About...
Imagine Jenson Button embarking on a flying lap with a can of Castrol and some spare jump leads in his lap. Unthinkable. Mountain biking, by contrast, is very much a solo effort. Riders carry their own puncture repair kits, although they are allowed to receive outside assistance should they have any mechanical problems.
But mountain biking is as brutal on the limbs as it is on the bikes. It is possibly the only Olympic sport that incorporates fallen trees into the challenge. Races are run over around 40-50km for men and 30-40km for women.
It became an Olympic sport in 1996, although just a generation earlier there was very little competitive about it at all. The Repack Downhill race in San Francisco is generally held to have been the first official mountain biking race.
The 2012 race will be held at Hadleigh Farm in Essex, after the original choice of Weald Country Park was nixed for being not being hard enough. You just don’t get that level of sadism in athletics, which in many ways is a great shame.
Rules:
Riders complete several laps – in Beijing, it was eight - of a cross-country
course that takes in climbs, descents and tricky technical corners. In a
straight race, the first rider past the line wins gold. Riders who are
lapped finish the lap they are on and are then eliminated.
Events / disciplines:
Men's race
Women's race
Gold medals available: 2
Schedule:
Aug 11-12
Olympic
mountain bike schedule
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London 2012 Olympic Schedule
Ticket prices:
Range from £20 - £45
Special prices available in both categories (A+B).
Venue:
Hadleigh Farm, Essex
How many medals targeted by Team GB?
Performance Director Dave Brailsford never set medal targets and isn't starting now. However there are two golds available in mountain bike cross-country. His aim is to have a medal 'shout' in both events.
Where are the chances?
At present there are no obvious medal contenders in the mountain bike.
Key issue internationally?
Qualification is being made easier for developing areas – South America, Africa and Australasia – which will make qualifying from Europe very severe. Also there will now be only one competitor per country competing in London.
Brits to watch?
Could it be third time lucky for Liam Killeen? Fancied going into the last two Olympics, he went over his handlebars on the first bend in Athens and then tumbled off his bike again in Beijing. Both times he achieved a respectable finish, having had to work his way back through the field, and with a little better fortune he could challenge for medals this time.
Biggest international rivals?
Julien Absalon (France), Nino Schurter (Switzerland), Jared Graves (Australia) will challenge in the men’s event. In the women’s, Romana Labounkova (Czech Republic), Anita Molcik (Austria) and Beijing champion Sabine Spitz of Germany are among the front-runners.
Jargon:
Bunny-hop: To jump the bike, without dismounting, over an obstacle.
Cornering clearance: The amount of lean angle a bicycle can have without digging a pedal; also called pedal clearance or road clearance.
Push-climb: A section of trail with inadequate traction or too-steep a pitch, that forces cyclists to dismount and carry their bikes.
Snakebite: The most common type of flat tyre, caused by hitting an obstacle so hard that the inner tube is pinched against the rim.
Legends:
Julien Absalon (France), Miguel Martinez (France), Paola Pezzo (Italy)
Fact:
Of the 50 riders that started the men’s event in Beijing, just 28 made it to
the finish.
What to say....
“The amount of punishment those bikes take, you would scarcely believe they
weigh less than 10 kilos.”
What not to say....
“Get off and push it... oh, he has.”
If it were a TV programme, it would be...
I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here. A load of semi-celebrities are flung
into the wilderness and ordered to fend for themselves.
Official sites:
www.london2012.com/games/olympic-sports/cycling-mountain-bike.php
www.britishcycling.org.uk/
www.uci.ch/
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