Scotland is famed for many things.  Some are iconic, such as its whisky, its tartan, the pen of Rabbie Burns and the juicy cuts of an Aberdeen Angus.  Other symbols of Scottish culture and lifestyle aren’t quite so charming – battered Mars bars, child obesity and the Old Firm goldfish bowl spring to mind.

But perhaps Scotland’s greatest, and certainly longest standing selling point, is its mighty mountains.  For thousands of years man, Scottish or not, has been trying to conquer the undulating contours, deathly cliffs and rocky slopes of the Highland mountain ranges.  As time progresses there may be less and less snow on top, but they are the one permanent fixture that the Scottish tourist board can be confident of retaining year on year.

And this month, man will once again take up the challenge of the terrain, as Fort William hosts the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships.  Over the course of the week long event, local and travelling fans and home and international riders alike will converge into the Highland town for a festival of one of the world’s fastest growing sports. 

Four diverse and thrilling events; Downhill, 4 Cross, Cross Country and Trials, will be shared between the Nevis Range ski area and the Leanachan Forest.  Honour, accolades and bragging rights will be up for grabs and no doubt fiercely competed for by the world’s most talented and daring bikers, putting Scotland well and truly on the global mountain biking map.

Scottish hopes of a medal will lie in the hands of two of our country’s brightest young athletes, 18-year old Ruaridh Cunningham and 17-year old Chris Hutchens, who specialise in downhill racing.  The number of home-grown competitors is disappointingly small, but in these two teenagers, much hope has been justifiably pinned.

Both in their transition year as seniors, (meaning they are still technically juniors, but compete against the senior riders in World Cup events) Hutchens and Cunningham, backed for this event by Winning Scotland Foundation, are amongst the favourites to take the tag as World Downhill Junior Champion.

The demands of the Downhill event are as simple as they sound.  Get from top to bottom, as fast as you can, on two wheels, in one piece.  OK, the one piece part isn’t strictly necessary, but as long as you fulfil the first three obligations, you are in with a chance.

Cunningham is currently the yellow jersey holder in the Junior World Cup, (the World Championships are a one-off event, the World Cup is a season long ‘league’) while Hutchens is edging ever closer behind Cunningham in the same event.  Both have their eyes on the ultimate prize of being called the World Champion.

Indeed, when meeting with In The Winning Zone in an uncomfortably packed Edinburgh coffee shop, (thanks, Edinburgh Fringe Festival,) Cunningham admitted himself that he is wary of the speed with which his rival is catching up on him.

“He’s a lot closer to me this year than he was last year.  And I know that I have got faster, so he must have got much faster!”

But although the pair compete against each other on the circuit, in every other respect they are playing for the same team.  They spend countless hours together training, travelling and even socialising, as the mountain bike circuit is famed (or notorious) for its post-event parties, which many a young Scot will be delighted to discover when they ascend upon Fort William.

But, as much as they look forward to the evenings, their daytime tasks are no picnic.  Mountain biking, like skateboarding, wakeboarding and freestyle watersports, is bunched into the ‘recreational youth sports’ category by many uneducated onlookers.  But they couldn’t be more wrong.  The training, and the competition, demands serious fitness. 

“It is a real sprint sport.  If you’re not knackered at the bottom then you’re not trying hard enough… or you’re far too fit!!” Hutchens explains.

“You’re hangin” Cunningham adds for good effect.

Not quite filling the lazy, sedentary teenager mould so far, then.  But of course the race is only the end product.  And every product goes through a process of manufacture, with no exception here.  The guys have worked hard to get, literally as well as metaphorically, to the top of the mountain.

“We put in a lot of hours in the gym in the winter,” explains Hutchens. “And through the season you are constantly riding outside the races to stay fit.  I think once you reach a certain level it is almost all about the fitness.  If you have a bunch of guys with roughly the same level of ability, it comes down to how much effort they put in.”

So what else is necessary to be a top rider?  Cunningham had the answers.

“I would also say a lot of it comes down to experience.  Of all the races I have done, nothing compares to World Cups.  Last year I didn’t do that well, (it was his first year on the World Cup tour) but this year I have a lot more experience and I have put the work in. 

