Apparently there is some concern over the selection of the 2012 London Olympic mountain bike course since the proposed site in Essex, England has very little elevation change – less than 300 feet for the course. It’s not clear if this means 300 feet of total climbing over the entire course or if the high elevation minus the low elevation is 300 feet. If it’s the latter I’d say that’s not too shabby – after all the 1996 Olympic course in Conyers, GA has about that (though each lap had 1000+ feet of climbing).
The USA Today article actually starts by asking a rather silly question: “is it possible to have a mountain bike race without mountains?” Any mountain bike rider who lives in Florida can tell you there are plenty of challenging mountain bike trails in a state without a single mountain. Maybe things were better when mountain biking was called “all terrain cycling.” Why’d the Library of Congress have to go and change things 😉
