Cycling News  

Montgomerie makes strong showing on home turf

They didn't win any medals, but at the weekend several Scots took the opportunity to highlight the strength of Scottish mountain-biking talent to the huge crowds that descended on the slopes of Aonch Mor for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Fort William.
 
On the seventh consecutive year (2007 was a World Championship) that Lochaber has hosted the elite of world mountain-biking, Shrewsbury based Dan Atherton picked up Britain's first medal of the weekend with a bronze in Friday's 4-Cross discipline. 
 
But on the Saturday, it was the Swiss men who dominated the six laps and 30-miles of gruelling cross-country through Leanachan Forest.
 
In the absence of Julie Absalon (France), the 2004 Olympic gold medallist and 2007 World Champion, 27 year-old Florian Vogel (Switzerland) held off U-23 countryman Nino Schurter and 2004 Fort William World Cup winner Christoph Sauser for gold in a time of 2:06:27.
 
In what was an energy sapping race contested at a blistering pace in sunshine, Oli Beckingsale, the 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medallist from Bristol produced the World Cup ride of his life to finish 9th. 
 
However, Castle Douglas based Gareth Montgomerie also highlighted why he's a name to watch for London 2012 and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow when the 25 year-old recorded a credible 62nd place in the world class field. 
 
His countryman, Ross Creber from Edinburgh and the only Scot in Britain's U-23 team was 73rd.  30th at last month's European Championships in Germany, he described the course as "probably one of the toughest I've ever ridden."
 
The endurance of the women's cross-country field was no less impressive.
 
Marie-Helene Premont, the current World Cup leader and Olympic silver medallist crossed the finish line in 2:00:42 to defy Spain's Margarita Fullana and third placed Sabine Spitz, the 2004 Olympic bronze medallist from Germany.