After a few drinks the other night I had a (maybe silly) thought about organising a friendly xc event/race in my area (North Bradford)

If I did such a thing where would I start? Anybody been there done that? Guessing there are different levels of ‘events’ with levels of accountability.

Id be interested in supporting it.
i own Crosstrax and I am running some events this year and have been talking to the guys at Tong offroad and they are happy to help stage events.
we can get timing equipment from the enduro guys I can get some sponsorship from suppliers and stuff, but whats needed is someone to make it happen and I have too much on with the few events we are doing already (road and cross)

Thanks Sancho, maybe the first point of call would be contacting British cycling. The hardest part might be getting the council and any land owners to agree to it.

no dont worry about British cycling it wouldnt need them to support it.
also the land owner has already agreed it in Tong.
Apart from Tong I dont know anywhere that could accomodate an event.

Council have no say at Tong as its private land

If you want British cycling involved it will put the costs up as they will want part of the entry fee and charge for the commissaires.

Understand, well im thinking Shipley, Baildon maybe Esholt or Bingley. Not even thought about entry fees, im not sure if at this point I want to even go that far..unless it was for charity, which of course is another route to go down.

There is usually way more to arrange than you first think. It of course depends on the scale of the event.

But you will need:
Land owner permission (in writing)
Public liability insurance – British Cycling can provide this, other companies can too

BC ask for an absolute minimum 8 weeks in advance.
If you use FC land, then they ask for 12 weeks and charge a lot per rider.

BC will only charge for commissaries if it is a ranking event.
You will need to provide risk assessments, marshall plans, safety plans.

Is it online entry or EOL? Online entry means paying someone to take entries, e.g. BC or XCRacer
EOL – how will you be certain that you will cover costs. Can you control numbers?

I’ve got a bit of history with this sort of thing.

Edited highlights from an email that I sent to someone a while back…

Marketing :
Start a thread up and explain what you are doing.
Organise some “preview rides”.
Set up a Twitter feed.
Say stuff that will attract people attention. We used to go all over the place from pop music to werewolves!
Try and get some sponsors.

Price :
Get a comprehensive and accurate budget and divide it by the number of people you think you’ll get. Build in a big contingency. If you haven’t hit target before you start having to pay the bills cancel!

The course:
Check that you don’t need to close any rights of way. This can be done if necessary but it will cost and it takes time.
Make it hard enough that the people will remember it but not too hard. At HTN we try and make people suffer but not so much that they won’t come back. You want people to come up to you and say “You utter bastards! You’ve broken me and my bike… but it was brilliant.”

Entertainment:
Whatever you can afford. Some don’t have it but we like it. Do you own thing though.

Other stuff:
Get people to enter up front – you’ll need the cash. Pay on the day ties up your staff and has security implications. Also, if it is pissing down nobody will turn up.

Get your marshals sorted in advance. People that won’t let you down. Give somebody the job of looking after them so you don’t have to.

Check with the police. Once an event reaches a certain size they have to be informed. If Mountain Rescue get called out they will turn up and you will be in the shit.

Get your risk assessment and insurance in place nice and early. You won’t be able to do anything on council land without it.

Arrows and signs take ages to make. Don’t leave it too late.

Make sure that you have enough marking out kit for everyone. 3 guys sharing one roll of tape is inefficient.

Don’t use cheap staple guns.

Use wire cutters to remove your cable ties (cold hands and knives is a bad idea)

Have you spoken with the British Cycling Regional Events Officer? You should. They’ll help out if you organise a youth race.

The only thing not mentioned so far is prizes
As 90% of the people entering wont see a podium they won’t care what the winner gets, novelty trophies and some good pics should do them but see if you can get a heap of spot prizes, crate of Muc-off box of wet lube bottles, gels, bars, cheap lights.

If you bung the masses something they will like it either as a random walk about or in a number call at the end.

Also sort out a bike washing place to avoid trashing the area.

You need to find a venue first, I can’t think of anywhere around Bingley, Baildon, Esholt or Shipley that would work, where we’re you thinking of?

I’d be interested in helping out/racing (well, I’m not sure what I do can be called racing).

Also, I own an insurance brokers so if you need a hand with the Insurance I’d be happy to help.

The landowner at tong is ready to support a series of races.
It’s all private land and perfect.
But this weekend its hosting a enduro and David knight is there 🙂

Thanks for the all the info chaps, much more work involved then my tipsy head thought about. Simon, I noticed this https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/19538/Shipley-Glen-Downhill-MTB-Bash and wondered if it ever happened and if something similar but longer could be organised around the moor and glen.

Will look into it more when I have time.

I’ve no idea if that happened or not.
St Ives was used for races back in the 90’s but it was before I got into mountain biking – I doubt you’d get permission to use it these days.
I think there used to be xc racing on Penistone Hill above Haworth.
Motor cycle and bike trials competitions are held on Harden Moor but the tracks up there wouldn’t really work for racing.

It’d be great to see some grass roots MTB in the area be it XC or mini DH stuff or even enduro.

Well I’ll keep ppl posted.

Ive looked everywhere in the Leeds Bradford area for a sustainable venue and Tong in my opinion is the only place, Im happy to work with people on it, but we could have races there in a few weeks if people are serious about doing it

Ed, I’m not familiar with the land at Tong, what sort of event could you put on there?

you could put anything on, they are building a downhill track, but it has fire roads and lots of woodland, they have done cross and xc in the past, loads of parking and easy access from the motorway leeds and bradford.
its the parkwood offroad centre

could put some really interesting lines in

Sounds good.

I’d be interested in racing at Tong, would you need any help cutting trails in? Are there any trails up there already that are available for the public to ride?

If your having short laps get a good way of keeping up with the order people finish in.
I organised one race too many yeas ago, and the finishing order and giving results was the hardest part.
That was pre decent computers tho.

All the best, do it it’s very rewarding giving back.

Ps ambulance on stand by, but we used ours on the first lap of the first race.

Cant help much as I’m just heading out of th Uk for a week, I organised the recent Ilkley cyclocross so once back if there’s any areas you havent covered.
Easiest probably to go via BC

Sancho, what would be required to get racing going up at Tong? Could we meet up to discuss?

Again I’d recommend using BC, you can set up entry online, it’s far easier. As long as it’s a non ranking event the red tape isn’t too much hard work at all.

Clearing & laying out a track is time consuming but not hard work. Lap scoring is tricky & you’ll need to get it right because everyone will want to know where they finished. Marshals it’s already been mentioned above, appoint a head marshal & get them to manage the team.

Good luck, it’s great to see more grass roots MTB racing going on.

There’s a cracking little series in Norfolk at the moment 5by3 MTB