The exact location of the XC course is something we like to keep under wraps up until the day itself. This year’s course is going to be significantly different to the previous two years’ courses so no one will have any real advantage even if they’ve competed in past Weekenders.
For 2011 we are trying to level the playing field a bit so that the XC jeyboys don’t have too much of an advantage over the ‘regular’ riders. A fit, fast rider will still do well – it’s an XC race after all – but they’ll also have to be a decent bike handler. ‘Off-roadies’ may come unstuck in places.
And we’re going to try and make the XC course more fun to ride anyway, just because.
We test rode this year’s course earlier this week and while it ticked a lot of boxes, at 4km lap length it wasn’t quite long enough. We’ve had a re-jig and a brief trial ride of a revised lap and things are looking good to extend the lap to nearer 5km without sacrificing the desired fun/pain ratio. A fast lap will take 15-20 minutes by our reckoning.
So how does the XC event work then?
It’s a staggered start basically. Competitors with no penalties incurred from the previous day’s Downhill and Trials events will be set off first. Then competitors with 1 penalty point will be set off 1 minute after that. Then competitors with 2 penalty points will be set off 1 minute after that. And so on. Until the competitors with the most penalty points set off last (15 penalty points is the most you can possibly accrue, so these unlucky racers will be setting off 15 minutes after the first bunch).
The XC race finishes as soon as the first racer completes 4 laps* of the course. Then all the other racers just finish the lap that they’re on.
The first person to complete 4 laps is the overall Weekender Winner! There’s no waiting around to tot up scores or anything as all of that jiggery-pokery is taken care with the staggered start. Cunning eh?
*The Junior Category do 3 laps to decide their winner.
To read more about the Shimano Singletrack Classic Weekender and how to enter go to…
www.singletrackworld.com/weekender
The Basics…
Shimano Singletrack Classic Weekender
Lee Quarry, Lancashire, July 9-10, 2011
3 different races.
1 bike.
The ultimate “all rounder” event.
A weekend of Trials, Downhill and XC racing. One entry fee – all three events.
Comments (10)
Comments Closed
The course should go up the hill and take in a lap of Cragg Quarry too.
Imagine the fun as the fast lads coming down meet the puffers crawling up! What japes!
I’m in that first pic 🙂
One clear winner but on what sort of bike?
full sus?
Hard tail?
29r?
Singlespeed?
Unicycle?
I was looking at the course again last night adding in the extra km and it is going to be a classic! All ridable lot’s of overtaking opportunities and some good spots for photographers to hang out!
Scottchegg – that idea was mentioned at one point! :]
im in the second pic, no 404. cant wait till this years event.
Wanted to do this so much but mum’s 70th birthday sort of gets in the way. Still.. It’s nice knowing you’re doing all you can to stop fit people winning more races. They have such an unfair monopoly on things. I reckon you should include darts next year and drop anything that involves exertion. No point ruining a good knees up… 😉
We’re trying to reward skills as much as we reward fitness. You’ll have to be fit AND you’ll have to be skilled to do well. It’s an ‘all rounder’ event, not an ‘xc’ event ;]
Just trolling Benji – it’s the done thing on STW. The old skool weekenders used to have HillClimbs too… 😀
Indeed. The first obstacle of the Trials is a variation on the hill-climb thang :]
Will there be any “proper” coffee this time?