The weather was truly in control today as a large rainstorm swept through all morning, keeping most riders anxiously watching the skies for signs of a let-up. The top riders had the best weather for their timed practice just after lunch and for a couple of hours, rides stormed down the hill, trying to keep track of the constantly changing course surface. Holes and ruts were opening up all over the place.
We’ll bring you a full rider gallery next, but for now, here are a few things we spotted while wandering the pits, trying to keep dry.
By Sunday afternoon, you won’t be able to move in this currently empty bit of car park by the finish.
Brendan Fairclough’s little run around outside the Scott pits
The new Nukeproof Pulse, launched yesterday afternoon
Slimmer tubes and clever paring has dropped nearly a kilo off the frame
Here’s the raw prototype Pulse that was campaigned earlier this yearYou can’t move here without @STWFortBill Tweeting things
Here’s Manon Carpenter’s bike on the stand (with journo perspective lean)
No mistaking the owner
When you’re a Shimano-sponsored Atherton, you get signature SPD shoes too.
You have to be on the team to get these.
Rachel Atherton is very much a hands-on mechanic bike rider
Not even set-up. Sven Martin shows Rachel the latest Singletrack Mag to show her why she needs to come to New Zealand
Sven Martin puts his camera down for a minute to do some Duvel-assisted photo editing
Rachel Atherton adjusts her cleats to get them working well with her Crank Brothers pedals.
The rainbow was a sign of further rain to come
Orange bikes were pizza-fueled thanks to this nifty portable pizza oven
Danny MacAskill is performing at 11 and 4 tomorrow, but still gets his hands dirty setting up his own display area
Some of the British Junior Women causing a traffic jam by looking very ‘factory’.
Strong winds and rain forecast for Saturday, but Sunday should return to this.
Spot the downhill treads
Luckily this hasn’t been needed yet, though snow covered the ground earlier this week
Rain approaching!The long course has been lovingly maintained in anticipation for this battering.
Strong winds and low temps have kept the midges at bay, but there’s a van full of Smidge just in case.
With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)
Mon the Strivens