Thats’s Sebastian Coe talking about the mountain biking track at Hadleigh for the Olympics.
The Guardian has a good article and a photo about it here.
Key paragraph:
“The designers have done really well. For spectators it’s great as they’ve used the natural bowl, and from one particular point you can see maybe 70% of the course. This is very rare for mountain bike events, which are usually enclosed in forest, so that bodes well for good television. But from a rider perspective, you have to say the course is very physically demanding. Average mountain bikers could ride around it fairly easily, but at race pace it’s a different matter altogether. There’s six or seven short but steep climbs per lap, and we’re maybe looking at eight, 13-minute laps, so it will be pretty relentless. And when you factor in these technical sections it really adds to the difficulty, especially when you’re fatigued”