Small rocky up hill towards the end of the lap

Im almost glad they couldnt get up that! I cam across it a couple of weeks back (as its actually in the country park) and thought it was a downhill section – I fell off 3 times, the rocks are positioned so theres effectivley a gap with a rock bvlocking it all the way up (or down in my case)!!

why does everything boil down to how hard a course is…??

I quite often see some french dhing when I stay in the alps they have one course with different categories (full bounce – and its assoc levels, front suspension and rigid- yep rigid..)

Are they dumbed down boring courses…well last time I was the Anne Caroline and Nicolas Vouilloz turned up to race… Not the megaavalanche, grand raid, just a three minute downhill course.

on a slightly different note – just been speaking to some (non bike) guys that got tickets for the weekend – told them there was a round ofthe NPS taking place just down the road in two weeks (langdon hills), explained it wont be anywhere near as a spectacle as this weekend, but theyre coming down, in their words – looking forward to getting a bit nearer to the bikes…

absolon giving up – I thought he said his rear mech broke, cant say Id fancy my chances at hadleigh on a singlespeed?!

the road licence system would work great, as you wouldnt have the same people winning the same races year in year out, theyd be ‘nowhere to hide’ unless you stopped racing or stopped accumulating points

the categories as they are now, and as shown above, are open to abuse and different series have their own different categories…

The trouble is in the first year of a new licence everyone would have a ‘starter’ licence (cat 4?!)

The US have gone to a road style 5/4/3/2/1/E cat system, and we were meant to be doing the same, but it’s all gone very quiet, so I’m not sure.

is a great idea..

Yeah I only had tickets for the womens race too, but saying that if Id have gone yesterday would prob not have taken my main camera and would have wandered around a lot more…

from what I saw all the press seats and monitors seemed to be outside just in front of the start / finish, unless these were for something else but they all had clear plastic rain sheets attached to the booths which made me think there was electrical equipment there

I personally thought the comentary was great, chris boardman knows an awful lot about and is involved in the development of all the team GB cyclists and teams, and the other guy seemed to know an awful lot about the current crop of world cup cyclists and teams and past experience. It was informative without being patronizing (it was after all aimed atthe whole of the UK, not just the singletrack masses – and ebven they were left embarrassed after publicly breating chris for saying the xc riders were using tubs..!)

Rob Warner would have been an embarassment, and tbh prob knows nothing or has any interest in xc racing.

its not that xc has to change its format – its incredibly popular in most of europe and parts ofhte USA just the way it is and has been – what needs to happen is to get more people involved. Every year I speak to people that want to do it, but – havent got a good enough bike, arent fit enough, theyll do it with a bit more training, cant afford it, oh really wish Id done it now.. etc etc..

The structure of races needs to change too – theres no progress unless you do the NPS and have to have a licence – year after year IM racing against (or behind) the same people who are up to 5 minutes a lap faster than the rest of the the filed, yet cant be moved up to elite as they dont have a licence. It is so disheartening, I even tried to move myself up to Elite (as Im actually quicker than some of those riders) but dont have any points to be able to do it. Until theres a set structure open to everyone we’ll get no where…

I was chatting to some guys from germany over the weekend who asked the same question – theyre all planning to come and ride it too…

I think we’ve got a round of our local series pencilled in for next year too… Im aprehensively looking forward to it…

not at the moment – it will be in the future but it will not be in its current form – if only because part of the course went outside the farm and inot the country park behind it.

Whether or not all the features will be kept is still to be decided – prior to the race they put in barriers to stop people riding there – this could be done again and removed for racing – its gonig to depend I guess on how much demand there is / use it gets in the future – if theres a lot of demand then more chicken runs will be installed.

anyone who thinks you needa ton of money to buy a bike to race xc and be competitive is so wrong…

My current bike, which I race, and can get into the top ten of the local series in vets… is a 96 kona hei hei, ok in 96 it was a £1000 frame but the bike cost me less than £600 to put together (incl frame, sid world cups, m952 xtr groupset) it weighs less than some of the bikes being raced at hadleigh, and is fun to ride too… If I hadnt of wanted the frame so much I could prob have knocked another £100 £150 off the cost.

Its very apparent that watching the crowds over the weekend that xc racing is considerably more popular in europe and the US than the UK – you only had to see the 2 trainloads of Gunn Rita Dahl fans to realise that.. If the Olympics were in france I doubt many of us would have actually bothered to go see annie and liam race at all…

Ive been xc racing since the mid 90s, its heyday I guessm foot and mouth put a stop to is around 2000 and after that it never really recovered. A lot of places dont actually exist anymore, venues like Rats closed down I think due to costs and some places dont get used due to the local clubs not existing anymore…

Whereas I used to be able to race virtually every weekend with an hour or sos driving, Ive now got to drive for anyithng up to 4 hours and am lucky if I can find 2 races a month…

Some junior regional racing there on first weekend of October so chance to see some more racing. Wonder how many will go?

