Not an April Fools - The Fort William DH World Cup Cancelled
The Fort William DH World Cup Organiser has announced the cancellation of the event in May.
Coming less than a month after revealing the plan to hold the event without spectators, the choice was made to cancel the World Cup round. The organiser of the event said: "the risks and challenges are too great to proceed with the event according to the safety standards imposed by the current pandemic."
Press release: Fort William World Cup
The organisers of the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William have today announced that the event scheduled for 22-23 May is cancelled.
Every effort has been made by the organisers, with significant support and backing from Scottish Government and EventScotland, to develop an appropriate event plan and set of protocols with the Covid-19 mitigation requirements necessary for the safe delivery of a behind closed-door event at the Nevis Range ski area, just outside Fort William, the Outdoor Capital of the UK.
Despite the best efforts and support of all partners involved in the development of these plans, the restrictions that will likely still be in place have made it difficult to proceed with these plans with confidence. The organisers have reluctantly decided that the risks and challenges are too great to proceed with the event according to the safety standards imposed by the current pandemic.
“Whilst the easing of restrictions is moving in the right direction, there are still a number of challenges with the delivery of an event of this size that, even without public attendance, make it difficult to deliver a safe World Cup in May.
This cancellation is a blow to us as an organising team as much as it will be for the entire mountain bike community but especially the UK stars who won’t be able to perform in front of their home crowd. Reece Wilson, from the Scottish Borders, should have been celebrating his World Champion title on his home track. Instead, the Fort William World Cup team will focus on the future and return bigger, better and more passionate than ever” commented Mike Jardine from organisers, Rare Management.
Options for a later date are still being examined with a final decision to be announced in the next few weeks.
The organisers of the Mercedes-Benz UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William have today announced that the event scheduled for 22-23 May is cancelled.
Every effort has been made by the organisers, with significant support and backing from Scottish Government and EventScotland, to develop an appropriate event plan and set of protocols with the Covid-19 mitigation requirements necessary for the safe delivery of a behind closed-door event at the Nevis Range ski area, just outside Fort William, the Outdoor Capital of the UK.
Despite the best efforts and support of all partners involved in the development of these plans, the restrictions that will likely still be in place have made it difficult to proceed with these plans with confidence. The organisers have reluctantly decided that the risks and challenges are too great to proceed with the event according to the safety standards imposed by the current pandemic.
“Whilst the easing of restrictions is moving in the right direction, there are still a number of challenges with the delivery of an event of this size that, even without public attendance, make it difficult to deliver a safe World Cup in May.
This cancellation is a blow to us as an organising team as much as it will be for the entire mountain bike community but especially the UK stars who won’t be able to perform in front of their home crowd. Reece Wilson, from the Scottish Borders, should have been celebrating his World Champion title on his home track. Instead, the Fort William World Cup team will focus on the future and return bigger, better and more passionate than ever” commented Mike Jardine from organisers, Rare Management.
Options for a later date are still being examined with a final decision to be announced in the next few weeks.
While the organisers are looking at a potential future date for the event the current World Cup DH calendar looks like this:
Round 1: 12-13 June - Leogang, Austria
Round 2: 03-04 July - Les Gets, France
Round 3: 14-15 August - Maribor, Slovenia
World Championships: 24-29 August - Val Di Sole
Round 4: 04-05 September - Lenzerheide, Switzerland
Round 5: 18-19 September - Snowshoe, USA
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Why would anyone want to go to Texas?
Oh and it's gonna hut 90 next week and usually cools off late October
A chairlift for 350ft is good going. How long are the trails?
That being said, you can ebike up to the top about as fast as the lift is...
My 7 mile after work loop in the lower Boise foothills has hundreds of feet more vertical than Bentonville's 20 mile "epic" ride.
Edit: you asked about trail length and I think they are about 3-5 mins each.
But now you still have idiots all around the world who don't believe it and are afraid if they get vaccinated Bill Gates will be able to track their location wherever they go.
