Seven down, none to go – at least not this year. The Merida MTB Marathon Series 2007 has come to an end with the final round in Ruthin, Wales on the 15-16th September 07.

With the weather appearing to be on our side, well over 1,000 riders headed out onto the four distances on offer. In particular, the popular 50km loop had a major overhaul for this year and (according to the feedback) was thoroughly enjoyed by the almost 400 riders tackling the distance.

After approximately 1hr 38min the first rider came over the line finishing the 30km course. The flow of riders finishing their ride then carried on till 6.10pm, when the last full marathon rider crossed the line under the red High-5 dome. Luckily the weather stayed more or less sunny and warm till the later part of the afternoon and even the little rain coming in towards the end of the day did not affect the great course conditions or the fun the riders had on their chosen distance.

It was yet again a spectacular picture to see everybody ride out through the historic market town and head up into the hills and a worthy end to a great season. In particular the Cumbria Bikefest and the Outsider event up in Aviemore will stick in people’s minds and we hope that we will continue to be involved in them for the future.

Our supporters

This year was another great year with lots of new events, riders and ideas at the Merida Bikes MTB Marathon Series showing off all the different sides of our sport. The series would not be possible with all the superb help and support we are getting from our sponsors and we would like to send a big THANK YOU to all of them: High5, USE, Schwalbe, Formula, Chain Reaction Cycles, Cycle Active, Buff, PPG, CrankBrothers, Our Scottish Borders, Memory Map, LizardSkins, Ergon, Topeak, Salzkammergut Trophy, Tourism Partnership Mid Wales, Exposure Lights, What Mountain Bike, Bikemagic.com, Gore Bikewear, Fibrax, CTC, Sortimo, Fizik, Forestry Commission and Mercedes-Benz Vans.

Besides that a big thanks goes to our title sponsor Merida Bikes (www.merida-bikes.co.uk) for their continued support of the series and North West Wales Events Commission for supporting the Ruthin round of the Merida Bikes MTB Marathons Series.

Without their help and dedication the 2007 series would not have been possible. But an even bigger thank you goes to all you riders who have been taking part in the events this year. You made the events what they are – great adventures with fantastic atmosphere, fun outdoor weekends with likeminded people.

Photos and website updates

Our event photographer Jon Brooke was out taking pics on the course. Pics of (nearly) every rider – searchable by rider number are available from http://sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop.php?event_id=5107. Jon took lots and lots of images so have a look and see if you can find yourself on there. We will also make some further updates to the www.mtb-marathon.co.uk site once our web master is back in the country so keep an eye on the news in the top left hand corner.

2008 plans

The 2008 season is quite some time away but our preparations are already in full flow. We have a few new ideas for 2008 which will hopefully make the weekends even more fun for everyone and might even encourage some of you to bring a 2nd bike to the events. More about this and the 2008 dates will be put on our website www.mtb-marathon.co.uk. Besides the marathons we are also working on the 2008 TransWales. We are currently collecting pre-entries for that event. If you are interested in taking part in the TransWales ’08 please send us an email to [email protected] and we will email you an entry form at least two weeks before we make it public.

We will have all our dates available on both our websites www.mtb-marathon.co.uk and www.mtbtransuk.co.uk in the next few weeks. If you are not on our data base and don’t want to miss out on the entry form when it comes out please send a SAE to: Merida Bicycles 100 MTB Marathon Enduro Series or Trans Event ’08 (depending which event you are interested in), Attn: John Lloyd, 5 Irfon Road, Builth Wells, Powys, LD2 3DE.