New Mountain Biking venue in Essex confirmed for Olympics

Anonymous

http://tinyurl.com/56exdx :shock: :shock:

grantway

LOL why not Epping wr it all goes on Hadliegh never heard of it ?
Thats a place you pass when you go to Southend.

Another mistake in my eyes

cjw

I cycled there yesterday for the first time. Very windy. Good steep hill going up to the castle and some nice singletrack through the bracken but nothing really challenging. Also its all open (few trees) - good I suppose for watching but a bit dull to ride I thought.

You would think GB could do better wouldn't you - well we could if it didn't have to be in Essex :roll:

cjw

Little linky for you http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/dis/guc.jsp?channelOid=14413&guideOid=16906&guideContentOid=14438

ride_whenever

out of interest, why does it have to be in essex?

cjw

No idea really, s'pose it because it's the London olympics and the committe promissed Essex a slice of the action would be my guess.

grantway

I agree ride_whenever I thought they should have shared the games
around the country Just seems that every thing is London.

Wouldnt mind London is now a Sh it Hole to be honest full of muggers
and want to be gangster's

We also seem to be the people they can always tap into our pockets
for money even though we get nothing for it, and to top it off we are
now feeling this recession.

robmanic1

Doesn't matter anyway, after the opening ceremony our guys must have been thinking "holy cr@p, how are we going to compete with this?" I hope I'm wrong, but we don't have a great record with delivering this kind of thing on time and within budget (millenium dome anyone?).

Interesting to hear RedKen on the radio yesterday "we're not even going to try to compete with China's opening ceremony, they were trying to make a point, and besides we couldn't possibly afford that amount of fireworks!" Oh dear!! :roll:

grantway

Robmanic exactly he said that if we want to do that we would in London only
cough up another £ 00.50p pence a month on our council tax Bast tard
best thing was to get rid of the rettard but is that what we have now ?

Ladys and Gentle men thats Politics

cjw

I was just reading what they said here;

According to Games organisers there are two “major hill areas”, separated by a valley which will create the technical climbs for the course.

and had a look at my Garmin trail. The two major hill areas go from - essentially - sea level to 60m. My total assent over the 12 miles was 1000 feet (300m). I guess if they do some some good course building it could be a good route though - and we would get to use it afterwards :P

FlatEssexSociety

Clue to the issue with Essex is in my name.

We're too flat. I've never even tried riding Hadleigh, but the highest point in Essex is Danbury (nr Chelmsford) and they can't even have proper trails there....

May have been better to race round the car park at Lakeside, at least there's up and down ramps.....

Chaka Ping

ride_whenever wrote:

out of interest, why does it have to be in essex?

Because Essex is the "partner county" of the games.

Stinks, doesn't it?

ride_whenever

New sport for the olympics, car park drift racing!

Find a multistorey car park, fixed gear bikes, race up to the top and race/drift down.

Bromski

Smacks of "backhander" to me.

Reminds me of when the historic eye infirmary in Middlesbrough was demolished and replaced with an Aldi "in Middlesbrough's best interests" despite a higher bid from a firm that was going to restore the building to it's former glory.

It won't be the last bizarre decision we see in the run up to our olympics, which I have no doubt will be embarrassing compared to the Beijing effort..

FlatEssexSociety

Another potential Essex bike event -

1. Convincing the wage monkey on the gates at the rail station that it IS a folding bike, even if it don't say 'Brompton'. based on the lack of comprehension, you can do this with any bike, but +10 points for a penny farthing.

or

2. Pavement Cycling. try and ride through Chelmsford only on the pavement while proper bikers try to kick you off, stare you out and generally make you stop

or, we could crucify Seb Coe and mount him on the end of Southend pier..... :shock:

papasmurf.

If the legacy is that a decentish trail is left to the public to use in an area where there not much for riders then its good..but thats the only good thing I can think off..even if they thought wales or sctoland was too nonlondon then theres plenty of other places near london that aren't Meh!

cjw

I've just found the Beijing course here http://www.uci.ch/ucisite/doc/GPS%20Course%20Analysis%20-%20Laoshan/start.html

And that is only about 60m climbs as well so not that different to Hadleigh.

grantway

Looking at those pics tells me why I dont do XC riding and what boring bike
I have to ride

I would be bored Might has well take me dog for a walk and cycle round
the park, They should bring in Downhill.

ExeterSimon

Interesting to hear RedKen on the radio yesterday "we're not even going to try to compete with China's opening ceremony, they were trying to make a point, and besides we couldn't possibly afford that amount of fireworks!" Oh dear!!

