Founded 1889

Updated 09 October 2006

The 45th Annual Three Peaks Cyclo Cross Race 9-10-06

The 2006 Saab-Salomon Mountain Mayhem 24hr Mountain Bike Race 23-07-06

EnduroPLUS 6-Hour Endurance Race, 30th April 2006 25-05-06

Merida 100 Builth Wells 8th-9th April 2006 28-04-06

Endurance events / 24hr racing Dates for 2006 11-11-05

Sleepless In The Saddle 24hr Mountain Bike Race Catton Park, 24th-25th August 2005  7-09-05

The Merida 100 MTB Marathon, Selkirk, Scotland, 31st July 2005 16-08-05

National MTB Marathon Champs – 100k Open Race – Margam 17 July 2005 27-07-05

2005 Southern XC Series R4 Checkendon 10 July 2005 27-07-05

Merida 100k MTB Marathon – Rhyader 29 May 2005 27-07-05

The 2005 Saab-Salomon Mountain Mayhem 24hr Mountain Bike Race 11-07-05

The Enduro 6, Trentham Gardens, 24 April 2005 29-04-05

The Merida 100 MTB Marathon, Rhayader, 9/4/05 20-04-05

Endurance events / 24hr racing Dates 11-11-05

2006 Mountain Bike Dates

24hr Races: -
There’s a new race on the calendar, the frankly insane Strathpuffer 24, at Castle Leod near Inverness on January 14th-15th. Yes, that’s right, a 24hr race in northern Scotland in midwinter!

The Saab-Salomen Mountain Mayhem returns for its 9th year, it’s at Eastnor Castle on the weekend of 23rd-25th June (including a Dirt Demo Day on Friday 23rd). Always hugely popular and De Laune has an excellent track record in this event. Teams of 5 (mixed), 4 or solo.

The slightly less competitive Sleepless In The Saddle (SITS) returns to Catton Park on 12th-13th August. Teams of 4, 2 or solo. DeLaune put in a fantastic performance here last year.

There will be a 4th 24hr race on the calendar called the TwentyFour12, to be held at an as yet un-named venue in Shropshire on the weekend of 22nd-23rd July.

12hr Races: -
Dusk til Dawn is at its usual venue of Thetford Forest on the weekend of 16th-17th September for more night-time racing shenanigans. Teams of 4, 2 or solo.

6hr Races: -
The ever-popular Karrimor/Specialized -sponsored EnduroPlus is back at Catton Park on 29th-30th April. The usual format of XC racing on the Saturday, a night Time-Trial (1-lap) on the Saturday night and the main 6hr endurance race on the Sunday. Teams of 2 or solo.

National Points Series: -

Following on from last years successful overhaul of the race format, 2006 sees a continuation of this theme, with the XC racing on Saturday and a choice of 2hr, 4hr or 6hr enduro races on the Sunday for Round 1 but with the Marathon Championship Series on the Sunday for Rounds 2-5. A 25km loop to be ridden once, twice or 4 times. Some venues have yet to be finalised, more details supplied as and when I get them.

May 6th-7th Sherwood Pines, Notts
June 10th-11th Margam Park, South Wales
July 8th-9th venue tbc
August 5th-6th venue tbc
September 16th-17th venue tbc

More details about race dates and venues can be found at:
www.singletrackworld.com
www.bikemagic.com
www.gorrick.com  (for the South-based Gorrick series)
www.britishcycling.org.uk 

National MTB Marathon Champs – 100k Open Race – Margam 17 July 2005

The National MTB Marathon Champs are a new event this year and I decided to enter the companion 100k Open race at Margam Park in South Wales. The weather was far too hot for this type of event, peaking at 86F, so it was going to be vital to pace yourself properly and drink almost constantly. The Open race was set off 1 minute after the very fast people and I managed to line up on the front of the grid to avoid the inevitable bottlenecks as the 110 competitors all tried to enter the opening sections of singletrack. The course consisted of four 25k laps of an absolutely fantastic course which had everything including loads of great singletrack, technical climbs, frighteningly fast fireroad descents and a very welcome river crossing but with 560m of climbing per lap it was going to be a long, hard and hot day.

I managed to get a good start and settled into a comfortable pace but it was very difficult to tell where you were as we soon caught up with the backmarkers from the Championship race. The second lap was very busy as we were constantly going past lapped riders from the other shorter races that had set off after us (over 700 people doing 25K and 50K rides) but they were great about getting out of the way and I wasn’t held up at all. I was sticking to my usual feeding schedule for these long events by having a gel at every 50 minutes, drinking water and sipping an electrolyte replacement drink as much as possible. I stopped at the feed zone at 40k and pocketed a couple of fig rolls but that was about it for the ride.

I suffered a bit on the third lap and found myself riding alone but when I started the last lap I had my final gel, ate a Powerbar and put my head down to concentrate and try not to lose any places. I managed to get around the last lap, pushing hard for the final 15k or so but suffering from really bad pains in my feet for some reason (probably my feet had swollen in the heat).

I managed to finish in 5hrs 30mins to place 8^th in the Open race (out of 110) riders. Only 41 people managed to finish the 100k event so the course and the heat had definitely taken their toll. My result would have placed me 25^th in the National Championship race so I’ll definitely enter that next year. Overall, it was the best race I’ve done this year, a superb course, great atmosphere and a result that I’m really happy with.

Hopefully below you can see the readout from my heart rate monitor for the event which shows the climbs as well as my heart rate. 2215m of climbing and an average HR of 172 for 5hrs and 30mins shows just how tough the event was!

Ross Fryer

2005 Southern XC Series R4 Checkendon 10 July 2005

 A hot and hard days racing in the 4^th round of the Southern XC Series saw three De Laune riders taking part and I think that we all found the going tough on a hard, unrelenting course.

Youth
SAM FENSTERHEIM - 7^th

Master
ROSS FRYER – 20^th 

Veteran
WILLIAM WRIGHT – 21^st

Merida 100k MTB Marathon – Rhyader 29 May 2005

Cliff and myself decided to race the third Merida event of the year held at Rhyader on a course that featured 2200m of climbing and a dispiriting 20km loop at the end that you had to complete twice. As with all these events, if the weather is good they are just hard but if the weather is bad then they turn into pure torture. Luckily, the week before had been largely dry so the course was dusty and fast. 

ROSS FRYER – 47^th – 5hrs 50mins
CLIFF STEELE – 84^th – 6hrs 16mins
(Positions are out of a field of 160)