The Big Dog down in Brighton is in its eighth year now after starting *way* back in 2009.
For those that haven’t heard of the Big Dog, it’s a not for profit, six hour race that is organised and run by a hard-working group of bike-mad volunteers.
The Big Dog story has gained success after success, year after year. Here’s the story in full from the event organisers:
“Brighton had long been overlooked on the MTB circuit, not hosting a race for many long years, until the Gary Fisher G2 Revolver came to town in 2008, attended by the legend himself. Despite the success and great atmosphere this was only ever going to be a one-off event. Determined not to let a good thing go, and despite no previous experience of creating events, a small group of friends decided to step up to create The Brighton Big Dog in the summer of 2009.
We wanted to create an event which had a great community feel, that got to the very core of why people love to ride and race MTBs. Judging from the feedback we have every year, we have managed to achieve just that. Creating one of the UK’s best MTB courses with challenging climbs and thrilling descents, it all come to a finish 6 hours later with a finish line beer and a party on the beach afterwards.
We have been honoured that the race has sold out every year and has been featured in The Guardian’s Top 5 cycle events, in WhatMTB’s Top 10 Must Ride events, in Bike Magic’s Top 6 events who said “it’s a event every mountain biker should do” and more recently listed in the The World’s Ultimate Cycle Races, with it being one of the very few MTB entries.
We are a non-profit event and instead the takings from one year go straight back into helping it run for another year. We offer a warm welcome to everyone, no matter what your ability. We’ve had everyone from Tour Series star Yanto Barker and Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt, to people who are dipping their toe in the waters of MTB for the first time. The strength of the Big Dog is that there are no egos. Simply people getting together to enjoying racing bikes on a summers day in a glorious setting.”
Anyway, on to the video. Enjoy:
(Can’t see the video? Click here)
Made by Bradley Wye, the creator of the excellent Pivot TwentyFour12 round-up edit for this year.
For more info about the event here. Singletrack will keep you posted on news and entries for next year’s event once details have been finalised.