Merida Marathon
.2
down 5 to
go. After last year's rather muddy May event in Rhayader the first dip
into
English marathon territory was another one to remember.
Last
year's
round in Rhayader was rather badly affected by the 'European Monsoon'
with
heavy rain during the weeks leading up to the event and no drying
sunshine to
improve matters. Despite the weather lots of riders made their way to
the event
and fought their battle with the rather extreme conditions. For the
2007 season
the Rhayader marathon was replaced by the Penrith round which was held
within
the first ever Cumbria Bikefest.
The
week
leading up to the event was not really blessed with good weather so
that the
venue looked already a little bit on the muddy side when the riders
arrived on
Friday and Saturday. Luckily though after some showers on Saturday and
during
the night from Saturday to Sunday the weather started to settle a bit
and the
riders had a more or less dry day on the bikes. Almost 1300 lined up on
Sunday
morning to tackle one of the four rather tough courses the area around
Penrith
had to offer. Going by the feedback we have had on the day and since he
have
returned the opinions on the course are rather divided and vary between
'excellent - a real challenge' to 'far to tough for a marathon'.
Photos and website
updates
Once
again
Jon Brooke was out taking pics on the course. Pics of (nearly) every
rider -
searchable by rider number are available from http://sleepmonsters.co.uk/photoshop.php.
Jon took lots and lots of images so have a look and see if you can find
yourself on there. We have also made some further updates to the www.mtb-marathon.co.uk site,
keep an
eye on the news in the top left hand corner.
Now
with the
Penrith being over and done with our attention goes towards the Chain
Reaction
Cycles TransScotland and the 'Outside' event in Aviemore. 
The
Chain
Reaction Cycles TransScotland will kick off on the 26th May
in
Selkirk and roam through the Borders area before it finishes in Selkirk
on the
2nd June. There are still a few places left for all the late
deciders out there. So if you are up for this great challenge simply
download
an entry form from the event website www.mtbtransuk.co.uk
and send it through to us. If you have already entered make sure that
you check
the site a few days before you head to Selkirk to catch up on the
latest
updates.
It
is just
under six weeks before we head to Aviemore to run our marathon from
within 'The
Outsider' festival. There are still places left in case you haven't
entered
yet. So if you are into music, comedy, the outdoors and into riding
your bike
in one of the most beautiful areas the
We
had a
chat with Chris Carter from
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