The slopes of Aonach Mor and the Leanachan Forest have been echoing to the sound of diggers, harvesters, tracked dumpers, chainsaws and hammers as some pretty radical course developments take place for the World Championship courses. Major redevelopment is happening on both the downhill and 4X courses with Phil Saxena removing hundreds of trees (from the sustainable forest) to double the length of the 4X track. Sounds like it’s going to be just the spectacle everyone is hoping for.
Not to be outdone, the Forestry Commission is just about to undertake a 14-week trail-building programme, creating some wonderful new singletrack trails, especially on the open hillside to the east of the Blue Crane. Large sections of the new network will form the basis of the shorter, more accessible World Championships course.
If all this is whetting your appetite, log on to YouTube.com, search for ‘UCI Mountain Bike 2007’ and watch the two-minute promo video for the championships — you can also download it on www.fortwilliamworldchamps.co.uk.
The new website for the Worlds isn’t up and running as we went to press — although it may well be by the time you read this — but the organisers are already warning that if you want to go and watch the championships in person, you should start researching accommodation sooner rather later, and the best place to start is www.visitscotland.com.
Keep an eye on www.fortwilliamworldchamps.co.uk for all the latest news.