2021 HSBC UK National Cross-country Championships Announced

With any luck we’re going to see some racing this year. If you’ve managed to stay fit during lockdown, here’s a chance for you to get out your finest Lycra and push that heart rate up. Or maybe you’re going to the TwentyFour12 festival and you’ll head down early to cheer on the fast folks?

Here’s the press release from British Cycling (while Chipps is very excited to see the race return to Plymouth, he’d like to point out that the World Cup round was 1994 not 1984 as this release says!):

The 2021 HSBC UK | National Cross-country Championships will take place at Plymouth’s Newnham Park, British Cycling can today confirm, over the weekend of July 24-25.

The venue has a long history of hosting mountain bike racing and staged a world cup round in 1984. Domestic events have been hosted annually since, and this year’s championships will combine with the Exposure Lights TwentyFour12 Festival to create a nine-day long celebration of mountain biking.

Event organiser, Matt Williams, said:

“We are hugely excited to bring the HSBC UK | National Cross-country Championships back to Newnham Park in Plymouth, especially after suffering the disappointment of not being able to host the 2020 championships as planned.

“The HSBC UK | National Cross-country Championships and the Exposure Lights TwentyFour12 Festival will complement each other and we’re offering competitors the chance to camp at the venue from July 23 right through to August 2. With so much going on over both race weekends, it seemed only right that we should offer more activities during the week for people hoping to make it a mini holiday for the family.”

British Cycling’s Cycling Delivery Manager for the South West, Chris Brown, said:

“We’re thrilled to be bringing the 2021 HSBC UK | National Cross-country Championships to the South West, and after the disappointment of last year I know how hard the organising team has worked to pull together an even bigger and better festival of cycling for 2021. 

“We are working hard in the South West to get more people involved and excited about all of our disciplines, and we know that major events like this are a fantastic way to bring some of the world’s best riders to the region, inspire the next generation and get more people on bikes.”

Full details of the 2021 national MTB calendars can be found here.

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