Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)
  • What makes a world class XC race course?
  • SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    Seeing as many people, including me, think that the 2012 olympic course is a whole heap of rubbish – what makes a good one?

    I think that the Canberra 2009 World Champs one is as good as I’ve seen from a watching on TV perspective.

    nbt
    Full Member

    Surrounded By Zulus – Member

    Seeing as many people, including me, think that the 2012 olympic course is a whole heap of rubbish – what makes a good one?

    Probably a question better asked of a world class XC racer rather than a bunch of forum dwellers who have already said the course for London 2012 is crap, in stark opposition to the XC racers who’ve said it looks like a good RACE course

    mtbmatt
    Free Member

    The Canberra course was extreme to say the least. I have ridden it (although in a degraded condition) and it didn’t really like it. The climb was narrow, hard to pass and extremely difficult which no doubt led to hold ups. The start of the downhill (ie. Hammerhead and just before it) was super technical and still quite narrow and then the bottom section was fantastic.

    The WC course at Stromlo doesn’t get ridden because it is too extreme for just about everyone: both up and downhill. There are far better trails on the Mountain. Not the best course. No where near IMO.

    The only other top level course I’ve ridden is Dalby and that is great. Good climbs that are wide enough to overtake. Singletrack sections with breaks to allow passing opportunities, technical sections that have multiple options. It is fun to ride and fun to race.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    As above, the WC course at Dalby is excellent. A whole load of fun to ride under normal conditions but you can see how it’d double up as a great race course – as above, technical multi line sections that reward racers taking the riskier, technical lines, plenty of overtaking sections, tough climbs, fast swoopy singletrack and LOTS of good vantage points for spectators. Why a field down south was chosen over Dalby is a mystery.

    GaryLake
    Free Member

    I think one thing to bear in mind is the racing. The tougher courses technically can become a little processional IMO. As lame as I think Essex looks at face value, stick 50+ riders on it, could be quite exciting as you can overtake everywhere.

    mogrim
    Full Member

    Why a field down south was chosen over Dalby is a mystery.

    Be even more of a mystery if they’d chosen a forest in Yorkshire for the London Olympics, though.

    mogrim
    Full Member

    As lame as I think Essex looks at face value

    Personally disagree – it’s an XC race course, doesn’t look that bad at all.

    epicsteve
    Free Member

    The only XC race course I’ve ridden is the Fort William one. While enjoyable enough in places it did seem to have a tendency to climb up the bits I’d have wanted to descend, so I reckon what I want from a route and what makes a decent XC race course are probably quite far apart.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Why a field down south was chosen over Dalby is a mystery.

    Erm, cos it’s like, the London Lympics? Y’know, so stuff needs to be at least fairly near London?

    Did that thought ever cross your mind? Is the fact that you haddunt thought of that the cause of so much mystery?

    Anyway; MTB XC racing is a low-interest TV sport compared to athletics and track cycling and that, so the organisers won’t be bothering so much about it. I mean let’s be honest; how many folk worldwide (not just you cos you’re into bikes) be actually watching a 2 hour or whatever XC race which doesn’t provide much in the way of real excitement or entertainment? So why go to great lengths to create a wonderful course when not many people will be watching? TBH I doubt I’ll even be watching; I’ll probbly be out fleecing tourists or something…

    carbon337
    Free Member

    Erm, cos it’s like, the London Lympics? Y’know, so stuff needs to be at least fairly near London?

    I dont see the Sailing events on the Thames, nor all the footy events only in London grounds.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Oh, and instead of this yet again tedious troll from Zootroll; how about starting a thread on ‘What makes a World Class Velodrome’? Hmm? Or is that beyond your capabilities, SBZ?

    Ooh look near my house not near your house. 😀

    mogrim
    Full Member

    I dont see the Sailing events on the Thames, nor all the footy events only in London grounds.

    Not sure why, but footy is always all over the country, and sailing is (for obvious reasons) “allowed” to be elsewhere.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    I dont see the Sailing events on the Thames, nor all the footy events only in London grounds.

    The sailing is down in Dorset for obvious reasons, as the conditions for sailing are ideal there (Beijing olympic sailing was thousands of miles from Beijing itself), and the footy, well that’s quite daft tbh as there are several stadiums in London which could host matches; Wemberly, Emirates, WHL, Stamford Bridge, Twickenham, Loftus Road, Craven Cottage, The Valley, Upton Park and Selhurst Park. Even the nearby Brisbane Road for early stage matches.

    Sure, the XC course would undoubtedly be better somewhere like the Lakes, Wales, Scotland, but XC racing is a low-priority to the organisers. A hill in Essex which has good access from London, easy to set up TV equipment and that, is a safer bet.

    SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    Oh look Elfin – Scotland is getting its own world class velodrome.

    grum
    Free Member

    I dont see the Sailing events on the Thames, nor all the footy events only in London grounds.

