Couldn't make it, but interested to know what it was like.

How was the veiwing area's?
Crowded?
What was the traffic like on the A64 & in the local area?

Suprisingly little comment on here?

didn't go unfortunately but i saw some pics my mate took of the juniors.

there was a steep slab role down that looked good fun and a very techy climb that i'd love to have a go at. by the sound of it everyone was taking the harder lines too. awesome! grr!

I thought it was excellent, the course looked good, and it was easy to move around between spectiating points. we had a very good day out, hope it comes back!

anyone know if there are any TV highlights on?

Say abit of the ladies race on freecaster, would have watched more but had decorating to do.

Course looked very interesting, not watched many XC races but the ones I have seen have always seemed a little tame. Not this one, that drop looked fun and the passing spot off the boardwalk.

will have to catch the replay on line tonight

Was the drop Worry Gill? Looks like they've done a lot of work on that since the nationals last year, should've made it a great place to watch!

Thought it was a really good weekend.
Parking was at High Rigg Farm, so a short walk to Aderstone Filed where the event was but nothing major.

Event village was great and nearly full though there a few gaps where folks had not made it ( due to volcano issues ? )

Course was fantastic, ( imho ) a great mix with plenty of good vantage points and fairly compact so easy to get from one place to another, I managed to catch action at all the 'feature" places and didn't think it was overcrowded at all, busy yes, but you could still get a clear view.

If it's back next year then it's a must do ..

There was the inevitable delay for traffic leaving but for me that's just part of any major sporting event, but once out of the Forest drive it didn't seem worse than a busy bank holiday.

A lot of work has been done to make the course up to world cup standard, extra singletrack links have now been built to cut out fire road sections,

Worry Gill was a steep drop that hardly slowed them down, though the second trip through Worry Gill with the steep climb proved more of a problem.

Medusas Drop was fantastic to watch as even the Juniors made it look so easy and simply flowed through sections I struggle with on my Blur LT, and they we nearly all on hardtails 🙁

Highlights are on British Eurosport 2 on Thursday at 5pm and 10:45pm.

It was awesome. However I think the organiser underestimated the amount of people who was going to attend. The catering was poor as was the lack of bins (infact, I didnt see any).

The signage, the toilets & marshalling however was great, thanks there to all the marshalls. One note though. Due to the high volumes of people, next year, BAN all bikes on the course as they caused far too many problems at crossing, espeically on the Mens Elite.

The vantage points were great and worry gill, the atmosphere was awesome 🙂 I was dissapointed that not many people were clapping ALL teh riders, only the Brits (well ones in British Cycling gear) really.

Overall, it was great and a big pat on the back for all involved 🙂

I saw loads of bins – black bin bags in a lot of places.

I agree with the people taking bikes around though, they just got in the way and did cause a lot of problems at corssing points.

We went both days – rode in to the venue to save faff with parking etc. Also rode a bit of the course on Saturday – fairly..er…'interesting' on 140mm full sussers, so gotta give it to the racers blatting round on race hardtails – if they were that fast on short travel hardtails, it'd be interesting to see how fast they could descend on a FS trail bike! Worry Gill was a superb spectator venue, 'cos the terrain formed a natural amphitheatre – kind of difficult to put into words, but it felt like you were standing in a 360 degree meele of speeding bikes. Got the impression that a lot of work had gone into making it interesting for spectators. Also pretty challenging for riders, definately a serious step-up to some of the European venues I've visited.

If I had any criticism it'd be that the catering was a pretty poor. The food was almost all chips & burgers (not many healthy options), queues on Sunday were massive and a couple of the tea wagons kept running out of food and water.

The specatators were also a bit subdued compared to a lot of countries, and it lacked the atmosphere of races in other Euro countries – but I guess it was a lot of peoples first time at a big mountain bike race – maybe also a bit of English 'can't be extrovert unless we're pi**ed' reserve coming into play. (the kids were generally cheering and screaching at every rider though 😆 ).

I really hope they get to host the race next year, we'll def. be going along again if it is. (just take a big picnic next year!)

Ah must of missed them MrsFlash.

I dont see where a FS would of helped? A lot heavier to pull around a course that was perfect for a HT? IMO of course.

I loved the young lad with the Flanders flag and cow bell hehe 🙂

Big thumbs up from me too – really enjoyed it. Watching the riders on Worry Gill and some of the other technical areas makes you realise just how much skill they have. Interesting watching one a couple of the women on 29ers rider the rougher sections.

Saw Steve Peat there too. Sure there will be an update on here later on 😉

I went yesterday. It was great to see the riders so close up. Standing in Worry Gill for the Elite Men's race was really impressive.

Overall I thought the facilities were generally good. The standard of catering was fine but I supposed it lacked a bit of variety. Bacon roll for breakfast, hog roast baguette for lunch.

I guess something a bit more healthy may have helped. Although I did manage to eat a huge amount of free samples from the Torq stand.

Brilliant day out, great course for spectating and great effort by everyone involved, especially the volunteers. I agree the only negative thing was the catering – nothing remotely healthy to be found. Look forward to it again next year.

i was there from the Friday night right through until the Sunday evening.

Thought they put on a really good show on the Friday evening. Pickering emptied quite quickly but that was to be expected I suppose, there's not many beds in Pickering itself.

To be honest, we didn't watch much racing on the Saturday, because the weather was so nice we lay around drinking at the beer tent all day!

