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This week, we introduce: Beach Breaker
Keeping our promise to serve you the ‘treats’ when they’re fresh like ocean spray, here’s a new south-west coast mountain bike race: Beach Breaker. Event organiser Mike Morris at Croyde Ocean talks about their take on the increasingly popular beach race format …
Beach Breaker is a brand new mountain bike race in Braunton, North Devon. Taking place on Sunday 12th July 2015 and in a stunning setting on the North Devon Heritage Coast. We have gained access to Braunton Burrows, a spectacular UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, which will provide a gloriously challenging course for riders of all things mountain bike. For fat bikes specifically we’ve included a fat bike category too.
How have you landed yourself this beauty?
We realised as part of the organisation for Croyde Ocean Triathlon, that we had some great potential for off-road riding and we thought ‘hang about, what a great venue for a separate race!’ Beach Breaker was born as a natural extension of this planning.
Are you planning on leading from the front then?
I have personally done a load of downhill biking in the French Alps and also knocked off a couple of passes – the Col d’Iseran and Col St Petit Bernard. While I love this sort of stuff, we’re so lucky to be working with quality local partners such as Southfork (bike shop in Braunton North Devon). We’ve had a lot of fun creating the course, with loads of singletrack, drops and jumps and technical sections but with easier line options if required. Shame I will be too busy staffing the event on race day to take part!
What’s the course like?
The race covers four laps of a 6km course, taking in hard tracks, grassy hillocks and sand dunes. There are 200 places available across four categories: Junior – 15 years plus; Open – 18 years plus; Veteran – 40 years plus; Super Veteran – 50 years plus. You choose your bike of preference – mountain bike, fat bike or cyclocross, take your pick …
Sounds like a hotbed of outdoor sports in the locality?
Being based in North Devon, there’s so much focus is placed in and around the Saunton beach area. It’s big surf territory and Lyn my co-director runs a Bay-to-Bay swim which is also coming up soon – Saunton to Croyde.
Any prizes worth shouting about?
To top things off, every racer will be entered into a draw for the chance to win an activity holiday for two in the French Alps commencing on 21st or 28th August 2016. This fabulous prize courtesy of our sponsor Alpine Elements includes return flights from Gatwick, transfers, twin en-suite catered accommodation, bike hire and Multi Activity Pass.
How do our readers keep up to date with Beach Breaker?
We’re active on Facebook and Twitter. For the latest updates direct to your inbox, sign up for our Newsletter. To enter the race directly, go here. All the event’s information is laid out here.
Tuesday Treats Prize Draw
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