France, has the world's highest vaccine non compliance rate, Czech Republic was the very first country in the world to introduce mask mandates and they were strongly complied with but it has the 2nd highest per capita death rate in the world...go figure.
All the "experts" have been wrong from the very beginning of this pandemic. And I use experts in inverted commas as they are undoubtedly experts in their very limited area of research but they aren't qualified to offer solutions on a pandemic. Countries such as Czech, France and Germany have followed their advice rigidly and still been ravaged by Covid deaths. Lots of experts seem to lack humility to admit they don't have all the answers.
Sweden on the other hand has done its own thing, much to the chagrin of people like yourself who want to believe they are smarter than everyone else and they have a death rate far lower than most other European countries.
It's almost like there is no simple solution and Trumps policy of not destroying his countries economy to prevent deaths that are proving to be unpreventable may not have been so dumb after all. But I'm sure you won't be able to contemplate this over your anger and need to rage about Trump and conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile we have been locked down for 200 days, we have 25% unemployment and product shortages are beginning to hit worldwide.
Genius policy these lockdowns. Just genius.
Every country has spikes and troughs. We have over a year of data now and Sweden clearly made the right call by allowing its citizens to go about their lives with some degree of normality while the rest of Europe shut down and started arresting people for going outside.
Youre logic is entirely flawed.They are so many variables that you arent taking account.For instance, the ratio of more vulnerable people per capita.Italy has a much higher number of vulnerable people within its population than say , the US.You cant just compile the death rate of a country and say, well here you have the proof this country have a better policy based on the death rate...Thats simply FLAWED data...Speaking of policy, you’re assuming the entire population of a country is diligently following the government’s recommendations when you say stuff like Czech Republic was the very first country to introduce masks...It doesnt mean every single person FOLLOWED THE RULE = FLAWED.Just because the government asks to do something, it doesn’t mean 100% of their citizens will do what they are ask to do and with a highly virulent virus, it only takes a few hundred people NOT following to rules to screw up the rest of the population.
By the way SWEDEN has done terrible...I have multiple friends there saying its a complete gong show.Even their Prime Minister admitted back in December their Covid strategy was WRONG...You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
Now, Im not saying I agree with every decision taken based on expert recommendations but those EXPERTS ( as in professional people ) are trying their best to handle a monumental task...but sure, some guy on Pinkbike thinks he’s more clever than an entire planet of experts..lol, give your head a shake dumbo, what would YOU have done better if you’re so smart? You clearly demonstrate you dont have a grasp of the magnitude of this pandemic.Its not all black and white and as it turns out, the “grey”part of it all ( or if you prefer the small variations such as people not doing has they are told or this NEW virus behaving in unexpected new ways) is what has f*cked us all up....A lockdown isn’t the absolute solution and its effectiveness is somewhat debatable BUT, given the circumstances, there really isnt a simpler, most effective solution at the moment...
www.businessinsider.com/sweden-admits-coronavirus-strategy-underestimated-strenght-virus-lofven-stefan-2020-12
Insert facepalm.
Wow, what a gotcha moment for you. Unfortunately for you, here is a quote from week after that supposed admission of failure saying that their strategy hasn't changed...as they believe it is the right strategy.
He was quoted out of context as was widely reported in the week after his alleged admission of failure. But people like you only read headlines and never follow up.
Facepalm indeed...
"By the way SWEDEN has done terrible...I have multiple friends there saying its a complete gong show." - wow, your anecdotal evidence from friends totally disproves my point. It's almost like your friends have zero reference point of what it's like in other countries and their opinions are worthless. Oh wait, that's exactly what it is.
abcnews.go.com/International/sweden-avoided-covid-19-lockdown-strategy-worked/story?id=76047258
" While still performing worse than other Nordic countries on data from Eurostat, the official European Union statistics agency, and the University of Oxford, shows that Sweden recorded 7.9% excess deaths last year compared to the years 2016-19, according to the independent health news site Dagens Medicin. "
If you can't understand the relevance of that raw data in the article I just linked and how it totally undermines your argument then I can't help you. You probably aren't capable of forming thoughts/opinions without having someone explain it to you.
