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Road To 2012
Olympic Mountain Bike Course Launched

Posted October 28 2010
Words And Photography By Luke Webber

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Following fourteen weeks of ground-works, the venue for the London 2012 Olympic Mountain Bike Race has been unveiled.

Yes; there are hills. Yes; this will be a proper mountain bike course. Two of the fears allayed at today's unveiling of the London 2012 Olympic Mountain Bike Course.

Hadleigh Farm, near Basildon, Essex, was launched by the London Organising Commitee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), Essex Council and the Salvation Army to the media.

With over half of the course already built, riders were on hand to demonstrate sections of trail, including two technical features. Designed to showcase the postential of the venue - which officials were keen to demonstrate had more vertical gain than the 2008 Beijing Olympic course - critics were universally pleased by what was on offer and looked forward to seeing the finished article due to be complete in March 2011.

                      
                       Riders demonstrate the Olympic Mountain Bike course.

In a recent visit to asses the build progress, the UCI's Technical Delegate Peter Van den Abeele was "confident that the combination of technical climbs and steep rocky descents would provide a stunning and challenging course."

We'll have more from those involved with the Olympic Mountain Bike project later in the week.