Southern XC MTB Series 2007

The SXC MTB series is back for 2007 with some of the old favourite venues like Bordon, Yateley and Deers Leap Country Park.

2006 action

As ever the series is open to all MTB categories and is promoted by a group formed by clubs well known for their MTB races and events.

Steve Jones outlines the venues.

Round 1
The 2007 series gets underway on Sunday, 22nd April at Mapledurham off the A4074 but a bit closer to Reading than the Checkendon course. This exciting new venue is on the edge of the Chilterns overlooking the River Thames near Reading.

This is a Private Estate so we won't reveal exactly where it is yet as we don't want loads of you going down there riding as it could jeopardise the venue. Henry Turgoose of Pro-Cup has done some great work negotiating this land and will team up with the Ratz for the Southern XC round.

We will be helping him build the trails and you will also see this venue on the Pro-Cup calendar later in the year.

Round 2 and 3
The second round then moves to East Sussex for the Team Darenth-organised round at East Grinstead on Sunday 27th May at the popular Deers Leap Country Park. With its great flowing singletrack and super fast tracks around the fields linking it all up the series positions should start to shape up. Then we have a break in June to let people concentrate on the NPS and the Mountain Mayhem events before returning to Crow Hill on Sunday 15th July.

This was one of the most popular events last year with many people making the trip South, a great fun venue used last year for the first time since the 90's when it was always a popular race venue. This event will also incorporate the return of the Southern Champs but still be a series points scoring round.

Round 4
The penultimate round will take place on September 2nd at Yateley Heath Wood near Yateley, Hants run by Gorrick Mountain Bike Club. Yateley always produces close and exciting racing with its tight singletrack, short sharp climbs and fast fire roads.

Round 5
The Series finale will take place for the first time at many peoples favourite circuit at Bordon just off the A3 in North East Hampshire. West Drayton Mountain Bike Club always make good use of the fast flowing trails, just take it easy over the jumps and watch the sandy sections as you may need all the points you can get to finish the series high in the rankings.

What about Checkendon you might be thinking, well you may have heard all sorts of rumours but the truth is we have lost the use of Hammonds Wood only. This is the nice hilly wood with the famous bridge. We still have Park Wood (the nice flat singletrack wood) and the headlands and the Tunnel to link it all up to the arena but it is not hilly or long enough now for a Southern XC round.

The Ratz still hope to hold our Summer short course Rampage series this year and we will retain a slightly shorter course for our members to ride. There were many reasons why we lost Hammonds, but one was illegal use and jump building (by non members) and the litter they left behind. So don't let this happen to our other courses on the series as if we lose many more we won't have a series. This is why we are late announcing the series, Checkendon has been the back stop of the series for years even going back to SAMS days as we could always cover for other venues that had booking problems which is why we often had 2 rounds per year.

We are always looking for new venues so if you know or are a land owner who is willing to hire out a piece of woodland just let us know. It also needs to have good access and a suitable area for parking cars for upwards of 300 riders etc. So whilst there may be many great courses out there they need to tick all the other boxes too.

Info
Anyway what you all want to know is the dates and venues so you can plan your training schedules and holidays, go on book a week in the New Forest in July the same week as Crow Hill! We will have entry forms out soon and we will have on line entry with MBSA.

We also have a series prize fund for Elites with £300 guaranteed for the winner of the men's Elite series. Further large cash prizes will be available for the 2nd & 3rd placed Elite men and the top 3 Elite women but we will have to base these on entries received through the year so we may have some idea of cash available by round 4.

The overall will be decided by the best 4 results from 5 races, to be eligible for series prizes riders must compete in at least 3 rounds and MUST start the final, although the final round result does not have to be included, it is best 4 results to count.

Dates
Rnd Date Promoter Venue
1 April 22nd RATMBC & Pro Cup Mapledurham Estate near Reading
2 May 27th Team Darenth Deers Leap Country Park
3 July 15th RATMBC Crow Hill near Ringwood (inc SOUTHERN CHAMPS)
4 Sept 2nd Gorrick MBC Yateley Heath
5 Sept 30th WDMBC Bordon