Le Tour de Forêt
We are very pleased to announce Le Tour de Forêt, which will be a multi-stage MTBO course around most of the Forest of Dean. The first stage – L’Étape Sud Ouest – is now published, and can be downloaded from UK/Gloucestershire/Mapride/Tour de Foret. There are two course options – La Grande, which is a scatter course requiring you to visit all 30 controls as fast as possible, starting and finishing at any one of them, or La Petite, which requires to to visit any 15 of the 30 controls, again in any order and starting and finishing at any one of them. In each case the finish is the same control as the start. On the Grande course you must also visit the designated Start/Finish, which just becomes another control, whilst on the Petite course you don’t have to.
Details of the South West stage, where you can park etc, and the map to download, can be found on the stage page here.
The map is a purpose designed MTBO map showing only permissible cycle routes. Although MTB activity across the forest as a whole is anarchic, and people go where they like, we ask that you abide by the Forestry Commission byelaws and only ride the tracks shown. Maps are A4 size, 1:25,000 scale, and a typical Grande course of 30 controls will entail perhaps 40-45km of riding.
Further stages will appear as soon as we can prepare them, and we would welcome any feedback or comment you have on course, map or concept.
