September 16, 2005 – Fort Williams played host to the final event on the World Cup calendar for 2005. Fans turned out in droves, 20,000+, to see local favorites and international superstars compete in Cross-Country, Four-Cross, and Downhill events. The WC close-out held the key to some tight World Cup Series Points races, but most had already been decided. Weather was mixed but course conditions were generally favorable.

SRAM’s X.0 Triggers and the new

X.0 RD were unveiled to the World in February of 2005. The addition of the X.0 Triggers to the already untouchable and recently improved X.0 rear derailleur has created perhaps the most dominant racing component group in the world. X.0 Triggers demonstrated that fact in no uncertain terms when the MTB group won gold in three events at FW; 4X, DH and XC.

Consistently a favorite amongst the gravity set, X.0 Triggers light weight, zero-loss travel, and complete adjustability has brought them full circle and XC athletes have taken notice. In the FW XC event, SRAM X.0 components (both Triggers and X.0 Twisters) swept the top 3 in both Men’s and Women’s. Men’s XC winner Ralph Naef told SRAM’s Technicians “I love the Triggers!”

Steve Peat took the cheers of his countrymen to heart and won on a DH course that did not favor his style of riding. Peaty’s fork, the RockShox BlackBox BoXXer World Cup, was not going to be outdone as it was ridden by three of the top five riders in the Men’s DH.

As for the World Cup overall Points races, SRAM athletes took four of the six gold’s and appeared on every podium. Christophe Sauser and Gunn-Rita Dahle dominated both categories on SRAM X.0 Twisters, both are BlackBox athletes.

In Four-Cross it came down to Jill Kintner and Anneke Beertens for the WC Overall. Due to injuries sustained at the World Championships Beertens was unable to compete. Kintner took the title and this will certainly be a battle on the WC scene for the next several years.

The Men’s Downhill was a tight race with Sam Hill and Nathan Rennie taking second and third respectively to Greg Minnaar. While Minnaar races on SRAM PowerGlide II chains, Hill rides SRAM and RockShox, and Rennie rides the full SRAM-RockShox-Avid-Truvativ component package.