This is the opening round of Beastway's 27th annual series. It's an XCO of 90 minutes duration for seniors, held on a Saturday with separate races for youth and under12s. Eight more Wednesday evening races make a full series of nine rounds and then we end with another Saturday race which is our Championships and series prize giving.

2019 RACE DATES
R1 Saturday 27 April XCO
Wednesdays
R2    1 May
R3    8 May
R4    15 May
R5    22 May
R6    29 May
R7    5 June
R8    12 June
R9    19 June
Championships & prizegiving finale Saturday 22 June

Beastway is Britain's longest running regular weekly MTB series. We are the best midweek blast whether you want to race seriously or just for fun. Our courses change for each round as we mix in new challenges and old favourites around the trails we developed over the last six years. Hog Hill has fantastic sunsets and great views across East London into The City. Racing everyone together is a fantastic way to learn your race craft as a young rider among seniors and then to enjoy seeing others come through. - Lots of friendly rivalry and race camaraderie all round. Good cakes, coffee and showers in the purpose-built pavilion too.

The opening round offers BC ranking points - helpful for gridding at nationals - and pays 50% more series points.
u12 riders always get a shorter course which is suitable for a wide range of ages from 7 and up, but which doesn't patronise the fastest.
Youth and juveniles normally race in with the seniors, but not at our XCO rounds where they get their own race on the full course.
Veterans normally race pretty much the same duration as the seniors, but our XCO rounds will see them get just a one-hour race.
Women are particularly welcome at all our races and we will ask about your gridding preference. (We shouldn't need to say this...)

With nine rounds in the series, it's your best SEVEN scores which count. Our unique and highly prized trophies are always sought after, though none more than those that were made by Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry one year.
You can enter round-by-round, the full series or the full series starting with round 2 -in case you can't make it along on Saturdays. Please select the option you want inside your race category.  

Our 2019 race entry fees are unchanged. We are the best value, friendly and competitive races around.
We have decided to charge the same to enter the two XC rounds as for the evening one-hour events.
We want more women and juniors to take part. There is a reduced entry fee for these categories and remember there are BC points on offer for the XC opening round across all categories to give Beastway riders gridding rights at other ranking events.
We are offering approximately 50% more points for this race; but then it is 50% longer.
We are running 10 events in total. 9 rounds in the series, plus a championships finale and awards ceremony.
The XC finale carries no BC points, but it is our one-off championships event with its own trophies and goes on to the series awards ceremony. You wouldn't want to miss that.

Series entry simplifies everything for us, so discounts are on offer;-
Enter the full 9-round series and you get the championships XC for free.
Enter just the 9-round series without the championships and get 10% off.
Enter all the Wednesdays and get 10% off (but note the opening round offers 50% more series points).
You can also enter round-by-round up until two days before the event and pay £5 less than the on-the-day fee.
 - A senior entering the full series and championships will save £65.

More ways series entry can help you save and help us too;
If you bring a friend/parent/carer to marshal the main race we will give you up to £10 off your entry as paid. Let us know you are willing to do this when you are entering the series and we will allocate your help to a round. Marshals are needed to help us keep you safe and should be able to help with the clearing up needed each week, usually finishing about 30 minutes after the race is done.
You could also let us know you are willing to give some time to helping with the pre-season course preparation. We'd like to develop some more fun and technical course features. Again we would give £10 off entries as paid in part-recognition of your community focus.
If you want to marshal any week instead of racing, we will refund most of your advance entry fee and give you series points averaged to what you scored at other rounds.
If you have to miss a week, let us know in advance and we will let you bring a new Beastway friend for free when you race your next round. In fact, any series entrant can bring a new Beastway friend any week for 50% entry fee. We define a new Beastway friend as someone who hasn't raced with us in the previous two seasons and we need advance entry details for them please. Obviously we would like them to become regulars after their first try.

In the u12 races, we expect the parents will want to help so these ways to save are offered on the senior and youth races only.

British Cycling ranking points:
We are advised that these are paid on the race as a whole only. This is BC's decision, based on our request to have points allocated for each category. We have to wait and see what happens with that, but the points could help anyone with a top placing in the race as a whole which should satisfy racers with realistic ambitions at the nationals.

Series points:
In each category we normally allocate series points as follows;-
Placing/points: 1/20 2/16 3/13 4/11 5/9 6/7 7/6 8/5 9/4 10/3 11/2 12/1
However, since you will be racing for 50% longer, in the opening round points are higher;-
Placing/points: 1/30 2/24 3/20 4/17 5/13 6/10 7/9 8/8 9/6 10/5 11/3 12/2

Results will always be posted on our server at www.beastwayresults.co.uk first.
It will be your best SEVEN points scores out of NINE that count towards the series placings.
The Championships  on Saturday 22 June is a stand alone event with its own prizes and this will be the time we make our series awards with cash and trophies. Awards in cash made at this event must be collected on this day or we will deem them to have been donated to the promotion, thanks!  

And when we're done for this series, look out for our other events such as Tour of the Cornfields on 1 Sept at Wimpole. It's 100km off-road around S Cambs, N Herts, Huntingdonshire and Bedfordshire. We're also organising the Summer Cyclocross series in London and more.
Full details at www.beastwaymtb.com

Info for Riders

This first round and the championships finale are on a Saturday.
The course will be open for practice from 13:30 up until the starts
14:00 u12 & u10 duration 12 minutes on a short course
14:20 Youth & Juvenile duration 35 minutes full course
(some practice may be available at commissaire's discretion following youth final lap)
15:00 Senior M start
15:15 Senior F start
15:25 Veteran, GVet & SVet M & F start
16:30 Finish for all riders when leading Senior crosses line after 1h30 duration

Please note there are substantial discounts on series entry fees and it's much simpler to make all entries at one time.
We are always on the lookout for helpers and marshalls, so please let us know if you can bring along a helpful supporter who can contribute to the collective effort.