Michael from MTB Marathon reports:
The second round of the Chain Reaction Cycles and Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport sponsored MTB Marathon Series enjoyed temperatures above 25 degrees and cloudless skies last weekend, with perfect weather leading up to the event providing fast and dusty trails on John Lloyd’s new course. The heat made the ride a real challenge for everyone and probably saw quite a few people leaving the event with a sunburned neck as well as typical cyclist tan lines.
Registration opened at 7am to cope with the large number of last minute entries then at exactly 10am more than 1000 riders made their way into the hills for some marathon action, lead out by former World Cup legend Gary Ford as well as marathon regular and equally legendary WC racer Nick Craig. The weather added an extra level of difficulty to the event and the feed stations were even more sought after than normal. After just 75 minutes in the saddle the 1st rider in the mini-marathon made his way over the finish line with the last rider finishing the full distance and picking up the well deserved event T-shirt in 7 hours and 41 minutes.
If you couldn’t make it to the last round, the next one is only a few weeks away and will be heading north to the new location of Grassington in Yorkshire where stunning views and never-used-before trails are waiting for the riders.
This round is enjoying surprising pre-entries and that mixed in with entry numbers of the event being restricted it is looking unlikely at this stage that there will be day entries available, you’ll need to make sure that you get your entry in now.
To find out more, go to the MTB Marathon website (www.mtb-marathon.co.uk) where you can either download an entry form or enter directly through the new online entry service.
Here’s the full list of events in the series:
- 3-4th July — Grassington, Yorkshire
- 31st July – 1st August — Selkirk, Scottish Borders
- 18-19th September — Ruthin, North Wales
The Vito Sport Team have put some fun photos and more up on their Facebook and Flickr pages and there are more photos to view or buy at www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk.
Thanks to our sponsors: Chain Reaction Cycles, Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport , Hotlines, Ghost, CycleOps, High5, USE, Magura, Schwalbe, CycleActive, Saris, Squirt, Buff, CTC, Phase9, Birzman, Alpina, Cafe2U, Gore Bike Wear and Fibrax.
