Start/Finish: Adderstone Field, High Dalby Total distance: 6.5km (around 4.1 miles) Total ascent: 140m (459ft) Time: 20 minutes to 1 hour Summary: The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup will be held on the weekend of 23-25 April, starting with a town centre criterium race in Pickering on Friday. Junior and citizens races are being held on the Saturday, with the Elite male and female races on the Sunday. On race day the start will be a sprint round the field and then a quick loop round and back in to where the feed zone will be. Mortal riders are best just starting on the red route section that crosses the road from Dixon’s Hollow. Roll the first few jumps and berms then follow the red/black route, taking the fire road rather than the rock infested black route options. Take care down the rocky gully. If you want to cut out the long climb and zig-zag Medusa’s Drop descent, just follow the gully all the way to the bottom. Follow the course markers up the long climb and work round the north of the course. Make sure you take the chicken run rather than the drop into Worry Gill, although if there are any skilled riders around cheering them off the drop is great fun. Challenge yourself to see how far you can get up the other side, but expect to push unless you’re a pro. The trail then levels off a bit, but twists and turns still keep it a challenging ride whatever your pace. After that, the singletrack leads back into the bowls, jumps and corkscrew bridge sections of Dixon’s Hollow. Offi cially, you should now trundle straight back to the start field. However, there’s the opportunity to add a lot more North Shore trail sections or another couple of loops of the skills area if you’ve developed a taste for the technical.by ocoutts
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