Pay to Win (Part 2/2)

More on commercial trailbuilding;

While this particular feature (berm-to-drop'ish) was a missed opportunity to do something really cool, it shows the will to build and explore. Other features that deserve a mention where some of the small step-ups..the trailbuilders just nailed those, it demonstrates a clear understanding of the momentum those features require.

(click to enlarge)

Part of the XC line was this drop. 

I bet the gap seen here makes some spandex-racers cringe ; )

(click to enlarge)

By pure incident, we met one of the avid builders of this trail. His name was Simon, and before we knew it, we had the first 20 questions lined up. He was in the middle of building a new technical descend, armed with a chainsaw and a showel. After some talking he went; "Screw it, i'm going to grab my bike and ride with you guys" : D 

(click to enlarge)

..And so he did. Here he is hitting a roadgap (on his hardtail). This is the only feature in this post that doesn't belong to the official xc-line. "Some of the XC-riders are already crying about some of the drops and jumps" Simon told us with a smile. He added something important tho'; "The XC-riders are slowly beginning to hit some of this stuff" 

(click to enlarge)

I am not going to blindly sweet-talk everything, as this place had its share of faults as well; Drops-to-flat (are we in 1998?), flowing lines interrupted by meaningless tight stuff, fragile berms, drops to corners (not in a good way), and a training area with a wasted potential. I don't want to sound as if I have an omni-potent knowledge of trailbuilding, because I dont. I am however passionate about traildesign, a have written about it HERE.  Being puristically positive about something is not my style. Skepticism fuels the full spectrum, know what I'm sayin?

This small jump however, was one of the good features, it even had a small switch-back section before it.

(click to enlarge)

Hitting a table-like jump. While its not evident on this pic, I estimate it was about 5-6m(16-19ft) long.

A local beer ends a good day. I will be back.

So was it worth the money and time? Sure. Did it push trail design forward? Yes it did for this area, but we are, in this country, still in an early stone-age regarding trail design. So, ya, this place is on the right way, but more is needed to be done, and a crystal clear objective and intent would suit this place.

Got questions? Shoot in the comments section.