OK. Anyone know what is happening with the Mountain Marathon events ? (Ruthin, etc )

Or any other suggestions for 100K rides somewhere nice.

The MTB Marathon series is continuing and dates should be online soon.
The usual favourite venues are all there and a classic venue re-visited.

COol, I was just getting concerned with the temp website and all that 😀

Does Polaris still run or has it now changed its name? That was the original and best.

Cant see anything on their website after 2009

North Pennine MTB Marathon is going to start next year (once I pull my finger out and organise it)
Plan is to go over Cross Fell. Several times 🙂
Likely late july.

It’s about 100k from your house to Sherwood Pines and back? 😉

Red Kite Devil’s challenge is 80 something km and is pretty ruddy tough (at least for my wee legs). I think they do some longer ones too.

Dyfi is a comparative canter at 60ish

100k from your house to Sherwood Pines and back

Still trying to find someone to come with me 😉

Red kite events look great

We did it a couple of weeks back. Puncture, mud and mechanical fest. Got lost and added some dull miles. Route should be on my Garmin connect page

ooh, fancy it sometime ?

The Selkirk Marathon lives on and is even better now.

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Dyfi is a comparative canter at 60ish

Dyfi is a funny one these days. Its not an Enduro like a modern Enduro, neither is it a marathon like the classic long distance races. I remember overhearing a conversation in car park at the end of the first one along the lines of “that’s way too technical for a mtb marathon, it’ll never catch on”.

What it is is bloody good fun hooning around the forest. Can’t wait till next year 🙂

Ride 70 miles for a lap The Pines??? It’s really not that good!!

Sometimes it’s the journey and not the destination……

Does Polaris still run or has it now changed its name? That was the original and best.

Polaris was being run by The OMM people as “OMM Bike”, but last year the event never took place. Little advertising and cancelled at last minute due to access issues. They ran a full Polaris in 2012 and it was great. Hope it returns.

My brother and I did the first five or six events. Still got the T shirts. We came 13th in around 1992/3 by not getting stuck in deep slushy snow on top of Cheviot like everybody else did.

http://www.selkirkmtbmarathon.com/

one of my favourite races. Plenty of people in lycra for the national champs but also a good number just riding for fun.

v. good offroad ride with some really enjoyable bits. Going to miss it in 2014 as I’m in Majorca but have done it for the last 4 years. It has always been sunny too.

We came 13th in around 1992/3 by not getting stuck in deep slushy snow on top of Cheviot like everybody else did.

I remember that snow :o)

Entries open for next year’s 10,000 del Soplao, 24th May. Ferry to Bilbao or Santander…? Just planting the seed 😈

+1 for the Polaris . I did it in 2012 and was very disappointed it was cancelled last year but it is definitely supposed to be running this year, first weekend in May , I have heard. OMM don’t seem very interested in promoting it though. Last year I was on the mailing list hoping to enter but heard nothing until I read on here it was cancelled. At the 2012 event the organisers I spoke to were very keen on getting it back to it’s iconic status but it still seems to be languishing on the back burner.

Think bob summers has just sorted your May holiday andy! 😆

Anyone fancy a Polaris type event but with more tea and cake have a look at The Welsh Ride Thing

Bucks off road sportive – great event.

IoM E2E is basically a sportive once the winners have left the start 🙂 Great few days out if you want to make a short holiday out of it.

+1 for the BORS.

Some welsh ones:

Red Kite frosty 5th Jan
Dyfi winter warmer 29th Jan
Wentwood 50 is in March
Margam Madness (laps but good tough technical laps) is mid April
Brecon Beast is sept

All a bit less than 100k but all quite tough – e.g. wentwood is 50k but is solid and is mainly hilly singletrack apparently

Lots about, have a look at xc racer calendar for some more ideas

oh and forest of dean enduro (endurance ride)

red kite frosty details?

So Polaris makes a return on 3-4 May 2014 in the North East of England … Yay!

OMM Bike 2014

Dyfi +1
Bucks off road sportive +1
Also trail break do some decent 100k rides , the one in the Chilterns
& the one on the Ridgeway near Swindon were great IMO. They aren’t Gnar in the slighest ,but the latter always stuck in my mind as a cracking ride.

SOme cracking rides in there, cheers guys –
MoreCashThanDash – fancy coming with us, the wife wont mind ….

Entries open for next year’s 10,000 del Soplao, 24th May. Ferry to Bilbao or Santander…? Just planting the seed

Done that 3 times now, the third time (in 2012) they had to stop the race due to too many hypothermia cases – it really was awful weather, I was very happy to be turned back!

It’s a beautiful part of Spain, very green and mountainous, with views of the sea (if the weather’s OK). It’s definitely a lycra-clad XC ride, and not the most exciting of races if you’re looking for a technical challenge – the difficulty is all in the distance and climbing. A great atmosphere more than makes up for it, and the race is well run with closed roads, regular feed stations and cheering crowds as you pass through the local villages.

(It’s also a good area for family holidays, with the beach a 20min drive away and some beautiful towns to visit).

I don’t know why but I dislike the word “sportive” in MTB. Far too old school to move on from calling endurance events “enduros” 😕

Anyway 😀 Besides the events suggested already, the Torq Rough Ride is worth a look for around 70-80km in June time, just North of the Brecons. A very well organised low key event with more than enough climbing to be grateful it isn’t 100km. Not massively technical but some great views, good bunch of people organising and taking part and a decent test of fitness.

It is also worth keeping an eye on the forum here as some of the great events like the Wentwood 50 don’t appear on places like XCracer and sell out very quickly (thankfully a heads up from STW got my entry in before they sold out!).