Is anyone else from here heading to Rhayader this weekend for the 2nd round of the Scott MTB Marathon series?

I’ll be there from Saturday afternoon.

I’m going. Coming from Sussex so with the late Sunday start may only do the 50km option knowing I have a 5+hr drive home afterwards with the kids. Pity but the late start makes it unavoidable.

Will be on a restored Niner singlespeed.

Me. Only live 90 mins away so will travel down sunday morning.

Hardtail or xc full suss?

I will be there! hoping for better conditions and trails than when i did it in 2014.

I’ll be there, only 45 mins from home, almost local, though wrong side of border…..

I’ll be on my Scandal 29er, there wasn’t much to warrant fs on the Rhayader round last year, though I gather they’ve got some new trails, there’s still bound to be quite a run out/back on the road, I made an awful lot of time/places up on the run back in, not that it’s a race……

Currently pishing down but been nice all afternoon here. Ground WAS dry…

That was…….damp.
Not at all what I was expecting.Builth ones have always been rolling grassy and decidedly non tech.That was like a really long Dyfi…..with extra slippy mud and no beer!!Was proper hard work on the mono cogger too 😡

Dont think racing ralphs were the right tyre choice for those downhills. Still enjoyed it including the thunder and rain!!

Reminded me a bit of the dyfi as well.

Mainly the never ending fire road climbs!! Someone said there was 3000ft+ in the first 16 miles 😯

Sounds a bit like the wild boar chase last weekend

Very hard event in the conditions. Was very tempted to just do the 50K, especially as the split coincided from me in the worst bit of the rain and thunder. Carried on to do the full distance.
Also running rocket rons and was completely out of control on some of the descents. Luckily only hit one tree!

I did the FOD Wild Board last weekend and the Scott Marathon was way harder. Lot more climbing and of course mud.

Well that was a tough old ride. SS was hard on the draggy fireroad climbs and as mentioned the descents were carnage (Racing Ralphs here too but I doubt any tyre would have had grip). Spill around 32km’s meant that I ripped my rear brake lever off. So as if it wasnt already the plan, the 50km became the only option. Managed under 3hrs which I was happy with on the SS and in the conditions. As always a great event but the Friday night party carried on later than I remember which made getting any kip difficult. I also only barely managed to get my camper out on the muddy grassy slope – not sure how some of the bigger campers managed later on.

I ended up going ‘out out’ Saturday night after only planning on going ‘out’, not too pished, but 4am before I got to sleep, latte & a banana for breakfast, forgot my jacket, my C02 kit and dry bag for phone, brakes on scandal howling so took my soul (green mk3 26″), was glad of meatier tyres and dropper but I wasn’t on the best form, obviously. Just made it to feed station with the use of 2 gels, ok again after that but back tyre kept losing air (tubeless) for no apparent reason, ended up stopping in the pouring rain to put a tube in.

Did the 50k, Builth took me 3hrs 15, Rhayader 5hrs….. Much preferred it though, despite everything, a lot more technical, I’m not a fan of super long grassy descents.

did the short, preferred it drier ( 2015) thunder at the top

It was pretty tough to be fair, not helped by the thunder storm.

All round good fun though, my shoes have just dried out after being out in the sun all day!!

Wouldn’t say I enjoyed it yesterday, glad i did it and took nearly an hour off my 2014 time.
Way more climbing than i remembered and most of the downs (and some up’s) were unrideable properly due to tyre choice and mud!
Really looking forward to the next round though, aiming for sub 40th place finish.

Core – we (me and the boy) stopped to chat Cotics with you when you were topping up your tyre.

I had a great time, the boy (14) did really well, his eight 1/2 marathon.
Really enjoyed the route (same as last year) except the last section of singletrack, I don’t think anyone will miss that.