Pic: Sim Mainey

Readers with elephantine memories may have fond ones of NEMBA races of the early 90s. This, of course, was before the invention of different kinds of mountain bike (and, quite possibly, everything was in black-and-white and occurred to the accompaniment of a pianist). If you wanted suspension you had a choice of two models that could muster barely 90mm of travel between them, and if you wanted riser bars you had to nick them off a kid-sized MX bike.

But, as is so often the way, we digress. The most notable thing about NEMBA races was their all-inclusive nature. Your one entry fee (which through our rose-tinted recollection was thruppence ha’penny, but was probably a little more really) got you XC, DH, trials and dual slalom, all of which you did on the same bike because there weren’t different kinds of bike. Keen types would, of course, make key setup changes between events – seat down, long-sleeved jersey and ski goggles for the DH, seat even further down for trials, bit of plastic pipe taped between your bar ends for slalom – but that was about it.

And it was great. A packed weekend, with something always going on, and no excuses for not trying stuff out of your comfort zone because, hey, you’d already paid for it.

All of which nostalgic ambling brings us to the forthcoming event that the promoter modestly describes as the Lee Quarry Classic Weekender. The promoter in question is, in fact, indie MTB magazine Singletrack, which is based in Todmorden, just a stone’s throw (and there are plenty of stones from which to choose) from the quarry in question. So it’s the Singletrack Classic Weekender really.

It says here that “the idea of the event is a light hearted competition to find the best all round mountain biker and for riders to work out where they stand in a test of skills, speed and endurance,” to which end the weekend will include three different races, each of which must be ridden on the same bike. Unlike the NEMBA setup, though, the results at the Classic Weekender are cumulative – your performance at each will count towards your final position.

First up is “Classic Trials”, so named presumably to distinguish it from “Terrifying Trials” which is what most of it seems to be these days. The five sections “resembling normal MTB obstacles”. Each dab, crash, or departure from the taped area gets you a time penalty for the XC race.

The downhill is in a similar accessible spirit, with a course bereft of monster gaps or trouser-threatening drops and doable on any bike. There’ll be a target time which you have to get close to to avoid penalties.

All these penalties will be added up and applied as a handicap at the start of the XC race on Sunday. If you’ve gathered no penalties at all, you’ll start on time. A minute later, riders with a penalty of one minute will start and so on, with the winner the rider who crosses the line first, in traditional fashion.

All the events will be held on the purpose built trails and skill sections of Lee Quarry near Bacup, Lancashire, which looks like a splendid spot. The date for your diary is 4/5 July, and frankly it’s hard to see the Classic Weekend doing anything other than rock hugely. Find out more at adrenaline-gateway.co.uk/LeeQuarry.aspx.