Everyone have a good time?

Was a shame that a few of the top riders didn't make it (Peat Dale & Bryceland for example).  The Athertons showed that their dad still cooks the best race breakfast with a clean sweep (Gee & Rach 1st, Dan 2nd).  Ben Cathro deserves much respect for his massive leap of faith off of the drop-in to the finish!

Weather: Friday was a bit damp, Friday night into Saturday lunchtime it chucked it down.  Unfortunately the new top section they'd cut suffered heavily becoming a 400m slog through axle-deep mud.  Luckily it was just steep enough to keep your speed if you could hold the right lines.  Slip off-line and you'd be coughing up a lung by the time you'd got yourself back up to speed!

Sunday was a VERY pleasant surprise when the forecasted further rain didn't show.  I was reluctant to go up for my race run simply because I was enjoying chilling in the sun at the bottom too much - proper hot.  Course dried out LOADS, everything below the stream drop was essentially dry, although the top section was still wayyy sloppy.

Seeding on Saturday got pulled and replaced with 2-3 hours extra practice.  Not sure why, but since the rain had kept me in bed until gone 10 I wasn't complaining!  I think there may have been a problem with trucks or something.  Practice on Sunday was also extended an hour or two.

All in all, I had a great weekend, really enjoyed it.  Had it rained all day Sunday too it would have been a bit miserable, but we got lucky.  Organisers Si & Steve did a great job in my opinion, and it was good to see that when there were delays they weren't afraid to alter the timetable, and also that when one corner up the top became a standstill they weren't afraid to re-route the course around it.  Highly commendable I thought.  Best-run NPS I've ever been to for sure (although I've not done that many).

My only complaint about the weekend would be the "no stopping" rule in practice on Sunday.  Or rather the over-active marshalls who were enforcing it so heavily.  Case in point: I crashed just before the fireroad crossing, and when I stopped on the fireroad to sort myself out (get mud off of gloves & grips, re-adjust peak, that sort of thing) I was told I wasn't allowed to stop and had to carry on immediately (the marshall had seen me crash so IMHO should have known better).  I tried to reason but was still told to move on  Imagine if I binned it and nailed myself off of the dropdown or something because I'd had mud all over my grips and not been allowed to clear it off?  Ridiculous.

This rule also made looking at lines on a course which was chaning a MASSIVE amount due to the weather pretty impossible.  We ended up pushing up the side of the track for our race runs instead of using the uplift just so we could get some idea of what was going on up there.

Oh, who was taking photos off of the stepdown in race runs (ok I know a million were, but who that has a website/flikr etc?)  Any photos of rider 675 (GT DHi, black shorts & t-shirt & troy lee) appreciated!

Roll on Innerleithen! 

- seb

Seeding was scraped becasue uplift started 2 hours late due to the gate being locked.

Marshals were being strict at the road because they were having a tough time with no one listening to them, especially the experts/elites.
Si specifically said in the breifing that riders couldn't even stop to clean goggles but If you'd had a crash in the mud they should have let you sort yourself I think.

I was letting the people at point 1 sort themselves out after crashes simply because it was that muddy they couldn't grip the bars or see. But the second someone saw them loads of other people started stopping and just looking at the track and when you ask them to move along they just ignore you or say "yea ok" and just sit there, same with red flags people just take agvantage.

It gets even more fun at World Cups unfortunately, you spend a lot of time pleading with UCI types for them to let you stand where you want. At the end of the day just tell marshalls to go stick it, if you are  behind the tapes you can stand wherever you want.

Just looked down the results, Rach Atherton in 30th overall, right up amongst the expert men!

what a mint weekend! managed to get my tan on abit on sunday, good times!  pity it didnt stay like that for monday, it was hailing while i was filming Ben Reid at inners.  Mono - your point about the marshals is damm true, my solution is going on ebay and buying a press vest and blagging it!

A few of the marshalls had a proper bad attitude, shouting at riders, spectators etc even when there was no need. I think being firm is a good thing but definitely within reason.