Team Madigan
competes at Welsh Kona 100
On Sunday 21 September 2003 an eight-man group of Team Madigan riders travelled
to Ruthin, North Wales, to take part in the last of this years Kona 100 series
of Mountain Bike Endurance events. (www.mtb-marathon.co.uk)
Enduro Racing is mountain bikings equivalent
of a runner’s marathon and so represents a considerable challenge for both
rider and machine. Competitors enter the events for a variety of reasons,
some to race, others to face a challenge and for the rest it’s a chance to
get together with a big group of like-minded people for a great weekend event
in the beautiful countryside of North Wales. The event at Ruthin offered
50 & 100 kilometre single lap courses over terrain, which was to challenge
even the most experienced competitor. The course was not overly technical
but a series of monster off road climbs humbled many competitors. On
the brighter side the many miles of really good single track brought smiles
to faces and helped revive those tired legs. It’s an indication of just how
difficult the Ruthin event turned out to be as many competitors who had initially
entered the 100k event turned on to the 50k course rather than suffer any
further. To their credit the Team Madigan lads all finished their respective
events. Four of the group completed the 100k course and Geoff McCrory
from Larne led the group and posted a very credible time of 6hrs 27mins.
Next year the Kona 100 series will be
made up of five events, the three Welsh events will take place as usual with
new courses added in Scotland and Austria. The boys at Team Madigan
are now smitten by the event and plans are already afoot to take part in
some of next years events. So if you like to mountain bike and fancy
a challenge, look at your calendar now or come and join us at the Team Madigan
Club, this could be for you! ( www.team-madigan.org.uk ).
