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Tracy Moseley crushed the women's field at the Fort William World
Cup in Scotland winning by a huge margin of over seven and a half
seconds. With her second world cup victory in a row Tracy Moseley
of the Kona Les Gets Factory Team has shown to the world she is
on her game and the one to beat this year.
Racing in front of many of her home country fans Tracy wanted
to do well. "There was a lot of pressure", admitted
Moseley. "As the favourite, with all the fans out there,
and given that I have won here twice before, I was feeling a bit
nervous. But one thing I did which helped, I think, is that I
didn't ride the course as much as some. I walked it, took only
a few practice runs and rested. this course takes a lot out of
you, so you're better to be rested and strong."
Tracy has now notched victories in three of the major races this
year, The Sea Otter Classic, World Cup #1 in Vigo, Spain and now
World Cup #2 in Fort William, Scotland. This is a great beginning
to the season and the best start of her career.
Fabien Barel rode to a solid 7th place finish although it wasn't
what he had hoped for. Once again Barel had the fastest time at
the split but wasn't able to hold the lead to the end. He is ready
for a good finish and knows things will come together soon.
Kamil Tatarkovic was poised to have a great finish and had the
2nd fastest qualifying time of the week-end. He advanced to the
quarter finals but found himself if a very tough bracket matched
again Cedric Gracia and eventual bronze medalist Chris Kavarik.
He rode well and finished just inside the top ten at 9th place.
Kona Les Gets Factory Cross Country riders were in attendance
at the Canada Cup #2 at Mt. Tremblant, PQ. Under hot and sunny
skies Neal Kindree showed that his 3rd place finish in Canada
Cup #1 was no fluke. He had another great ride and ended up in
4th place. Kris Sneddon was battling a stomach virus the day before.
When the gun went off he still wasn't a 100%. But in true Kona
Les Gets fashion decided to give it a go anyway and rode to a
respectable 8th place finish. All in all a great week-end for
the Kona Les Gets Factory Team especially Tracy Moseley. Next
up for the teams.
Kona Les Gets Factory DH & 4X team World Cup #3 in Willingen,
Germany and For the Cross County Team NORBA #2 at Sugar Mountain,
North Carolina.
TRACY MOSELEY REPORT:
Unfortunately it was yet again not good preparation for this weekend’s
world cup. I came home from the national and immediately picked
up a cold that my mum was harbouring ! I spent most of the week,
resting up and one attempt at the gym stopped quite quickly as I
was not feeling good. The one good thing was that the weather was
terrible, so I did not really feel like I was missing out as I would
have been riding in the rain everyday !
Fortunately over the weekend I started feeling better and I managed
to have one good xc ride and a good gym session on the Tuesday before
I headed up to Fort William on the Wednesday. It is an 8 hour drive
up to Fort William from my house, but it’s stunning scenery
for the last 4 hrs which helps the time pass. It looked like it
was going to be a wet weekend as it rained for most of the journey
up there and the forecast was unsettled.
I arrived and had a walk of the track and met up with Paul my mechanic
and Fabien. Paul had also asked a friend of his to come along and
help out with the mechanics this weekend, and Alex proved to be
a great source of entertainment, support and invaluable help over
the weekend.
The course was pretty much the same as last year and the same it
has been for the last 4 world cups here. It’s all man made
as it lies on natural bog, so it would require an immense amount
of work to alter it and also a lot of meetings with the conservationists
as it is a highly protected area. There is hope that there may be
some changes to the track for next year’s world championships,
due to be held in Fort William in September 2007.
I chose to do minimal practice this year, as I know the track really
well and with the rain I knew that it was going to change the track
dramatically by the time we came to race on it. It was hard at times
to not be practicing, as I was feeling lazy, but I managed to get
around that by walking the course during the training so I still
felt like I was practicing ! The track did get pretty badly beaten
up during practice and the holes in the wood were getting so big
you could almost lose a leg if you came off !
Yet again the crowds came in force to support the world cup. Even
in the pouring rain there were still thousands of people sinking
up to their knees in mud trying to walk alongside the downhill track.
The fans here in the UK are certainly committed to the sport which
is so encouraging to see. I also had a lot of friends and family
make the trip to come and watch me race, some I had been at school
with and had never seen me race before ! It was great to have everyone
there but it also added to the pressure of the whole event.
After my win in Vigo I knew that I was riding well and I really
wanted another solid result to keep hold of my leaders jersey. With
qualifying carrying valuable points I treated it as a race and really
gave it everything as I wanted those 50 points. I had a pretty good
run and hit all my lines and felt quite strong at the bottom. I
put in a solid time which no one got close to beating. I was really
happy but as it’s qualifying you do not know if everyone has
gone all out or whether they are saving themselves for the final.
I had given it my all and my legs were feeling pretty dead after,
I started to worry that I had given too much. However I had a good
rest and a quick massage from my masseur from home Martin Newhill,
who had also made the trip up to work on the riders. I felt good
in the warm up and knew that I just had to put together another
solid run. The rain had finally stopped and the sun almost came
out for the finals, which did dry up some of the top sections. I
rode the top well, had a section where I had some really sketchy
moments and then managed to settle back into my rhythm for the final
stages of the track.
Brain Philpotts who has been instrumental in getting me fit for
this season was also up at the race watching and more importantly
yelling at me to pedal hard on the bottom section. I think it helped
as I crossed the line 7.5 secs ahead of Rachel Atherton to take
the win.
It was great to have another win under my belt, but more satisfying
to do it in front of such a supportive home crowd. Another moment
in my career that will bring a smile to my face for the rest of
my life every time I relive that moment !
Final Results
1st Tracy Moseley – 5.12
2nd Rachel Atherton – 5.19
3rd Sabrina Jonnier – 5.20
4th Helen Gaskell – 5.22
5th Celine Gros – 5.24
So it’s been a great start to my world cup and I look forward
to adding more points to my total this weekend in Willingen, Germany.
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