As usual no advertising at all – any idea of the dates Ill be there..!

it will be open after some work – whether it’s dumbing down the course or just contructed barriers to stop people straying onto the harder parts is yet to be decided.

glad to see everyone on here thought it was easy those olympic riders really are a bunch of wooses when they say its one of the hardest trickiest courses theyve ever ridden… What do they know not like theyre the best in the world or anything…

picture taken by footflaps yesterday…. from the some pics of womens mtb thread

looked like shed had a fall or two and thanked us for cheering her when she went past..

brainflex:

not been cropped though. more here if you view full size theyre huge…

http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/fitguy/hadleigh%20mtb/

ive got others (when I can find them) but thats her farright wearing a windvest! Not sure why it was the best part of 30degrees in there…

im still uploading – took over 300 nad cant find her at the mo – so make do with evey ones fave canadian – who it appears was racing with a cracked collar bone..?!?!

hats off to this girl – dead last and go a huge cheer when she came past….

the rest ofhte pics are still uloading….

did notice paolo pezzo wandering around in a skinsuit and silly hat too….

someone over on bikeradar posted up about a couple of spares – not sure what for…

getting to the park and ride will be easy its far enough out of town – Im assuming part of the reason for closing the A13 is for getting team vehicles and the shuttles thorugh

the park and ride is now at the ford tracotr factory in Basildon (was supposed to be on Canvey but not finishing sadlers farm junction basically screwed that).

the easiest way to get to the venue will be by train -and walk / get the shuttle – from leigh station its a 40 minute walk (some up some pretty steep hills) or 20 minutes on the shuttle bus.

There are two roads (the A13 or A127) to get youto hadleigh – the A13 will be closed partly which means everyone wanted to go anywhere will be on the A127 – on a good day this is gridlocked on a saturday – tomorrow I doubt youll go anywhere in a car.

I live in Southend Im getting the train and walking, with a 2 year and 4 year old, we’ll put them on our shoulders, or get the shuttle if its not a huge queue.

I really cant stress enough the car is not the way to get here unless youre leaving today

😯

Cant you forget your passport..!?

I am but to my shame I wont be in Southend saturday night?! As soon as we’re finished with the racing Ill be heading over my parents…

Very bad planning on my part… In hindsight I could have probably put up a couple of guys and gone for a ride sunday morning…

Hmm… excuses for not seeing parents & inlaws..!

just before they start are they balancing the bikes with the wheel wedged against the gate, like a kindo f track stand??

as others have said old leigh will prob be the place to be, albeit a bit crowded

Follow me in the chase for my dreams. Every goal I can imagine I want to achieve, I can’t do it on my own.

wish Id read that before last night… 😉

chipps – find glenn horton of hadleigh MTB club on facebook :

https://www.facebook.com/#!/glenn.horton.16

Im sure they’ll be more than happy to recomend some pubs / bars (or more to the point which ones to stay away from)

unfortunately as she was coming towards me it actually looked like a kid on their bike, but going hell for leather. IT wasnt till she passed I noticed the team kit…. I did contemplate turing round and following her but I figured that was a bit to stalkerish!

Nah, after seeing Emily Batty riding virtually past my house last night I discovered hitherto unknown levels of self control which stopped me turning round and riding after her…

Or maybe it was the fact I would have been embarrassed that I couldnt keep up… 😯 But hell what a view….

thatll easiliy get you there in plenty of time, but the later you get there the longer the journey will be, unless as i said theyve worked out some kind of traffic slipstream or something…

have they actually said what time the park & ride starts??

if its basildon hour plus… If theyve actually sorted out some kind of traffic clearance / avoidance 30 minutes.

buzzard the shuttle will take 15-20 minutes, or you could easily walk from leigh station – get there early it may take an hour at worst.

Clink youre not kidding… what theyve sent out is whoefully indadequate…

my bad – Im quite impressed with this course though – although im quite sure I could ride it anywhere near as good as this lot…

thats not where it is is an outside course in stratford…

I think park & ride is in basildon – I can actually see this cocking up as theres a mother of a junction to cross thats been at standstill most weekends – Im guessing on a good day an hour!?

I dont mean to be putting anyone off but driving, and not using the park and ride may cause mre headaches than its worth – getting into or out of southend on a normal saturday with the sun up can literally take hours, unless youre planning on getting here dead early (pre 8am) I really think you could end up missing the races.

If you do you are proberbly better off going through to Southend or even shoebury parking there and getting the train back to hadleigh.

Im still in two minds about biking in just becasue it means carrying shoes and helmets with me, will prob jump on the train to leigh and walk or get the shuttle.