2019 Fort William Course Preview – Gee Atherton takes us for a wet & wild run down Ben Nevis

Watch Gee Atherton deliver a wet & wild practice run for the 2019 Fort William course preview video

We’re up in Scotland at the 2019 Fort William World Cup, and today was the first day that riders were able to get out on course to test their nerves on the increasingly sopping race track.

While riders were out practicing on the brutally tough race course, Gee Atherton kindly strapped on a couple of cameras to give us a look at just how rough and relentless the Fort William downhill track is.

Strap yourselves in for a wild, wet and very fast course preview run down Ben Nevis!

In contrast to the sunny weather of the past two years, it’s been raining for most of the day here in Fort William, as you’ll probably gather from Gee’s video. According to some locals we overheard around the race village, “it’s not normally like this“. We’re not entirely sure if we trust those particular locals though.

Thankfully the weather looks set to ease up somewhat for Saturday’s qualifying, but Sunday’s forecast looks proper minging.

The Fort William downhill race track sits at 2.8km long, with just over 500m of elevation drop from start to finish. For the 2018 Elite Men’s race, Amaury Pierron snagged the victory with a winning time of 4:34.45. Tahnee Seagrave won the Elite Women’s race with 5:10.96 on the clock.

Times during today’s practice weren’t quite that fast. To see who posted the fastest times of the day during timed practice, check out the official results story here.

And to see all of our tech stories from the pits, along with results from qualifying and racing as they happen, make sure you hit up the 2019 Fort William World Cup news page right here.