it’s a shame the biggest event in the sport is so far removed from the reality of xc.
This gets dragged out at every Olympics. I worked on the London Test Event (for STW actually, did a news story and some pics on it) and that was off the back of long threads on here about how it should be held at Glentress / CyB / Llandegla / insert trail centre of choice, how Essex didn’t have mountains, how it wasn’t “proper XC” (although there was no real agreement about what “proper XC” was and I remember one comment suggesting that if Olympic riders had to stop around a gate and eat pasties every 10 minutes, it’d be just as representative of STW-approved “proper XC” as any other definition…)
There are rules and regulations about the course – width of startline, number and severity of technical sections, amount of climbing per lap, weatherproofing (as near as reasonably possible) plus factors like where do the spectators and TV cameras view it from, pit zones, medical and safety facilities – it basically means that, just as with athletics and swimming, you need to build a facility which encompasses that.
Ideally one which stays in place afterwards and becomes a community cycling centre. Interestingly (in spite of many comments from armchair athletes on here about how they could nail the Olympic course one handed), the Hadleigh Park course had to be substantially dumbed down after the Olympics and that usually happens with every course. You’re right in that respect, they’re not “proper XC”. They’re WAY too hardcore for most riders to attempt.
