Patrice Drouin - Course Designer

Patrice Drouin is synonymous with mountain bike courses at Mont Ste Anne, the guy the riders praise and, occasionally, curse for race tracks that make for legendary racing.

As the President of Gestev, the organizer of the 2010 Mountain Bike World Championships, you might think Patrice will hang out in the VIP area, watching the races go by - but he won\'t.  As always, we can expect to see him out on the courses - usually driving his ATV - checking that the circuits are standing up to the abuse they will be subjected to, and planning his next version...

The planning for the 2010 World Championship courses for Cross-country, 4-Cross and Downhill began years ago, almost as soon as the event was awarded to Gestev, but the final preparation is underway now, as the snow recedes from the ski slopes.  We caught up with Patrice recently to discuss what riders and spectators can expect to see when they come to Mont Ste Anne at the end of August.

You have been working on World Cup courses at Mont Ste Anne since 1991, when the World Cup first began.  What are you doing to make things special for the 2010 Worlds?

Now that the snow is gone, we can begin to check the courses.  Last year [for the World Cup] we made the big changes, so that it was early enough for the course base to be established.

For example, the 4-Cross course for last year was completely redone, it was completely new, and it won the award for the best 4-Cross [World Cup] of the season.  That was a good sign.  So, since everything is basically in place, we just have to fine tune some turns and some jumps.  We also want to make the entire course more accessible to crowds to watch the races.

How about the Downhill?

There are a number of changes that we will make here.  The biggest will be a new start; the one we use now is from [the] 1998 [Worlds], so it is due for some changes!

Either it will start from a built platform, or right from the gondola; we are working on the plans with the resort now to see what is possible.  It will be a more technical start, higher, and with a couple of drop offs, rocks and fast acceleration all at the top, which I think the athletes will appreciate.  This will make it better for television in the top section as well.

It should be about the same length - distance and time - as last year, but we will be building some bigger features in the finishing section, and put the finish up higher, by the 4-Cross track.

And the Cross-country...

Mont Ste Anne for cross-country has so many options; we have made courses here for 30 years, so there are lots of opportunities to modify, and we can play a lot!

The course will have the same elevation gain each lap [as last year], but the track will be quite a bit shorter; 4.5 to 4.8 kilometres, so it is about 1.5 kilometres less than last year.  The route is pretty much set, so we will fine tune it now, once the television positions are established, for better visibility.  We still have the long climb at the start, and the second climb in the middle, but some of the course at the east end is removed, and we will add a technical section in the parking lot area for spectators.

What about the new descent you added last year?  Riders either loved it or hated it.

The Beatrice rock drop will be back, for sure, and so will the chicken route.  I know it is hard, I think it is about as extreme as you can go in cross-country.

You also have the Trials World Championships, so what will we see there?

We have an old site, from back in the 1990s, at the east end of the parking lot, so we will re-establish that.  We will make it a permanent Trials site, for riders to use in the future.  We plan to do about 70% of the Trials sections there, and the remainder over in the Expo area and by the Start/Finish of the Cross-country, so that people can follow the path across the entire venue.  We are trying to make the Trials sections as natural as possible, and a young French designer is coming over to design everything, using the natural woods and rocks wherever he can.

Finally, you have talked about making everything open to spectators - what are you planning?

For all the courses, we want to make lots of spaces for spectators.  We are going to try to make them areas with entertainment, and see if we can do a common area for all three (Cross-country, Downhill and 4-Cross), so that there is an area with ambience for people to hang out at.  That is our goal.