THE Isle of Man End2End Mountain Bike Challenge has proved to be such a success it is now recognised as one of the top events in Europe and is likely to become a weekend-long festival in the future.

Event organisers have had such positive feedback from the competitors that they are now looking at ways of extending the programme to add further bike races, centred around the main End2End challenge, sponsored again this year by Sleepwell Hotels.

“It’s an idea we have been condsidering for a while,” said the organising committee chairman Steve Honeybone. “It makes sense to have some other events for the riders to enjoy whilst on the Island, extending the weekend into more of a festival, rather than just one single race.”

This year’s End2End, covering a 46 mile route with 1500m of climbs, attracted another record entry. By the cut-off date - in February - it was already over-subscribed and the organisers believe they could have taken “many more” entries afterwards.

“We will shortly have a de-brief meeting to discuss this year’s event and then look ahead to next year,” added Steve Honeybone. “There are lots of ideas in the melting pot, but nothing has been decided for certain.

“However, there appears to be a consensus of opinion that the event could become a mountain biking festival. We know that many of the 800 off-Island competitors have stayed for two or three days this year, so we’re thinking about running other events and maybe encouraging riders to stay for four or five days.

“We will make an announcement as soon as possible so that the riders can make their plans well in advance.”

Organisers made a number of changes to this year’s event which were welcomed by both competitors and spectators. The top 100 riders were again allowed to start five minutes before the main field, to give them a chance to avoid early road congestion in the north of the Island.

This worked very well, releasing the fastest competitors to get away easily on the narrow roads for the first few miles of the event. One idea under consideration for next year is to stagger the remaining riders into two or three groups to reduce congestion in the early stages of the race.

The spectacular but extremely steep Ballacobb climb to the top of Slieau Curn was relatively congestion free for the early riders but became grid-locked for the chasing pack with hundreds of riders jammed together on the narrow track.

Steve Honeybone added, “It has been suggested that we change the route and avoid Ballacobb, diverting the riders instead through Tholt y Will, but that would be a few miles longer and may not necessarily avoid the tracks become grid-locked.

“Also, Ballacobb is simply stunning and it’s one of the best places for spectators to watch the riders in a spectacular setting. The riders also talk about Ballacobb as probably the most memorable part of the route, so I’m not sure that we would consider taking it out of the course in the future.”

This year’s was altered slightly, in the Ballaugh village area, six miles from the start where major road traffic congestion had been witnessed in the two previous years.

This year the riders were diverted away from the village to a junction on the TT course which allowed much easier access onto the main road about a mile away from the village.

Consequently, there was a much smoother transition for riders leaving the road to tackle the first major climb of the End2End on the steep Slieau Curn track - probably the toughest climb on the entire route - where not one rider managed to stay feet-up all the way this year.

Another route change - tested for the first time last year - involved the Glen Rushen area, three quarters of the way into the race, where riders were given a wider track to traverse to avoid further bottlenecks amongst the main field.

More marshals were again used this year at road crossing points and junctions and the race certainly ran much smoother in traffic terms than in the past, despite the very wet and muddy conditions, although the weather conditions on the day were perfect with broken sunshine throughout a warm day.

Transponders, as used by runners in the London Marathon, were used for the first time this year, proving to be an instant success with ever rider clocked accurately through all the various checkpoints along the route.

Transport arrangements for off-Island riders were also voted a success, with five large trucks laid on by the organisers to transport competitors and their bikes to and from the start at the northern tip of the Island, the Point of Ayre.

Another new idea which improved the event was to alter the finishing area at The Sound away from the car park to a nearby field. However, traffic congestion was still a factor over the closing few miles and one idea under consideration for 2012 is to close the roads to traffic and instead run a series of frequent shuttle buses to transport spectators and supporters to The Sound and back.

•  This year’s event was again filmed by Greenlight Television for Sky TV. It is also believed that ITV4, which gives prominent coverage to the TT, has been approached to broadcast the event.