The usual price is a very reasonable £35 for a one-day course, but for this one-off date, we are offering it to Goldtech club members for £25. For full details, please email me on jon@aquickrelease.com

Roll on to the next Roughride Challenge.

i missed it because didn' t feel good on sunday but sounded exiting. i hope i can give a go next year

hopefully see you on sunday

The day was brilliant and its like the cambrian challenge that went out from oswalstry which is no more, im definitaly doing it next year. Well organised great stops n route good mix of road n off road n im not a roady. Big black bottle Glass ripped my tubless wheel 10sec into first off road bet its been there years? big thanks to james and dad richard who showed the true sprit in helping me fix it, that shows sign of a great club to me helping each other, without them i never would have done the ride. again a big thanks to all great day, great people, look forward to getting more envolved n riding with u all again.

nick

Thanks to Daz and Kev for organising it and thanks to everbody that helped on the day,keeping us fed and watered. The tea and cakes in the Village Hall were very welcome.

Finally thanks to Ade and Mick for dragging me round.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/2009-ruthin-merida-marathon-and-sportive-report-23396

Rider spaces are limited for safety and insurance reasons, so if you want to take part enter now to avoid being told you're to late!

Rusty still on top form... the bugger, around 4:50 min for him, 5:10 for me and Si, Al did the 75k. Proper 'big country' riding the way we likes it!

Come on fellas, try one next year, YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON TOP RIDING!!

Me, Al, Rusty, Si, Nath,

I'll expect letters from your parents or guardians if you need to be excused from MTB p.e. Come on, av a go and do something different.

http://cid-730e7d57ba4c2d41.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/midlands%20xc%20cannock%202009/Russ%20on%20the%20podium.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cujxZt_ATPw

You can choose to either boot it out in the car first thing Sunday morning or camp on the Saturday. (bogs & food on site - along with liquid refreshements in the town??!!)

http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/events/2009_course_ruthin.pdf

--- DaveR61(guest) 

The more the merrier!!

Im riding with some folk from work and we have had someone whimp out on us. Not a very serious team so don't worry about how quick you are, will be a nice chilled out race/wekend away on the bike!!

Any takers??

Si

--- Trog(guest) 

Yes, no prob entering on day, it'll probably be a little less than 75k for Ruthin. Good to see you've got the ball rolling about doing one.

That's a great result though mate, I don't know how you did it, my legs are shot after Saturday, must have been the combination of Wednesday night's TT combined with accelerating from 30-33mph on the road just to get to the front of the 'pack' on the way to the Cafe at Cannock on Saturday morning!!

WELL DONE me owd tater!

Si

P.S. What's with the Lymies only doing the 50k???? (I know I can't talk as I was at home)!

Then we saw the route profile, it looked like something out of a tdf alps stage! So we both signed up bleary eyed after hitting the road at 5:30am hoping that the heavens wouldn't open again (in the fashion that most mtb events we do lately seem to)

We both hit the start line queue way back in the 1000ish riders doing the various distances, the hooter went & we slowly started to move in the start crush for a 6ft wide gate at the race entrance/exit! On with the job in hand, thought I'd go for a steady build up after doing 60mile on the road with Matt & Si the day previous day (maybe doing through & off at 30mph in places on the way to Uttoxeter wasnt the best tapering plan for the Merida?!) So started slowly moving through the riders loosening the old pins out on the lanes that led out to the first off road section on a fire road climb, this then hit the first singletrack section descent (where formed another queue, here riders pondered whether to have a go or walk) being a rider of the Stoke brand, ahem, the Pace 405 said make it so and hit the gloopy, slidey, rocky, rooty descent, now we were having fun!! This turned out to be the theme for the next few hours. Started to feel good and kept making progress through the field, pulling well up the climbs and descending with much reckless joy! (although I did use a few of the old 9 lives at times) At time the trails reminded me of sections of Nant y Arian, and was later told by a B.A.D. rider (Builth & District) that we were also using sections of the Trans Wales race, (as endorsed by Rusty)

Although the trails were water logged and messy I kept making good progress, trying to keep taking on fluids etc at the feed stations when needed.

Hour 4.... bang! started to feel a bit ropey, making a few school boy errors with riding, noticed the climbing legs had begun to say 'NO!!' and the head began to drop, bugger! Hit the last feed station and proceed to eat everything on show, in the vain hope of pulling a rapid recovery out of the bag, it never happened.

I left the feed station and slowly began to grind my way up the longest fire road climb in the world!!?? just looking at the floor and not daring to look up.

This is where the tables were turning and riders I'd past started to get their own back and stuck it to me on the climb but when you've gone, you've gone

I just couldn't respond, I think we've all been there. Finally hit the top of the climb and some messy rutty tracks through the woods where I came across a group of the nice folks from The Lyme on the 50k route, stopped for a while and had a chat as you do! this track descended and hit a river section of singletrack, up a monster steep rocky climb (bugger cant get granny ring to work!!) and onto yet another long long fire road climb where you guessed it... I got passed again! oh well.

Hit The top and joined on to a fast steep rocky descent with ruts everywhere and the lyme again?! (it amazes me how the organisers interlink all the various distances on Meridas) didn't stop to chat this time, mainly because I couldn't stop! I could now see civilisation on hitting tarmac at the bottom of the descent, real houses, telephone lines and all that. The legs began to feel a little better on the smooth stuff, so I motored on to the sound that only Knobblies make as they rip into the tarmac. I then came across a rider running with his bike, eased up and asked him if he was ok, turned out his frame had snapped behind the headtube and he'd been running for 6 mile! this made me think I wasnt' having such a bad day after all compared to him. Pushed on again but never saw another rider until the finish. Finished in 5hr 15min, 50th rider overall at full distance in all cats, not so bad for a gimmer! Tough day, tough climbs, top singletrack and descents.

Proper mountainbiking in the wilds of the welsh hills, what more could you ask for? we'll be back next year.

If anyone else fancys a Merida we'll be doing the Ruthin round in September, give it a go. Distances are 25k ,50k ,75k & 100k check out the links page for more info

and lets get some YELLOW AND BLACK OUT THERE!

Daz.

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