It’s not long now until Bristol’s very own Mountain Bike Festival takes place. The heady mix of dusty high endurance trails and Bristol’s laid back mountain bike community always fuse together to create an event with a different flavour than most. For all the people out there who’ve already entered and all the ones that are still playing with the idea of coming along to enjoy the great singletrack heavy course, the relaxed atmosphere and the party afterwards, here’s a few more nuggets of info on the weekend.

So far, more than 300 people have entered the event with the fun class being the most popular. The event is still taking entries (please check out www.bristolbikefest.com for further details and a downloadable entry form) and will also be open for entry on the day on Friday afternoon from 4pm onwards and on Saturday from 6-8am. Please note that there will be a £5.00 surcharge if you enter on the day.

The start time is 9am on Saturday (11 June) with riders on the line by 8.50 for a quick pre-race briefing. A full set of details will go out by email the week before the event to all the pre-entered riders.

On the day there’ll be beers and great food plus demo bikes and displays from Marin, Bike of Bristol, Shred, Bad Ass Bikes, Foes and Goodridge. After the race there’ll be the party in the main marquee starting at 9pm until late, with the Bikefest bar serving the finest Stella Artois to the racers. Bristol’s own DJ Winnerz and Goldcoast headliners Junction 27 will be playing a mix of rock covers and their own material. Food is provided by an old hand of MTB racing and will be available from early to late at great prices. Also there’ll be lattes, mochas and espressos from The Daily Grind Coffee Company.

The camping on Friday and Saturday night is in the main arena. Please arrive after 12noon on Friday if you’re staying on the Friday night. Our caterer, the Field Kitchen, will be on site from Friday afternoon onwards to look after all the campers. The camping facilities are limited so please bring all you need. There are warm toilets with hot water for washing, but NO showers.

There’ll be plenty of drinking water on site this time though, so no need to pop down to the local store and fill up with bottled water.

And finally the course. It looks great at the moment as it’s seen plenty of trail repairs in the worn corners over the last few weeks. The course will again be the much-loved singletrack-laden one that we have been using for the last couple of years.

For all the riders staying on until Sunday, make sure that you take a look at the Rat Race urban adventure race (www.ratraceadventure.com) that will be going on on Saturday (Prologue) and Sunday (main event). If you fancy having a go at it check the NEWS section on the www.bristolbikefest.com website and have a look at the special offer we have put together in conjunction with the Rat Race.

And for all the really hard racers out there, keep in mind that Sunday will also see the Bristol leg of the Southern XC Series which will probably use the whole Bristol 12 course but with a little twist…