Is the London 2012 Olympic MTB course open to the public?

If so, how do you get to it?

It is accessible But You have to book to then get taken around it by an instructor and understandably they charge you for this.

http://www.essexlegacy.org/olympic-venues/hadleigh-farm/can-i-ride-the-mountain-bike-course/

Until it’s open to the public….

Curious decision. I wonder how long before we need instructors to guide us around other trail centres 🙄

Having done one of these before Christmas, I certainly wouldn’t call it instruction or coaching. It only just counted as guiding! They even stressed it wasn’t coaching at the start. One of the guys there was blatantly and painfully risk averse to the point of robbing riders of their confidence.

I’ve done one of their courses. I wouldn’t call it coaching in the Jedi sense, but what they did was provide useful info on lines, how to tackle obstacles, etc., that was pretty essential to getting to most from the day. As for the ‘is this going to be needed for all trail centres’ – the course at Hadleigh was way above what I’d ridden at trail centres and I needed the tips given to help me get round.

We were told that eventually Hadleigh farm will be modified to enable it to be accessible to the public. That doesn’t necessarily mean sanitised to an inch of its life, but some obstacles will need qualifying lines, or to have easier lines installed to make it accessible to more people.

One of the guys there was blatantly and painfully risk averse to the point of robbing riders of their confidence.

The coaching/guiding was good when I went but perhaps having to call out ambulances nearly every weekend is getting to them!

I went late last year. Its brilliant and Tom Dowie was our guide. Top bloke.

Basically he offered some advice if you needed it / asked for it, but its not coaching / guiding really.

The guides demonstarted the lines and then you had a go. Most found the demonstrations either usefull or essential.

The course is technically difficult and demanding.

In our mixed group of 12 only two of us did all the sections, some didnt do a couple of them.

Contact Tom Dowie for info and advice.

An older thread …

Cheers

Question answered

Definitely worth the time and money. If I had turned up on my own I wouldn’t have ridden much, but with a little guidance from Tom and John I rode the lot! On a 100mm 26″ xc race hard tail too…