MTB Marathon series returns for 2011

Mike has just sent us news of the return of the CRC MTB Marathon series for a twelfth season of endurance racing across Britain:

“For the last few years the MTB-Marathon series has consisted of five events starting in mid April with the traditional Exposure Light Big Night Out night marathon, going all the way through the summer before bringing the series to an end around mid September with the final round in Ruthin, Wales. The 2011 series will follow closely in last year’s footsteps while adding two new locations to the mix.

After the last series being their first year as the new title sponsor of the MTB Marathon Series, Chain Reaction Cycles are once again on board supporting the only UK MTB-marathon series. Accompanied by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport the sponsorship team from 2010 is back in full force to do their bit to take the series to the next level.

The marathon concept:

As in previous years all events will have four different courses to choose from so that every rider can find the right lengths and level of difficulty. The exceptions to this rule are the Exposure Lights Big Night Out weekends where there is one course length on Saturday night and three or four different lengths on Sunday. The courses are approximately 25, 50, 75 and 100km long. All marathons are run as non-competitive, one loop rides with the start and finish being conveniently located in the event village and the camp ground. All rides have mass starts where all courses and categories start together. As always every entered rider is invited to take part in the pre-marathon ‘carbo loading’ at the pasta party and will be given the obligatory finishing T-shirt when coming over the finish line.

Here are the dates and locations of the 2011 CRC MTB-Marathon Series powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport:

Builth Wells – Wales 9-10th April 2011
Chain Reaction Cycles Spring Marathon / Exposure Light Big Night Out (Night Marathon)

NEW – Llandovery – Wales 21-22nd May 2011
Chain Reaction Cycles MTB-Marathon / CycleOps Power Road Sportive

NEW – Marshbrook – England (Shropshire) 2-3rd July 2011
Chain Reaction Cycles MTB-Marathon / CycleOps Power Road Sportive

Selkirk – Scotland 23-24th July 2011
Chain Reaction Cycles MTB-Marathon / CycleOps Power Road Sportive

Ruthin – Wales 17-18th September 2011
Chain Reaction Cycles MTB-Marathon / Exposure Light Big Night Out (Night
Marathon)

New for 2011:

The biggest news for the 2011 season is the two new locations in the line-up. Last years saw us making the move towards Grassington where the summer round was held. Unfortunately due to the extreme level of difficulty of holding a MTB-Marathon in the national park we had to say good-bye to this popular round. But to compensate the riders we have added two new locations for 2011. We are heading to Llandovery for the May round – an area which event organiser and course designer has been studied for years, followed by the July round taking us to Shropshire, to the small village of Marshbrook. A special feature of the Marshbrook round is that it will boast the longest section of single-track in Shropshire, possibly the longest in England. All events will be double events with either a Exposure Lights Big Night Out Night Marathon (at the April and September round) or a CycleOps Power Road Sportive run on the Saturday.

Website, entry forms and special CRC offers:

The event website for the Chain Reaction Cycles MTB Marathon Series MTB Marathon is open for business with lots of information, facts and figures on the five events. Chain Reaction Cycles online entry specific offer of a 5% discount on your next CRC purchase if you enter the event online is going to return. But if you prefer to enter via a downloadable entry form then don’t worry, that option will still be available via the entry page on the event website.

Entry now open:

The event website www.mtb-marathon.co.uk is up and running and you can enter the event straight away through the downloadable entry form. The online entry which will be hosted by Chain Reaction Cycles and located on the CRC website (www.chainreactioncycles.com) will be available by the end of the week. Please keep your eye on the marathon website for updates.