It’s just a few more days before the second event of the Merida 100 series will kick off at the rugby club in Rhayader (map).

There’s been around 700 entries in so far but you can still enter by post or online, or on the day itself. Signing in will be located in the marquee next to the rugby club in Rhayader (signposted from Friday lunchtime onwards), and will also be open for entries on the day. It’ll be open from 12 noon – 8pm on Saturday and from 7-9am on Sunday.

The course has been fine-tuned by John Lloyd and Clive Powell from Clive Powell Mountain-Bikes (www.clivepowell-mtb.co.uk) over the last few weeks and is in tip-top condition. The guys managed to take out all the bottlenecks and found some unused singletrack which will spice up the ride nicely. The course is currently bone dry and fast thanks to the dry spell we’ve been enjoying recently. If this continues to hold – as it’s promising to do – then the event weekend itself should be a corker.

If you are coming for the whole weekend then make sure you pack some extra riding shorts as we have two extra rides planned – the Pedro’s Spins. There’ll be one Spin for Saturday and one on the Monday. The Saturday ride will kick off at 2pm from the registration point and will last around 1.5hours, giving everyone the chance to warm up the legs for Sunday. The ride on Monday will be a little bit longer and will start from outside the marquee at 10am. There’s no need to book, just turn up and ride.

The event’s retail partner, Evans Cycles (www.evanscycles.com), has sent some new and exciting updates which you can find on the “offer” page of the MTB-Marathon website. They’ve also picked a winner for the competition they had a few weeks back, so our congratulations goes to Tim Nelson of Bristol who won £100 worth of Evans Cycles gift vouchers. Well done.

For all the “Merida 100 on holiday” pilots, if you haven’t yet booked your accommodation and are interested in benefiting from Merida’s package deal (see http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/events/bad_goisern.php), please make sure that you book soon as the rooms are going quickly. If you can’t decide right now, don’t worry – there’ll be other options available but they might be for a slightly different price.

Entries are still open for the Austrian event and for all the other remaining UK events. So just hop onto our entry page and submit your details.

Besides the popular Merida 100 mug (if you haven’t bought one yet, they’ll be available at the Rhayader event), there’s also a limited edition MTB-Marathon riding jersey on its way. Have a look at http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/jersey.php or on the home page to see it. The jersey will be available at the end of June but you can pre-order now – email [email protected]) and one will be put aside for you.

The Bikemagic photographer will be on site again over the weekend to take countless photos of all the riders. As usual the photos will be posted here a couple of days after the weekend.

Finally for all the kids and families out there, the What Mountain Bike magazine cinema will be set up for some “during the ride” and evening entertainment and, weather permitting, there’ll be a bouncy castle (kids only…). Besides that, Rhayader itself has lots to offer and the centre of town is just a stone’s throw away from the event village. Check out the Rhayader website) for some more details on the town. The guys from Cyclex will again be there with their indoor rowing competitions and lots of fitness equipment to have a go on. Plus, if you’re in the market for a new bike and fancy giving one of the Olympic, World Cup and World Championship winning machines a go then send James at Cyclex ([email protected]) a quick email to arrange the details.