Over 1,200 riders came to the second round of the Merida 100 Mountain Bike Enduro Series 2004 in Builth Wells – the birthplace of the 100 series. Even in its fifth year Builth is still the stronghold of the series and it was yet again the perfect location for everybody to have a relaxed weekend with great riding, outstanding weather, a bigger event village and a superb atmosphere (especially around the finish line where all the riders came over the little jump).

The weather was totally on our side on Sunday and even the short showers we saw on Saturday did not affect the conditions of the course or the enjoyment of the riders. After the rather unreliable weather of the weeks leading up to the event John went out and found some “bad weather alternatives” which, according to the riders coming over the line was a well-received idea. It made the course totally ridable without jeopardising the fun factor of the hills and trails surrounding Builth Wells.

With the course packed with plenty of technical surprises and single-track it was certainly a real challenging event and rider feedback was overwhelmingly positive. More trade stands from the large pool of event sponsors created again a real festival village feel at this second Merida 100 outing of the season, with test bikes being available from new title sponsor Merida (Chris Carter from Merida rode the event), and media partner What Mountain Bike magazine bringing the “smoothie” edge and couches to the event village. We also had the guys from Bikemagic.com on board who took lots and lots of pictures that will be on the site very soon. With lots of sponsors on board the pool of prizes was bigger than ever and almost every other rider walked away with a nice prize!

The White House Farm just outside the centre of Builth Well where the finish line, event village and camp ground were based was packed as never before when more than 100 extra riders than the previous year turned up to take part in this second round of the series.

With the second round being completed, almost 90 riders from the UK are heading straight out to Austria to take part in the “Merida 100 on holiday” in Bad Goisern, where the Salzkammergut Trophy (47, 100 and 220km) is taking place alongside the Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships (100km).

More or less straight after everybody’s return from Austria all eyes are going to turn towards Selkirk where the first ever round of the 100 series outside Wales will take place. We’ve got a cracking course put together and the event village will be situated right in the heart of Selkirk. The Scottish round will kick off on the 31st July – 1st August. Keeping in mind the popularity of the Builth round and with a great course on our hands for the upcoming Selkirk round we would like to recommend to everybody who is interested in talking part in the next event to get your entry in as soon as possible. The easiest way to enter it to go onto the website entry page and submit your entry. The finishing event of the Merida 100 season will be again the final in Ruthin (18/19 September), which features an improved course that will not suffer from the clogging up problems we came across in 2003.

For further info on the event, great training and diet tips plus lots of special offers just hop onto www.mtb-marathon.co.uk where you’ll also find a straightforward way to enter the event via the entry page. Alternatively please send a SAE to: The Merida 100 MTB Marathon Enduro Series, Attn: John Lloyd, Builth Wells Cycles, Smithfield Road, Builth Wells, Powys, LD2 3AN for an entry form.

For the next event we have again confirmation from Bikemagic.com to take pictures of all the riders.

Hope to see everybody there!!