PLEASE NOTE: Due to the fact that large portions of the course is on private land, courses are not open to be ridden outside of official practice times and these will be indicated in the official programme released by the UCI.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The 2014 UCI MTB Marathon World Championships is split up into two loops, a 74km and a 21km loop. The women race only the 74km loop while the men do both loops, totally 95km.
The first, 74km loop is a scenic section which sees riders head over a variety of surfaces and through numerous different ecosystems.
The second, 21km loop is similar to cross country riding as it has numerous short descents – no longer than 1000m long each – while the climbs are short, sharp and frequent.
• 1st loop: 74 km
The start/finish line at Cascades is in the same place as it was on the cross country course at this year’s World Cup in April.
The riders head up the start/finish straight towards the base of Red Face Hill. Just before they get to the base they turn right, past the bottom of Rapid Rocks rock garden, over the bottom of the World Cup downhill finish area and onto a forest road.
The course’s first 7km contour through Cascades’ forests and has a couple of 200-300m stretches of single track as well as some short, sharp climbs – each about 250m long – and eventually brings the riders to the first feed/tech zone.
After the first feed/tech zone the riders cross over Nonsuch Road, head into Queen Elizabeth Park and climb for 800-1000m before going through the Queen Elizabeth Park nursery which sees the riders get to the start of the first long climb of the course. This climb takes riders through a private farm and into Mt. Verde.
Inside Mt. Verde, riders reach the second feed/tech zone and then face the first real downhill which heads through a few valleys to the Mt. Verde exit point and up the biggest climb of the course thus far, up through a private farm, onto the D494 and to feed/tech zone 3.
After feed/tech zone 3 riders start a long descent down to feed/tech zone 4 and on towards Hilton College Estate. Riders have a short portage into the Hilton College Estate before they get onto the game trails of the Hilton College Nature Reserve.
The course then winds down to the bottom of the valley and riders head into Umgeni Valley Nature Reserve which brings one of the biggest climbs of the course and sees the riders make their way out of the valley.
After exiting Hilton College, riders go into another private farm and through to feed/tech zone 5.
After feed/tech zone 5 riders go over the D494 again, into another private farm and back into Mt. Verde’s reserve where they wind their way down to the bottom of Mt. Verde’s reserve to another of the day’s bigger climbs .
The end of the climb starts a section of contour riding around to Otto’s Bluff before some farm track, forest track and single track takes riders through to feed/tech zone 6.
Some more farm and forest track leads to the World Cup downhill course start where riders go through the downhill start gate and do a loop through to the Hilltop trail .
From the Hilltop trail the course heads past the Umgeni Water waterworks, onto Warwick Road and through to feed/tech zone 7.
Between feed/ tech zone 7 and the start/finish line is the single track Hairpin Descent and Brian’s Gums before riders head into the dual track above the Amphitheatre, go under the crossover bridge used in the World Cup cross country course and back towards the start/finish line where the women finish and the men begin the second, 21km loop.
• 2nd loop: 20 km
Once through the start/finish line – completing the first 74km loop – the men head back out towards Red Face Hill to begin the second, 21km loop.
After the same first 500m as loop one, the men turn right, go under the crossover bridge, head up the World Cup cross country track for 800m and go up English road single track.
This is followed by a climb up to Forgotten Trail, Blackjack Socks, Muzzlehout and then Fast and Fluffy single track before riders descend down to an extraction road, climb up to above Muzzlehout, descend down Bandits Bend, head through Vandals Valley, Growing Parks, under two bridges and around the back of Sheraton.
As the men make their way through the final stages of the race there is a 1.5km forest road stretch before a short section of single track and the final section into the home straight.
