Peaty buries the Fort William jinx with the win he deserved

Steve Peat triumphs on his Orange 224 in the last World Cup Downhill race of the season, and at his bogey course, Fort William. Fastest in the semi-final Steve was last man down and tension in the crowd was palpable. All eyes were on the Red Bull gate at the top of the Finish arena as hot-seat sitter Greg Minnaar, who ripped down the course in 4:13.57, equally tense but for an opposite reason to the crowd. Steve had to hit the gate at about the 4:02 mark to stand any chance of beating Greg. He had been about the same time as Greg at the split, and about 7,500 people collectively held their breath waiting for the moment Steve would appear. That breath was exhaled to a man (and woman) with the most deafening roar I have ever heard at a World Cup event as Steve flew through that gate with 3:59.00 on the clock. Nothing now could stop him as he swept the last 400 metres beneath him, stopping the clock at 4:11.44.

After the race Steve said: 'I feel amazing. It was wicked. The crowd were just getting louder and louder on the way down. When I came into the finish area and I knew I'd won, the feeling was unreal. It was crazy! I'm just so happy to win for the home crowd.'

Brendan Fairclough fought back the pain from his injured right thumb, but conceded that he didn't have a great run. However, he placed creditably in 20th place. Now with World Cup experience and a UCI World Championshiip competiton under his belt, at 17 years old, Brendan has a huge future ahead of him. Keep and eye on him.

Top Ten Results Table

Pos	Bib	Rider	Team	Time	Gap
1	1	Steve Peat	Team Orange	4:11.44	-
2	9	Greg Minnaar	Team G-Cross Honda	4:13.57	+2.13
3	3	Nathan Rennie		4:14.83	+3.39
4	31	Chris Kovarik		4:15.76	+4.32
5	7	Gee Atherton		4:16.06	+4.62
6	11	Matti Lehikoinen	Team G-Cross Honda	4:17.41	+5.97
7	2	Sam Hill		4:18.37	+6.93
8	4	Cedric Gracia	Siemens Cannondale MTB	4:18.32	+6.888
9	6	David Vazquez Lopez	Maxxis-MSC	4:20.02	+8.58
10	10	Markolf Berchtold	Maxxis-MSC	4:30.70	+11.03

Fort William [Click Thumbnail for larger image]

Fastest semi-final run. [blissimages.com]	Brendan through the woods in the semi-final. Photo Malcolm Fearon [Bliss Images]	Brendan at the Red Bull Gate.	Steve on his winning run. Photo Malcolm Fearon [Bliss Images]	Steve Peat, 224, Victory! Photo: Warwick Patterson [formulaphoto.com]

Fort William Practice Saturday 10 Sept

With the overall World Cup championship already decided, the Fort William Race is wide open for a one-off win. Both Steve Peat and Brendan Fairclough have been riding smoothly over the Friday/Saturday practice sessions. In timed runs Steve is fastest so far with a time of 4:19.15, even though he has looked like he is cruising on most runs. Frenchman Fabien Barel has looked very fast out on the course and is one of the few riders who appears to be pinning it in practice, another is Marc Beaumont, who is second fastest so far with Barel in third. Brendan currently sits 12th in the official Tissot timed results.

Downhill is now over until the semi final tomorrow morning, and the feeling is that just about anything can happen.

Fort William [Click Thumbnail for larger image]

Steve Peat on it.	Peaty pushing the berms	Brendan railing the same Berm.	Peaty flying over one of the rock section (Photo:Flipper)	Peaty comin' atcha (Photo:Flipper)

The UCI web site has full details and you can check the overall standings there too.