There's only one way 2012's opening ceremony will beat Beijing's and that's to ask everyone to look towards Dover and blow up France.

drewcole81

cjw wrote:

I cycled there yesterday for the first time. Very windy. Good steep hill going up to the castle and some nice singletrack through the bracken but nothing really challenging. Also its all open (few trees) - good I suppose for watching but a bit dull to ride I thought.

You would think GB could do better wouldn't you - well we could if it didn't have to be in Essex :roll:

They are going to be spending millions on it to turn it into a proper MTB venue....

I think its good for our sport and will leave a lasting place for us all to enjoy after the games have gone, I think its time for us all to pull together and back it rather than bitching about it.

I for one can't wait to have a go over there.

cjw

It would be great to have a world class track on the doorstep (just about) without having to travel to 100's of miles (Thetford or Swinley are closest). As it is we have nothing great around here.... yes there are tracks to ride Thorndon (although they are closing most of it off for bikes these days), Laindon (gravel track mostly and most of the single track is verbotten to bikes), Danbury (not tried yet).

So I agree with you

drewcole81

cjw wrote:

It would be great to have a world class track on the doorstep (just about) without having to travel to 100's of miles (Thetford or Swinley are closest). As it is we have nothing great around here.... yes there are tracks to ride Thorndon (although they are closing most of it off for bikes these days), Laindon (gravel track mostly and most of the single track is verbotten to bikes), Danbury (not tried yet).

So I agree with you

Danbury is fairly good, I live next door to it, its good for messing around and some short fast single track.
Epping is probably the best around these parts for some XC Riding.

Epping couldn't be used for the games though as its a Royal Park and your not aloud to host games in Royal Parks.

Buckle

I'm not sure how true it is that the area will remain MTB specific. The land is owned by the Sally Army and is a farm attraction. http://www.hadleighfarm.co.uk/

I'd love to think I no longer have to go to Epping or Thetford to ride and it'd make a nice change to Danbury but I can't see it tbh. I only hope I'm proved wrong as it's only just up the road from me and will save the mileage on my poor old car...

cjw

Yes it is. The farm attraction is a rare breeds small section (and some rabits / hens) at the top part nearest the town along with a nice cafe. Quite remote from the hilly bits and the castle. I imagine the problem would be maintaining the mountain bike area after the olympics have buggered off. Doubt that the Sally lot would be interested, but who knows... tell them we're all alkys and need some soup at the end and you never know... hic... :shock:

spursn17

drewcole81 wrote:

Epping couldn't be used for the games though as its a Royal Park and your not aloud to host games in Royal Parks.

It's not a royal park, it belongs to the City of London Corporation.

drewcole81

spursn17 wrote:

drewcole81 wrote:

Epping couldn't be used for the games though as its a Royal Park and your not aloud to host games in Royal Parks.

It's not a royal park, it belongs to the City of London Corporation.

Yep true, I thought it had Royal status though?

A little like most of the Royal Building aren't ownd by the Royals but by the state. even thought they are Royal buildings.

I thought this was true of Epping Forest aswell, I may be wrong though... If it is the case then game would not be aloud to be held there.
Even if not then I would doupt that the City of London Corporation would have wanted them there.

Where are my stabilisers?

I'd just like to point out that Beijing is 1225 miles from Hong Kong where the "Beijing Olympics" equestrian events are taking place, surely Wales and Scotland are "very London" by comparison :shock:

Anonymous

It's not going to be a mountain bike course, though, is it?
There's no F-ing mountains there.

grantway

What tops this place off is that Hadleigh Castle is not a castle
The materials was taken from various places to make the MOCK CASTLE

After all wars was done in the time, where we take the saying every mans house
is his castle.

cjw

yeehaamcgee wrote:

It's not going to be a mountain bike course, though, is it?
There's no F-ing mountains there.

No mountains at Thetford or Swinley either but their pretty good courses for the XC nationals. The height changes at Hadleigh are also about the same as the Beijing course. With the right construction it could be pretty good... remember its for XC, not downhill.

drewcole81

cjw wrote:

yeehaamcgee wrote:

It's not going to be a mountain bike course, though, is it?
There's no F-ing mountains there.

No mountains at Thetford or Swinley either but their pretty good courses for the XC nationals. The height changes at Hadleigh are also about the same as the Beijing course. With the right construction it could be pretty good... remember its for XC, not downhill.

Yeah people don't seem to understand that its an XC race going to be there, so there isn't much need for a huge mountain.

As all these people seem so upset and outragged by it being in our part of England and hate the idea of it sooo much, I hope you all stay away so we can enjoy it after for ourselves.