LACHLAN BLAIR ON HOW NOT TO RACE THE FORT BILL WORLD CUP

The Fort William World Cup is my home track, with big juicy crowds and weather that's guaranteed to be the best ever, 60 per cent of the time, every time! But I have a certain speciality when it comes to this race – I’m very good at not finishing runs. It was my first ever World Cup, I was a second year Junior and buzzing to race. Practice went great – I was flying! Time for seeding. I sprayed oil all over my bike, then proceeded to tire out my legs trying to copy the pros’ warm-ups. Boss move. Time to race. I set off... but something was wrong. A loud exclamation of displeasure erupted as I realised I’d forgotten to pump up my tyres. After rolling my 9psi tyres in every single turn, I somehow finished seeding in ninth place. ‘Surely I can’t do any worse than a podium with air in my tyres?’ How wrong I was. The next day I was ready for finals, having pumped my tyres up to 40psi and tired my legs out with another warmup. I set off down the hill… thud, tsss, ‘S**t!’. The first rock garden had delivered me a snakebite puncture. I proceeded to do the walk of shame to the bottom of the hill, straight to the van and off home to cry myself to sleep.