Brits take Gold in Italy

While Great Britain has never won the Downhill Elite World Title, both members of the British siblings made it for the first time in their lives!

While poor Dan broke his shoulder Rach won the worlds in the ladies and Gee cleaned up in the men's. Meanwhile British downhill hero Steve Peat took silver demonstrating that he's still got what it takes.....

MTB Photo Award in British Professional Photographers Association Comp

On the edge. MTB shot in Kinrosshire Scotland wins a silver award in UK Professional Photographers Association Competition. Taken by Greg Forbes of www.gregforbesphotography.com

Who is the dude at the start of the video?

New comp. Tell me the name of the dude at the start of the video clip and in a free MTB photo shoot in Scotland
Answers to greg4bs@aol.com

MTBCUT.TV Bestof Fort Willam

Syndicate Rule!!!

A strong performance by Santa Cruz Syndicate was topped off by some rock star antics by the team. Firstly, Mr Peat's sliding entrance (below) had the crowd going wild while Greg Minnaar's decapitation of a bottle of champagne using a broadsword that he had just be presented with created an explosive end to the day.

Mens Downhill Results

The 100th Downhill mens' final today (Sunday 8th June) saw a gloriousweekend at the Nissan UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Fort William draw to aclose in dramatic fashion. The challenging Fort William course pushed each rider to the limit. Withextremely dry conditions this year the riders careered down theworld-renowned track. Rider after rider cut the time as they racedagainst the clock. Whilst the Brits put up a sterling performance they could not match thespeed of Greg Minnaar (RSA) who thundered over the finish line to stealthe gold, three seconds ahead of Gee Atherton (GBR) in a close secondplace, followed by Steve Peat (GBR) in third.A thrilled Greg Minnaar said, “I’m just over the moon, it was so good toget revenge after the World Championships. After recovering from a fewbroken bones I’m back at the top of my game. “The weather here is beautiful but the course is by far the hardest. Thecrowd has been amazing and it’s so nice to have so many followers fromhome behind me.”Gee Atherton the first Brit to finish romped over the finish to take thesilver. Gee said, “I’m really pleased with my performance, Greg’s runwas far better than mine but I know it’s something I can work on. It’sbeen a great day.”Taking bronze, Steve Peat said, “I’m happy to be on the podium today.The track was very dry and the top turns really pushed me but I felt Istill had a solid smooth run.”Scottish rider Ben Cathro, 20, from Oban came in 8th place just secondsafter the top set of riders with a crowd-pleasing time of 4:49:06.Top mens junior on the Downhill course was the fearless Josh Bryceland,18, from Manchester, finishing in 16th place overall.

Mens Downhill Final

The downhill selection from Fort William

Chillin in the Syndicate tent

With just an hour to go until the downhill final Steve Peat and Nathan Rennie look pretty chilled in the Syndicate tent....

Down in one!!!!

Top marks to Tracey for downing her Champagne in one !!! Not often you see such a feat

Ladies Downhill Final

The crowd at Fort William were buzzing as the womens’ Downhill kicked
off with the scorching sun beating down on Aonach Mor. Brits Tracy
Moseley (gold) and Rachel Atherton (bronze) set pulses racing as they
flew to the finish line with Sabrina Jonnier (FRA) narrowly denying
Atherton silver.

Ecstatic at her victory an elated Tracy Moseley said, “It’s an amazing
feeling to win in front of a home crowd. The crowds have been wicked and
I’m delighted I’ve proved I still have what it takes.

“I had a fairly slow start to the season and Rachel really set the bar,
but I just kept imagining how it would feel to win and used it as my
incentive to get me through. It’s been a real boost for my confidence.”

Commenting on her silver victory Sabrina Jonnier of France said, “I feel
good about coming in second place. I really scared myself at the start
as I went too fast. I tried to slow down but the conditions were really
dry.”

WOMENS DOWNHILL (DHI) Results:

1. MOSELEY Tracy (GBR) 5:20:87
2. JONNIER Sabrina (FRA) 5:25:01
3. ATHERTON Rachel (GBR) 5:26:76
4. SUEMASA Mio (JPN) 5:35:64
5. BUHL Melissa (USA) 5:45:19
6. GROS Celine (FRA) 5:45:57
7. NICOLE Myriam (FRA) 5:46:14
8. GRIFFITHS Fionn (GBR) 5:46:47
9. MOLCIK Anita (AUT) 5:49:05
10. PRUITT Kathleen (USA) 5:52:24

Racing down the hill on a Sunday morning

The Aussies don't tend to muck about as a nation so it should be no surprise to find race favorite Sam Hill blasting down the hill to clear the early morning mists away. He may get the early start but I fancy Mr Peat to have a blinder.

