The 4th round of the Rav4 National Mountain Bike Series will
be held at Newnham Park over the 22/23 July – it promises to provide one of the high
points of this year’s national action. With a new 8km track being sculpted from a
mix of previous World Cup courses plus a new singletrack descent and a new technical
section the event should provide a stiff challenge for Britain’s Olympic Mountain
Bike team and all other competitors. The organisers have also had a request to ride
from the Moldovan National Team who were originally planning to come to the World
Cup in May and have decided to come to try the Newnham Course in their Olympic build
up.



Martyn Salt organiser of the event said



” At the moment I’m trying to sort out some accommodation for the Moldovan team
and their entourage, it’s great that they’re coming although I don’t really know
how good the standard is in Moldova!”



”This new course will include many famous parts of the Newnham track and some new
elements. The new sections will hopefully further improve what is regarded as one
of the best Mountain Bike Venues in the World. The new picnic rocks section was planned
to be introduced at what would have been the World Cup in May and all the work had
already been done on the preparation so we’ve really concocted a new course that
mixes old favourites with what we hope will be new favourites. We also plan to use
the pipeline but it is pretty bare at the moment and depending on the weather may
be too dangerous to ride.”



”With Britain’s Olympic team competing in the run up to Sydney plus riders from
all over the country we expect a busy weekend with around 600 riders on-site. Saturday
will be practice day with the children’s races and Sunday will be the race day for
all other categories”



Newnham have added a few elements to make the journey to Devon more worthwhile with
the new free to enter Raleigh Short Track XC racing on Saturday evening (only open
to riders competing on Sunday), Off road Karts, bar, extra refreshments and even
hot showers on site.