Organizers of the weekend’s C3fit Action Asia Challenge "hailed Hong Kong’s first-ever professionally designed mountain-bike trail at Tai Lam Country Park and called on the government to build more world-class facilities" for adventure enthusiasts, according to Nazvi Careem of the SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST. The 3.8km Black Diamond course, built at a cost of HK$6M ($770,000) and designed by the Int'l Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA), "was used as part of the 29km mountain biking leg of the race’s adventure category that also features trail running, ocean kayaking and abseiling." Action Asia Foundation’s Michael Maddess, who is also race director and course designer, said, "This is a fantastic step in the correct direction for Hong Kong pushing adventure tourism with this Black Diamond mountain bike trail." Maddess said that the project "took 10 years of lobbying by various biking groups in Hong Kong along with the Hong Kong Mountain Bike Association before being approved by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD)." Maddess said that the government "should consider repeating the Tai Lam project by hiring overseas companies to design courses" (SCMP, 5/9).
