Planning on entering the first round of this year’s Scottish Cross Country series, taking place in Forfar later this month.

I recall that they’ve held a round there previously. Anyone got any info on the course, conditions, etc?

Flinty

Not one for ultra flyweight tires its in an old quarry area

Fast flowy down hills 🙂 , they. They Loves natural tech , not privy to the exact course but used to ride the area all the time with the host club when i lived there.

Ahhh, cheers.

Never ridden around that area before, so looking forward to it.

I rode the course there last year – I understand that this year’s course is largely the same with a few tweaks.

Nothing terrifying or hugely technical, but it includes a short ride along the top of a wideish stone wall, a blast across some open grassy tracks, a section through the woods which got a bit churned up last year, some stiff climbs up short rocky firetrack sections, and some great swoopy bits (steep down and up chutes) which aren’t massively technical, but good fun.

It was very wet in the weeks preceding the 2012 race, but the course generally held up well, aside from a short muddy stint here and there. As above, there is some flint around, but I think a middle of the road tyre will generally be okay – I don’t recall seeing lots of punctures last year.

There was a more technical short bit taken out by the commissaires last year, but I didn’t see it. I think there is some talk of something similar being added back in this year.

Do you live locally? If you look on garmin connect you’ll find a GPS track from last year’s race, or I think you could probably get a tour round by the course organisers.

Here is this year’s course via the wonders of Strava.

http://app.strava.com/segments/3409136