Everyone’s favourite bit of any World Cup is Claudio Caluori’s course preview POV vids. Here he is at Fort William chasing Jack Moir’s Intense 29er.

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Despite Claudio being on a completely new suspension setup on his Scott Gambler (27.5in wheels by the way) he does a pretty good job of keeping up with the up and coming young Australian on his big wheels.

Claudio is very much of the old guard when it comes to the downhill scene. This is partly revealed by his goading of Jack on his “wagon wheels”.

This is the 15th time Claudio has been to Fort William. He was one of the people who raced it when it first appeared on the World Cup seen back in 2002 (p.s. remember Kovarik’s 14 second win? Still awesome that). As he mentions in this preview video, Claudio had a big stack here in 2004 during his race run.

Although bikes have changed a lot since 2002, the track at Fort William is strikingly similar to how it’s always been. Even the new bit doesn’t seem to be anything vastly different in nature to what’s gone before. The punishing bedrock is still there. The mucky, rooty, boggy, stally bits are all present and correct. The arm pump-tastic open, rocky first half of the track is still the same bar some tidying up and berm bolstering.

Ben Cathro previewing Claudio’s preview

Here’s a cool little sneaky vid from Ben Cathro. Cathro snuck his dinky drone up the mountain and managed to grab some aerial footage of Claudio and Jack’s preview session.

There’s also some more in-depth and lingering shots of the new section for those that are interested in hwat’s changed (and what hasn’t)…

Video description

Red Bull: “Get ready for big wheels as Claudio and Jack Moir take on the Fort William World Cup track. 29ers are here and even Claudio’s course preview can’t escape the big wheel phenomenon. With dark rain clouds lingering over the mountain tops Claudio and his 27.5 Scott Gambler set tracks on the Scottish soil with Aussie rider Jack Moir aboard his prototype Intense 29 DH.”