The event that Fort William had been preparing for for over two years, has finally came to a head and what an event it turned out to be! Everything was as good as it could be here, apart from the good old highlands weather there wasn't much you could complain about with this event. The crowd over the years have been dubbed as the best on the circuit and for the Worlds it was bigger, louder and cheered every single rider down the hill like they were their own. When a British rider came into view over the Nissan arch jump, the place took off! This has to go down as the best mountain bike race ever staged.

Greg Minaar - South Africa - It would be unfair to leave just the caption comp photo up. Minaar seeing through the pain and doing what he does best.

The coverage of the event could be the turning point for mountain biking on mainstream channels, the BBC were in force and gave us the best footage seen at a race. The helicopter in the sky all day giving ariel shots of riders runs, and all the footage pumped out live onto the big screen in the arena. But the BBC being here is only half the story, Mtb-Cut.tv have been producing live footage all weekend along with Freecaster to make sure everyone could see this amazing event unfold. With quality like that the question now is, will we see more downhill on our TV's? It can only be a good thing. TV coverage would bring more revenue into the sport that any magazine or website will ever do. More sponsorship interest, more money, better for everyone involved. By the time the early morning practice was over the hill was already packed with spectators and with a potential medal in the first race the grandstands were also full of people waiting to see the finals. Katie Curd in only her second ever UCI race qualified third on Friday and occupied the hot seat twice and brought home GB's first medal with a second place finish. After being red flagged and having to do her run again, France's Floraine Pugin took the gold medal with 27 seconds to spare with a time of 5:50.18. Myriam Nicole finished off the podium to take the bronze medal for France.

The British junior men have been flying all season and this race was widely tipped to have British dominance written all over it. Sam Dale unfortunately was cruelly robbed of a medal hope with his crash in seeding. James Maltman, not British but damn quick was the first person to occupy the hot seat with any purpose and was shifted finally by the American John Swanguen. Joe Smith and Chris Hutchens both finished in the top ten and everyone was sat poised for a grandstand finish as Bryceland and Cunningham had qualified the fastest. Bryceland ran out of luck and ended up with a puncture, so it was all left to the Gump. The split at the hip showed him two seconds up, you can guess what happened next? Now unless you were there you won't know what it was like. I couldn't describe to you just how the place went when he crossed the line with the same margin and took the gold medal. My hairs stood up on my arms, there was a strange lump in my throat, the place erupted and didn't stop for about ten minutes. Ruaridh hit the floor. Shock? Disbelief? Or a moment of realisation that you are indeed on top of the world whilst hugging the floor? Simply amazing!

Ruaridh Cunningham - UCI World Junior Mountain Bike Champion

Sitting here writing this gives me another reminder of just how strong we are at downhill; the depth of talent we have. The third race of the day and we were expecting to see more GB medals delivered. The women's category saw us post four more Brits in the top ten. Fionn Griffiths held the hot seat and had an excellent finish in the motorway section to take fifth place seeing off Mio Suemasa, Celine Gros, Emmeline Ragot and Marielle Saner. Sabrinna Jonnier defending her title posted a time of 5:28.35 two seconds under Rachel Athertons seeding time in undoubtedly worsening conditions. Rachel rode well and saw off Australia's Tracey Hannah to keep the silver medal and add to the British tally.

Sabrinna Jonnier - France - Retains her World Championship Title

The one honour that has eluded Steve Peat all this time is the World Championship. It has been documented enough. Everyone was hoping he would be able to do it on home soil, even Brian Lopes wanted to see it happen with comments of support after the four cross final. To be fair to Steve, even being on the bike and attempting to take on Fort William two months after separating his ankle deserves a medal in its own right, it was always going to be a big ask to be in contention, so I think a big props to Steve is due. His run I heard him describe to Alex Rankin as the "run of his life" with a heavy grade of sarcasm. No saddle from early on, a coast and wave down to the finish, still be greeted into the arena with a standing ovation from everyone. Conditions were worsening as the mens finals went on which seems to be a running theme. Everyone was backing Sam Hill, and rightly so, his riding has been a level above everyone else this season and he took the win to what will probably end up a World Cup and World Champs double? He was the winner, but Fabien Barel ran him very close and Gee Atherton who ran in much worse conditions secured the bronze medal to wrap things up with a storming run. But if there is one thing that Sam Hill has taught everyone this season is that to him, conditions don't come into it and maybe everyone has to rise to that challenge? Greg Minaar in some serious pain came home in fourth place, Dan Atherton came in the top ten claiming that the biggest problem was the rainy cloud that shrouds the top half of the track. You can't see and on those top sections of the track there is limited places to get your hand over to rip a tear off, although ripping one off over the Nissan Arch jump is showboating in the extreme. Jared Graves has no luck this weekend with his blowout in the four cross and have a couple of crashes in his race run on the downhill. Kovoriak disappeared off the course, Stanny lost control and lost his bike in cartwheels down the hill as the conditions got greasy.

Sam Hill - The man of 2007 who will surely take the double next weekend.

So in the end we have a mirror of last year. Sam and Sabrinna retain their crowns. We, the Brits, have a first mens gold medal at the World Championships and across the result sheets and podiums we have shown we are a true force and have true depth in downhill. We had four medals this weekend and we were unlucky not to get more. This event has been the best I have ever attended and despite the utterly anal UCI organisation, this has been a real show to the world of how to put on an event. If you weren't here, despite the rain and wind and midges, you missed out, end of story, full stop. Some people even got elusive Southerndownhill stickers. Thank you to all the organisers and a special thank you to the lovely tea lady in the media tent. Next weekend we're off with the circus to Maribor for the finals of the World Cup series... Thank you and goodnight.

For the full results check out here .

Keep it on the wheeeeeels

Yid