[Closed] Olympic mountain biking...

As i've said on twitter, i think i'm one of the rare few that aren't bothered by this location...Early days yet but i'm sure the course will be great

Its early days, but that looks woeful,

is that an uphill or downhill bit?

Looks like a slightly uninspired 4x track!

it's woeful, and won't even survive as a legacy facility

[img] [/img]

I can't help but thinking it looks like the Teletubbies will be riding there.

Houns, that looks as gnarly as Lampton Park 🙁

Hmm technical isn't it!

Actually, for an xc race - which is, imo, designed to be ridden at speed that's probably as 'gnarly' as you want it to get.

I think those rocks on the run out will cause problems when the bunch goes through though...

Agree with wwaswas..It's for an XC race, it's not going to be a super technical/steep/rocky black run at a trail centre designed for "all mountain" bikes

Second picture is better, All the XC circuits from the previous olypics have always been overly tame. Olympic XC is just like a rode race these days, hopefully the site will have potential to be upgraded so to speak after the event has finished

Looks like a cross bike would clean up on that course.

Actually, for an xc race - which is, imo, designed to be ridden at speed that's probably as 'gnarly' as you want it to get.

rubbish, course design should test everyone's skills including the leaders

All the XC circuits from the previous olypics have always been overly tame. Olympic XC is just like a rode race these days,

hopefully the site will have potential to be upgraded so to speak after the event has finished

Having watched the latest Trek video on BikeRadar I have to say that the world champs XC course looked like a serious proposition.

Agree that there is a long way to go to 2012 though.

Are the Dalby people involved at all?

Pity it will be lost afterwards, bad management that.

Looks like a cross bike would clean up on that course.

the first rule of XC course design should be to make sure that cross bikes would be at a significant disadvantage

What big'n'daft said, XC races aren't road races anymore, there'll be more technical bits than that, most of the top courses are more technical than trail centres these days. It's still a long way off, I think it'll be great.

Just a real shame that the course won't remain open, would be somewhere else for folk to ride

It'd be a 12 minute lap or something though, not exactly a new trail centre.

Trust me, living in the flats of east anglia it would be a good alternative to Thetford forest or local bridleways!!

It'd be a 12 minute lap or something though, not exactly a new trail centre

so is Lee Quarry, apparently that's a trail centre

Hornet600 - Member

Trust me, living in the flats of east anglia it would be a good alternative to Thetford forest or local bridleways!!

Too right, this is the real kicker.

Big n D, if you can do a circuit of Lee Quarry in 12 minutes, then you should be in the ****in Olympics.

time is based on the results of the race series there so actually achievable

although not by me 😉

But that's not 100% of the riding there, there's a skills area etc as well. You could do a 12 minute lap of Swinley in an XC race, but there's still hours of trails.

Agree it's a shame, but they are building it solely for this one race, there'll be an MTB legacy course at the Olympic Park.

The Dalby course was very XC technical and if Emily Battys Blog, after the race, represents the views of the elite racers, then the more technical the better. Emily gave Dalby the big thumbs up, said it was one of the best courses she'd ridden and she would want it to be the 2012 Olympic course. There possibly might be different views from Euro XC racers who've come from a road background, but none of them have nice arses, so I wasn't interested in their views. 8)

There's more money in road, there's very few top XC racers to have come from road, usually vice versa. Courses are getting much more technical, the 'ride around a field' days are long gone, which I think is good. That's not to say they're all good bike handlers, but at the top end there's no real muppets.

This was in the Champery XC course:

[img] [/img]

more stuff and pictures here:

http://www.essexlegacy.org/hadleigh-farm/about-hadleigh-farm/venue-plans/

[img] [/img]

more stuff on the Sally Army website as well as they own the site.

[i]There possibly might be different views from Euro XC racers who've come from a road background[/i]

well Dalby got voted the best XC event by the UCI so I think it got fairly universal aclaim, tbh.

rootes1 - Member

more stuff and pictures here:

http://www.essexlegacy.org/hadleigh-farm/about-hadleigh-farm/venue-plans/

Actually, that's quite positive:

The course would need to be adapted in order to make it safe for use by the public, however it is anticipated that many of the key features could be retained. Any proposals would be subject to a further planning application and further public consultation. We will keep you updated as this develops.

http://www.essexlegacy.org/hadleigh-farm/hadleigh-farm-website/

that first picture is tragic, xc racing should be as technical as can be gotten away with

TV always flattens courses and makes them look easy the olympics wouldve been a great opportunity to showcase some of the amazing riding in britain and an xc race against the spectacular backdrop of say ...south wales would have been awesome

considering that the 1st choice of venue was decided to be too flat by the uci/ioc it doesnt surprise me that the course design of this one is so uninspiring

Not this again, FFS!

