The Bike Place and Kielder Trail Reavers have announced a four-race marathon series for 2008, all based in (surprisingly enough) Kielder Forest. The Bike Place has shops in Gateshead and Kielder itself, while KTR build and maintain Kielder’s MTB trails.

Each race will be around 50km long, with proceeds split between KTR’s trail-building efforts and the local Air Ambulance. The dates are:

• 19 January – The Winter Warmer
• 17 May – The Border Raid
• 5 July – The Hot Trod
• 4 October – Octoberfest

More information and entries from The Bike Place on 0845 634 1895, or visit www.thebikeplace.co.uk. And more details about the Kielder trails can be found at www.kieldertrailreavers.com.