Now it's definite - 29-inch wheels are fast. First and second place in Fort William go to the much-discussed giant wheels. Greg Minnaar confirms his best time from qualifying and wins the race by just under three seconds ahead of the surprising Jack Moir and the American Aaron Gwin.

Remy Thirion already rolled to a surprising best time on his Commencal 29-inch. Only Aaron Gwin and Marcello Gutierrez were able to beat the Frenchman's time. Gwin made a serious mistake in the middle section, including coming to a standstill. The tension was correspondingly high for the last three riders - who were all riding on 29-inch wheels.

The Australian champion Jack Moir delivered an incredibly strong ride on his Intense prototypes and was able to narrowly overtake Aaron Gwin in the lower section. Loris Vergier, second from qualifying, was unable to withstand the pressure and crashed in the upper section. Now it was Greg Minnaar's turn. The South African had already won six times in Fort William - the last two years in a row - the 34-year-old Minnaar pedaled in the most incredible places and was able to build up speed accordingly, in the lower part hardly any rider is a match for the now 20-time World Cup winner anyway, only Jack Moir was faster in the lowest "motorway" section.

The question of 29-inch wheels has now been answered. Jack Moir was never able to finish in the top three in the last few races - on the new wheels he did so straight away. The winning premiere of the big wheels was postponed in Lourdes solely due to the weather conditions - today, too, the weather worsened and the last riders had to tackle the course in light rain.

Is the big switch to 29-inch wheels imminent?

Some companies already have 29-inch prototypes ready. Loic Bruni was unable to qualify in the top ten - for the next race in Leogang, he too - one of the biggest 29-inch critics, mind you - will probably fall back on the 29-inch Specialized demo that is already available.

Noel Niederberger was the best Swiss rider in an excellent 40th place - just four places behind the winner of Lourdes, Alexandre Fayolle. Jerome Caroli crashed and finished 77th, while co-favorite Danny Hart crashed after a strong intermediate time, as did Velosolutions rider Brendan Fairclough.