Troy Brosnan wins in Fort William!

It was a case of the student becoming the teacher, as Troy Brosnan (AUS) took home his first world cup win here in Fort William, Scotland. The young SDG rider has been moving up the ranks for a few years, but has now finally secured his place among mountain biking's elite with the win.

It was an odd week of racing here in Scotland, as weather threats threw the normal schedule out the window. With their normal race weekend routines broken, racers had to struggle with 5:30am wakeup calls for practice and long waits in the cold and howling wind at the top of Aonach Moar for qualifying.  Race day dawned with sunshine and blue skies, and a few sprinkles of rain throughout the day couldn't dampen spirits of the 18 000 fans in attendance. With the freshly reworked track running extremely fast and loose, Brosnan managed to shatter the long running myth that this track is for bigger riders.

"I finally put it together.  I got the win and couldn't be more happy.   It's amazing, the crowd here was mental and to do it at Fort William is great.  It shows that little guys can get it done on any track.  Hopefully I can take this momentum to Leogang and get a second win! I knew I could do it again [after qualifying first]. The pressure was definitely there, I just kept it inside.  I was pretty calm at the top actually! I just won my first world cup I guess! I can't believe it, it's been a long time coming and I've been trying my hardest to get it."

Brosnan's teammate Aaron Gwin joined him on the podium on 4th place.

For the women, it was Emmeline Ragot taking the win on-board her brand new Lapierre downhill bike with custom SDG saddle.

SDG's Steve Smith made his return to racing after 4 months off the bike due to an ankle injury sustained while filming in the off season. The Chainsaw Massacre finished the day in 6th, just off the podium.  "The race went good. There's nothing to complain about race wise. I should be ok with finishing 6th after not riding my bike for 4 months when other people were already racing but at the same time I'd way rather do better.  I wanted to come back and do really well. Not being on the podium was sort of a piss off.  The injury isn't nagging at all. I didn't ride for 4 months, but it's the race experience. I didn't do any smaller races at home like I normally do. The 3rd round of the world cup being my first race of the year is a little bit tough. Times were tight and I feel like I can definitely work from here. There's a race next week and I know what I have to do.  Maybe I'm a dick for complaining about 6th but I'm not happy!"