You may be wondering why this post is in Slick Tales rather than The Dirt, but bear with me.
It has to be said, I'm not a downhiller and the very thought of riding a bike, let alone racing it, down the side of a steep and rocky mountain like that of the Fort William DH course, brings on a feeling akin to that of seeing The Grudge for the first time. (Japanese version). But that doesn't stop me from enjoying all the colours, atmosphere and spectacle of, arguably, the biggest single bike race in Britain. The Downhill World Cup in Fort William is a once a year experience that too many people miss. The aforementioned are reasons enough to make the long trip to the West of Scotland but there is another, more important, reason.
If we'd like our country to be fitter, healthier and perhaps a little greener than it currently is, it should be a regular fixture for a school trip. The athletes are a huge inspiration to young and old, but it's the kids that will build the future and, as Wordsworth once wrote, 'The Child is father of the Man'- the more kids cycling now surely means more adults cycling in the future.Scotland has already made a huge leap in that direction- Scottish Cycling recently announced the addition of Cycling as part of PE lessons, with East Renfrewshire being the first to implement the plan developed as part of the Scottish Government's Smarter Choices, Smarter Places program. This is a move I wholeheartedly applaud and judging from the numbers of kids on bikes at the World Cup, I can imagine that PE will be a lesson that is no longer inundated with fake excuse notes.
If you need proof that this event is popular already...