You're not just rude, you're incredibly ill informed yourself and completely devoid of any intelligent or thoughtful argument. Your attitude can be summed up as follows: "durrrr, if I keep saying experts understand better than random guy on Internet then that means I must be expert too". Invoking someone else's knowledge is not an argument or a sign that your are yourself ingratiate with these experts that you like to think all agree with you. All you are trying to do is make it look like you are on the side of the "educated" and "informed" when you actually don't have a f*cking clue of what you are talking about.
So far, all you've done is posted some opinions of your friends and insulted me, yet you are trying to take some sort of intellectual high ground. It's laughable and anyone can see that you have no arguments or knowledge of your own to offer.
Anyone who thinks this lockdown is going to be even remotely cost effective is so deluded that its almost incomprehensible. Let's see how cost effective it is when your savings are worth next to nothing because of the sheer volume of currency that has been printed in the last 12 months starts to come through. Or when all of the "temporary" business closures become permanent because those entrepreneurs who started them are just broken mentally and financially and can't summon the energy or capital to do it all again. I'm in business myself and I am well ahead of the curve on what is coming. Average consumers have absolutely no idea of the price rises, supply shortages and worse that are coming down the line in the next year. Expect the cost of building a house to go up 50%. That's if you can even get steel or timber.
I talk to business people from different industries all day everyday. The price rises and supply shortages coming are massive, unprecedented since WW2 and they will hit almost every sector and you are in for a huge shock. Every single person, in every industry is talking about it. Consumers are going to be caught totally off guard when the economies of the world do reopen.
You do not have even the faintest idea of what you are talking about.
USA
Doses given 150M
Fully vaccinated 54.6M
% of population fully vaccinated 16.64%
as-of 4/1/2021
(Reuters) - COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc reduced risk of infection by 80% two weeks or more after the first of two shots, according to data from a real-world U.S. study released on Monday.
www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccines/pfizer-moderna-covid-19-vaccines-highly-effective-after-first-shot-in-real-world-use-u-s-study-idUSKBN2BL246
Y'all are shooting the messenger. I didnt say I support this method of pandemic management, I was just passing a long some data.
All data from 03/22/2021
Data for the USA:
Total number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants: 162
Total number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants last 7 days: 2.3
Infection-Death-Rate: 0.00161934%
Same data for Sweden: (No Lockdown, no mask mandates)
Total number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants: 131
Total number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants last 7 days: 0.28
Infection-Death-Rate: 0.001277923%
But yeah, keep believing the narrative that the USA is somehow worse affected than anywhere else. f*ck me, the anti USA media narrative that idiots buy into is mind blowing.
A DH WC by comparison is a mixed up group ranging from pro teams to back of van privateers, all travelling from different places, by various means and multiple countries to stay in various accommodation types and mingle and mix with locals etc - the differences are just huge.
Secondly do you think the risk to the local population out weighs the need to bring in how ever many teams from all over the world just for one weekend where spectators aren't allowed this year any way. Gain some perspective.
Why not Run the Events in countries that have their sh1t sorted.
Im all for travelling to New Zealand - some of the worlds best trails there - Just lets not run it at Christchurch Adventure park - would just give them anther reason to get out of maintaining the other trails.(note: if they even continue as they've just been fined $12m for the issues around the 2017 fires.)
Do research from their media not other countries media on New Zealand.
I just hope the bike parks near me are all open this summer. Last year Steamboat, Crested Butte, etc. couldn't figure out how to operate the bike park, but were jam packed all winter for skiing. Trestle, Vail, Snowmass, etc. all managed it just fine last summer. And again, it's a completely outdoor sport, where transmission is highly unlikely. During ski season, people are congregating in the lodges and restaurants whenever they aren't on the slopes, whereas in the summer, people can chill outside.
And this is all leaving aside the fact that vaccinations are taking place all around the world, reducing the number of infection vectors. The fewer homes we leave open for the virus, the less it can spread, and reduces the opportunities for it to mutate, because mutation requires replication.
