Fort William: A Day in Photos Part 2

Friday marked the first day of practice. There was a slight delay due to an injured rider being removed from the track (we hope you are OK), but apart from that it all went without a hitch. The gondola lift sets Fort William apart from any other race in the UK, it almost seems a bit of a luxury.

Steve Peat asked to borrow a tenner off us! The delay for the injured rider meant that a lot of people would be left waiting around at the top. The ‘experienced’ Peaty knows when it is time for a tea break.

We had a little photo studio set up at the bottom gondola station. We started off just wanting to photograph riders and their bikes, but that soon extended to delivery drivers, officials, technicians and literally every man and his dog.

Great to see Jill Kintner racing downhill in Fort William. She has been victorious here plenty of times before in 4X, lets see what she can do in DH. Here she grabs a word with a somewhat aloof and restrained Sam Hill.

We have always been huge fans of Mickael Pascal here at Dirt. He seems to have been around for ever and is one classy rider. We like his quirky style too. Not one to be swayed by modern trends, he runs his bars high and wide, and rolled forward.

The Dirt Norco team of Dan Stanbridge and Ben Reid had a nice surprise today when a package full of newly printed Troy Lee Designs race kit arrived. You should be able to spot them on the hill!

When you are a rider at the top there are demands on your time. Not only does Gee Atherton have to ride his bike, prepare himself, and do the ‘media stuff’, he also has to take time out to talk to people about product. Here he discusses the finer details of Shimano’s products with some tech heads from Japan.

Rob Warner rode the track padless in shorts and a t–shirt…

…but he had a pretty cool paint job on his lid.

I saw this guy riding around the pits. He was loving it.

The Burgtec crew are a great bunch of guys. Here is a selection of personalised pedals for their team riders, and apparently these versions are 1mm thinner than normal!

Ratboy Bryceland even has a pair…