Pierron lands hat trick of Fort William World Cup wins
Lucas Cruz leads Canadians at World Cup #2
Photo by:
Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
It may have taken five years, but Amaury Pierron landed three-straight Fort William World Cup wins. The 26-year-old French rider won the last two events held on the iconic Scottish track, but those were back in 2018 and 2019. In the two intervening years, the race wasn’t held due to COVID, Pierron struggled with injury. That made his win Sunday in Fort Bill even more special.
“To be honest, it’s crazy. I’ve never seen conditions like this,” men’s winner Amaury Pierron said of the notoriously rough Fort William track. “The course is blown up, there’s massive holes top-to-bottom.”
For Nina Hoffmann, the women’s winner, it’s only her second time on the top of a World Cup podium. Winning the iconic race was a major marker for the German rider recently signed to the Syndicate factory team.
Canadians in Scotland
Lucas Cruz (Norco Factory Team) led the Canadian effort at Fort William. The Pemberton, B.C. racer finished 31st on Sunday. Mark Wallace (Canyon Cllctv) followed close behind in 35th.
Kirk McDowall (Dunbar) was an impressive 37th in his first World Cup appearance of 2022.
Patrick Laffey (Devinci Development) finised 43rd, the Vancouver Island rider’s best elite World Cup result.
Elite Women
Nina Hoffmann (Syndicate) was the fastest woman at every split on a soggy day in Scotland. The German woman looked fast in qualifying before her run was slowed by a flat tire. On Sunday, she found redemption, and her second World Cup win.
“Legendary, winning at Fort William. It was almost the perfect run,” said Hoffmann. “The fans are amazing. You just don’t have to care about the conditions. Trust your bike.”
Camille Balanche (Dorval AM) built speed the whole way down the Fort William track to take second place. With that result, the 202o world champion extends her lead in the overall points race. Balanche now has a 65-point lead over the second-place rider.
That rider is current world champion, Myriam Nicole (Commencal/Muc-Off). Nicole finished third on Sunday in Fort William, with Eleonora Farina (MS Mondraker) and Vali Höll (RockShox Trek) rounding out the podium.
Elite Men
Before Amaury Pierron (Commencal/Muc-Off) made his way into the start hut, it was his teammate, Thibaut Daprela holding the top spot. As wind and rain seemed to build throughout the afternoon, gusts were absolutely blasting riders in the wide-open upper sections of Fort Bill. Once exhausted from battling the wind, a slick mud-covered lower section beat up the already tired riders.
Mechanical misfortunes
Luca Shaw (Canyon Cllctv) was one rider caught out. The Canyon Cllctv racer was on good place before sliding out on the face of a jump. It’s an unfortunate turn for the U.S. racer who was fifth overall before placing 49th on Sunday.
Loris Vergier (Trek Factory Racing) was the first top-10 rider to be in touch with Daprela’s time in the top section. The incredibly smooth Frenchman was within a second as he entered the muddly lower course. Bad luck struck in the form of a dropped chain, and Vergier slid to sixth at the finish.
Bernard Kerr (Pivot Factory Racing) survived a wild moment as he left the start hut, with his back wheel kicking out over a rock, before his run was derailed in the same way Vergier’s was, with drivetrain issues.
Pierron’s hat trick
Then came Amaury Pierron. The returning Fort William winner, and winner of the first World Cup in Lourdes, was 0.059 seconds behind his teammate at the half-way point and gaining ground. Mashing down the motorway, Pierron threw everything at the Fort William course and was rewarded with a 0.469-second advantage at the finish. Completely wiped out from nearly four minutes of sprinting, Pierron collapsed over the bars to catch his breath before he could start to celebrate.
After Greg Minnaar (Syndicate) and Charlie Hatton (Continental Atherton) failed to dislodge Pierron, only Laurie Greenland (Syndicate), Saturday’s fastest qualifier, remained at the top of the mountain. The Brit was the last rider on course and the only rider who could interrupt a French 1-2-3 finish on the Brits home course.
At the start, it looked good. Greenland was the first rider of the top-10 qualifiers to go green in the upper, exposed portions of the track. The Syndicate rider had one mistake, getting hung up before the big road gap. From there, he couldn’t regain his speed. Greenland crosses the line third.
Amaury Pierron takes his third consecutive win at Fort William, completing a hat trick started back in 2018. It’s also Pierron’s eighth career World Cup win.
“I have so much going on in the last three years. Winning three in a row here is so difficult,” Pierron said post-race, alluding to nearly two years of successive injuries. “In front of the British, too, they were so fast here this weekend.”
Pierron’s teammate, Thibaut Daprela holds on for second.
Greenland salvages Fort Bill for the Brits
Laurie Greenland finishes third, ahead of Benoit Coulanges (Dorval AM) and Matt Walker (Madison Saracen)
“I can’t complain, I really did give it my all. It’s hard to put into words how cool the crowd is here. It’s nuts hearing my name the whole way down the course – I didn’t even know that many people knew my name. Such a good vibe all weekend, this is why I race,” Greenland said. After qualifying first, missing the win did sting a little, he added. “It sucks to be that close to the win, but that’s racing. I made one mistake in my run and it was a fairly critical place.”
