Fort William, its a long way, the roads can be a nightmare, it always rains and if you survive the rain, you'll get eaten to death by hungry bugs that have had to survive for months in the ground because it has been raining. Yeah, its about the same level of enthusiasm you can muster up when your gran offers to take you clothes shopping coming to Fort William, something needs to kick you into life and get the old motivation going. The journey did have its first plus, this is the first time I have visited the highlands without coming in van. Which ever van you have, even that mad Ford Rally preped transit unless you own a 2CV a car will always get you around a corner quicker, which made the A82 out of Glasgow a little more interesting this time around. After miles of traffic and having a Ford Focus behind me we came to a bit of a halt behind a camper van, only to look behind me and the Focus had been replaced by a Dodge Viper, my kick had arrived, a blast past the camper and a bit of a ding dong for a few miles and I was ready to tackle on the miserable climate of Anoarch Mor. Who has been the quickest here in Scotland? Me, that who, although the Viper ate me breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon saw the seeding runs for the downhill finals. There is a bit of a difference here from the World Cup series. Obviously being a one off race, points for a seeding run would be well pointless? So its hard to see where everyone is going to end up, as the majority of the elite field are coasting down trying not to give anyone any idea of their times away. Tactics are rife throughout the field every rider is double bluffing the rest of the field. As the field stands Greg Minnaar set the fastest time with 4.53 followed by Gee Atherton with only sixth hundreths of a second with Julien Camellini three seconds adrift. Will these results mean anything? Probably not, Sam Hill rests in 24th place and Matti Lehikoinen in 16th. Riders stop, riders coast, riders have coaches on the side with stopwatches, although with the finals on the BBC and the top 20 going out live, everyones top tip might already be sat in the hot seat waiting to collect his prize.

Sam Hill - Iron Horse - Every other rider on this corner railing the berm, Sam, Inside by a foot and half.

I think less could probably be said about tactics for the junior men, you could ask one of them if they wanted to do something tactical to wave others off the scent, but when was the last time a Teenager listened to anything anyone older than them had to say.  All flying we have a brit one two with Ruaridh Cunningham leading the way with a 5:05.12 followed by Josh Byrceland with a 5:06.41. We would have been looking at a one two and three for the top seeds but Sam Dale had an off overtaking a slower rider and ended up using his head to brake coming down the elevator at the end. He's Alive, but with a broken collar bone and not a clue about what happened, bit like a stella hangover.

Sam Dales battered Electric Goggles - Dont use your face for a brake kids!

The Womens Seeding Board - Rachel Atherton back from injury... but you wouldnt tell!

With a tighter field than the mens, there is probably less tactics going on in the women's field and Tracey Mosely set a storming time five seconds ahead of Emeline Ragot but back from Injury Rachel Atherton stormed to take the top place in the seeding by eight and half seconds. with a time of 5:30.20. In the Junior women Katy Curd managed to get a third place in her first big race.

Katy Curd - GB and Giant - Newcomer ripping it up

We had another practice session this morning and we had a glimer of Sunshine coming over the hill, one of the problems with Fort William is that it can be a bit of a tease, what I thought was cloud was actually rain, and 3 hours of standing in the wind and rain meant a frozen Yid, when you get to the bottom Gondola station it feels like Cancun in comparison. Most riders have done a couple of runs this morning. Some are line picking, some are giving it hell for leather which in all is making it hard to pick who is on it. Sam Hill is looking on it, Brendan and Matti are also flying The Sun is back out now, hopefully it'll stay out for the 4x.

Christ Hutchens - Team GB MXFArt - Negoatiating the Rocks

Check back on Sunday for a full report of the Finals. Check the minisite here for the 4x Live from Freecaster.

Keep it on the wheels

Yid