Sunday was ace. Shame the sun didn't come out. Totally agree about letting people around the spectator areas with bikes. There was a bike "cloakroom" specifically for people to lock their bikes up when they arrived at the site. Walking down the narrow gully from the event village to Medusa's Drop was a nightmare with muppets wandering up and down with bikes (I even managed to catch my shin on some tard's demo 8).

I spent most of the Elite Mens stood right at the TV camera at the top of Medusa's Drop. I should be on Eurosport for a good 5 minutes shouting "tomber tomber tomber" at all the French riders 😉

Thought the course was excellent, really varied, excellent viewing spots for spectators and (despite not being an XC rider myself) look pretty challenging for the pros.

Highlight for me was playing around with the On One prototype carbon frame. £399 if you ordered it at the show. I was very tempted, but I'd rather wait until the first batch has been out there for a while!

By chance, just discovered there are highlights on BBC red button sports screen (p3001), option 4. Looks a cracking event!

I went Saturday and sunday to watch the racing and do the dalby dare.

Have to say I thought it was excellent on all fronts. The spectator access was top drawer for both walking and riding to different parts of the circuit. However the bikes did get in the way abit on Sunday but wouldn't say it was a problem.

The atmosphere may not have been like other European events or even the DH at fort William but dalby seemed much more laid back and friendly this still made it pretty good in my view.

A massive thanks to all the marshalls who did a fantastic job all weekend both when spectating or riding. Great job by the car park attendants as well… they knew what they were doing and pocessed basic common sense sometimes lacking at similar events.

Being able to ride the course was also a bonus and gave an added dimension when watching the pros go about there work. Those guys and girls really know what there doin on a bike… so despite a fettish for shaving their legs, Respect due!!

As for whoever booked the weather kudos to them!!! Glorious sunshine on the Saturday and still plenty warm enough on the Sunday.

Also thanks to anyone who helped me out with either of my 2 chain breaks during the dalby dare!!

Got plenty of pics which I'll try and post later.

All in all a cracking weekend and well done to all involved in the organisation and running of a top class event

My first time at a World Cup and I came away mighty impressed with the way Dalby handled it and as others have said the course is one of the best and here to stay.The sun even made an appearence for the latter part of Sundays racing …

Steven James 3rd in the Junior race.

I used to be faster than him (when he was about 10)

Food was uninspiring and lacked variety and the parking was ill thought through. Unlike Fort William where there is a choice of food and the park and ride works well, imo.

Apart from that top quality entertainment at a good price and you could get right up to the action no problem. So overall top effort just needs a little bit of refining.

I thought the day was excellent. It was great to be able to get so close to the track and the riders. Viewing in a few different places was do-able due to the compact layout. Really enjoyed seeing the elite riding the parts I had ridden before and watching there speed and lines. Very inspiring.

As usual the spectators were all very friendly and the on course marshalls helpful and informative. The village was well laid out and had a goood selction of stalls.

Only negative was getting out of the parking – took us over 1 and half hours from getting in the car to getting to the main road! Marshalls in our bit of the car park appeared to do did nothing but lean on a wall for the first hour. There was the nice empty road that we had come in on left empty that could have been utilised to clear this problem.

That's a cracking photo.Perfect illustration of how to ride a mountain bike.

We had a great day watching on Sunday then rode the red route before going home. Mostly went to cheer on Annie Last who came 3rd in U23 which is a brilliant result for the start of the season and 19th overall in her first year as a full time rider.

Yeah, we thought the parking might be a stinker. FWIW, anyone who's thinking of going next year – there are loads of options to park up away from the venue and take an easy 20-40 minute ride in (er, I guess depending on the number of kids and bike availability in your group). Just chained our bikes to a tree when we got there and walked the last 100 metres or so – marshalls even kept an eye on 'em for us (cheers fellas).

There were a few people walking their bikes between locations, but I didn't really see it was a big problem. Some of the bottlenecks a crossing points could be solved next year by maybe putting scaffolding bridges for riders to pass over the crossings. (maybe one scaff plank wide with a see-saw, kicker and and….. 😀 )

By chance, just discovered there are highlights on BBC red button sports screen (p3001), option 4. Looks a cracking event!

Now also a highlights package on the BBC Sport website – not sure if it is the same one.

If there was somewhere official and safe to park bikes, I never found it. And I had seen that there would be, and I had lugged my lock with me (albeit not a tree friendly one). In fairness, I didn't fancy driving to Thornton Dale to cycle from there when I could simply cycle straight from home so I came in from the opposite side to the visitor centre/Pickering access which may have been why I missed the official bike store. I did my damndest not to get in anyone's way with the bike and I have to say that like the last poster, I did not see it as a particular problem, although I took the view that pedestrians had total priority.

On the bonus side, my line of approach meant that I got paced up the last part of the hill from Givendale by 2 of the german team cooling down from the Women's elite race. Needless to say, they were texting whilst cycling hands off and I was working rather harder than that.

Good afternoon out, impressive racing, not too crowded along the contour road and fairly compact so you could shift from place to place in the 20 minutes between the arrival of the leaders. I have every intention of sneaking back one weekday and having a stooge round the course without the crowds, the cameras and the public embarrassment when I fall off.

BAN all bikes

Bore off – they weren't causing 'far too many problems' at all imo