http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/article/olympic-mountain-bike-venue-will-open-to-public-after-games-34803/

will be adapted to make it suitable for all abilities

so rocks removed and hardpacked laid then?

Though it was going to say there was now a bar there 🙁

Anyway as discussed in here course is well poo so don’t know why anyone would want to ride it

(removes tongue from cheek and gets coat)

Perhaps they will turn it into a cycle path! 😉

will be adapted to make it suitable for all abilities

so rocks removed and hardpacked laid then?

It’s far more technical than your average trail centre, it would have to be sanitised if its open to the public.

Sounds like they’ll ruin it so not to risk people getting hurt.
Just watched the video again and the rocky bits are the only interesting sections there. It’d be no fun whatsoever with the technical element reduced. What a waste. May as well cycle round the park.
You’d hope they’ll just include some chicken runs, but I doubt it.

It’s far more technical than your average trail centre, it would have to be sanitised if its open to the public.

Doesn’t look it in the photos and videos I’ve seen. Why can’t it just be left as a “black” run?

It needs chicken runs – everything does on a public trail.

Doens’t need the obstacles removed though.

Doesn’t look it in the photos and videos I’ve seen. Why can’t it just be left as a “black” run?

Since when does anything look steep/tough from photos?
The technical sections are harder than most people realise, the vast majority of normal riders wouldn’t be able to ride the A lines.

Well will you have to wear a helmet to assit?

I guess olymic athletes are just so awesome on their bike that us mere mortals couldn’t hope to get around without dying………

Leave the dam thing alone, mark the difficult bits (blue,red,black as per the usual system), if necessary put in an alterative “family route” around stuff, but please leave it to the riders to decide if they are capable of traversing the obsticles!

I though all of the main obstacles already had A, B and C lines. Should be fine with some marking. The long overtaking sections may need some work.

I’m so glad i live far away from this, . . . if i was near I’d be tempted to give it a go and come away completely discouraged…

brendog rode it and he said it was naff

so by sanitising theyll make it even naffer

Erm, its in Essex and it was built for XC racing. If you want mountains and trail centres, go to Wales. If they use this for the MSG series it’ll be awesome – fingers crossed

The talk about changing the route is because currently part of the course goes through a national heritage area (some old ruins I think). This will be removed once open to the public.

Since when does anything look steep/tough from photos?
The technical sections are harder than most people realise, the vast majority of normal riders wouldn’t be able to ride the A lines.

Even taking the “less steep in a photo” thing in to account (which I am very familiar with) I’ve just re-checked a load of photos and the features don’t look any harder than black Scottish trail centre stuff to me any way.

It’s far more technical than your average trail centre, it would have to be sanitised if its open to the public.

but why? surely it could be kept as a training facility for future british athletes, or as an international level course for national racing.

Perhaps they will turn it into a cycle path!

looks like a tow path for the most part

the vast majority of normal riders wouldn’t be able to ride the A lines.

bs

why do people who (a) havent ridden the course and (b) live no where the area just assume it’s rubbish. to date I havent heard one rider thats ridden or raced on it say its rubbish…

From my own epxeriences its a lot more demanding than some ofthe european world cup courses Ive ridden and if its so easy why were a lot of the riders on the test event (ie supposeldy the best riders in the world) opting for the b and in some cases c routes..??

Hopefully be racing on it myself next year – cant wait.

Glad to hear they’re opening it to the public after the games…

Though I will give it a month before some have-a-go-hero STW weekend warrior type, who believes he’s Mr. RadCore to the power of sic, attempts even the very first A-Line, goes arse over tit, busts his collarbone and several ribs, then tries to sue LOCOG, The Salvation Army, Martyn Salt, Seb Coe and anyone/everyone involved with the Olympic Games or this course, for millions of quid!

IT WILL HAPPEN, mark my words…

Mt Stromlo in Canberra

They have a gate for the big stuff outside of word cup racing. After that it’s all open, including gap jumps on the XC. If you screw up then it’s your problem

looks like a tow path for the most part

You’re proper rad aren’t you. I wish I was as good as you…

surely it could be kept as a training facility for future british athletes, or as an international level course for national racing.

