The 2007 junior world champion Ruaridh Cunningham has set himself three targets as he aims to make this his most successful season in mountain biking.
Cunningham has set himself the goal of finishing in the top 20 overall in this year’s world cup events, achieving a top-five spot in the British Downhill Series and earning selection for the Great Britain world cup team.
After an encouraging start to the season the Borders-based rider is determined to make an impression at this weekend’s world cup event at Fort William.
Cunningham said: “Fort William is our only home world cup race so I am really looking forward to going back to Aonach Mor this weekend.
“It is certainly a lot closer to home than my last race in Australia.
“I know that to reach all my goals this year I really have my work cut out for me, but at the same time I feel I am capable of achieving all three.
“I finished 21st in the first world cup event of the year, so I was only one place away from that top-20 spot I was looking for, and I was only two tenths of a second from reaching that particular goal, and I also came fourth in the first British national race.
“As far as I am concerned the speed is certainly there to consistently put it down over the course of the season.”
Cunningham is now clear of the troublesome injuries which blighted last season.
He said: “I had a shoulder operation in February last year, when I eventually got back on the bike I then broke my collar-bone in four pieces a couple of days later.
“I missed the majority of last season as a result but I did manage to squeeze a few races in last September and did pretty well.
“This season has started off pretty good so now I am at full fitness I can hopefully do well this time around.”
The 25-year-old hopes the Aonach Mor track will help him achieve the goals he has set himself.
He said: “The Fort William track is renowned as being one of the toughest and at around five minutes, the longest that there is, it’s rough, it’s rocky, it has a great mix of everything.
“It is kind of surreal coming down that track. I was in the crowd at the bottom as a teenager watching my heroes coming down and the atmosphere was always pretty electric.
“It is brilliant when you are competing when you finally reach the foot of the hill.”