And we're back!

(well, hopefully)

Probably need to keep your fingers crossed for this one folks, but we're aiming to bring you an XC bike race next month! After quite a wait since the last one, we're hoping to get the show on the road at Cathkin Braes on Sunday June 13.

CLICK HERE TO ENTER

A few important things to be aware of though:

• Cathkin Braes is within the Glasgow local authority area, which remains under Covid level 3 restrictions. This has to change before the event can go ahead, so at the moment we are relying on that situation improving.

• We aren't having a formal 2021 SXC series. To us, a series needs to be worthy of the name and it just isn't possible this year. Everything we put on this year will be a stand-alone event, just to get racing underway again.

• Covid restrictions on competitive events place a limit on the number of riders we can have on course at any given point, which limits how many people can attend. For this reason, we're unfortunately not going to be able to include U12 age categories this time around. Hopefully that will change later in the year but it just isn't possible right now. Happily, the calendar has plenty of other racing opportunities for younger riders.

This event won't carry any ranking points, but this does give us the scope to try something new! Rather than a standard XCO race, we are going to try out a new format, somewhere between short course and XCO, with mixed categories. By doing this, the aim is to give as many people as possible the chance to race, and to make that racing as exciting as it can be for everyone.

There are six separate races on offer, each lasting approximately 45 minutes, and we think everyone is eligible to choose between at least two of them. You can only enter one race however, we won't accept multiple entries! The course will be a proper SXC course, only a bit shorter in length, with B line options where appropriate as we'd normally have.

So which race to enter?

The FAST one - open to Youth and older, male or female

The YOUNG FOLKS one - open to Juvenile, Youth and Junior only, male or female

The FEMALE ONLY one - open to all ages, female only

The NEW-TO-ALL-THIS one - open to all ages, male or female

The QUITE FAST one - open to Junior and older, male or female

The NOT QUITE SO FAST one - open to Junior and older, male or female

The online entry system is set up slightly differently from normal, as "organiser selects entrants" - this is to allow us to try and balance things out as best we can, to ensure as many of you as possible get the chance to race. This is the first time we've done it this way though, please bear with us!

If there's anything we can help with, just drop us a line at info@sxc.org.uk - keep an eye on the Facebook page too, and we'll keep you up to date as and when things change.

We're not expecting this to all go entirely smoothly, but we'll try our best!

Your SXC team