While the rest of the world has been obsessing about the football world cup, and much of the country has been vainly hoping that England will miraculously become a force in world football, rather than a sad excuse a dragging out a dull draw with Algeria, FMFT has continued to focus on another world cup. That’s not to say we’ve not been watching the football, it’s just it’s nice to see an event where British athletes do not entirely suck, and the thrills are somewhat more, well, thrilling so far.
We settled in to watch the 3rd round of the Downhill World Cup via the wonders of the internet and enjoyed all the racing almost as much as being there in Fort William for round two. Leogang provided a wet and muddy course that challenged the best of the riders and gave another exciting event. Freecaster.tv gave us all the action again, and it was non-stop with some huge crashes and a nail-biting finale where Gee Atherton was held off to second place by Greg Minaar and Steve Peat managed to finally post a good result with a decent 6th place.
The UCI has announced the dates for next year’s World Cup rounds, and we’re pleased to see that they’re going back to both Fort William and Leogang again.
Talking of videos, another one has been doing the rounds as Martyn Ashton has taken his superb trials skills and transferring them to a carbon-framed road bike. It’s simply astonishing.
You can be sure that Martyn doesn’t have any mechanical help to his stunning bike-handling, but in order to be sure that no road bikes are being assisted in anyway the UCI will be checking bikes at the Tour De France with a special scanner. However likely or unlikely it is that engines are being used on bikes, at least by taking it seriously the UCI should keep any doubt out and at least help to show that the sport is still mostly all about real athletes riding bikes fast.
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