    And the Olympics was sold on being of benefit to the whole country, not just London.

    Drac
    Full Member

    Well I suppose it’s been awhile since someone moaned about the Olympics XC course.

    TheBrick
    Free Member

    Be even more of a mystery if they’d chosen a forest in Yorkshire for the London Olympics, though.

    Erm, cos it’s like, the London Lympics? Y’know, so stuff needs to be at least fairly near London?

    Erm they didn’t stick the sailing on the Essex, Kent or Sussex coast did they? It would be no different to that.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Great. Fantastic. Not as nice as our Lympic one, but it’s nice to see the Scottish people getting something. And the UK will have 3, not one, World Class Velodromes. Excellent.

    As for ‘what makes a world class XC course’; one which will have world class XC racers on it. And if they’ve said it’s good, then I’ll listen to them, not some internet troll.

    Why not come down, have a go on it? Prove what a World Class XC racer you are? I’m sure we can find some Soft Southern lads for you to race against. You up for that? Or just gonna sit there and whinge and moan and criticise like you normally do?

    carbon337
    Free Member

    I dont see the Sailing events on the Thames, nor all the footy events only in London grounds.

    And the Olympics was sold on being of benefit to the whole country, not just London.

    Eh – in that case then we could of moved the OXC. That’s my whole argument.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Erm they didn’t stick the sailing on the Essex, Kent or Sussex coast did they? It would be no different to that.

    I don’t know nuffink about sailing, but I’d imagine the UK sailing community were involved in choosing a location, and Poole was the best option.

    SurroundedByZulus
    Free Member

    What part of London is Hampden Park located in? It’s not even the same country …

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    It’s in Scotland, so you’ll be able to go and see a London Olympic Event. Aren’t we good to you? 🙂

    Are we done here? I think so.

    Unless you are going to put your money where your gob is, come down and race against some XC racers down here….

    You’re not though are you? Just gobbing off as usual. Smee Smee Smee….

    Yes, I think we’re done, Mrs Higgins…

    carbon337
    Free Member

    I don’t know nuffink about sailing, but I’d imagine the UK sailing community were involved in choosing a location, and Poole was the best option.

    Well i know loads about it and 90% of the major events in this county go there or in that region. Its always the same.

    To do a major champs we regularly had to tow down from the NE, in some instances fortnightly. When holding a Europeans in the NE we struggled to attract 20 boats. But this is getting onto a different theme.

    What im trying to say is that TeamGBR sailing wouldnt have even contemplated going elsewhere.

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    Are the 2012 MTB riders bunking in the Olympic village? If so I’d say it (only just) justifies choosing a crap venue closer to London, I thought part of the “Olympic Ideal” was that everyone got a chance to have a go on a gymnast or something. If the teams are staying out closer to Hadleigh Farm, then they should have shifted the whole thing to Portland where they could have a cracking course and bunked with the sailors.

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    Like the Beijing olympics didn’t have some events hundreds of miles away from Beijing because the facilities were there which Beijing didn’t have? Same in this case?

    Jesus, this forum is home to some complete morons…

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    I don’t know nuffink about sailing, but I’d imagine the UK sailing community were involved in choosing a location, and Poole was the best option.

    And the UK MTB community was involved and chose a field in Essex with no existing trails so everything had to be built from scratch?

    Face it, they should have had the Olympics somewhere else in the UK with decent facilities instead of having to make do and have it in the sh*t hole that is London.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Oh dear. 😐

    I look forward to seeing you taking over as Olympic President sometime soon, DBW…

    nbt
    Full Member

    Face it, they should have had the Olympics somewhere else in the UK with decent facilities instead of having to make do and have it in the sh*t hole that is London.

    I believe you;ll find that Manchester tried and failed.

    trickydisco
    Free Member

    Erm, cos it’s like, the London Lympics? Y’know, so stuff needs to be at least fairly near London?

    oh yea.. all the events are close to london 😉

    mrmo
    Free Member

    ok i will bite.

    It is a race course not a sunday bimble. You may or may not be aware that racers do not stop half way up a climb and get a cheese board out, you may or may not be aware that racers leave the car park and ride their bikes.

    Youo don’t need a big hill for a race, in my opinion lots of small climbs and decents are more testing than one big climb, keep the track reasonably wide and you can get people over taking.

    The number of people on here who complain about F1 being a procession. make the lap 5miles of singletrack and hey presto you have a procession.

    As for invoving the MTB community, who designed the course? Martyn Salt? obviously never designed an mtb course in his life….

    grum
    Free Member

    Martyn Salt? Just googled him…. Seems he was never a mountain biker, just a marketing guy.

    Meanwhile, somewhere in Marjons College, Plymouth a disillusioned retail manager turned mature student was planning a career move……..

