 |
The rude good health of the UK MTB enduro scene was confirmed the other weekend by a huge turnout for the Merida 100 at Rhayader, Wales. The turnout exceeded 1,000 riders, about 200 more than 2003. Taking advantage of the bank holiday weekend, the organisers aimed for a fairly relaxed weekend and encouraged riders to stay on site on Sunday night and go home rested and recovered on Monday.
Fortunately the Rahayader Rugby Club event village was big enough to cope and the course was well-received (barring the occasional hold-ups that are inevitable with that many people on course at once), while plenty of riders took the opportunity to take a skills session with OTC to brush up on their bike handling before the main event. The weather was even fairly reasonable, a couple of showers on Sunday notwithstanding.
The Rhayader event was oversubscribed for the first time, and it looks like the trend could carry on for the rest of the Merida 100 series. So if you want to take part in one of remaining four (Builth Wells, 3/4 July; Bad Goisern, Austria, 10/11 July; Selkirk, Scotland 31 July/1 August ad Ruthin, Wales 18/19 September) get your entry in quick – all the details you need (and on-line entries) are at www.mtb-marathon.co.uk.
And as an added incentive for the Builth Wells round, Bikemagic will be there doing the “try and take a photo of everyone” thing. So if you want a nice shot of yourself being all rugged in the Welsh mountains, you know where to come…
Share