Once upon a time the National MTB Championships were the event to be at. Then the spotlight turned to 24 hour and enduro things. But for 2006 the Nationals are back with a bang.

This is largely down to the new title sponsor, Fat Face. With its help, the Championships will feature four different disciplines – downhill, cross country, 4X and trials. It will therefore be a proper MTB race weekend of the old school, which is to be heartily recommended.

The venue is Moelfre in Powys and the event will be held from 14-16 July. It looks set to be a packed weekend. Friday’s practice day for DH and XC racers, while Saturday sees racing for most of the categories, plus the first two rounds of the trials, culminating in the floodlit 4X finals. The 4X is additionally sponsored by Corona, and there’ll be a firework display and Fat Face/Corona party on Saturday night.

Then on Sunday it’s the fast boys (and, of course, girls) – the top XC categories and the culmination of the trials event in the morning and then the top downhillers in the afternoon. So you can race on Saturday, have a few drinks and then watch the top riders do their thing.

Moelfre’s a well-established DH/4X venue, and the newly-built XC course includes what’s described as “a long, steep, punishing climb” and a “very technical high speed descent”. Sounds good to us.

Master of the microphone Chris Furber will be commentating, there’ll be camping facilities and all the rest of it, the weather’s bound to be great and everything’ll be going on.

Entry forms, online entry, event timetables and directions are at http://dm27.com/nps06/serv03.htm.