Welsh Mountain Bike Series Rd1 Course Preview

Welsh Mountain Bike Series Rd1. Details and Course Preview

The 2013 Welsh Mountain Bike Series gets under way this weekend.  Mountain bikers will descend Margam Park, Neath Port Talbot, for Round One of the Welsh Mountain Bike series on Sunday 10 February.   Online pre-entries close at midnight on Wednesday 7 February 2013. If you miss that deadline you can still enter on the day, up to 15 minutes before your event starts. 

Competition starts at 9:30am and continues throughout the day with racing for everybody from Under 8s to Grand Vets; Novice to Elite. Pre-entries suggest there will be some good competitive racing in all of the categories; so if you are not riding, why not come down to the park and watch?

Schedule

09:30 Under 8s

09:50 Under 10s

10:20 Under 12s

11:00 Women (all categories), Veteran Male, Grand Veteran Male, Youth, Juvenile (male and female), Sport Men

13:30 Elite Male, Junior Male, Masters Male, Expert Male

The course will be open for practice on Saturday afternoon and also before racing starts on the full course on Sunday from 8.00am. During practice, the course won't be marshalled so you need to look after yourselves. 

Between 9:30am and 11.00am on Sunday there will be Under 8s, 10s and 12s racing on part of the course. Riders practising during this time may be stopped from continuing around the course to ensure the safety of these younger riders. If you are allowed to continue, please be aware of the younger competitors. 

Course Preview

There has been a lot of rain and snow in South Wales recently so there are some wet areas on the course! However, 95% of it is dry and the whole course is riding well. The few muddy sections are only short and mostly on downhill stretches so they don't take too much effort to get through. 

The course preview clip below shows the route in Margam Park (the video is a bit over-exposed in places but hopefully you get the idea of what the course is like). It will be tough physically with little in the way of rest and, whilst not the most technical of courses, there are certainly some challenges. There are also a couple of new sections that even Margam Park regulars are unlikely to have experienced before!

Other Details:

Jay and Maddie Horton will be on hand all weekend to make sure that the event runs smoothly. Jay will also be commentating so if you are riding, be prepared!

Tredz will be available on site with all the spares that you might need just in case of any mechanical issues with bikes or if you forget anything. They will also have a mechanic, work stand and tools so if you need any last minute adjustments, find their tent and ask nicely!

Scrumptious Catering will be on hand to warm you up supplying hot drinks, bacon butties and a variety of rolls, cakes and biscuits.

Lastly, the staff at Margam Park have been very helpful in allowing us to put the event on but we would like to remind you that the park is a public place, even on race day. We do not have exclusive use of the park so there will be members of the public using the park. There may even be some horse riders and there will definitely be some deer roaming around. Please respect the other users, be polite and be aware that you may need to slow down from time to time when you are not on the course. 

Let's hope for some good weather and some great racing!

Advertise your business/event here »