Whitsun Bank holiday Ruthin Merida

http://www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/events/ruthin.php


I know theres a few people already signed up but who else is coming to Ruthin?

None of the tarmac stuff for me just the mountain biking.

Who fancies a gentle trip round landegla on the Saturday morning before or Monday on the way home

Hi Darren

Mike, Laura, Danny and I are planning to ride Landegla gently on the Saturday. Not sure on times yet.

I'm leaving home nice an early on Saturday as traffic isn't going to be good on a bank holiday weekend M6 will be crap and the A5 won't be much better.
I assume it will be too early for most but I will be at Llandegla for 10-1030am (they do a wicked bacon roll).

Who's camping ? or have we got softies going for the B&B option?

Um...... doubt we will get there that early! Think we are leaving about 9. And yes we are big softies and going for the B&B option.

I done the 55km course , the course was slightly differnet to last year a really technical downhill was changed and the last climb were the two most obvious ones along with the missing out of a bridleway before the first big climb which was a bottleneck last year.
I think the changes were an improvement over last year.
I had a few moments but managed to stay upright for the whole ride the first grassy descent was well scary I had a clear run and boy was I going quick at the bottom!
The second was the ford that I think a lot of people had problems with was like riding across ice it was that slippery had a bit of a wobble but held on.
The last scary bit was coming down to the second feed station (on 50km) it was through the trees so a bit dark and someone stuck a camera complete with flash in my face! I hope it was one of the offical photographers cos I really want to see the look of panic!

I suffered badly from cramp last year and I almost cramped again this year just got a few niggles so I didn't go stomping on the pedals just spun and pushed the steep bits. Im not sure what the cramping is I had had a bottle of electrolite drink before then drank almost all energy drink other than a litre of water. I had to piss (am I allowed to say that? sorry if Im not) 6 or 7 times during the ride so dehyration isn't the answer.

Theres a lot of hills on the Ruthin merida but its got the best post race showers of all the rounds

Time was about 4.30 I think

What a lot of hills and well timed rain... Well done to the 25K B&B crew, they are all upgrading/graduating to the 50k at Builth as this one 'wasn't hard enough'...

I agree with Darren, the smell of burning brakes on the super rapid (and rabid) grassy descent was a bit concerning - It felt like the fastest point on the ride, though for me that was at 53kph on the first decent after the monster road climb..

Neil caught me up on a detour from the 75K and Mark wasn't far behind finishing the distance looking fresh.

about 3 and a half hours and no pee stops!

The photos are up http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk/index.html