Loughborough University Campus Criterium

Ryan_Mac

| Event Press Release | Loughborough University Campus Criterium on May 28th promoted by Loughborough Students CC | www.lsu-cycling.co.uk/criterium/

The second year of this unique and technical race based on the Loughborough University campus sees it opening up to all British Cycling riders, with a National B race open to E/1/2/3 riders and a Regional B race open to 3/4/W riders. The course navigates through the university campus which is both draped in history and sporting excellence.



The race starts and finishes at the iconic Rigg-Rutt fountain, which usually sees 60+ riders meeting for the weekly student club ride. A short straight leads the riders into the first technical section – a sweeping left then right section weaving between the National Cricket centre and the impressive new Business School. Immediately following these corners is a 300 m long climb past the hockey centre and wavy top lecture hall. Here is the place of many race winning attacks and sore legs to match! Taking a left turn at the top to crest the climb, you immediately start to descend along a short straight and enter the most challenging series of corners on the course.


A 90° left turn shaded by Elm trees quickly followed by a 90°right turn to run parallel to the innovation centre demands great attention and excellent bike handling skills to maintain speed and even separate yourself from other riders. This leads into a fast sweeping left hand corner to enter a downhill straight section, with the closeness of the buildings giving a heightened sense of speed. At the end of this straight, where speeds of over 35 mph can be seen, a sweeping left followed by a right turn that drops away is taken to head towards the landmark Towers accommodation block and the Sports Development Centre. A deceptively tight left turn at the sports hall takes the riders onto the final drag between the state-of-the-art rubber crumb pitch and the rugby and cricket grounds, and up to the final left hand corner at the campus entrance, with less than 150 m to sprint to the line.

After 60 minutes + 5 laps of racing for the National B race, and 50 minutes + 5 laps for the Regional B race, it is guaranteed that this tough 1.6 km circuit will allow the strong and the technically adept to battle for the glory. With the first half of the circuit well sheltered, the infamous Loughborough wind will ripple through the riders jerseys coming along the open final section of this course, providing a mixture of fast and technical riding with pure grit. The barrier-lined finish-straight coupled with a historic atmosphere and volumeness crowd set to make this one of the most exciting and challenging bike races on the UK calendar.


New for 2011 is the race opening up to all British Cycling riders, not just University student riders. Last years winner Stephen Adams took the honours of best student criterium rider – is there anyone who can match him this year?


Entry details can be found on the British Cycling website at http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events ... Criteriums, further information about the event can be found at www.lsu-cycling.co.uk/criterium

nolf

This was a great event last year. Despite the terrible weather I really enjoyed it.

The uphill was tough, and the technical descent was amazingly good fun.
Especially in the wet.

Photographers along the route were great as well.

Loughborough organised a great event last year, +1 for the Road Race.

incog24

-1 for the horses in the road race! Still, was good fun. ps, what's with the change to the day before regionals?

tenin2wenty10

Anyone else entering this? 3/4 is almost full so that should be a good race :twisted:

I just read a tweet from BC saying riders are still needed for the E/1/2/3 race.

Rapha

entries still needed for the elite race! As said before, its a great course and well worth riding. Far more interesting than riding around Darley or Mallory!

daveydave43

I'm entering this Second race, but it's a fantastic course. Team Raleigh have entered a few guys into the Elite race aswell; it'd be worth coming down just to watch them to be honest

Herbsman

Those speed bumps were a bit mental, as was the few damaged sections of road. Had to keep bunnyhopping the first speed bump as it was so high, and almost lost my front wheel on the corner with the broken tarmac on it...

lfc_westy

Hey guys, i was taking pictures for the 3/4th cat race, just letting you know that they are now available for FREE on the link below, no watermarks or copyrights, every pictures in high resolution is FREE :-)

http://www.dannywest.smugmug.com

Thanks again, and well done to everyone who participated !

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