Want an event that challenges your skill and fitness while racing XC whippets against gravity gorilla's on some of the best trails in the UK?
The Kona Mash Up is going to be an absolute blast!
We first heard about this event literally as we rode round some of the course on our epic Welsh road trip, but here are the confirmed details for what sounds like a cracking event however/whatever you ride. The idea of a longer loop chopped into short timed special stages has been the format for motorbike enduro races for years, and recently surfaced in MTB via the French Avalanche Cup races. The 'Mash Up' twist is that rather than just technical or DH sections, riders in the 'Enduro' category will also be clocked on the climbs and race the same high skills sections as the gravity boys. Alternatively the big on travel, low on lungs folk can opt for the 'technical' category where they'll only be timed on singletrack and DH sections.
We're not expecting this to solve the age old arguments about who's faster - the Lycra louts or the Tupperware toughnuts - but we reckon it'll be a whole lot of fun trying to prove it one way or the other.
The actual event is being laid on by the same team behind the Merida marathons so you can expect total Teutonic efficiency and it all centres round the excellent Skyline bike shop and Drop In cafe at Glyncorrwg ponds over the weekend of the 30th of August.
Loads more details, entry forms etc can be found at
www.konaworld.uk.com/mash-up but we look forward to seeing you there and seeing who's fastest!
MBWales.com