Sherwood BMBS course update

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 26th March, 2011

Well, it's a traditionally british thing to discuss the weather, so lets start there.  It's mighty cold here in the midlands!!  I am the softest of all xcracer's though so perhaps I'm being melodramatic.  After all it is dry, there is dust and I have racing slick tyres on my bike.

Smooth link that, straight onto the mountain biker's favourite topic; tyres.  I'm running maxxis aspens which appeared to be gripping up very nicely.  There are a lot of people running schwalbe racing ralphs and I've even seen a furious fred gracing the back of a certain UK endurance specialist.  All in all, think dry racingn tyres with some decent side nobbles on the front as there are a lot of tight corners.

Onto the course and designer Paul Davis has managed to find even more trails locked away in the sherwood forest and the course is a lot different to the previous years figure of 8.  At around about 6km in length, lap times look like being 18mins for the fastest riders with the rest of us in the low 20s.  There are the usual wide open fireroad blasts leading into some tight and twisty singletrack in the trees, very little overtaking possible here.  There are some sections of the fast sherwood trails with some unnervingly close stumps to catch you out on that final lap.

Touring round the course this afternoon and there are a raft of european elite riders practising.  It's incredible to think that we have world class racing right on our doorstep and you don't even have to pay to come and watch.  If you're stuck for something to do tomorrow, ride on down to sherwood forest visitor centre and come and watch some of the world's best in action!

Niall Frost
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