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Windham Mountain Bike World Cup Finals

MONDAY, 26 JULY 2010


Windham, N.Y. – Internationally acclaimed mountain bike course designer Phil Saxena is at Windham Mountain overseeing construction of the four-cross (4X) course he designed for the Windham 2010 Mountain Bike World Cup Finals – a course he said will be the biggest 4X course in all of North America.

“This course is going to be really fast, very exciting and a real challenge for riders,” said Saxena, who hails from the United Kingdom. “It will definitely be up there with the best courses in the world.”

Saxena credits the “amazing” terrain at Windham, which is part of the Catskill Mountains, with providing him and the rest of the team – many of whom are volunteers – with a great foundation to work with. “The mountain has a good grade, nice length and lots of rocky outcrops. We’re combining all that with lots of jumps.”

The course will have about 25 jumps, some of which are very big, he said. The largest will be 45 to 50 feet in length and Saxena promises that the 4X races will be “pretty exciting to watch.”

“One of the major features,” Saxena said, “is the rock section, where the track represents the terrain all around the mountain. It will give riders a real taste of the Catskills.”

He also commented that this complex track design could not be put together without the hardworking local construction team headed by Kyle Byrne of Trec Management. Byrne has volunteered countless hours of his time and has donated the use of several pieces of heavy machinery.

Saxena spent six years as the Union Cycliste Internationale’s 4X course builder and still travels all over the globe creating and constructing courses. (UCI is the international association of the National Cycling Federations.) Tracks designed and built by Saxena and his team at Architrail include UCI World Championship 4X courses, Olympic tracks (Beijing) and hundreds of national and international racing and recreational trails.

Saxena and his team at Architrail have been designing trails for almost a decade, and their combined experience and passion deliver unsurpassed attention to detail, accuracy of planning, construction excellence and project management.

The world’s best professional mountain bikers will converge on Windham Mountain in August as the resort town plays host to the prestigious international Windham Mountain Bike World Cup finals, presented by Shimano, marking the event’s return to the United States after a five-year absence.

Local organizers who were successful in luring the UCI-sanctioned event have also planned a large number of diverse community events to coincide with the competition to create a four-day festival in Windham, Aug. 26-29.

Windham is the last stop on a tour which also visits North Yorkshire, Great Britain; Houffalize, Belgium; Offenburg, Germany; Fort William, UK; Schladming, Austria; Champéry, Switzerland; and Val di Sole, Italy.

For more information, visit www.racewindham.com.

Source: reviews.mtbr.com

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