    This impressive start would set Salt’s direction over the next decade to become one of the most renowned mountain bike race organisers in the UK, and more astonishing for a scene awash with budding amateurs was that the man from Plymouth held no initial interest in the sport.

    http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/mtb/article/mtb20090609-Interview-Martyn-Salt

    Still, I think the course looks alright for what it is – can’t say I’d be itching to have a go on it but that’s not really the point. I did enjoy the carnage of that one in Australia (I think it was).

    Country_Gent
    Free Member

    I do love these regular rants. Living right on the door step of the venue I am personally pleased to see it here. Yeah it may not look like the best trail centre the worlds ever seen but it’s better than we had before so I personally couldn’t give a cr4p what the trolls on here think!

    Surely one more MTB venue than we had before is a good thing, regardless of how rad it is!

    njee20
    Free Member

    The only venues outside London are:

    – Eton Dorney (Windsor way): Rowing
    – Hadleigh Farm: MTB
    – Broxbourne, Essex: kayaking
    – Portland: sailing
    – plus the regional football stadia used in the opening rounds.

    All the important football games are played in London, it’s just the ones no one cares about that are in the other regions.

    The IOC are very hot on the spread of venues, it was a huge pull for London that events wouldn’t be all over the place, like it or not it is a London Olympics, and the fact there are 8 football games elsewhere is neither here nor there. I believe the reason this was done was because a special designated ‘Olympic Route Network’ is defined for each venue, allowing safe and easy passage of the athletes and ‘Olympic Family’. If you start using all the football stadia in London you rather quickly start taking over the entire city for one event. Place them in the regions and it’s much less stress on the infrastructure.

    Sailing has a very unique requirement, and I strongly suspect all the idiots saying “why not just do it on the Thames/Sussex/Kent Coast” is like all the sailors saying “why not just hold the MTB in Hyde Park”, there’s grass.

    It does seem ridiculous the constant whinging, I wonder how long this will go on for, I imagine well into 2013 and beyond.

    I’ve got my tickets, I’ll be there!

    mtbmatt
    Free Member

    As for invoving the MTB community, who designed the course? Martyn Salt? obviously never designed an mtb course in his life….

    Martyn didn’t design the course, he is in charge of running the event though and I can’t think of a better person for the job.
    Phil Saxena designed/built the course.

    mtbmatt
    Free Member

    – Eton Dorney (Windsor way): Rowing
    – Hadleigh Farm: MTB
    – Broxbourne, Essex: kayaking
    – Portland: sailing
    – plus the regional football stadia used in the opening rounds.

    I thought the shooting was at Bisley, or do you consider that inside London?

    ocrider
    Full Member
    molgrips
    Free Member

    As lame as I think Essex looks at face value, stick 50+ riders on it, could be quite exciting as you can overtake everywhere

    Exactly.

    If you think that a nice bit of techie singletrack makes good racing, then you’re a complete numpty.

    An XC race course needs to be fast and open with lots of overtaking opportunities. It’s not a Sunday bike ride, it’s an XC race with a close field, and taht has requirements taht some of you seem utterly unaware of.

    Still, don’t let that stop you bleating shite online though.

    The people who designed it know more about racing than you; the people who will ride it know more about racing than you; the people who are running the event know more about racing than you. So STFU basically, you know nothing.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Ha ha! Nice one Mol! Like it… 😀

    I like the fact that the Lympics being in London really pisses some people off. Speshly people like SBZ.

    London = Better than where you live. Sorry, but it’s true. You may not like it, but that’s the way it goes. The sooner you accept it, relax your sphincters and just go with it, then the happier you’ll be. 🙂

    I do love these regular rants. Living right on the door step of the venue I am personally pleased to see it here.

    Innit though? Just jealousy cos all they’ve probbly got in whatever miserable Godforsaken dump they live in is a couple of cycle paths and a run-down municipal swimming pool and dilapidated running track with bits of burnt out car on it, surrounded by The People That Culture Forgot. 😉

    Ha ha! You’re rubbish so there!

    No don’t argue please I’m not interest. Quiet now.

    Wozza
    Free Member

    London = Better than where you live.

    How did you figure that out?

    London

    Not London

    but as much as it pains me to agree with you… you’re right about the olympics. The course is in the right place.

    Elfinsafety
    Free Member

    Erm you’ve posted a pic of some bleak, desolate place miles from anywhere with virtually none of the things I enjoy in life in close proximity. Not really sure what point you’re trying to make. I don’t mind countryside for a bike ride now and then and that, but I woon’t want to live there. Y’know, people are different and that. I prefer an urban environment to a rural one, generally. Now it might be difficult to get your mind round that, but praps you might want to consider people might just conceivably think different to you.

    No-one’s forcing you to watch the Lympics, or ever come to London. Fact is you will do both.

    So be quiet.

    Why you not use this picture to make your point?

    I like, so that’s all that matters really.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 58 total)

The topic ‘What makes a world class XC race course?’ is closed to new replies.