History of the Event
Mountain biking, originally known as ‘clunking’ emerged during the 1970s. For some time cyclists had taken their bikes off road but up until this point there had not been specialist equipment created for the purpose.
The History of Mountain Biking
The formalised sport is credited to have been started by the Velo Club Mount Tamalpais from California. The group did much to promote the sport during the late 1970s by holding regular race events such as the Repack Downhill Race.
The first US National Championships for mountain biking took place in 1983 although its popularity soon spread to Australia, Europe and beyond. 1990 saw the first World Championships and the event made its Olympic Games debut in Atlanta 1996.
Mountain Biking Event Format
The London 2012 Games mountain biking event will take place on the newly created Hadleigh Farm course. In line with the traditions of the sport the course will incorporate steep inclines and declines, obstacles and a mixture of woodland and shrub-land landscapes.
The event is held as a single race around the course with riders all starting together and the winner being declared as the first to cross the finish line. The Men’s event sees 50-60 competitors complete a distance of 40-50km (25-30 miles) and the Women’s event sees 30-40 riders complete a distance of 30-40km (20-25 miles), typically around 4-5 laps of the course are completed.
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