The skies opened over much of Scotland yesterday, and Fort William was not spared.
For the 20,000 people who have descended on the Highland town this weekend to watch the second stage of the Mountain Bike World Cup, it was a frustrating start: the qualifying round had to be postponed and will now take place in advance of today's final in what organisers have tagged "an action-packed day".
For the world's top mountain bikers, is there any other kind?
Watching the sport may be a congenial experience but for the riders, it is somewhat less relaxing and judging by Ruaridh Cunningham's extensive list of injuries, downhill mountain biking is every bit as treacherous as it sounds.
The 26-year-old from the Borders is Scotland's leaading downhill specialist and the home favourite at Fort William this weekend. It is safe to say that his journey to this point has been anything but smooth, though. Cunningham has experienced the highest of highs followed by the lowest of lows that sport is so prone to deliver.
He arrived as a precocious talent, winning the world junior championships as an 18-year-old on the Fort William course but almost immediately, Cunningham was brought back down to earth. "I hurt my knee a month after I won the world juniors; I fell awkwardly but I was told that it wasn't too serious so I kept riding," he recalls. "But a couple of months later, I was out riding and, pop - it went again. I did my ACL, the MCL was torn, I had a tear in the meniscus, the cartilage was damaged and I had a dent on the bone from the impact. So it was a pretty big injury."
Following that understatement, Cunningham admits that following his knee injury and subsequent operation, he lost his way because he was "clueless" about how to deal with the situation that he found himself in. Some good did come out of his predicament. "I think I became a more mature athlete because of it," he says. "That period of my life changed me as a person because going from such a high to such a low so quickly allowed me to understand more about the process of being an athlete.
"After my surgery, I had a lot of time off the bike and then when I came back, I expected to be right back where I was before my injury and I got frustrated that I wasn't. But then, after a while, I was able to take a step back and go through the process of building my form again."
That insight has come in handy because Cunningham, the 2011 British champion, has been far from injury-free in recent years. "I've had three shoulder operations so far," he says. "Back in 2013, I'd just had shoulder surgery, I rehabbed it over the winter and got back on the bike quite quickly. But on my second day back on the bike, I had a big crash and broke my collarbone into four pieces. That was just two weeks before the season started and at that point, I was considering throwing it all in because I'd gone through so much to get fit and then I was out again. That's when I started to think, 'is this all worth it?' But then, at the same time, I know how much ability I have and that I have so much more to give and there's so many things in the sport that I want to achieve. So I think that until I achieve them, or I decide that enough is enough, I'll keep going."
Cunningham has made a promising start to the 2015 season; just a few weeks ago, he won his maiden Scottish senior title at Forest of Ae in Dumfries and Galloway, winning by a mere 0.1sec ahead of second-placed Greg Williamson. Even for someone as decidedly laidback as Cunningham, racing at Fort William is a thrilling experience. Add in the fact that the Fort William World Cup is generally accepted to be one of the best, if not the very best, weekends on the mountain biking calendar, it amounts to a sensational experience.
"It's the biggest race of the year for all the British riders and I think that being Scottish and being on home soil just adds to it even more," Cunningham says. "There are a few reasons why it's such a good event but I would say that the biggest thing is the fans. As far as the World Cup circuit goes, it's definitely the race with the best atmosphere. As well as that, the track is very long, very tough and it's a real challenge - it's not a track that's easy to race and it really shows who's put the work in. It's a very professional-feeling event so I think all of that combined makes it a brilliant weekend."
Downhill mountain biking receives less recognition than cross-country, primarily because cross-country has Olympic - and Commonwealth Games - status. It is something that Cunningham thinks is a shame but equally, the lack of Olympic jurisdiction also brings its benefits. "I know I'm biased but I think that downhill is the most exciting form of mountain biking," he says. "Because it's not Olympic, it's created it's own style. We are still professional cyclists but it's somewhere between a lifestyle sport like surfing and professional cycling and I think that's great because it's unique.
"The Olympic funding would be nice but, at the same time, not having it allows us much more freedom of expression and you're not just robots coming out of a mould, there's a lot of character and a lot of different ways of getting things done in downhill."
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