3 months easy until they let up, in France now - it’s not like they will have the vaccine issue sorted by then either.
Meanwhile overpayed soccerstars and millionars driving in a circle (F1) have no problem doing their sport.
That will sort it lovely!
Meant to be going there in a coupe of wks so hopefully meet the local pros (23rd April)
Same weekend, Leogang, Austria: www.salzburg24.at/sport/leogang-erhaelt-zusaetzliches-downhill-rennen-101911240
From yesterday : toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-reports-more-than-2300-new-covid-19-cases-as-icu-numbers-reach-record-high-1.5369435
That’s Canadian news you post there, not Scottish / English, completely different situation.
Suuuuure.
No one has died of anything else in the last year almost, as they catch covid in hospital, test for it and if positive write covid on the death certificate. Even if they came in to hospital from a carcrash.
Real numbers are much lower
Do you still think this whole thing is fake? If so, who is the perpetrator and winner of it all?
Lockdowns/masks proven not to work
ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid
5G is that even rolled out yet? I need to upgrade my phone
we.tl/t-Zxd07iGdcK?src=dnl
Or this
fatemperor.wetransfer.com/downloads/3247a40ed5edb0a760279e49503e766620210401201811/c11458
Just click on the arrow and should play on the phone etc
Neither one of us is going to convince the other of anything here so I'm out.
If you look into ‘cases’, this is run on PCR tests run above the recommended Ct cycles. Anything above the recommended cycle threshold gives false positives. All governments around the world are running much higher that recommended, hence high numbers of cases and seemingly the interest to ‘mass’ test. PCR was not invented to diagnose nor identify a single virus, disease or bacteria. The facts are straight out of the inventors mouth ‘Kary Mullis’
It's tricky but stadia are big, 360 degree facilities where it's easy to segregate with most of the support staff like security and maintenance being local. Athletes are a small number.
Fort Bill? Local support staff (except for timing), hundreds of athletes, both using a central transport system, so mixing. All personnel requiring local accommodation which is more mixing.
I imagine that was part of the insurmountable issues with the local authorities.
Let's talk financial. Fort William is a world cup without major local backing which is a rarity. So no income. No spectators means no income. It would certainly be an influence but the sponsor income may have helped them break even.
My uncle actually went to a Norwich City match in early Dec, before the cold+flu season lock down.
Bit risky I said.
Not worried as it was limited to 2000 crowd capacity.....
500 in each stand? i asked
No, all cramed into one stand with no distancing........
Face palm for humanity eh
That place has been open to the public and will be fully open again once maintenance is done. They even have new stuff off the gondola. Lower mountain is "open to locals" right now.
So the public can ride it and will be able to ride it. You can purchase 2021 season passes right now... but the race is canceled because... well because.
NFL is planning on having crowds this season. Scotland's football (soccer) team is traveling for World Cup qualifiers right now... so it's o.k. for them to leave their country but don't go to theirs.
The only thing that has been "open" to the public has been the forest trails. There hasn't even been public toilet facilities open at Nevis Range since last year.
"It will be fully open again once maintenance is done"
Nothing is likely to be "fully open" anytime soon. The gondola uplift may hopefully be open in the coming weeks. Distancing restrictions will still be in place.
"They even have new stuff off the gondola"
Not yet, and no opening date announced yet for the blue graded downhill.
"The race is cancelled because ... well because"
Probably because there's a global pandemic ongoing. Maybe because of quarantine requirements for overseas visitors. Maybe because it's too expensive an event to host when it could be cancelled at short notice by a change in government restrictions.
With regards to the NFL - no-one is taking their lead on pandemic handling from the US.
As for football matches, a closed stadium match could take place with a relatively small number of people compared to the hundreds that would be required to run/compete in a UCI DH, and football matches take place between only 2 teams making organisation significantly simpler.
Nobody here wanted to see the event cancelled, least of all the Scottish fans, but I wasn't holding out much hope given that lockdown restrictions in Scotland don't even allow for people to visit each other's houses until the week the event was supposed to go ahead.
We'll just have to put our big boy pants on and wait it out until the next one.
