The decision came after the team were earlier this week given a tour of facilities in Essex and a chance to ride the county's brand new London 2012 Olympic mountain bike course at Hadleigh Farm.

The Canadian Cycling Association met with Essex County Council to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to confirm the arrangement and councillor Stephen Castle, the Essex County Council Cabinet Member for Education and the 2012 Games, admitted he was delighted to sign the deal.

"I'm really pleased that the Canadian Mountain Bike Team has chosen Essex as their preferred venue to make their final preparations for the London 2012 Games," said Castle.

"We have great training facilities here in the county, a stunning Olympic Venue and fantastic links into the Olympic Park at Stratford which makes Essex ideally placed for teams looking for pre-Games training camps."


Construction on the Hadleigh Park course was completed earlier this year at a cost of £800,000 ($1.2 million), with the test event at the venue scheduled for July 31, 2011.

The London 2012 Olympic women's and men's mountain biking events will take place next year on August 11 and 12 respectively with ticket prices ranging from £20 to £45 ($28 to $63).

Head coach of the Canadian national mountain bike team Dan Proulx said: "Essex is an ideal base for us to prepare for the London 2012 Games and we have been made very welcome on our recent visit.

"I'm very impressed with the facilities, the potential training areas seen and the location of South Essex to the Olympic Park.

"Basing ourselves so close to the Olympic mountain bike venue means that our athletes, coaches and support team can focus on their performance and those all-important Olympic medals."

The deal represents the second major nation that Essex have secured to train in the county ahead of the Games after the Japanese Olympic swimming team announced in March that they will be using the £38 million ($61 million) Basildon Sporting Village as their pre-London 2012 training camp.

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