Topic Title

Hi all,
just to let you know that there is a UCI (i.e. international) ranked mtb race happening an hour from your front door on Saturday. In addition to the elite race there are loads of other catergories (including fun/open) on a course that is not too severe (Sherwood Pines is flat and not that technical). So go down and watch (our Olympic contenders will likely be riding), go down and ride, or go down and marshall (and get £40 for doing so). For those interested in promoting an mtb race (which are desperatly needed at the moment), it could be a good chance to see what goes on. Attached is an email from the organiser, Martyn Salt. As it says, look www.xcracer.com for more details...

Just a quick reminder that it's round 2 of the Trek British Mountain Bike Series this weekend at Sherwood Pines. The weekend consists of Freerange Sports Optics British XC racing on Saturday including the UK's first Class 1 UCI elite race, entries for this have come from USA, Australia, New Zealand, Slovakia, South Africa and Norway together with the normal line up of riders from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Sunday is round 2 of the Trek Marathon series with the 100k full marathon at 1000 and the half and mini marathon now at a new start time of 1200

Pre entries for the XC and Marathon are still available until midnight tonight at the new online entry facility at www.xcracer.com, you will slao be able to see an up to the minute list of who has entered so far in all races. There will be entries available on the day up until 1 hour before your chosen event.

Sunday also sees the final stop of the What MTB National demo series with free test rides on a large range of bikes from Azonic, Trek, Focus, Dawes, Felt, Norco, Raleigh, Gary Fisher, Bionicon, Foes, Saracen, Morewood and Rivette and also Met Helmets, Crank Brothers and Kenda Tyres in attendance. To book a test ride go to www.bikedemodays.com

We still need marshalls for both days and if you fancy a day watching in the woods and want to help then we can offer a donation of 40 pounds or (1 free entry plus 15 pounds) , plus packed lunch and goody bag - if you want to help then please email me back stating which day you can help.

Directions and venue details are in the venue section at xcracer.com and there is camping, showers, toilets, water, cafe, adventure playground and high ropes course all on site. In addition there will be Trade Stands and attendance in the main arena at the event from Giant, Kona, Trek, Scott, Justridingalong.com, XCracer.com, Team Chance, Singletrack/pipedream Cycles, Cotic, Climb On Bikes, Torq energy and event sponsor SIS will be on hand to help with energy support and advice.

Hope you can make it to one of the biggest XC weekends of the year.

Martyn and the Inevent team

Thanks Charlie this sounds brilliant

And as you say great experience and a rare opportunity

I think we need to do something (with the Calendar?) to advertise events like this: it seems over and above the normal run of the mill stuff we stick on the Announcements section on the discussion board

Then we might be able to avoid clashes like this weekend with our Hostelling trip!

Am kicking myself that i knew nothing about it until now

Other examples of this sort of thing would be the premier events especially the Pete Longbottom memorial which i know a few of us like to support

Thoughts anyone?

We can add stuff to the calendar. We already have a "National MTB" bit that Paul Crane has put stuff up on:

http://www.cliftoncc.org/static.php?con ... b_national

If anyone else would like access to add events to the calendar, just shout and I'll sort you out and explain what you need to know.

The logic is; advertise everything and let everyone decide what they want to do.

Nothing intrinsically wrong with that, but we do need to be careful that:

a. we don't swamp everybody with information and they stop looking and
b. we don't spread everybody out so thinly that they never see anybody else and then don't feel part of the club.

Have you seen how much stuff is on the calendar now?!

R

Charlie,

If you're on some circulation list for these events then perhaps you can pass them over and I'll put them on the Calendar.

Rob's right though, there's tons of stuff we could put on the Calendar and it would just swamp it.

My theory, when I put the MTB stuff on earlier in the year, was that the 'serious' racers would probably already sort their own calendar of events for the year. Therefore I tried to poplulate a list that was quite broad, local (ish), and might appeal to enthusaists who wanted a bash a bit of competition or a challenge.

Hey, I don't know the answer to this by the way! And I don't really know which events we should or shouldn't advertise - I'm just flagging a potential problem.

The Sherwood event sounds great - God's Own Country as well!!

I dont know what I've started here! I just regulaly go to xcracer.com and see whats going on. This is the best way to find out about mtb stuff (not just racing, however, it is better than the BC site for race info). On the site is a calander with every mtb event on (including trailquest, enduros etc), links to other event sites etc. Perhaps we should make reference to this site rather than creating our own, or create our own using this? The 'serious racer' cant be that serious this year - there isnt enough pure XC races on (thats why I'm racing a 12hr xc in July!)
I didnt mean to start a big debate. If there is anyone wanting to sample the mtb scene, this is the best way. There really is a race to suit everyone. I'm down for the expert xc on saturday (12.30ish), the same time as the elites and the 100km marathon on sunday. Dont know how wise this is - but I'm interested to see what the marathons are like! Check out the xcracer website for the weekends format...