Last weekend saw the start of the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series 2012 powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport, which headed to Builth Wells in Wales for a weekend of marathon riding.

Luckily though the weather managed to play ball (at least to a certain degree) and the riders still came in huge numbers, over 1,200 turned up to test themselves on the four courses on offer.

With the first event falling on the busy Easter weekend expectations were conservative but the Exposure Lights Big Night Out had almost 250 riders on the start sheet.

Saturday night ride

With darkness setting in slowly everybody lined up to get any last minute instructions and at around 7.45pm the Exposure Lights Big Night Out finally got on the road. The riders were treated to a specifically designed night marathon course in the hills surrounding Builth Wells.

Even with the temperature being more what one would expect of in April, the conditions out on course were superb and super with the fastest rider only taking a little more than two hours to complete the 43km loop. With a high quality field and everybody out there wanting to prove themselves the leader position was hard fought over all the way to the finish line. The first rider made it back into the event village in 2 hour and 4 minutes picking up the ELBNO T-shirt while the list rider took 4 hours and 25 minutes to complete the course.

Sunday marathon

At the slightly later start time of 10.30am (to give all the night riders who wanted a second ride more recovery time) almost 900 riders lined up to tackle one of the 3 single track packed courses on offer.

Even with the strong 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. 70km long ‘middle marathon’ was completed in just 3 hours and 5 minutes with the last rider crossing the line to pick up the well deserved event T-shirt after 6hours and 49minutes.

The first event was a great showcase of what the MTB Marathon Series will be all about in 2012. If you couldn’t make it don’t worry as the upcoming months have lots more new and great stuff up their sleeves.

Upcoming events for your diary

Selkirk – Scotland
19th May 2012 – Vitus Road Sportive
20th May 2012 – Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon – & UK Marathon Championships

Marshbrook – England (Shropshire)
14th July 2012 – Vitus Road Sportive
15th July 2012 – Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon

Abergavenny – Wales
4th August 2012 – Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon
5th August 2012 – Vitus Road Sportive
(Please note that the MTB Marathon is running on Saturday!)

Ruthin – Wales
15th September 2012 – Vitus Road Sportive & Exposure Light Big Night Out (Night Marathon)
16th September 2012 – Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon

To find out more about the various locations go to the events page of the MTB-Marathon site and if you want to find out more about the Vitus Road Spotives powered by CycleOps Power then please go to our Vitus sportive site.