Reviews for Lordship Loop

Summary:
A truly missed opportunity

Review:

OK maybe not quite the first to ride it, but as the fence was down tonight I was not going to ignore the opportunity to bounce my way around it under lights... Firstly it must be said that the course is not a loop, in itself this is not a major issue, but such an obvious misnomer must be noted. Now I have had a personal connection with the park going back nearly 30 years and have ridden most of the major centres in the UK, while the idea of a major investment in off road cycling in the overall upgrading of the park was an amazing prospect, I have to say that in my opinion that the opportunity has been wasted for a number of reasons. The most obvious problem was siting the course in a totally flat area of a park that has number of slopes that are the prerequisite of almost every form of mountain biking and BMX tracks. As for the course itself I wonder who it is designed for, while elite riders might be able to jump the double and treble humps, I am worried that riders developing their skills are likely to mistime their attempt to clear them will hit the up slope with the obvious consequence, the solution to this may be to fill in some sections as table tops where you can land on the flat with some degree of safety while developing the ability to land on the down slope. The course really could do with a greater variety of features, while wood may rot and rock is unforgiving, the continual rollers made me wondered if I would develop seasickness. The humps will of course lose definition over time, but at present some are quite brutal to ride through in sections where speed can be carried through, how young children will be able to even roll through the course is a mystery. What the design really lacks is sections with progressive difficulty where riders can either build up their technical competence, maybe with alternative lines through similar obstacles. Ideally there would have been more raised 'starter' sections that led into skill building sections which would have offset the problems of building on the flat and could have allowed riders and coaching to focus on repeating short areas, As the old track in the park seems likely to disappear imminently I will be riding this 'loop' most days or nights, I just can't help but regret that as one of the main stated aims of building this track is developing the skills of young people it seems that so many opportunities have been missed.