The Pedal On and Felt Bicycles sponsored Southern XC series will provide six events for 2008, with a Southern Area Championships at round four.

With this new support the organisers are aiming to improve the standard of racing across the series, and each round will be British Cycling sanctioned events, with National ranking points on offer for BC Racing licence holders.

• 6 April Mapledurham, near Reading, Berks
• 27 April Deers Leap Country Park, East Grinstead, West Sussex
• 18 May Crow Hill, Ringwood, Hants
• 1 June Erlestoke Near Devizes, Wiltshire
• 6 July (Sthn Champs) Chawton Park Wood, Alton, Hants
• 21 Sept Oxney Moss, Bordon, Hants

Amenities such as camping, trade stand, Timelaps timing, demo bikes from Felt and catering will be available.

Venue information

The series will open at Mapledurham near Reading, on the great Green Deen Wood course with some nice technical drops and climbs, some will remember form the first Pro-Cup earlier this year. At the time of going to press this date could be subject to change but the rest of the series has all been confirmed.

Round 2 moves to Deers Leap Country Park with its great mix of technical woodland and fast open tracks. With the promise of a large new parking and arena field at the opposite side of the course plus with some more singletrack added this venue will be much improved.

Round 3 returns to Crow Hill, a great fun course that is surprisingly tough with its constant short sharp climbs. The course will be changed to a clover leaf design to make best us of the stunning central hill top arena and forest trails. This race will be a chance to pre-ride what will be the 2008 National Championships cross country course on July 20th.

Round 4 returns to an old favourite of ours Erlestoke in Wiltshire not used by this series since 2004. A great course used for many SAMS races in the 90’s plus a great National Points race that some old hands will remember.

Round 5 will incorporate the Southern Championships which is once again at the excellent Chawton Park Wood course in Alton. A great venue with huge potential lots of great trails to build a varied course in this huge wood. Lets hope for better weather this time but just in case we will be planning some alternative all weather tracks to avoid the worst of the mud.

Round 6 is at Oxney Moss at Bordon once again the series finale. With is fast flowing singletrack it’s a fun course with some fast climbs it never lets up and is a worthy end to determine the final series positions.

More details and online entry at www.southernxc.net. For those still into Facebook, a group has been setup to provide more information.