Key facts

Sport: Mountain Bike
Location: Hadleigh Farm is to the east of London, in Essex.
New or existing: New
Permanent or temporary: Temporary
Number of events: 2

Find out how to get to Hadleigh Farm during the London 2012 Games

About Hadleigh Farm

Construction of the Mountain Bike course was completed in March 2011.

Hadleigh Farm is owned by the Salvation Army. The venue covers a 550-acre site including beautiful grassland and woodland. It also includes the surrounding countryside of Hadleigh Castle Country Park.

The venue was chosen because it fulfills requirements as a technically challenging course.

The terrain is hilly with open grass land covered by low shrubbery. The site offers some fantastic gradients for mountain biking and great viewing opportunities for spectators. The course is set against the backdrop of the 700-year-old ruins of Hadleigh Castle.

Essex County Council’s planning application for this venue is available on the Castle Point Borough Council website. The reference number you can use to view this application is CPT/228/10/FUL.

In July 2011 the Hadleigh Farm Mountain Bike International took place as part of the London Prepares series.The event featured 82 athletes and allowed LOCOG to test key aspects of its operations ahead of London 2012.

During the Games

Hadleigh Farm will host the Mountain Bike competition.

Spectators will be able to watch the action along a course winding through woods and parkland.

After the Games

The temporary structures will be taken down. We will work closely with our partners, including Essex County Council and The Salvation Army, to explore what course will be left in place for future use.

Key facts

Venue: Hadleigh Farm, Essex
Dates: Saturday 11 – Sunday 12 August
Medal events: 2
Athletes: 80 (50 men, 30 women)

Much like BMX, Mountain Biking is a young sport that has risen to worldwide popularity at an amazing rate. Fast, furious and occasionally downright terrifying, the sport developed in northern California during the 1970s. However, it quickly spread from its low-key beginnings and now has a huge following around the globe, which has only grown since its arrival on the Olympic programme in the 1990s.

The basics

Cross-country Mountain Bike competitions at the Olympic Games take place over rough and hilly countryside. All riders start together and must complete a set number of laps of the course, with races lasting around one hour and forty-five minutes for both men and women. There are no heats: for both the men’s and women’s events, all competitors start together, and the first rider to cross the finish line wins the gold.

Bicycles used in Mountain Bike events are built for speed, durability and comfort, no easy task given the variety of terrain. They need to be quick and light enough to aid climbing through uneven terrain, but sturdy and stable enough to handle descents at extreme speeds.

Olympic Mountain Biking, past and present

The first official Mountain Bike World Championships were held as recently as 1990. A mere six years later, cross-country Mountain Biking made its Olympic debut in Atlanta.

At London 2012, the Mountain Bike competition will take place at Hadleigh Farm in Essex. The newly constructed course, built especially for the Olympic Games, will provide a tough test for competitors from all over the world.

Jargon buster

• Full sus: A mountain bike with both front and rear suspension.
• Hardtail: A mountain bike with no rear suspension.
• Kick-out: A technique used to shift the back wheel out to one side into a turn.
• Pinch flat: A flat tyre caused by hitting an obstacle so hard that the inner tube is pinched against the rim.
• See the London 2012 Olympic Games competition schedule
• Cycling is a great way to keep fit, as well as an environmentally-friendly means of transport.

British Cycling’s club development programme, called Go-Ride, is aimed at encouraging clubs to help young cyclists enjoy their cycling in a safe, off-road environment.

Most cyclists aim to increase their average speed over the course of time, and even those who don’t particularly care about such things (yes, there are people who cycle solely for pleasure!) usually get satisfaction from knowing they have completed their route a bit faster than usual.

There are two ways to increase your average speed: (1) hard work, sweat and tears, usually with interval training, or (2) by not cycling slowly so often!

Below we take a look at the second of these, the ‘lazy person’s guide to getting faster’, in the hope that we can find ways to increase our average speed without having to do all that hard work first…

All you need to do is identify the times during a cycle ride that you are definitely not making enough effort!

Think I’m joking? What about the following possibilities, do any apply to you?

1) “I stop making an effort just before the end of a hill climb and then take it easy for a minute or two whil I recover”. That ‘rest and recovery’ at the end of a hill can easily lose you the hard won seconds from the climb itself. try and get used to continuing your effort to the top of the hill – and beyond!

2) “I brake well in advance of a junction or obstacle”. Well, OK, safety is good and comes first, but get used to how quickly you can stop the bike, both on the flat and going downhill, preferably using only the front brake. If you start to brake too soon you will again be losing valuable seconds

3) “I brake before a corner and accelearate out of the corner”. Exactly what every cyclist does, of course. But there are a lot of corners which don’t need braking at all, and don’t need you to stop pedalling right through the corner either. Get used to how fast you can go round the bend (so to speak!) and if possible avoid braking, if the corner isn’t too fast or acute you could also keep gently pedalling.

4) “Sometimes I lose concentration and look at the countryside instead of focussing on cycling”. Well, we can’t criticise someone for looking around and enjoying themselves! Just be aware that when you do, you are losing time. Try and get used to seeing the countryside whizzing by…

There is even a cycling training method which involves cycling reasonably gently but at a constant effort (say, 75% of your maximum heart rate). So with a focus on not letting your effort drop, rather than on having periods of great effort.