The end of the Men's Cross

This stunning image captures the end of the men's cross race with Florian Vogel from Switzerland coming in one second ahead of fellow countryman Nino Schurter. On the podium Florian shouted in Swiss monotone 'Where's the whisky' when the UCI president presented him with a bottle of champagne.

Shot in the tube

Giants Austrian rider Hannes Metzler captured as he rides through the tunnel during the cross

Mexicans go wild on the course

Funny thing happened mid race when Paul stumbled on a group of 'Mexicans' frantically cheering on every rider who jumped past them. As the riders approached they could hear the 'Mexican's' cheering loudly for those that jumped and booing those that didn't. The photo shows young Scottish rider Ross Creeber (we think) in mid air while the Mexicans go wild.

Mens Cross Mid Race

Photos from Greg and Paul taken mid race

Start of the Mens Cross and a slightly mad photographer

As Paul and Greg covered the start of the Men's cross Paul who was safely behind the bars shouted 'Are you mad' over to Greg who was lying at the edge of the course. As you can see from the shot the gamble in not featuring on page 4 of the Sun for ruining the start of the race with a massive pile up paid off with the above photo. However as Paul's image shows Greg was kind of shell shocked when the dust cloud of riders past by inches from his head.
Got to be in it to win it!!!

Young Brit

Young British prospect Ross Creeber from Edinburgh at the start of the race.

Sram Guys Chill out

Graham one of Sram's UK managers chills out pre race in the Sram truck

www.sram.com

Monster Energy

With little sleep and high levels of concentration required the weekend was fueled by Monster energy drink!!!

Check it out at www.monsterenergy.com

Womens Cross won by a Canadian

The women's cross was won by Marie-Helene Premont from Canada. In second place was Margarita Fullana from Spain with Chengyuan Ren from China coming in third. Pity Miss Fullana did not win it could have been Margaritas all round

Best Fans Award 2008

And the award for the Buckfast sponsored 'Fans of the event award 2008' goes to Norway.

Jurgen (38) from Oslo who took advantage of the budget Airline Ryanair www.ryanair.com told wheelsblog that 'when you are used to paying 7 pounds for a beer it is like the new year sales. And my friends told me to expect rain - how wrong could they be'

Check back to see if Jurgen and his mates can continue their Viking Invasion into tonights street party

Laggan Wolf Trax

Rather that have a long lie we were up early to drive 45 mins back towards the A9 into the village of Laggan where the cross country tracks presented a 12 km head clearer from the stella consumed on Friday night. After a lung busting cycle up the hill (as Paul refused to pay two quid for the uplift bus) the track presented a great opportunity to try out my new Specialised Rockhopper dripping in Sram components www.sram.com

Five minutes later disaster strikes as my chain snaps. Many thanks to the kind owner of Cycle Life in York who mended me chain in record time. As he tried to sell me a new Shimano chain I pointed out that my wee brother designed for Sram. Anyways I must have given out the vibes of a helpless blond female who had a flat tire at the side of the motorway and waited for a prince to rescue her. Chain fixed it was back to business and what a rocking ride it turned out to be.

In action on the course

A great photo of Greg in action. Greg said '' you've got to push the rules of photography to get the shot's you need''

Photo by Paul Baughan (The next generation of MTB photo professional in the making)

4x Results and one unlucky German

''This place hates me. Every year this course punches me'' said Guido Tschugg as he came in 5th in the wee final.
Unfortunately for the home fans Dan Atherton could not repeat last weeks 4x win in Andorra as he came in 3rd behind Joost Wichman and Australia's Jared Graves.
In the ladies race Jana Horakova came home first and I must say the mellow Czech national anthem was a mellow end to the night. Rachel Seydoux of Switzerland was the runner up with Anneke Beerten of Netherlands in third place.

New Blog launches at UCI World Cup in Fort William

Wheelsblog4 is a specialized blog site dedicated to extreme sports in the main part. The blog runs as art of http://www.gregforbesphotography.com/

As part of launch weekend we bring you live updates from the UCI World Cup event in Fort William

Enjoy

Greg