It would make sense. I think if the Salvation Army weren’t involved it might be a different story. Redbridge and the other dedicated road cycling centres are awesome – a proper MTB facility would be excellent but I can’t see the demand being there for it. I know the GB XC team were up at Lee Quarry doing a lot of training, can’t see how you’d get the elevation in Essex to make it viable.

But for the MSG series and a round of the nationals this would be excellent

flange – Member

You’re proper rad aren’t you. I wish I was as good as you…

I think you’ve maybe taken that a bit wrong… I’m not sure I’d want to ride some of the A lines on a racy XC bike, even less at race pace with my lungs coming out of my mouth, but there’s a lot of the course that genuinely is built like a tow-path, wide and flat- by design, to allow passing etc.

What makes a good olympic route doesn’t neccesarily make a good everyday trail, I think some folks don’t grasp that and it causes a lot of the negative comments. But also, it means that if you take away the challenging bits there might not be much left worth saving.

I hope they can work out something worthwhile.

I’m with Northwind. I appreciate the sentiment in that they want to give cyclists something, but part of mountain biking’s charm is that it’s very nature is challenging and natural (in the main).

This is everything that mountain biking isn’t.

Cwmcarn gets it right.

Ah now that’s not what I said… I don’t disapprove of the olympic track at all, and I’d like a go as it is. But I don’t think a neutered, compromise solution to this will work at all, taking away the challenging parts won’t turn it into a nice easy xc ride for the family, it’ll still have all the racetrack stuff that makes it not much fun, without any of the challenge that could make it fun.

Hmm. I like forced analogies. It’s a bit like building a highdive pool for an event, then taking down the boards and opening it to the public as a swimming pool. It’ll be no use for the job it was designed for, but also no use for the public either.

What makes a good olympic route doesn’t neccesarily make a good everyday trail, I think some folks don’t grasp that and it causes a lot of the negative comments. But also, it means that if you take away the challenging bits there might not be much left worth saving

+1, well said I’d say. It’s not a trail centre, it’s a race course. Take out the bits that make it good as a race course and you’re not really left with much.

I’d have thought one of the big attractions to actually ride there is the “ooh look at me I’m riding the olympics course” if you’re actually riding the olympics with the heritage bit taken out and all the nasty bumps smoothed out who’s gonna ride it?

(and if it’s kept as a race course surely it should be kept as an olympic level race course…?)

i was gonna suggest a radcore stw timed race around the new centre when it opens

but then someone mention cwmcarn and i realised id much rather ride there

fwiw im sure that the hadleigh track will be nice but as i live on the opposite side round the m25 the trip to cwmcarn will still be preferable

(i also still think cwmcarn wouldve been a better venue for the olympic race)

(i also still think cwmcarn wouldve been a better venue for the olympic race)

Oh god, again! Seriously?

Why would it be better? I raced at Cwmcarn in 2007, it was shit, really really shit. That was for 200 students, for the 50 best riders in the world? Just no. This is more technical anyway. Cwmcarn is great for riding, but not for racing. CyB wasn’t much better.

I can’t see that many people would want to ride Hadleigh anyway, it’s a race course, designed to take about 15 minutes, it is not a trail centre, a lot of folk will be disappointed, even if they don’t modify it!

From reading further into this I don’t think all the tricky stuff is being taken out – as I understand it the course is being modified so some parts can be shut off until race days. And with good reason Id say, get an inexperienced rider trying some of this stuff being egged on by his mates and you’ll soon see liability claims coming in or the place branded dangerous and shut down:

We’ve already had some local areas (danbury which featured quite heavily in the earliest issues of dirt) balldozed and flattened do to an inexperienced rider literally going over his bars at the top of a 15ft vertical drop in and landing on his face at the bottom

Whatever the outcome I am sure it will be another course/event to add to the list……its all miles on a bike!! 😉

If you want mountains and trail centres, go to Wales.

Now I did wet myself with this comment.

Aren’t all the people on that hill standing at a weird angle? (or has the photo been taken at an angle to increase the apparent steepness of the track?)

It’s going to be one more mountain biking facility than currently exists. If it’s not ‘rad to the max’ so what there are places elsewhere that are.

From reading the news article it also sounds like there will be new skills loop with plenty of obstacles and a kids skills training area.

What’s not to like? Anything that will bring more kids into mountain biking and give them somewhere to develop has to be a good thing surely?