Imagine you went to a great costume party, and you spent so much time picking out the right pants, and perfect shoes to really tie the ensemble together. When you arrive at the periphery of the party you can hear that infectious beat permeating into the soles of your white New Balance Tennis shoes. Your heart starts beating faster as you approach the door, and your hands are a bit sweaty in anticipation of who’s going to be there and what kind of night it’s going to be.
When you walk in, the revelry is already in full swing, which makes you feel a little bit late, so you move swiftly to the dance floor to join the revolution. “Dance Dance,” you say. You feel like you had a slow start, but at least you’re prepared. . .
Fort William, as expected, welcomed us with its rainy hospitality, as Mark reflected on this trip being his 10th time attending Fort William. Jon on the other hand, rolling into Fort Billy with a custom painted bike for his second time ever to the ever-demanding track.
Pre-race Tuesday, we rode our Arrivals past the fields of lambs up to a glacial field in the Glen Roy Nature Reserve, where 1000 years ago there was an ice dammed loch, that left three terraces through the valley as the ice melted. An incredible highland spectacle for the crew of Canadians.
We came into pit set up with a great new outfit, ready to party; unfortunately, our pit walls looked more like a crop top than a nice, collared shirt. Mistakes happen, and our tent walls ended up being too short and thankfully we’ve got new ones getting shipped to HQ next week!
Darren worked dusk till dawn to get the freshly painted Prototype frames built into world class DH race bikes, while Mark and Jon sat with the make-up mechanic to get shots done for WBD, and no, Jon will not stop racing to take up a modelling career.
The work the team did this winter was geared toward adapting the bike to the rider, and this weekend’s focus was getting the rider and bike adapted to the track. By the end of practice Mark and Jon ended up on different bike set ups, Jon opted for the more progressive set up, which means running a different shock mount and a different chip position. This also means he ran 5 volume tokens in the fork, instead the 4 Mark runs: more tokens means more progression.
Fort William continues to be the most physically and mechanically demanding tracks on the world stage. Our bikes held up great, better than anticipated. Darren mentioned that despite having two riders this was the least amount of mechanical work he has needed to do at Fort William.
Our collective goal as a team is to always improve. We strive for our times on track to improve, and for our results to improve. Whether it is communication in the pits or settings on the bike, improvement is always a target. We now have somewhere to start. We’re on the board, step one complete.
Post-race dinner looked like a mixed veggie casserole, accompanied by an evening Arrival ride up to a classic Scottish pub. Cheers to the families we met on the way home who eagerly shared their enthusiasm about the new Team and the We Are One Prototype.
Cheers to our friends, family, and sponsors, at home and on the road!
We’re currently cutting down our drive time from Fort William back to Hamburg HQ by “cruising” across the North Sea on the DFDC ferry from Newcastle UK to Amsterdam.
5 days in Germany will allow us to modify our trailer, receive new pit tent walls, a shipment of sealant, some farming, and time on the bikes in preparation for Poland.
We sat in the gondola with some juniors from Poland, who were pleased to share that the brand new Bielsko-Biala track has “jumps, lots of jumps,” so we are excited to see what that looks like, and excited to get back on some dirt! That and perogies. . . lots of pierogis.
Questions? Requests? Suggestions? Want to know how to Maximize your value at the buffet? Ask Jon! Questions about bike set up? Ask Mark!
Expect to hear from us again Post Bielsko-Biala on Monday 20th
From somewhere in the middle of the North Sea,
Jon, Mark, Darren and Holly