Tag: course design
Who designed this race course?
Racers are likely to forgive you for most minor course design issues. Unfortunately, you can only please half the people half of the time. Some customers really care about how a course is designed. They especially care about accurate length. For locals, whether or not you included certain features comes in a close second. If...
Bootstrap your first dual slalom race
How do you bootstrap a mountain bike dual slalom event? I asked this question the first time I wanted to build a poor mans’s version of a dual slalom course. But instead of going through the ins-and-outs of professional dual slalom course design like did in 7 Secrets of Dual Slalom Course Design, I want...
Check your venue before race day, or else
On race day, you need to have your race venue set up at least 1-hour before anyone is due to arrive. If you have a lot of gear to set up, then you need to arrive even earlier — maybe even 3-hours earlier — but certainly before your registration is due to open. And that...
Building a race course starts with a walk
This may seem elementary, but the major event in course design is to physically walk the thing. Race course design is just as much a physical job as it is mental. And that means getting out into the wild and seeing things with your own two eyes. Miles of walking is kind of tough if...
Is Enduro Totally Enduro, or is it Just Enduro? Yes! Wait, What?
If you were to ask 100 mountain bikers to define Enduro mountain bike racing, you would get 100 different answers. This is because enduro, as a sport, is still more of a concept than a discipline, and at its core is essentially a mountain bike stage race that requires riders to use trail bikes for...
Understanding the Super-D
If someone asked you to describe a Super-D, what would you say? Would you say it’s a “gravity” style discipline? Yes, that would be true. Would you say it’s a blending of cross-country and downhill riding? Yes, that would be true too. Would you say that a Super-D course can include a single-track with an...