Hope Cross Country Race Series 2012 - It's Back and Open For Entries

Published: 25th April, 2012

Now in it's fourth year the grass roots race series sponsored generously by Hope Technology, Leisure Lakes, Big Bear Bikes, Cooksons Cycles and DHP11 amongst others is has a new 4 race series in this Olympic sport. Dates for 2012 are 27th May, 1st July, 2nd September, 14th October.

The Hope XC Series is designed to allow riders of all standards compete and enjoy themselves in a dramatic venue. Lee Quarry with it's excellent Rowan Sowell designed trails, cheeky "off piste" sections and the presence of high exposure against the scenic backdrop of the Rossendale Valley is somewhere once raced is never forgotten.

Photo: Gary Brown

To enable riders of all standards to compete, two courses are operated at the same time, the "Have-a-go" course threads its way through the quarry on a smoother less challenging route than the main course where the organisers push hard to cram in exciting descents mixed in with technical climbs to test the all round ability of the riders. Each race is different with familiar sections often reversed and new sections introduced each week to ensure that the same course is never raced twice.

New for 2012 are 40+ and 50+ age categories, responding to rider demands "not get beat by the kids" the organising team have decided to change their policy for 2012 and let these riders race against each other at last. This should bring in proper racing for the "old enough to know better" generation and there are great hopes for large fields in both these new categories.

Not riding? Lee Quarry is a compact site and is great for spectators who can see the racing at many places during the event . Each event is a single race with a staggered start, and a common finish this makes sure everyone gets to feel they are part of a big event and riders all finish in time to enjoy the rest of the weekend. There is plenty of car parking with facilities and catering in the event "village".

Help us please! As always we need lots of volunteers on race day for everything from sign-on, timekeeping to marshalling, if you want to get involved and support these events and the team get in touch via the website. The organising team are all volunteers and without the generous support of others would not be able to put on these great events.

Entry is priced to make racing accessible for all and full details of the generous prize list is on the website www.brownbacksracing.co.uk .

You can enter the whole series and save cash or enter each round individually:

Round 1: 27th May

Round 2: 1st July

Round 3: 2nd September

Round 4:14th October.

Keep checking the website www.brownbacksracing.co.uk facebook and Twitter over the coming weeks for more news as we finalise our series sponsors.