Mud Sweat & Gears 20....13!!!

the good thing about winter training is that whilst riding round those muddy cold courses you can rest assured that come summer youll be racing round on dusty dry trails in the sun....

just like this year... :shock:

thats last thing I need before christmas!

Ive not got that for some reason, can you post up the dates and venues please...

On a slightly different note though the olympic mtb course is having coaching sessions so you can ride it before it gets altered / made safer. Ive done it, well when I say Ive done it I woosed out on a lot of it, will be back in december to have another go though..

Cheers for that.

I think the two to be confirmed will be hylands and the olympic course (if the work is done)

theres likely going ot be 2 races at the olympic course next year, one MS&G and a NPS race too.. As well as the under 16s race in october.

ok, its early, brains not fully engaged!

the last one I tacked on as this year spectators weren't allowed on the course - it was a showcase from all over the UK of under 16 racers (and the biggest female xc race the UK has seen!) and no one other than the coaches and those of us marshalling saw it...!

Watching 12 years old riding some of those obstacles was (a) awe inspiring (b) embarrasing - realising I probalby wouldnt ride it as well as they were!

I can see where youre coming from, but I get the feeling this was a council decision, the guys doing gthe coaching were telling us how many forms they had to fill in and sign and red tape to get through just to get on the site, taking people round was another matter.

There are 2 main problems with the course (a) it was specifically designed to mess with your head - eg you cant see the exits or roll outs to some decents until youre halfway down them (already holding on for dear life!!) in some cases you can't see the entry points unitl youre commited. Its a course that needs total comitment all the way round not just on one or two parts of it. When I rode it someone ended up needing 10 stitches, the course after someone snapped their handlebars, and whilst building it a frame was snapped on one decent. And (b) its made of rock, something in the UK we don't see a lot of, so automatically you're on your guard before even thinking about riding something.

The coaches are there becasue if you don't take the one not very obvious line on some parts you will crash, if you don't know how to enter some of the less obvious entries you will crash, and when you crash here its gonna be big, its gonna hurt.

As for the people who are saying its easy - they havent ridden it, in fact Glenn has had to keep replacing rocks as people are going over there trying to remove the rocks thats they don't want there / are giving them a problem, riding a bit of it, and then saying its easy... They haven't ridden it, it's not easy. The only way I can describe triple trouble A line to any one - get a dinner table or desk, put it right at the top of a flight of stairs (with the legs literally on the top step) then ride off the table straight down the stairs... Theres a couple of parts of the course in the normal park (not fenced off) one's an uphill rocky section that Ive seen no one ride outside of the races just be casue they cant.

Yep £45 is a bit of money (it was orig supposed to be £20 for 2 hours but in 2 hours you would have dont maybe 3 things) but well worth it, the coaches are really good and will give you loads of tips on improving your riding in general not just about the course, Ill be honest I was a guinea pig and got to ride it for free, and may have the chance to do so again, but Ill be paying for another go in December and hopefully in January too. At the end of the day its a chance to ride the course as it was, we don't know how theyre gonig to change it next year but it def wont be like it is now.

it wasn't a dig at you, but like you im fed up with guys saying how easy the course is when all theyve done is seen it ridden by the worlds best riders and a couple of U tube videos

How that canadian girl rode it with a broken collar bone is totally beyond my comprehension, esp when I see good black run riders stopping to drop their seatposts before trying bits of it..!

you racing next year..??