Macmillan Afan Monster Enduro 2011...

colin@rushcycles

Thought i would post this up here, organising a Mountain Bike event in Afan Argoed south wales called the Macmillan Afan Monster...
The idea is to raise awareness of the other riding available at afan argoed and also to raise money for a great charity.

There are going to be 3 options this year 100, 75 and 50km loops...

We had great feedback last year and managed to raise over £18,000 for macmillan...

If your interested in riding or marshalling then please let us know...
You can enter the event here

http://www.macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

Thanks...

The Northern Monkey

Linked into the South Wales Rides section

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/posting.php

colin@rushcycles

To give you a little taste here's the first 30km...

http://connect.garmin.com/player/93756440

colin@rushcycles

@ northernmonkey thanks

Stanners79

on the website, it doesn't say anything about the 50km option?

have I just missed it?

edit: I missed it :roll:

joec1

Im planning on riding it (havent registered yet) just waititing to see if anyone else i ride with fancies lift sharing with me lol...

colin@rushcycles

You can enter any distance and change on the day, its pretty informal like that...

So if your not sure what distance to enter its not really that important as you can change on the day depending how you feel etc, everyone has good and bad days so if you enter the 100 have a bad day switch to 75 simples

miss notax

Already booked into the 100Km and have persuaded 9 of my lovely MTB buddies to do it too 8)

colin@rushcycles

Awesome...

camerauk

Looking to have a go at this as well

miss notax

colin@rushcycles wrote:

Awesome...

Actually, can I ask a quick question...?

I think I remember reading that last year there was a 'cut-off' point, which you needed to pass by a certain time to continue on the 100Km. Is this happening this year? And if so, what is the distance and the time?!!

I don't want to miss it!

colin@rushcycles

I'm not to sure think it is about 3:00...

If you want to do the 100km and not to sure about time your better off starting earlier say 8:00am you will have been out for 7 hours and done about 60km by the time you reach the cutoff point to be honest if you haven't got there by then i doubt you'll want to do another 4-6hours on the last 40km...

weeksy59

Did it last year and am booked in for this year with 2 mates.

Looking forward to it this time as i'll be doing the 100km instead of last years 75.

Danny-T

http://macride-afanmonster.org.uk/

Cancelled for this year! :shock:

This is devastating as I know a lot of us (and other non-BRers) have looking forwards to and training for this.

I'd still be up for just going to Afan on this date and just defining our own route (w2 + skyline + a bit more) if anyone else is up for it?

It's a bit wrong that there's been no email info about this, unless I just didn't receive it?

miss notax

If you missed the email, then I missed it too.... :?

I am gutted that this has been cancelled. I've been training hard and was looking forward to the challenge! Macmillan is also a charity that means a lot to me personally, so I also feel bad about not doing my bit

I'm up for the epic Dan

weeksy59

Oh man, you're kidding !!!!!

FFS... i've trained like a lunatic, lost weight,.... DAMN i was ready !!!!!

colin@rushcycles

Unfortunately it has, we are all gutted to be honest...

You should all have had an email from macmillan, i hope they've sent these out...

We've done all the prep got the forestry permission land owners permission, some good sponsors on board.

But unfortunatly afan is a mess at the moment and getting a quality 100km or even 75km route is proving virtually impossible.

Its not a decision we took lightly but with the felling taking place at afan at the moment we really were left with no choice.

Apologies to anyone who was looking forward to the event, we raised a lot of money for macmillan last year and were keen to do so again, but some things are beyond anyone's control, the forestry have been very helpfull in some respects and pretty frustrating in others and a decision had to be made, not one we took lightly.

Danny-T

Neither myself or anyone else I know who was signed up received any email about it.

W2 + Skyline + Whites = 100k (ish and still bloody hard)

So still going to do it and will still see the sponsorship through too because it is a worthy cause (although it is disappointing if it was supposed to be Macmillan sending us the details).

