By Greg May
More than two hundred years after the Glendalough Mining Company started mining in the Co Wicklow valley, a different kind of venture has begun.
This time, instead of stripping the land of all its worth, the seeds of a new purpose-built bike park have been planted.
Started during 2011 and built on private lands on the Glendalough Estate, the G-Ride Trail is the first commercial venture that aims to deliver quality trails without the restrictions placed on mountain bikers by other 'stakeholders'. It takes in established trails and purpose-built features
The G-Ride Trail is part of an overall plan by the Glendalough Estate to create trails in the 1,500 acre estate that riders will pay to use. The official opening has not yet occurred but a full schedule of XC MTB racing on the trail tomorrow, Sunday March 18th, has been billed as a teaser event at the venue before the ribbon is cut.
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So how do you make sure a venue will be up to the standard demanded by MTB riders? Sure enough, if you build it they will come. But will they come back? Why would you pay to ride a venue when you can just go to Djouce and ride XTC, Benchcut and GC to death?
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Well, why not get the person who built these trails to build your venue; none other than Bob the Builder himself, Olympian and multi national champion Robin Seymour.
Bob, Scoop, Muck and all the crew have been busy digging a 5km loop into the forest to create the G-Ride Trail, which takes in all the area has to offer. The first racing on the new trail tomorrow is ‘The Glendalough XC Gold Rush’. It’s the second round of the Leinster League and there’s a full programme of racing for all ages and categories (see details on poster above).
Three climbs feature in every lap, with a fireroad climb to break up the bunch at the start and two single track climbs of varying difficulty to test even the best technical climbers. The flowing descents favour the skilled over the brave; with powerful riders who are used to gassing straights getting less favour over a more flowing rider.
Overall the course is about eighty percent singletrack with the rest in fireroad and the purpose-designed start area. With estimated lap times of 21 minutes for the faster S1 riders, this course could give insight into who has early season form ahead of the first NPS race.
The venue has a similar feel to the fantastic Kilruddery House. Like that venue, this is a private trail that is not officially open yet, so riders are requested to respect the venue after the event or they will put any further events at this location at risk.
The racing starts tomorrow from midday, with sign on open from 10am at Glendalough House Estate, Anamoe. With over 175 riders pre-signed on as of Thursday this is going to be a great start to the Leinster League and sadly the only XCO race to be run in Wicklow this summer.
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