The last two days has seen the opening of the 2012 London Olympic XC course and Adrien and I have been a couple of the privileged riders to ride a few laps! Now this course may morph somewhat before the big day in 1years time but we at least have gotten a good idea of what the challenge will look like when the Olympics storms onto Hadliegh farm.
I must say firstly from a spectator point of view it is going to be fantastic! You can see so much of the course from any one of the hills on which the route is inter-laced. So if you are a cycling enthusiast and plan on being in London this time next year get your name into the lottery because you don't want to miss this one!
Then for the riders the layout is superb. It is so easy to get around and they have pretty much thought of everything from the rider's perspective. The course is very open allowing for a lot of passing. It also gives good variation that will benefit the all-round athlete. There is no climb longer than about a minute but there are dozens a little less! They have also scattered several man made rock challenges every so often which all offer multiple lines for the brave to the not-so-brave.
There are a few steep drops as well as a few loose tricky ups. As we got a few more laps in we could feel our confidence rising and were able to carry more speed through many of the sections. Two feed zones which is expected back to back in perfect places and each country allocated a specific zone of their own. There is also a 0.5km 8m wide start loop to get everyone going which is great to get the field fighting for position before the first climb and series of technical challenges.
So for the remainder of the day today I worked on the equipment, got everything ready for tomorrow and went to the managers meeting. Adrien thankfully got a bit of foot up time and is now rounding off his last interviews for the big movie, going to be great!
Tomorrow I'll be rushing around like a mad thing but I'll get some tweets in about the race starting from 15:00 SA time (14:00 local)! Adrien starts in 25th line 4 which is a great spot to be! So fingers crossed all goes well!
Catch you later!
PC
I must say firstly from a spectator point of view it is going to be fantastic! You can see so much of the course from any one of the hills on which the route is inter-laced. So if you are a cycling enthusiast and plan on being in London this time next year get your name into the lottery because you don't want to miss this one!
 |
| Start loop |
Then for the riders the layout is superb. It is so easy to get around and they have pretty much thought of everything from the rider's perspective. The course is very open allowing for a lot of passing. It also gives good variation that will benefit the all-round athlete. There is no climb longer than about a minute but there are dozens a little less! They have also scattered several man made rock challenges every so often which all offer multiple lines for the brave to the not-so-brave.
 |
| Switch-back climb |
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| All very well planned |
There are a few steep drops as well as a few loose tricky ups. As we got a few more laps in we could feel our confidence rising and were able to carry more speed through many of the sections. Two feed zones which is expected back to back in perfect places and each country allocated a specific zone of their own. There is also a 0.5km 8m wide start loop to get everyone going which is great to get the field fighting for position before the first climb and series of technical challenges.
 |
| Multiple lines on the rock gardens |
So for the remainder of the day today I worked on the equipment, got everything ready for tomorrow and went to the managers meeting. Adrien thankfully got a bit of foot up time and is now rounding off his last interviews for the big movie, going to be great!
Tomorrow I'll be rushing around like a mad thing but I'll get some tweets in about the race starting from 15:00 SA time (14:00 local)! Adrien starts in 25th line 4 which is a great spot to be! So fingers crossed all goes well!
Catch you later!
PC
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