We grabbed Mr Mountain Mayhem Pat Adams at Core Bike for a quick chat about the mystery surrounding the new venue for 2013. Here’s what he told us…
Essentially we’ve been nine years at Eastnor and it was getting difficult to find new trails there to give new experiences to the riders. With the weather we experienced there in 2012, we decided we definitely needed a change. I went on a quest, spent 26 days on the road visiting 20 odd other places between the Scottish Borders and south to Cambridgeshire looking for a new venue. Place, after place after place; all gagging to get us there but not one was suitable. We need a minimum of an eight mile course, plus camping of over 30 acres and an arena of over 12 acres plus good access, parking, water; that’s a tricky combination to find. All the northern people want us in the north and all the southern people want us to be in the south so it’s important to find somewhere in the middle.
We were invited by kind invitation of the Princess Royal to bring Wiggle Mountain Mayhem for 2013 to Gatcombe Park. It’s not open to the public, it’s her private house and there’s only one horse trials event held there. It is fabulous. The venue is on rock, a fine draining rock which is good, and the start/finish arena is at a high point which should guarantee it won’t get flooded, at the lowest point there is a river so with the course following the line of natural drainage we should be fine.
We have about seven and a half miles of trails that have been used for hunting and shooting plus mediaeval trails that we are allowed to use. We’re excited and our two course designers have spent several days there already, we’re just waiting now for some fine weather to dry it out to finalise the course. Expect lots of woods and lots of singletrack, there’s a lot of woodland there and we’re going to use it.
We’re excited by the new venue and we feel this is going to be a new and suitable challenge for Mountain Mayhem.
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So there you have it from the horses mouth. Keep these dates handy..
Wiggle Mountain Mayhem 2013 – 15/16th June 2013
Entry Forms online from 28th February at the Mountain Mayhem website
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“we’re just waiting now for some fine weather to dry it out to finalise the course”
Nothing new then really… (“,)
Access roads aren’t the best but it’s a beautiful area, I’m looking forwards to it.
Quote — All the northern people want us in the north and all the southern people want us to be in the south
Southerners won then!
I live next door! Bonus.
Well, do you know of any suitable venues near Swadlincote?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-heart-of-britain-is-slipping-south-1583730.html
Three contenders would be Calke Abbey, Staunton Harold or Bradgate Park, but I don’t think you’d get a mountain bike race around any of those to be honest…
Bonus its less than an hour away, but the big horse racing festival was cancelled last year due to the weather. Hopefully we will have wall to wall sunshine for the preceding 3 months. 🙂
“Three contenders would be Calke Abbey, Staunton Harold or Bradgate Park, but I don’t think you’d get a mountain bike race around any of those to be honest…”
so not contenders then.
Besides, they’ve got a venue now.
Ahh it’s ooop North then – given that it’s north of Watford. If you live in Brighton it’s waaaaay up north – t’north starting in those hills North of the city 😉