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Borderland News and Reports in April, May and June 2025

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V Reported 11.5.25

Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge a great success

Glorious weather attracted around one hundred riders to the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge this year, which was held on Saturday at Rhiwlas Village Hall, near Oswestry.

“It was wonderful to see so many keen mountain bikers set off into the beautiful green hills of the Berwyn’s with the sun streaming down on them - and not a cloud in the sky”. Said Jonathan Jones, who organises the challenge for Borderland Rotary Club. “We were so lucky with the weather, and it was good to see the familiar faces of many returning riders as well as welcoming many new ones.”

The 22-mile challenge has been on the mountain bike calendar for more than thirty years and still draws in big crowds to enjoy the scenery, the coffee, the homemade burgers as well as the cycling and the money raising potential. The event has raised tens of thousands of pounds for the Midlands Air Ambulance Charity over the years, and this year looks like no exception.

Tim Gray, owner of Dairi-Pak in Ruyton-XI-Towns, sponsors the event and said, “It’s just such a wonderful events, old friends meet up year after year and make new friends on the way. My father sponsored the Borderland Challenge from the very beginning and in the early nineties I entered regularly but I was of course much younger then. I’m glad that the company can still sponsor the event, but things have moved on, and I now ride ‘tail-end-Charlie’ on an electric mountain bike, but I still love it and it’s still quite a challenge!”.

Tim is right, it is a great event and long may it continue.

V Reported 18-4-25

E-Bikes for everyone it seems

This year’s Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge, which is to be held on Saturday 10th May at Rhiwlas Village Hall, has welcomed Electric Mountain Bikes for some years because it was thought that it would open the event up to the more mature riders but one of the sponsors, Jame Davies from Mule Cycles in Oswestry, thinks things have moved on.

James said, “When E-bike first became readily available they did attract more seasoned riders but now, it seems, everyone wants one, and who can blame them? To mountain bike regularly you need to train all the time and these days, with people living busy lives, there may not be able to fit it in. There is some beautiful countryside around here and it’s great that more people are getting to see it with a little help from their E-Bike”.

Brian Ashton, who recently purchased an E-Bike said, “As treasurer of the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge, I thought it was about time I tried one of these bikes to see how the other half live – and it turns out – they live very well! I love riding mine, it’s a whole new adventure”.

The 22-mile Challenge takes the riders over green lanes and farm tracks, over private land, up and down the beautiful foothills of the Berwyn Mountains and is available to riders of all competence however, it’s not for the faint hearted as there is only about 300 metres of tarmac and probably no more than that on level ground. It’s a challenge but also a wonderful social event for riders of all ages and competence to enjoy.

All you need is a mountain bike, a helmet, and the heart of a lion!

To enter, go to www.borderland-mtb-challenge.org

Report 15-3-25

V Reported 1-4-25

Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge - Over 30 years old - but still going strong

10am on Saturday 10th May will see the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge start from Rhiwlas Village Hall, SY10 7JH once again. Borderland Rotary Club first held the challenge way back in the early 90s when it was a fun ride for members to raise a little money for local charities. Through the years it has grown in popularity to become a fixture on the annual mountain bike calendar and the great event it is today.

Dairi-Pak, a local packaging company, has sponsored the ride every year - as Dairi-Pak’s founder, Brian Gray, was one of the original members of Borderland Rotary Club when the event was conceived. Sadly, Brian passed away in 2012 but Tim Gray, his son who took over the business in 2006, takes up the story. “This is still a wonderful event, and the Air Ambulance is such a good cause to support. I remember the very early days of the event and how keen my father was to support the event by riding it and sponsoring it. My father had been a keen road cyclist as a youth with many of his rides taking him through Europe; so on his 50th birthday I bought him his first mountain bike (a hard tail Saracen). He took to mountain biking like a duck to water and he continued to ride the event well into his 70s. I too rode the challenge throughout the 90s and early 2000s. As fatherhood consumed more of my time and age took its toll on my fitness, I didn’t ride the challenge for over a decade although Dairi-Pak continued to sponsor the event. But with the assistance of an E-Bike, I am back in the saddle and have ridden the event for the last two years.”

Brian Gray

Jonathan Jones, who organises the ride for Borderland Rotary Club said, “I still find the process of organising the Challenge as exciting and daunting as I ever did and although we’ve been at it for many years, it has never lost its charm and I still love to see hundreds of keen mountain bikers ride off into the Berwyn Mountains and raise thousands and thousands of pounds for charity. It has meant that with the support of such sponsors as Tim Gray from Dairi-Pak and James Davies from Mule Cycles of Oswestry, we have been able to give charities like Air Ambulance a regular annual donation as well as supporting lots of local good causes”.

This year there will be a coffee and snack van, a hot food burger van, an ice cream seller and music on the field so let’s have a party and hope we the weather plays ball.

Don’t forget, all you need is a bike, a helmet and the heart of a lion.