Mountain Bike Skills

Open adventure in the West Pennines

Mountain bikers will be heading to the Pennines and Lakes in the coming weeks for a major cross country adventure.

Returning for a 5th series, the Mountain Hardwear Open5 adventure race series takes place in November and December.

The competition is made up of five races in different locations.

The aim of the event is for competitors, who can enter as solos or pairs, to gather as many points in the 5-hour period by bike and on foot.

The terrain will be challenging but this is an area of tremendous beauty.

The new series will start in November and will visit the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, York Moors, North Pennines and the Peak District.

Those entering all five events will get a real tour of the country and experience some great views and amazing cycling.

Series winners are taken from the best three scores from the five events. Mountain Hardwear is sponsoring the event with over £2500 prizes over the series, with podium winners walking away with over £100 of great kit for getting outdoors.

Tim Higginbottom won the 2007 series.

The dates and venues are:
# North Pennines (Blanchland) - 2nd November
# Lake District (Staveley) - 7th December
# York Moors (Stokesley) - 1st February
# Yorkshire Dales (Malham) - 1st March
# Peak District (Hope) - 5th April 09

For further details and online entry check out www.openadventure.com

Girl power

It's all about the girls for once thanks to a guided ride for women.

Female riders over the age of 16 can give mountain biking a shot at Cowalfest in Argyll, Scotland on Saturday October 4th.

The ride will be led by Lindsay Moss, a female rider who lives in Glasgow, and follows a route that includes some stunning views, downhills and a stream crossing. There’ll also be a well deserved opportunity for tea and cakes after the ride.

It all gets underway at 10am on Saturday October 4th, starting at the Benmore Garden Car Park near Dunoon. If you’re interested book your tickets via the Cowalfest website.

Rivington: parking, off-road vehicles - and a new Go Ape

A public consultation will be held on August 28 at Rivington Hall Barn to discuss parking issues, off-road vehicles and the launch of Go Ape at Rivington.

Proposals will be on display as to how authorities plan to tackle the problem of random parking around the pavements and streets.

Also, United Utilities have been working with the local police to stop dangerous driving, quads and 4x4s being used around the trails.

Manager PC Matt Lee said: "The partnership working between United Utilities and Lancashire Police has been very successful at raising awareness of theprobelms vehiceles cause and a number of people have been issued with Section 59 warnings and in some instances a fine."

For mountain bikers, it is worth noting that the descent down from the pigeon tower has now had a large trench dug out to one side to stop 4x4s driving up the side.

Mountain biking conference

TRAILS, fitness and mountain biking rides will be on the agenda for the National Mountain Bike Conference.

The IMBA will be part of discussions as they host the National Mountain Bike Conference at the Cycle Show, taking place at Earls Court, London from 9-12 October 2008.

The demand for off-road cycling has grown dramatically in recent years and this conference will provide a great opportunity to hear about the lessons learnt from those running successful facilities across the globe. The focus will also be on training, education, facility development and funding.

There is a chance for you to book your place.

Mountain biking ride guide Rivington

THE new route plan for trails at Healy Nab in Rivington has been released.

The trail on the West Pennine Moors has been designed by mega biker Rowan Sorrell and comes after months of planning.

Rowan visited the site recently and will now come up with detailed plans of what tricks and trails are going where.

Adventure racing Dirty Weekend

AMATEURS and seasoned mountain bikers alike are being called on to join in the first multi-sport adventure festival in Cumbria.

The Dirty Weekend will feature adventure racing, mountain biking or trail running on October 4 and 5 at Grizedale forest in the south Lakes.

The event is being supported by Cumbria Tourism, Sea to Summit, Adventure Medical Kit, Buff, Ellis Brigham, Rat race and Land Rover G4 Challenge.

Trails being drawn up for Rivington

MOUNTAIN bike guru Rowan Sorrell is working on the new plans for trails in Rivington.

The mountain bike sensation has ben enlisted by Blackburn bikers to help turn an otherwise under-used patch of fell at Rivington into a section of downhill playground.

He met with members of the club, local mountain bikers and members of the local authorities to devise plans on how best to proceed at the end of July.

Work now begins to bring clarity to development plans and finish work at Healy Nab to turn the plans into a reality.

Mountain bike trails in Rivington

MAINSTREAM media is catching on to the debate about trails in Rivington.

Singletrack magazine today posted a statement in full from United Utilities about the trails being abused by mountian bikers and the potential implications.

We have been covering the developments with great interest and are keen to have an open debate amongst the biking fraternity.

Read the article and statement in full here.

Read our articles about the trails being closed here.

But join the debate in full with a round-up of other options and the new purpose-built trails.

You can sign our petition too.

Olympics decision from Seb Coe

THE north of England looks set to miss out on any sniff of Olympic action after organisers vowed to keep events within three hours of the capital.

The Echo in Essex has reported that the county is ahead in the options for mountain biking races.

Lord Seb Coe has seemingly ruled out a site in Wales.

It's a crying shame seen as some of the best hills are in the North and this could have been the perfect chance to spread the excitement, as well as the investments, as far as possible.

So book your trains!

Mountain bike mayhem

HUNDREDS of mountain bikers are putting in the last few days of training before the epic 24 hour mountain bike race that is Mountain Mayhem, sponsored by Giant.

The 11th event of its kind to date will be held on June 20 over an 8.5mile course at Ledbury, County of Herefordshire.
Teams or riders compete for the best distance in the time - and there are still a few places on teams if you want to take part. Check out Bikeradar for some ideas and contacts or desperate pleas such as here.

All the fun kicks of at 8pm on Friday night with the launch of the inaugural SRAM 'Drag' race. As the name suggests, riders will turn out in drag for the mad, winner takes it all dash.

Headline sponsor Giant will be running the world's biggest bike demo and, as well as a huge fleet of Giant's 2008 bikes for you to test, there'll be many bikes from other brands too.

A word of warning: avoid getting mixed up with www.mountainmayhem.com which is a relatively new company that specialise in setting up stag dos among other things!