Time flies when you’re having fun. It’s less than two months before the first marathon kicks off in Builth Wells with the second Exposure Lights Big Night Out on the 8 April, followed with the Spring Marathon on the 9 April. The preparations are going in full flow and the new season is taking shape nicely from our end.

MINI Marathon and entries

The new MINI Marathon is very popular with lots of newcomers and families giving it a go but also the ever popular 50, 75 and 100km courses are picking up lots of early entries. All events are still taking entries so no worries if you haven’t yet entered. We will let everybody know when we are getting close to the cut-off dates/numbers. If you haven’t yet entered make sure you do it soon to secure your entry. Simply go to the website and fill in an entry form, and send together with your cheque to the register office – done!

Website updates

We have managed to put a few more updates on the site. So besides a list of new sponsors which you can find in the top box of the site we also put up all the reviews from 2005. In case you didn’t get the chance to come to any of our events last year and you want to find out a little more or you are simply interested how everything worked out last year check out the history pages. Just click on the event you would like to read up on, lean back and enjoy your memories.

MTB Marathon Guidebook – almost there

The fourth issue of the MTB guidebook is currently at the printers and will be sent everybody on our mailing list at the end of the week. Hopefully everybody should have received their copy by the end of next week – if you haven’t let us know and we can send you a copy.

‘Holiday’ here we come

Besides the UK events, the ever popular round in Austria is seeing a great response from riders. If you haven’t managed to get over and experience the great riding in and around Bad Goisern, make sure you keep the weekend of the 15/16 July free to join the fun in Austria. For further info check out our Merida on holiday event page. And if you want to get a better feeling for how it’s been over there since the first round, check out the 2005 and 2005 reports.

Fancy a new bike – the Merida 100 deals

This is your chance to get the perfect bike for the upcoming season, as we’re offering a special Merida deal. We’ve been given a couple of new Carbon bikes by Merida which we’d like to offer to all the ‘100’ fans out there. First up the new Carbon Race Disc hardtail, and the new Mission Carbon Race Disc full suspension frame. Both come specced with a Manitou Skareb Elite SPV 100mm fork, Shimano XT drive train, shifters and derailleur, Deore Hydraulic Discs, Deore/Mavic UST Disc wheelset and an FSA component package – the hardtail’s £1,650 and the full-suss £1,800, and available in three sizes – 16, 18 and 20in. Interested? Get in touch with us via [email protected].

TransWales – new sponsors

Our faithful sponsor of the ‘100’ series, Merida has also taken on board the TransWales 7 day stage challenge. Merida will be present at the stages and will contribute lots of the bits and pieces that’ll make this event the highlight of 2006, and the beginning of a new kind of event in the UK. Going into the third season of being involved with the 100 marathon season – which has been an “excellent experience” according to Chris Carter of Merida – it was time to “push the envelope a little bit further and support this new UK cycling adventure”. Besides Merida we have secured four category sponsors, Hayes Brakes, Buff Headwear, High5 sports nutrition and Saris.

TW’06 – last minute entries

Looking at the entries we still a few left, but with an extra 16 TransWales pages in the MTB Guidebook which will go to almost 10,000 riders, we don’t think they will stay available for much longer. So if you’re up for the challenge and maybe even want to go for one of the category leader jerseys make sure that you enter soon. Just go to www.mtbtransuk.co.uk and download the entry form. We also have a few single riders on our list who are still looking for a riding partner. So if you want to do it but haven’t got the right partner – maybe we can help.