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23 March 2011 Last updated at 17:52

In pictures: 2012 Olympic mountain bike venue completed

The chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic games, Lord Coe, visited Essex to mark the completion of work on the mountain bike course at Hadleigh.

The Olympic mountain bike course has been created on the Salvation Army owned Hadleigh Farm and Hadleigh Country Park, which is run by Essex County Council. The historic Hadleigh Castle and Thames Estuary provide the backdrop.

Work on the Hadleigh course began in July 2010 and it will host the Olympic mountain bike competition on 11 and 12 August 2012. A test event will be held in July this year.

Members of the GB mountain bike team were among the first to sample the 5km long course at Hadleigh. Rider Liam Killeen said: "It's a challenging course that will bring out the best in everyone."

Much of the course uses the natural contours of Hadleigh Downs, but artificial obstacles have also been constructed to test the world's best riders. Several thousand tonnes of rock were brought onto the site during construction.

When the 2012 Olympic Games are over, some of the more challenging sections of the Hadleigh mountain bike course will be altered in order to make it more suitable for public use.

Although Essex is known as a flat county, the Hadleigh mountain bike course received praise from both riders and Locog chairman Lord Coe. "I think people are really stunned by what has been achieved," he said.

An information board for the venue has been built by members of the Hadleigh Employment Training Centre for people with special needs and those in long-term unemployment.

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Essex

In pictures: 2012 Olympic mountain bike venue completed

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