While the pros and cons of Hadleigh Park are still under scrutiny, organisers for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow have said they are going to have the MTB track open to the public for a year before the athletes get a chance on it.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/2014-mountain-bike-trail-is-on-track-to-open-year-early.18618836

Does that mean it’s pros and cons won’t be under scrutiny?

Is this a pro-devolution thing?

I thought you were going to reference the Moscow Olympics!

That’s great news, plus it shows that people have genuinely thought about the long term use for the venue. The Hadleigh venue worked as a race venue, but plans with how to use it long term seem rather late to get going.

@Al – not really sure what you’re trying to add with that. Why comment at all?

I wasn’t sure what the OP’s point was, so I asked.

riders nearing the end of the course must navigate their way through a difficult wetland

So recreating Scottish riding to a tee, then. No doubt there will be an hour of portage, midges and sideways rain too!

What about the braking bumps?

Will the race start on a B road somewhere with riders trying to get a parking space in a forest car park before setting off for a lap?

Deep fried Power Bars in the technical area?

Will the race start on a B road somewhere with riders trying to get a parking space in a forest car park before setting off for a lap?

Depends what the car park fee is of course and if people don’t want to pay it. 😀

Our velodrome is already open to the public too. The Games might be costing Glasgow a lot of money (about 1/20th of the cost of the Olympics, however) but we’re getting quite a lot of good sporting facilities that we’ll be able to use for years before and after the games.

How many tenements did they flatten to build the velodrome ? Are all the poor Glaswegians now living on the streets drinking tennants super?
😆

Tenants super? Luxury…

It’s mad dog 20/20 as a refreshing morning tipple, chilled obviously

That looks shit, it should be a 30k loop in a forest with 500m of height gain.

The course has been open for ages, I did a race there about 3 years ago. They had a consultation to get opinions of the course afterwards. Was fairly bizarre part of the course being a public footpath with flights of stairs etc in it but they can only use what is within Glasgow council boundaries.

murf – new course is further up and east so doesn’t drop down towards that part of Castlemilk. I was at the open day a month or so back and it looks very promising. The first part is available to ride now but I haven’t been yet

The course has been open for ages, I did a race there about 3 years ago.
Well, the SXC folks put on an event at Cathkin Braes using a mixture of existing paths, some newly cleared stuff and a scaffolding bridge to allow a figure of 8. The CG course hasn’t been built yet.

Saw a snap of the Commie Games course and it looked like it was going to be built at the NE side of the SXC course, i.e. missing out the stuff to the west of the shallow tarmac steps which went out round the back of the the doocots before looping back towards the woods from the SW. Hope they use the ski slope section that AndyB was busting the big air on in the final design. 🙂

Will be a great facility in a big city – park has great views over Glasgow from the higher points. Will be interesting to see how the designers will make a modern XC race course usable by the general public before and after the Games and whether more trails can be built beyond the 5km(?) XC course.

The CG course hasn’t been built yet.

When I was at the info day back in June/July construction had started and they said the first 1/3 would be open and rideable by end of August, with the full course ready by November this year. AFAIK it is still on that programme. It will be very similar in surface to the Stanes singletrack, with half a dozed specific clever technical features – the plans were quite impressive. It doesn’t follow much of the route of the SXC course apart from the sections up near the car park. The bottom half is quite different

Was there a couple of weeks ago and some sections were already finished, even a couple of simple ‘features’ had been installed

Good stuff. Are the plans online anywhere? Have only seen a snap on FB.

they had hand out route cards at the open day, but not seen online anywhere