Last year saw the sunny introduction of the new venue at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells and we had high hopes that the 1st round of the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport would have an equally sunny start to the season. And to cut a long story short, it was a busy weather spoiled and fun-packed marathon weekend for everybody.
With the week leading up to the event been rather blessed with dry conditions the trails were in perfect shape and luckily for everybody the weather conditions stayed sunny and the trail stayed dry. With more than 1300 riders over the weekend the first round was once again a busy start to the season.
As over the last five years the only (as far as we know) night marathon the Exposure Lights Big Night Out opened the season with almost 300 riders on the line. The event village opened at the usual time with a broad spread of exhibition and trade stands offering their services to the arriving crowds.
With darkness setting slowly in everybody lined up to get any last minute instructions and crossed their fingers during the draw for a set of Exposure Lights kindly donated by the event sponsor Exposure Lights presented by Rory Hitchens. With no further ado the Exposure Lights Big Night Out finally got on the road at 7.45pm.
Almost 300 riders made their way onto the specifically designed night marathon course in the hills surrounding Builth Wells. The conditions out on course were superb and super fast and after only 1 hour and 41 minutes the first rider came over the line of the 45km long course picking up the unique ELBNO T-shirt. Once passed the finish line and rewarded with the special finishers T-shirt the riders warmed up in the event hall with tea, coffee and cake and getting themselves ready for Sunday.
The lights in the hall finally went out at 2am highlighting the clear and cold night. Sunday morning came and the riders (campers and Sunday morning arrives) were again greeted with glorious sunshine.
At the slightly later start time of 10.30am (to give all the night riders who wanted a second ride more recovery time) more than 1000 riders lined up to tackle one of the 3 single-track packed courses on offer. Even with a bad winter keeping riders from getting their ‘spring legs’ in time for the event the long distance remained the most popular distance of the weekend. Due to the high calibre field and the super conditions out on course the approx. 68km long ‘middle marathon’ was completed in just over 3 hours with the last rider crossing the line to pick up the well deserved event T-shirt after 7hours and 24minutes.
The 1st event was a great showcase of what the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series 2010 powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport is all about. If you couldn’t make it to the April round don’t worry as the upcoming months have lots more new and great stuff up their sleeves. Here a quick reminder when and where the next few events will take place.
Upcoming dates and venues
- 22-23 May – Builth Wells
(CycleOps Power Road Sportive to be run on Saturday and the MTB Marathon on Sunday) - 3-4 July – Grassington
(MTB marathon to be run on Sunday) - 31 July – 1 August – Selkirk
(CycleOps Power Road Sportive to be run on Saturday and the MTB Marathon on Sunday) - 18-19 September – Ruthin
(ELBNO Night Marathon to be run on Saturday and the MTB Marathon on Sunday)
Photos are available at www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk
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