Montane Kielder 100 – One lap, one rider, one adventure, 100 Hundred Miles

Yep, 100 miles, not kilometres… it’s the Montane Kielder 100.

This is an epic mountain bike race for the truly adventurous. On Saturday 5th September you could be part of the ultra marathon mtb event that organisers say is set to raise the bar in UK marathon racing. This will be the UK’s first ever full fat 100 mile, single lap, off-road mountain bike race. Yep, 100 hundred solid, individual miles, none of your lightweight European kilometres, and none of this going round in ever decreasing circles. This is a one lap race based in the stunning setting of Kielder Water & Forest Park, Northumberland and utilising all the best bits they have. You’ll find a surprising amount of technical singletrack sprinkled with a smattering of fire roads, grass tracks and just one road crossing.

Tempted? So what can you expect? Here’s what the organisers promise:

Expect an adventure of a lifetime! You’ll hit the trails at 6.30am, there’ll be just two categories, Open & Vets and you’ll be expected to reach each of the 3 feed stations by an allotted time. You’ll cross into Scotland, remember to take a bribe with you as you’ll have to “Pay the Piper” at the Bloody Bush to gain entry! Don’t worry they’ll let you out again for free!

There is already a rumbling in the ultra marathon community about this event, with a huge number of the UK’s top enduro racers pencilling the Montane Kielder 100 into their calendar, make sure you don’t miss out and be in it from the start, you could be making history!

Montane a company owned and run by people with a passion for outdoor performance sports in challenging and inspiring places have stepped up to the plate, and are proud to be supporting the UK’s first foray into ultra marathon racing and along with all the events other partners: Kielder Water & Forest Park, 7Stanes, Buff, Saddle Skedaddle, USE, Purple Mountain Bike Hire, Newcastle Business Group, XCRacer, Accelerade and Joolze Dymond Photography, are excited to be part of this UK first.

Alex MacLennan, Recreation, Tourism and Communities Manager with Forestry Commission commented:

“Since 2005 Forestry Commission England has worked with local mtb riders and partners to put Kielder back onto the national mtb scene. Since then Deadwater MTB trail (15km Red), (2.5km) Black has been built.

Supporting this is the new Lakeside Way, 26 miles of Green/Blue grade trail and 1 new red route has opened. More trails, a bike park and MTB hire centre are all opening in the coming months so we are delighted to be able to provide suitable trails on the epic scale required for this important event. By helping this event we are delighted to be able to showcase all our hard work and believe Kielder Water & Forest Park will soon be one of the top UK destinations for the dedicated MTB rider.”

Event organiser Sara Randle (SIP Events) explained the importance of this event: “100 mile ultra endurance racing is really popular in other parts of the world but we only ever do 65miles (100km) in this country. With the race calendar full of the same old events I wanted to do something different and this was the race that was missing. It’s an idea I’ve been working on for a few years, I just needed to find somewhere big enough and Kielder had always been on my short list. When I found out the new Forestry Commission Recreation Manager based at Kielder was a keen mountain biker it was the perfect choice. And with the support of a great company like Montane in the first year, it means we can concentrate on making it a great event for the riders. It’s going to be a very hard race, but hopefully it will be top of their list to train for and come back and have another go at next year.”

Want more? Head over to http://www.Kielder100.co.uk for all the details you’ll ever need including that all important entry form.

Remember this is a race not a challenge. Are you ready?

Photo credits:

The Lewisburn Bay – “Images from Kielder Partnership”

All others – “Images from Sip-Events”