid-course jump. The chopper shot showed her not moving while paramedics descended on her – it was some time before the track was cleared. But word the next day was that she'd just suffered a concussion that kept her in hospital overnight.

Our sole hope now rested with Jared Graves. Looking fast all night, he drew the fastest qualifier Saladini in his semi final. Graves blitzed it, leaving Saladini wrestling with Meijer in his wake – until the final turn. Graves pulled up stationary at the top of the final straight, his rear tyre wrapped around his derailleur.

Indi says...

The mountain cross was really interesting and captivating because you didn't know what was going to happen. I found myself going for people who weren't even Aussies, and that was a surprise. I liked screaming for the Aussies, except for when Caroline Buchanan crashed - but then she still qualified after speeding through to second. She was going so fast she couldn't stop and crashed into the barrier. She went on to the next round but sadly conked herself on the noggin in a crash. Apparently, she was fine the day after, but didn't finish the race, which sucked.

Saturday was XC day, and with no elite women (sadly once again) it was up to Chris Jongewaard, Sid Taberlay and Dylan Cooper to represent in the Green and Gold. Things ran pretty much to script on a stellar course. Up what was predominantly either fireroad or old tram path to the highpoint, then down a mega singletrack funpark of switchbacks, jumps and corners, only to do it all again – for six laps. The Aussie lads started well, and finished in about the same position a couple of hours later – shagged, but no able to come close to dinting Frenchman Julian Absalon’s fourth Rainbow Jersey on the trot – he totally dominated, and our boys, some forty odd riders back, never even saw him!!

Sunday dawned overcast and kinda cool at the top of the hill –read: cold as buggery! Two or three degrees. It wasn’t going to stop the best in the world throwing down. After an hour or so puttering around at the top just to take in the scene we set ourselves up in the grandstand to watch the always hottlyt conteseted junior men. The Aussies did well, with James Maltman occupying the leader’s hot-seat for most of the race as he’d run early due to a poor qualification run (fastest go last in the final). At the end of the day though Aussies finished 4th, 5th and 6th – out of the medals – of which the Gold went to local lad Ruaridh Cunningham – and didn’t he receive a cheer when he claimed Scotland’s first mountain biking World Championship.

An Aussie had better luck in the elite women’s, with Tracy Hannah taking bronze behind GB’s Rachel Atherton and defending champ, Sabrina Jonier of France. But it was the men we were waiting for! A huge field of 95 took to the vicious course, at some five minutes it’s on par with Thredbo in Australia – but much much rougher. Again an early contender put himself in the hotseat for a long time – and looked better and better for a medal as the mist turned to mizzle – then drizzle. Later Nathan Rennie told me that the Fort actually gets grippier in the wet, so the racers weren’t too concerned – at first. After a wee while longer everything was effectively soaked. Defending champ and Aussie, Sam Hill, pounded down the track to dominate with about 20 still to come. One by one they tried – Frenchman Fabien Barel coming within about a second. Rennie, always a contender at the Fort, came within ten seconds, time likely lost in a crash, and said later that he thought beating Sam wasn’t an impossibility – just very hard. And with yet another hour long queue to get a bus out of the venue, the World Champs came to an end.

Indi says...

Downhill was nearly as captivating as the mountain cross, but you had to wait a bit longer. We went to the top of the mountain to see the start of one of the classes but we only stayed for a short time because it was freezing! We then went down and grabbed a spot in the grandstands, getting hot chocolate while we watched the rest of the downhill. We stayed there all day. Sam Hill won the Elite Mens and he is an Aussie. We were all cheering for him - even the British guys which was cool. One French guy, Fabien Barel, was something like only 0.6 seconds behind Sam Hill. It was really scary watching him come through and watching his time compared to Sam's.

Now, back to the holiday…