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Grading

How do we grade our courses, rides & off-road adventures?

To make it easier for you to choose a course, ride or off-road adventure that suits your fitness and current technical ability, each of our events is graded with a Fitness Required and Technical Skills Required rating.

Fitness required

Basic fitness

• You participate in formal exercise at least once per week, though not necessarily on a bike
• You can ride on flat or moderately steep terrain at a steady pace
• You can ride for at least two hours comfortably

Regular exerciser

• You exercise at least twice a week and at least one of these sessions is on a bike
• You can ride moderately steep terrain at a steady pace
• You can ride for at least three hours comfortably

Frequent exerciser

• You exercise more than twice a week and at least two of these sessions is on a bike
• You can ride steep terrain at a steady pace
• You can ride for five to six hours comfortably in a day

Race fit athlete

• You participant in a formal training régime
• You spend a significant amount of time cycling each week and compete regularly in races
• You can ride any terrain at a constant fast pace

Technical skills required

Basic skills required - Level 1

• You may have little or no experience of mountain biking
• You can already ride a bike and understand the principles behind gear selection
• You can already ride comfortably on smooth trails such as tow paths, fire trails and easy bridleways

Rookie skills required - Level 2

• You have some experience of riding off road and may have tried green and blue graded singletrack trails before at a trail centre or similar venue
• You can already ride confidently on narrow singletrack trails with small rocks, roots and steps

Intermediate skills required - Level 3

• You have some experience of riding off road and will have tried red and perhaps black graded singletrack trails before at a trail centre or similar venue
• You can already ride confidently on moderately steep, narrow singletrack trails with large rocks, root fans, steps, rollable drop-offs and other technical trail features

Advanced skills required - Level 4

• You have considerable experience of riding off road and will be confident on red and may have tried black graded singletrack trails
• You can already ride confidently on very steep rocky trails, drop-offs up to 1 metre high and other challenging trail features

Very advanced skills required - Level 5

• You have significant experience of riding off road, you are a regular mountain biker (at least once a week) and will have regularily ridden black graded singletrack trails before at a trail centre or similar venue and perhaps tried orange graded downhill race tracks at bike parks
• You can already ride confidently on very steep, narrow singletrack trails with large rocks, root fans, steps, rollable drop-offs and other technical trail features

 

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