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Olympic MTB course tweaked by four-cross expert
More bumps, rocks and obstacles have been added to Beijing’s Olympic mountain-bike course, which failed to impress riders in its debut last year, according to a UCI expert.
Peter Van den Abeele, the UCI’s mountain-bike sports coordinator, and Phil Saxena, a renowned four-cross course designer, traveled to Beijing during May 8-15 to oversee construction on the 6.2km circuit. The course, which sits in a suburban park in western Beijing, now boasts five new sections of tricky, technical riding, plus additional obstacles on five previously built sectors.
“It was a challenging course on the body but on the technical skills it was too easy,” Van den Abeele told VeloNews. “This has been changed.”
The changes resulted from the 2007 Goodwill mountain bike test event, held on September 22. That race featured competition between the world’s top cross-country riders, with Swiss rider Christoph Sauser and Chinese rider Ying Liu taking home wins on the undulating, climb-heavy course. The event provided the first glimpse of the course that will host the 2008 Olympic race, and many riders complained that the wide, sandy track failed to challenge their technical abilities.
“Most people are saying it is boring — and it is,” said Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå, the 2004 Olympic champion. “It is not really mountain biking. It is very much like a cyclocross [course].”
Van den Abeele, a former professional cyclocross and mountain bike racer, called on Saxena to design the added obstacles. Known as “Four-cross Phil,” the Brit oversaw the construction of the world championship four-cross course in Fort William, Scotland, as well as downhill and four-cross courses in Angel Fire, New Mexico, Champéry, Switzerland and Maribor, Slovenia.
“If you have seen what [Phil] has built in four-cross, you can imagine that it will be very challenging,” Van den Abeele said.
For photos and a map of the course, click here.
The Olympic cross-country races will be held August 22-23.
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