XC races for a 14 year old?

welshkev

My mates son wants to start racing XC. he's pretty fit as he rides road bikes with a club and mtb's with us. He wants to give XC racing a go.

any races around wales/west of England over the winter?

njee20

Soggy Bottom series are South West focused, but more Plymouth way. Not much XC racing over winter.

Ferrals

There are the red kite events Up near builth, not sure if they are age specific and they don't seem to be 'standard' format but rather a set duration. However, if he can't wait till spring..!

welshkev

cheers guys,

looks like he'll have to wait then.

I know Oktoberfest in Bristol, but that's this weekend I think. the next local one I can think of is wentwood50 in march. i'll let him know.

thanks again

Ferrals

Just seen this advertised:

http://www.acycling.com/new-winter-mtb- ... announced/

In Pembray

njee20

Run by Matt Page that - top endurance racer, should be a good series.

Ferrals

yes a few people have said that - apparently he runs a few events locally that are really good. Cleared all the dates with the mrs so looking forward to it :-) hope there is a good turn-out was really impressed with the number in gorrick last w/e

njee20

I've never seen a Welsh XC race get anything like the numbers - I used to do the Dragon XC series when I lived in Bristol, and you often got 4 or 5 in Sport (as I was then) for a BC sanctioned event. Gorrick have always had massive fields!

Ferrals

Yeah I find it surprising, the one welsh series I did had 10 in sport and 4 in fun, looking at the results it seems to be about that or even fewer most races. In fact often there is no one in fun! I can see that being in the south east there a much higher population density which makes good turn out more likely, but when I've been looking for races to do, ones in Dorset and the sw races seem very well attended too. Given the amount of good riding we have and the thousands you see at the trail centres you'll think some of the lazy beggars would want to race! I'll just have to work at it hard enough that I can keep up with the sport or masters cats :oops:

njee20

Yeah I find it surprising, the one welsh series I did had 10 in sport and 4 in fun, looking at the results it seems to be about that or even fewer most races. In fact often there is no one in fun! I can see that being in the south east there a much higher population density which makes good turn out more likely

That's all there is to it! A couple of the Welsh races I did were dreadful courses too, really really censored . Say people will generally travel an hour to a local XC race (and that's probably generous for fun/open) - to take your example how many people riding Afan are within an hour? A significantly smaller number.

Ferrals

Pretty much off topic, but I don't understand why n.p.t council spent money on a 'world cup' course at Margam and it's not being used by british cycling for the xc series this year. Instead the welsh one is at fforest fields, the course I did this year and which I didn't think was that amazing. I hope the welsh series has one there as I had a mooch around margam the other weekend and the new stuff seems good! (Although the best looking bits are behind locked gates)

Ferrals

njee20 wrote:

Run by Matt Page that - top endurance racer, should be a good series.

First race was today really well organised and smoothly run, results already up and the course was fun and fast. Great venue for a winter series, pretty much dry despite heavy rain the last few days, barely had to clean my bike afterwards. Well worth doing looking forward to the next one 8)