British Cycling selected Frank Jaworski and Paul Hore from Thetford MTB Racing to run the British National Cross Country and Marathon Mountain Bike Series. For 2008, the National Point Series will comprise five events, and a one-day stand-alone National Championship event will also be held. No significant format changes are expected; however the 25km Sunday enduro will be replaced with a 75km enduro. Cross country events will still happen Saturdays.
Referring to Thetford, British Cycling's Mountain Bike Coordinator Roger Wilbraham said, "Their pedigree, as organisers of the excellent Dusk Til Dawn events and the Marin winter series, speaks for itself and British Cycling is confident the new team will run the national series with enthusiasm and efficiency."
Jaworski and Hore said, "Our goal is to take advantage of this momentum and continue to improve where necessary to bring you the most professional events possible. We're fortunate to be assuming a series that's seen very good attendance in the last year. We will continue to try and reach out to new riders and draw the very best talent the UK has to offer."
A firm schedule was not yet released, but the series will open in April with round one at Thetford. "With the limited planning time we've had, it made sense for us to stick to a venue we know well for the first round this year," said organizers. "We easily accommodated over 800 riders this year at Dusk 'til Dawn from the Mayday Meadow area of the forest, and we will use this recently expanded area again for the opening round of the NPS.
"Other locations we're currently researching include Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, Lake District, Forest of Dean, and Margam Park. Some of the criticism we've seen about the recent series was that it wasn't a truly 'National' series. We're trying to spread the events out to cover a larger area."
