West Yorkshire School Launches MTB Facility With Race

 

Event Date: 18 May 2008

 

The idea of Cross-Country becoming part the School curriculum has taken a step forward at the Malsis private School in North West Yorkshire. British Cycling had the privilege of meeting the people behind the project at this beautiful rural School at Sutton-In-Craven, between Keighley, Skipton and Coln.

Ian Weatherill leads British Cycling's Chris Young on a recce lap

To kick start this project and get the opening underway, there's a time trial style format taking place on Sunday the 18th of May. Sign on is 10am in the School grounds with racing starting from 11am with the last group setting off around 2pm. There's even some decent prize money to attract the Pro riders.

British Cycling caught up with the man behind the project, Hope technology's Ian Weatherill:

The Project
It was suggested by the School, as they knew about my Mountainbike background. As the School had lots of open ground and a very helpful groundsman, the headmaster allowed us to bring stone in to the main yard. They also put letters out to the parents asking for help. We've been given a complete free reign to create the Mountainbike course, as what the School is hoping to do is invite other schools in to compete, which will allow Mountainbiking to become a competitive sport at the School.

The course is a nice mix of man-made and natural challenges

The course
It first started when my son came home from School saying he'd been Mountainbiking around the Rugby and Cricket pitch. I knew the School had lots of ground down by the river, so I suggested to the School that we mark out a bit of a course. We started off just clearing a few paths of brambles, but last September it rained a lot, so we decided to stone the paths up. So with help from volunteers, we've ended up with a 2 mile bike course all stoned up with Northshore and various other features, it's now become a really serious thing taking about 10 months to construct in total.

The Event
We decided to have an event and the School headmaster suggested having a grand opening. Being in the industry has helped a little bit, as we have got some of our sponsored riders like Paul Oldham, Rob Jebb and a few top 15 national riders on board. We are going to be racing using a Top Gear style fastest lap scenario, so we have got the magnetic boards to help with timing. After the Pros have been round, the children will get the chance to set a time and the parents will also get their opportunity. It seems to have encouraged a lot of people to go out and buy Mountainbikes and getting people back into biking and introducing new people to the riding and maybe even new riders to the sport.

We are also looking at getting a Cycling Trials display, a children's obstacle course on bikes including limbo. The School's put a barbeque on and have really got behind this event.

http://www.hopegb.com
http://www.malsis.com

Outside of any organised club sessions, the course will be closed. The School welcomes the opportunity to work with cycling clubs.

 

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