2008 Merida Spring Marathon & Big Night Out

With around 350 riders taking part in the night ride, this is one of, if not the biggest night rides in the UK!  Straight from work Saturday evening to the site in Builth Wells and things were looking up - brilliant sunshine and nobody stuck in the field yet!

A truly lovely evening, relatively dry conditions, clear skies and hardly a breath of wind for most of the course.  The ride out involved a short section on the road, it amazed me how many bikes had brakes rubbing and gears skipping around and we hadn’t even seen mud yet - that’d drive me mad if was my bike! (and slow you down Dave -edit).

Come the first off road section - a rocky double track section, how many got too excited mashing gears and losing grip out the saddle?  I came cruising by, weaving in and out of the victims with my Rohloff hub gear - no crunching there!

About halfway around the course (dark enough for lights now) a quick glimpse back revealed a ribbon of lights across the two previous hills - an amazing sight!

With some rain overnight the Sunday ride was destined to be mucky, and it didn’t disappoint!  A wide variety of weather kept you looking around to see what was heading your way, thankfully showers rather than persistent rain! 

Some fantastic single track up in the woods was mostly rideable.  The technical nature of the tracks took your mind off the claggy conditions and hard progress, some riders required to run sections.  Descents soon had a multitude of ruts that really tested balance and control, I LOVED it!

There’s so much of the course I could write about, but all in all, it had everything - something to keep everyone happy, well most!

Pearce Cycles riders who took part were Phil Washbrook, Darren Ellis and myself, Dave Price. Shame on Sparky who went to watch a ball get kicked about Manchester - where’s the commitment! 

Pete Harris and Simon White took the trip down to Thetford for the first round of the NPS XC - report from them soon...

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