Miss Notax is in as are a number of other people we know, anyone else wants in let us know and we'll arrange to meet somewhere.

weeksy59

I never recieved a mail either.. no-one i know who has entered has recieved a mail, nor any idea about a refund.

miss notax

Nope, I don't know anyone who has reeived an email either.....

A friend of ours ordered new forks at the weekend with this event in mind (not realising it had been cancelled having not received any email) - so there are lots of unhappy people about this :evil:

Personally, my Mum has cancer so raising money for Macmillan was very close to my heart and I am gutted that I can't support the charity in this way

weeksy59

miss notax wrote:

Personally, my Mum has cancer so raising money for Macmillan was very close to my heart and I am gutted that I can't support the charity in this way

The Monster was on the anniversary of my Dad's death from cancer 12 months ago... Last year i raised over £1500 for Macmillan for this event.

This year my wife lost her dad to cancer... again this would have been a huge driving factor for me.

Disappointed doesn't even begin to describe how i'm feeling about it.

colin@rushcycles

I have no idea why no one seems to have had an email, this should have happened a few weeks ago, macmillan handle the whole entry,money and applicant side of things, i've emailed them this morning stating no one seems to have had an email and if they can look into why...

Its not a situation any of us are happy about or a decision we wanted to make, macmillan have assured me that everyone will be offered a full refund.

We sat with the forestry commission about 4months ago expressing concerns that although the route had been approved through the official forestry channels much of it at the time was unridable, they assured us the worst of the felling was over and sections of skyline we use would be open in 2-3 weeks after the meeting, 14 wks later and nothing changed we were sat app 6 weeks away from the event with app 50% of the route unusable and we met macmillan and came to the decision for this year we had to cancel.

There's also an issue around the whole of the skyline area as of the beginning of July the forestry have handed over the area from Glyncorrwg upto the rhigos and bwlch to the contractors of the new wind farm, we can't find out when the felling and work starts for this it could have been last week it could be today it may not be for another 4months...

Its frustrating all round i appreciate that non of this changes anything for you guys just hoping to try and explain why the decision had to be made..

Again can't apologise enough to anyone who had entered...

Colin @ Rush cycles

weeksy59

Still no sign of a refund for anyone ?

At least i did eventually get a mail telling me it's cancelled.

Absolute FARCE...

welshkev

it's a shame isn't it, i think it could have become a staple of enduro racing, i think as it stands now a lot of people might steer clear as they've lost faith.

(i do appreciate what you're saying though colin as to why it was pulled )

weeksy59

welshkev wrote:

it's a shame isn't it, i think it could have become a staple of enduro racing, i think as it stands now a lot of people might steer clear as they've lost faith.

(i do appreciate what you're saying though colin as to why it was pulled )

Agree 100% mate. I was thinking of this as being an 'every year' sort of weekend away with the lads... I'm not sure i'll book next year.

It's already cost me £40 in deposits for the B&B we were staying in that i'll never see... If you add that to the £25 for entry which hasn't materialised, tis' an expensive weekend and i've not even left the house.

agg25

Shit I was going to enter this too as it slotted in nicely with my plans, glad I didn't sign up now but was looking forward to it heaps :-(

weeksy59

Still waiting for the refund that was due on the 5th.

springtide9

What a real shame. Just popped here to wish you all the best for the event.

Afan and that area is so geared up for such an event. I'm sure they could sell out a few events every year. The wind turbine troubles also don't sound good. Hope this gets sorted out without too much disruption.

weeksy59

Still no refund... i'm pretty disappointed in them.

miss notax

I got an email saying that it was taking longer to refund the money than initially thought, but that they were working on it....

I agree, still very disppointing and rubbish though

weeksy59

miss notax wrote:

I got an email saying that it was taking longer to refund the money than initially thought, but that they were working on it....

I agree, still very disppointing and rubbish though

Considering how often i've used Paypal and the fact refunding is pretty simple.. i don't for the life of me know why it's so complex for them