The opening round is an XCO of longer duration, more series points and a longer course which takes in a wide range of our regular features and some great new ones too.
Winter came and went all too soon, with February breaking records for warmth and drought. We have been working hard to clear the trails to a much wider standard. It’s involved heavy use of a brushcutter and chainsaw starting in October plus a new toy to dig up the ground during January where huge cracks always open up as the dry weather comes on. Everything has been raked at least twice and some sections have been mowed over too. Singletrack is now very dry and almost like it’s covered in aggregate and not the cracking hard-pack you might have expected. The lower woods, where we’ve had to paddle in previous seasons is completely dry and looking good with some new routes through, especially where one gale blew down two trees and left another hanging.
Jarvis has been busy on the technical features at Snake Pen – look out for the As and Bs – and Michael has opened up about 400m of completely new singletrack that makes good use of sloping ground to give exciting descents and a duel track section.
Saturday 27 April Race times
13.30 Course open for practice
u12s 14:00 (short course around upper circuit, so main part of course is open for practice)
Youths 14:20 30mins duration (on full course, no practice allowed until following final rider on course – we will tell you when)
Senior M 15:00 90mins duration
Junior M 15:10
Women 15:15*
Vets M & F 15:30*
all 18+ riders finish around 16:30
*We’ll take a view on when to start these categories, as many riders have expressed a wish to race for longer.
Youths and Senior races will start below the Lower Hoggenberg, up the road and then along behind the hedge before crossing the line first time.
Full info on British Cycling website (opens new tab)
Results will be on http://www.beastwayresults.co.uk
Beastway MTB 2022 