Only as little as a month to go before it is time to head to Marshbrook, Shropshire for the 3rd round of the CRC MTB Marathon Series powered by Mercedes-Benz Vito Sport as well as the 2nd round of the VITUS Road Sportives powered by CycleOps Power. The event will be based at the Shropshire Hills Mountain Bike & Outdoor Pursuit Centre from Friday the 13th July onwards.
The weekend line-up – 14-15th July 2012
The weekend will kick off with the VITUS Road Sportive which will offer two fantastic courses – a tough yet rewarding 85mile long course which has 2,800meters of climbing in it and the super scenic 50mile short course with around 1,700meters of climbing.
Sunday’s focus will be on the CRC MTB Marathon (start 10am on Sunday morning) which will have three different distances on offer. The route leads initially through a small area of forestry, then up onto the Long Mynd (meaning long mountain), the long route, immediately descending off the Long Mynd, making its way to the Stiperstones, a hill west of the Long Mynd, here bikers will ride some interesting single and twin tracks up and over the hill, after a short section of tarmac to get their breath back, they soon reach the Forest of Eastridge, which has been used in the past for NPS races.
After enjoying the technical single track descending, and beating the tough climbs riders return to the Long Mynd an area of outstanding natural beauty, where there is an endless amount of exciting single tracks and bridleways, interspersed with short stretches on minor roads, and then, just when they think it can’t get any better the course finishes with the longest single track descent in Shropshire, possibly the longest in England.