1. It's the London Olympics, not the UK Olmypics, like it or not, the IOC are very hot on that. Yes, the sailing is in Weymouth, there was no venue closer that could support it

2. Mountain biking has the fewest spectator tickets of any sport in the Olympics, it's not a huge pull, the IOC don't really care!

3. South Wales would be sh1t, the course is designed to be good for spectators and TV, a course which heads out into the wilderness, with no spectators, to return 30 minutes later would be rubbish. Having a short cloverleaf course which loops back on itself several times is vastly more interesting.

on your points
1. my understanding is that other London entric venues were suggested but turned down
2. I imagine they do care, it's one of the reasons that DH mtb or 4x aren't on, they are far more TV friendly but don't fit the criterea (and would have been a good medal chance for GB)

3. course design is course design, south wales doesn't mean 30 min laps into nowhere

The legacy stuff looks to have moved forward, however I'd expect to see family friendly trails remain there not Olympic standard XC rom the comments

Does anyone else find xc mtb'ing a crap spectator sport (on the TV anyway)? Personally I find it really boring. I have similar issues with Squash, I like playing it but world class people on the TV just make it look too easy.

I find the same for DH racing on TV too though - mtbs on TV just look crap and slow.

my understanding is that other London entric venues were suggested but turned down

Indeed, Swinley Forest was being touted, but as they're building a course from scratch, what's wrong with Hadleigh? They can do exactly what they want that way. Plus all the others had various issues you can choose to believe or not!

I imagine they do care, it's one of the reasons that DH mtb or 4x aren't on, they are far more TV friendly but don't fit the criterea (and would have been a good medal chance for GB)

Alright don't care is a bit strong, but what I mean is that they're not going to 'bend the rules' and locate the MTBing at Dalby, when it's such a 'minority' sport.

course design is course design, south wales doesn't mean 30 min laps into nowhere

But if you're not making the most of the large hills there, why have it there? Look at Margam Park as an XC venue, it's a very lonely lap, you never see a single spectator on the course, it'd be rubbish for an Olympic race!

I think that looks good. You'd need a good bit of skill to get a speed advantage on there. Just cos it's not rocky doesn't mean it's not technical. After all, their challenge is not just to get down it, it's to get down it shaving off as many milliseconds as they can.

Like Formula 1. Very technical, but the circuit's completely smooth.

[i]Like Formula 1. Very technical, but the circuit's completely smooth. [/i]
and also terminally dull apart from the 1st corner and a few overtaking moves

the ioc may well look down on mtbing id just like for the uci to have pushed for an 'extreme' venue to promote the sport

but mediocrity, compromise and a brief comfortable chauffeur drive for the olympic execs are obviously the deciding factor here

wrc also held in places like wales manage just fine with tv coverage

Like Formula 1. Very technical, but the circuit's completely smooth.
and also terminally dull apart from the 1st corner and a few overtaking moves

Alright then, touring cars, superbikes, stock car racing, whatever - they're all done on smooth tracks. My point is rocks isn't the same thing as technical.

Just because the trail is smooth DOES NOT mean the race will be rubbish. In fact, it probably means the race will be better since the racers will be closer and there'll be more overtaking and jostling. The most fun races I've done were definitely the flat ones, and NOT the ones with the most interesting trails.

Having someone breathing down my neck for an hour was far more exhilerating than riding some technical descent - I can do that any time I like.

wrc also held in places like wales manage just fine with tv coverage

That's a ridiculous analogy, firstly the WRC is like a time trial, rather than a bunch race. They're also going slightly faster so get between remote points rather more rapidly.

They're obviously only just starting to build it, sure it'll get far more technical than that, they've gotta start somewhere!

Also worth noting is that places that are fun to ride are rarely fun to race. Among the worst race courses I've ever done are Cwmcarn and Coed Y Brenin, which are both great places to ride. Afan falls very firmly into that camp too.

The most fun races I've done were definitely the flat ones, and NOT the ones with the most interesting trails.

But It's called [b]mountain[/b] biking!

I agree with BnD on this one...

[url= http://www.bikemagic.com/event-news/billy-whenman-full-of-praise-for-olympic-mtb-venue/9096.html ]Interesting article here[/url].

As it says, there's more elevation than Beijing. I can't wait personally!

But It's called mountain biking!

So? It's not always done on mountains is it?

And it's only called that in English too.

If they have an open test event, I'm there 🙂

Yes I thought that, I'll go along!