The last event of the Merida 100 MTB Marathon series kicks off in Ruthin, North Wales on the weekend of 17/18 September 2005. The weather has been great around Ruthin over the last few weeks and has made the course super dry and fast.

The course is finalised now and it looks great. Over half of it is new for this year – in particular the start, where we had a few bottleneck problems last year, has been completely reworked and should allow everyone a free run at the early off-road sections. Some of the new course will touch the same areas as last year but the majority will run in the opposite direction. It will have less Tarmac and tough off-road climbs in early stages. On top of that our guys on the ground, the North Wales Mountain Bike Association (www.nwmba.demon.co.uk) have found some extra bits which we haven’t used at any of the Ruthin events. So if you’re a newcomer or a regular at the event in Ruthin you will be surprised what we have in store for you. Two of the service stations are situated near a café or a pub, so keep a couple of quid in your shorts for chocolate biscuits or orange juice. The long route has almost 2,900m of climbing in it…

Entries are coming in thick and fast (as always towards the event weekend) but we are still taking new entries and we will also accept entries on the day. If you want to save the £2 surcharge for a day entry then get writing now and fill in an entry form – just hop onto the entry page and submit your details. Once you’ve filled your details in please make sure that you send your cheque straight after otherwise your entry is not complete. ONLY ONCE WE HAVE RECEIVED BOTH (WEBSITE ENTRY AND CHEQUE) YOUR ENTRY IS VALID AND WILL BE CONFIRMED. IF WE ONLY GET YOUR DETAILS THROUGH THE WEBSITE YOU DO NOT HAVE AN ENTRY.

The event in Ruthin will be based at the Rugby Club again which will be signposted from Friday lunchtime onwards. Everybody is welcome to make a long weekend out of it – the camping and facilities will be open from Friday all the way through to Monday. Signing on will be open from 12 noon to 8pm on Saturday and from 7-9am on Sunday. Please note that the start of the Ruthin round is at 9.30am rather than 10am.

We already have quite a few riders signed up for a little bit of a ride on Saturday to get their legs warmed up for Sunday. If you haven’t entered the “Pedro’s Spin” yet, just send us an email so that we can pencil you in and make sure we have enough guides organised for the day. You’ll get a free Pedro’s gift, too.

Our friends from Ergon Grips will be coming to the Ruthin event and will be running their ‘try out’ service. If you haven’t had the chance to try their superb grips please go and see them in the event village – they’ll set you up for a pair for the weekend. We will also have the guys from Bike-Fax on site – they’ve recently released their first book on Snowdonia and have a new guide to North-East Wales. And High5 will be on site with their new products Energy Source Xtreme and Energy Source 4:1′.

On top of all the riding there are also quite a few interesting things going on for all the non-biking people. Quite a few of the local businesses who are normally shut on a Sunday will stay open to give all the “left behinds” something to enjoy while their partners and friends might be out on the ride. The Open Doors weekend will be going through Ruthin over the event weekend, opening doors to some of the most impressive properties in the region. For more information go to www.civictrustwales.org.

Finally don’t forget that this is your last chance to get some first hand MTB-Marathon memorabilia. There are still some of the jerseys and thermal mugs to be had. So bring some extra cash and make sure you don’t miss out on these.

So this is it for now. We hope we see lots of you in Ruthin where we will bring the marathon year to a worthy end.