OK so the above won’t turn you into Contador but next time you are out and about, each time you stop pedalling, slow down or start braking, ask yourself if it was really necessary, or whether you could have carried on cycling at ‘normal’ speed.

Note: the one exception to all the above, don’t think that the first few kilometres is a time when you could make more effort. That warm-up time is crucial to the whole ride that follows, so exhausting yourself in the first 10 minutes will NOT increase your overall performance.

With no back-up vehicles or doctors, the team will be pulling all the equipment and supplies they need for the duration of their four-week expedition over the toughest terrain in the world.

The team includes Afghanistan veterans Captain Martin Hewitt (29), Captain Guy Disney (28), Sergeant Steve Young (28) and Private Jaco Van Gass (26).

All of the soldiers suffered debilitating life-changing injuries, including the loss of limbs, during active service. They will be accompanied by two expedition leaders and a Norwegian polar guide. They have all been on a punishing training schedule in order to be fit for the ultimate test of mental and physical stamina.

The BBC One documentary will follow how the servicemen have risen to this challenge.

Prince Harry is the patron of Walking With The Wounded, the charity organising the expedition. He will join the team on the ice for the first leg of the expedition when for a week he will be pulling his own sledge, sharing tent-pitching and food preparation duties and facing the same gruelling Arctic conditions as his fellow servicemen.

Expedition Patron Prince Harry comments: “What the Walking with the Wounded North Pole Team is undertaking is an enormous adventure of the most challenging order. I’m delighted that their training has been going well so far, and that they feel prepared for the task ahead.

“The funds that Walking with the Wounded will – I hope – raise, with the public’s support, will make a life-changing difference to injured servicemen and women from our Armed Forces, retraining and reskilling them for their own challenging futures.”

The expedition kicks off this month and the soldiers aim to reach the North Pole by the end of April.

They will face a constant battle with ice and wind storms which would test the most able-bodied of Arctic explorers. For these wounded veterans the challenge will be immense.

Captain Martin Hewitt says: “Through this expedition we aim to demonstrate to injured servicemen and women of all ranks that you can achieve great things post injury. Our training is complete and now it’s time to freeze! I’m confident that our team is well prepared for the challenges ahead. We’ve had great support from all involved and we’re honoured to have Prince Harry, our patron, joining us on the ice.”

BBC executive producer Alison Kirkham says: “Bringing the stories of these incredibly brave soldiers to a BBC One audience is a privilege.

“We are delighted to have been granted this exclusive access to cover their epic and demanding challenge, which will also feature Prince Harry. We hope our viewers will find their journey both inspiring and compelling.”

The documentary Harry’s Arctic Heroes will be shown on BBC One later in the year.

Mark Beaumont, the record-breaking cyclist, today had a final spin on the bike that he pedalled 13,000 miles down the Americas.

Mark, 27, from Perthshire, was back on the bike outside the BBC Scotland headquarters, where the finishing touches are being added to a three-part network documentary on his remarkable feat.

The first 50-minute episode, The Man Who Cycled The Americas: North America, screens on BBC One at 10.35pm on Tuesday 23 March 2010. Parts two and three of the The Man Who Cycled The Americas series, Central America and South America, transmit on Tuesday 30 March and Tuesday 6 April, at the same time.

Mark, who is the current world record holder for circumnavigating the globe by bicycle, set off in May last year, finishing his epic adventure last month.

Along the way Mark also succesfully climbed to the summits of the highest mountains in North and South America – Mount McKinley, USA (20,321 ft) and Mount Aconcagua, Argentina (22,841 ft).

The bike he pedalled throughout the journey is to go on display in the reception at the BBC Scotland HQ along with the kit he used to film his odyssey along the American cordillera, the longest series of mountain ranges in the world.

Mark said: “It’s a funny feeling being back on the bike after a short break. Along with the camera it was my constant companion.The bike had a punishing time – but so did I.

“There were fantastic experiences all the way but also some painful challenges. I had 25 punctures to repair, a bad case of food poisoning, the worst humidity I’ve endured and, for the first time in my whole cycling career, I had to spend a day pushing my bike when winds of 100 kilometres an hour in Patagonia forced me out of the saddle.

“The memories of the amazing landscapes I travelled through and the wonderful people who showed me such warmth and friendliness along the way will stay with me forever. The documentary series will show close-up all the highs and lows of my adventure.”

Mark was only joined by a BBC cameraman three times on this trip and, even then, only for a few days on each occasion. For weeks on end he cycled and filmed in isolation.

Episode one covers the journey through North America, from Anchorage to the United States border with Mexico, episode two through Central America, and the final episode through South America to the finish in the city of Ushuaia, often referred to as “The End of the World”.

Throughout the journey, Mark posted regular updates, blogs, videos and photos on bbc.co.uk/cyclingtheamericas. An interactive map has allowed visitors to the website to follow him on every part of the journey.

There have been over 4,700 followers on Twitter and 2,400 fans on Facebook. His BBC blog has received over 850,000 page impressions, while his pictures on Flickr have generated more than 175,000 views.

BBC Radio Scotland is airing an accompanying documentary series, The Man Who Cycled The Americas – Mark’s Diary, at 11.05am on the morning following each episode of the TV series.