“When I didn’t have the experience and I had never done it, it was hard, especially when everyone else had done it before.  But with the experience, every race you do gets faster and faster, especially if you put the work in outside of racing.”

However Hutchens is quick to pipe up and remind his buddy that some things that are more important than fitness or experience when it comes to competitive sport of any kind.  Something fundamental to an athlete’s commitment, mentality, and even competition day performance:

“Having fun is very important.  If I wasn’t having fun riding then I wouldn’t be doing it.  Sometimes it is more fun to just grab your bike and go do a few tracks locally with your mates than it is going to a World Cup, but if you enjoy yourself then I reckon it motivates you to do better.”

Much of Chris and Ruaridh’s progress, and the reason they have been getting so fit and having so much fun, has been down to the influence of Chris Ball.  Chris has taken on the triple role of coach, mentor and chaperone, as well as on occasion being a dietician, administrator and confidant to the teenage sensations, as well as being Team Manager for the whole GB junior squad.

Not that Ball is exactly an old fogey himself.  At only 25 years old, he can combine the experience from several years in the top 30 World Cup downhill circuit with an ability to bond and communicate with the boys in a way that older managers would struggle to achieve, as his protégés are quick to point out.

“He’s a legend,” announces Hutchens.  “He has helped us a lot this year and has helped take off the pressure of organising the trips, so we can concentrate more on preparation, which is a big advantage over the other riders.”

Cunningham agrees.  “Chris has helped me from November until now.  I was a bit of a pie, and needed to get fitter for my last year as a junior and to get my chance at Fort William.  So he told me to get my act together to make sure I have a good shot at the title.

“He will call me up every week and tell me what I need to do and I’ll listen to him.  He set out a programme for me with full explanations of what to do every day.  So I’ll maybe do weights one day and then a turbo session or sprints the next, and maybe cross country at the weekend.  Every day I will have something planned, whether it is rest or otherwise.

“You could pretty much report to Chris with anything and he will send you in the right direction.”

So what encouraged Ball, who has just returned to competition himself having recovered from a long term injury, to take on the double task of taking two teenagers to the top of their game?

“Well what I said I would be is to be supportive for them more than anything, because I never really had a mentor.  Especially in Scotland, as it’s not a big sport, so I just try to give them advice on how to progress their career.  It obviously starts with training, but there are a lot of other aspects to it.  It is important to teach them how to behave on top of and outside of training, and how to be intelligent about their riding.”

Ball’s influence is obviously rubbing off, helped in no small part by his sports science degree.  Having been there, done that and currently wearing what looks like the t-shirt, he has sculpted the boys into a pair of finely tuned, psychologically sound athletes who know what to expect around every corner, and over every bump.

Both Hutchens and Cunningham are going into the World Championships with a confident, ambitious attitude, whilst remaining modest about the hype that surrounds them, keeping calm under the pressure of expectation.

Cunningham is ruthless in his aspiration.  “I’ll be disappointed if I don’t podium.  For over a year I have been thinking about doing well there and I have put a lot of work in.  I have been concentrating on it a lot in the last few weeks.”

Hutchens, equally determined, has decided to take on a gung-ho approach to the race.  “I’ll either crash or finish top five.  I’ve put in the effort, so if I crash that’s fine.  It’s a one-off so I’ll really be going for it and giving it everything.”

And how important are the Championships to the boys?  How do they compare to the season-long challenge of the World Cup?  Experts would say that is the real test of an athlete’s verve, rather than a one-off contest.  But the experts are wrong.

“It’s the one race everyone wants to win,” says Cunningham.  “You can win the World Cup without actually winning a race, by finishing consistently second while everyone else is up and down.  But the World Championships are the true test of the world’s best riders. 

“And the fact that it’s in Scotland is massive, everyone will be there.  I think there will be a lot of rivalry between the British riders.  Everyone will be out to prove themselves.  When you are abroad and you get cheered it’s not big a deal, but when you race at home the crowd will go mental when the Brits come down.”

Hutchens, while slightly more succinct with his answer, sums up the importance of the event to him: “It will be the biggest race I’ve ever seen.  I’ve been racing for five years, and this is the biggest one.”

If they succeed, the event will no doubt be followed by the biggest party either of them has ever seen.  And no doubt Coach Ball will have organised it.

RO

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