June 08, 2013 (Fort William, Scotland) – The 2013 UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Cup tour is underway, with the first set of qualifying runs held Saturday in Fort William, Scotland, and nine of the eleven riders from Canada qualified for Sunday’s final.

Steve Smith, ranked fourth on the UCI ranking list, was the top Canadian rider in the qualifying rounds, posting the fifth fastest time among the large crew of 157 starters.

Smith, who is representing his professional team DeVinci Global Racing, has been a consistent force to reckon with on the international circuit, with two World Championships medals under his belt.

Matthew Beer, proudly showcasing the Maple Leaf jersey as Canadian Champion, also qualified for the finals with the 49th fastest time, along with Kyle Sangers, 67th, and Remi Gauvin, 71st. Kirk McDowall, and Forrest Riesco did not qualified among the Top 80 group.

All Four Canadians women safely made it through in the Top 20 of the qualifying rounds. Micayla Gatto was the fastest Canadian of the day, posting the tenth fastest time, followed by Canadian Champion Casey Brown of Dirt Norco Race Team, in fifteenth place. Vaea Verbeeck had the sixteenth fastest time just before reigning junior World Champion Holly Feniak (Hutchinson UR) in seventeenth place.

In the junior men qualifying run, Mark Wallace, also of DeVinci Global Racing, qualified with the seventh fastest time of the day, just over nine seconds behind the fastest time after more than five minutes of racing.

All of the action will be available to race fans worldwide, live on Red Bull TV here.  The Final will be shown on Sunday, June 9th, between 13:35 and 15:45 (all times GMT).

Today’s results HERE.