Response. By fully open I meant the entire mountain not necessarily back to full capacity. And you agreed... it's opening in a couple weeks.
Of course it was canceled because there's a pandemic. That doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out.
You think football matches are easier to put on than an MTB race and there's only a few people? You've got the teams, coaches, trainers, misc staff. Caterers. The stadium staff required to maintain day of. Officials. Announcers. Camera operators and directors. Mic holders. Photographers and other misc media. Etc. And yes they're in a closed off stadium but they still have to fly through several airports to get there. Then bus to wherever they're going. Then there's hotels. Organizing it may or may not be simpler. I've organized large ass events before but I've never organized a football match.
They've had a year to figure it out.
Could things chance... sure. But they can always change. That's nothing new.
Just doesn't make sense to me that a place that's going to be operating a full time business is canceling an MTB race. Would make more sense to just not allow fans. Nothing is easy right now. If races are being canceled they should be looking for alternatives. Just shortening the season shouldn't be the go to answer.
Side note... thanks for the informative post. Appreciate it. Better than the knee jerk reactions you usually see.
If you are looking for someone to blame I'd start with the criminally negligent, inept and corrupt UK government.
Fixed it.
Such a shame the clans cant see that with their blinkers on.
For context it comes from her being aggressive and argumentative in exactly the same way men in politics are. You can look up interviews where she discusses this, and where she and others say that as there were fewer female role models in Scottish politics when she joined she just acted the way the male MSP’s did, which rather than being taken as ‘strong’, ‘passionate’, or ‘authoritative’ the way it would be/was for a male politician, was taken as ‘nippy’, ‘nagging’ etc. because she is a woman.
I don’t agree with all of her politics, and don’t vote for her or her party, but I don’t think that any of the things she has done/said, or the way that she has said them, should be criticised on the basis of her being a woman - even unintentionally. If she's going to be called names surely it should be ones that don’t critique her on the basis of gender - like sh*tebag or something.
I think she does a fair amount of good for Scotland and holds here self very well on so many occasions.
BoJo (Short for Bodge Job) being called BoJo has nothing to do with his sex, its a derogatory shortening of his name, but you have not mentioned that at all.
Why does gender have to come into things that it has nothing to do with.
The true definition of being gender inequality is pointing something out that you think is to do with one sex whilst omitting the other.... So I have pointed out both for you xxx
As you point out, its because of her mannerisms and her name.. Living in Scotland we have had Nicola, Ruth and Jo Swinson. I work for a company that is led by a woman. So long as people are doing their job, I could not care a monkeys what sex they are.
I would guess.. Nicola may have proposed that the riders, teams etc follow the standard isolation protocol when coming to Scotland, potentially due to the lack of control in where the riders have been and the UCI/Teams may have rejected this due to the cost, time in isolation implications. Who knows, none of us have the information on what went on with discussions.
If Nicola did to this, then that is probably the right thing to do in my opinion, its not like riders have been staying at home and staying safe!
Meaning of nippy sweetie:
“A sharp-tongued or peevish person, especially a woman”.
“A person, usually female, who annoys people just by talking. Mostly used in southern Scotland and Glasgow media. That bird over there looks alright but she's a right nipple sweetie.”
Discussed by Nicola Sturgeon in the article linked below:
“But here’s the real nub and here’s the trap for women. You find yourself emulating the traits that in men are seen as strengths. Then you quickly realise that in women they are not seen as strengths. So the male politician who’s very assertive, aggressive and adversarial is a great, strong leader. A woman is bossy and strident – a nippy sweetie as they used to call me.”
www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-explains-nippy-sweetie-nickname-1442087
I agree BoJo as an insult/nickname is not sexist, as not only is it a play on his name, but it is also not a gendered insult. If Nicola Sturgeons nickname was Nae-Sence-Nicola, or some other play on her initials, I would have no problem with it.
Never heard that version of wee nippy, maybe because Glasgow us so far south of us.
Best to stick with just bike stuff on here and leave politics to those with less fun things to do in their spare time.