The opening round of the 2005 Premier Mountain Bike Series (sponsored by Trek, Bontrager, What Mountain Bike, xcracer.com and Nike) is just a month away. It’s the second year of the Premier, a national series that aims to build a full weekend’s racing around the core National Points XC racing. Every round features three races, with the NPS on Saturday, Short Track XC on Saturday evening and the Trek 6-4-2 Enduro on Sunday.

NPS is your traditional XC racing – all categories, courses of around six miles per lap. Short Track is kind of XC-meets-BMX, with eight-rider heats (can we call them “motos”?) running over two laps of a 250m course. For 2005 there’ll be an Open category for the Short Track so anyone can take part. The Trek 6-4-2 is a choose-your-length enduro – you can race as a solo, pair or team for six hours, or solo for four or two hours. The courses will be extended to around 10 miles.

Speaking of courses, the five (one more than 2004) rounds take place at a diverse range of popular race venues, from the World Cup venue of Newnham Park (we’re told that the Pipeline descent will be in the course but the first water crossing won’t) to the whizzy woodland whoops of Thetford Forest.

The NPS races carry World Ranking Points for Elite riders, and all rounds will have free-to-enter races for the under 12s.

Here’s all the dates and venues:

• Newnham Park, Plymouth Round 1
  • April 16 NPS + Short Track
  • April 17 Trek 6-4-2 Enduro
• Builth Wells Round 2
  • May 14 NPS + Short Track
  • May 15 Trek 6-4-2 Enduro
• Thetford Round 3
  • June 11 NPS + Short Track
  • June 12 Trek 6-4-2 Enduro
• Margam Park Round 4
  • July 16 NPS
• Sherwood Pines Round 5
  • Aug 6 NPS 5 + Short Track
  • Aug 7 Trek 6-4-2 Enduro

Entry forms are available from www.inevent.co.uk.