Fort William is a classic stop on the World Cup tour and the mixed weather and rider fortunes meant it was again a race with drama and varying luck for the top riders.

In the women's race, the expectations fell on Rachel Atherton early on as she once again tried to make it onto the top spot on home soil. Qualifying fastest by five seconds, the GT Racing rider looked set to finally achive her goal, yet the weather and the current World Champ had different ideas.

Emmeline Ragot (MS Mondraker) seemed to revel in the worsening conditions and posted a leading time of 5:27:1, a time which was seemingly beyond the reach of all the other riders with the closest challenge being nine seconds off the pace before Atherton left the start gate. Rachel launched a whole-hearted attack on the French rider's time, yet came over the line just 1.315 seconds behind; a great result which sees the top two still fighting it out in the overall standings, yet it was clear from her reaction that second was not the result Rachel wanted.

Fortunes at the top were just as mixed in men's race. Both Gwin and Minnaar struggled in qualifying, with Gwin conceding 18 points to the South African as the wrong tyre choice saw him wash out twice. This meant Gwin set off early in the main contenders, posting the fastest time early on in the racing giving those that followed a target to aim for.

As the following top 20 men cam down the course his time seemed to safe in the worsening conditions (Minnaar could only manage 7th overall), and even as World Champ Danny Hart launched an attack on the bottom section, coming within 0.8 of his time and taking second, it was clear that the leading qualifying time from GT Racing's Marc Beaumont was now an unobtainable dream on the misty and wet course.

Gee Atherton was the penultimate rider to drop and managed to once again get on the podium at Fort Bill (his 8th to be precise), be it in third rather than the first place he and the home crowd would have prefered, yet it still secured him so vital points in the title race. Marc Beaumont was the final rider down the hill and despite his clear speed in qualifiying, he couldn't replicate the pace he found the day before on a dry track and a fall at the start of the race took him out of contention and secured another World Cup win for Aaron Gwin.

Aside from the obvious Gwin domination, the podium revealed a few interesting developments. Firstly, Danny Hart was under a second off the wining pace, which is a signifciant departure from the 7 second gap Gwin won by in Val di Sole and also highlighted a much more mature and controlled racing style from the young World Champ.

Further more, this was Sam Hill's best result for a while and with Josh Bryceland making the podium ahead of Mont Sainte Anne (where he got his best World Cup result), Fort William could be well be a signifier of some future intent from these often forgotten threats (or, it might not be and we'll just see Gwin, Gee and Greg back in the top three!)

Fort William DHI Men's Results:

UCI World Cup DHI Men's Standings:

Fort William DHI Women's Results:

UCI World Cup DHI Women's Standings: