Ben, from Mickleover in Derby, is the current Notts and Derby Cyclo-Cross League Champion and has designed courses at many local league venues. Latterly he designed the course for the Markeaton Park National Trophy race held in Derby in January. “Moorways has been used for league races before but this is a brand new course” said Ben. “Riders can expect a challenging course leading to fast, close racing. The course will be similar to Southampton but hopefully without the bad weather!”
In the centre of the course is Derby’s premier synthetic athletics track which will not be used for the racing. However the steep grass banks around the track form an “arena”. The banks were formerly the concrete velodrome that was part of the stadium. The track grandstand will provide a good comfortable viewing point for spectators as much of the course can be seen from that point.
Markeaton Park was mainly on grass with some woodland but Moorways will have a greater variety of terrain and more technical features. The races will start and finish on a long tarmac straight which will give the riders chance to spread out before hitting a series of grassy banks which they will need to traverse, climb and ascend. Early in each lap, the riders will have to negotiate a sand pit in which Ben is planning a hairpin bend which only the top riders will be able to ride. The sand is to be provided by one of the event sponsors, Jackson’s Building Centres www.jacksonbc.co.uk.
Also near the stadium grandstand, there will be the standard pair of hurdles which were left out of the Markeaton race due to the heavy conditions. Another sponsor, Dovedale Damp www.dovedaledamp.co.uk, is kindly providing and erecting the hurdles. Other sponsors that supported the event at Markeaton are continuing that support with direct help with provision of other course materials. Ben said “We are also pleased that Total Hire www.totalhireandsales.co.uk and High5 www.highfive.co.uk, are continuing to support us by providing course barriers and tape respectively.”
The new course layout can be seen on the event website at www.derby.nationaltrophy.org.uk/images/nt09/09_10_course_map.jpg
Further details can be found on the event website: www.derby.nationaltrophy.org.uk
