slack headangle ,long wheelbase, low bb all are good to provide stablity in a straight line

uk terrain isnt anything special apart from weather.. @dchill, i was just laughing at the fact theres so many us riders who 'train' all winter in socal with nice warm weather and have full factory kits and blinged rides and fail to qualify and then shaun palmer comes out from the mist after how many years? and qualifies on probably one of the hardest tracks to qualify for (tight times and tricky track to not crash)

however washed up and slow he is he still managed to qualify for a world cup downhill event which is better then 90% of the americans what enter, and thats with years off the bike oh burn