The very first Gore Bike Wear Road Sportive debuts on 24 May in Ruthin, North Wales, and there’s still time to enter.

This is the first year of the event, and is run in conjunction with the long-running Merida Bikes MTB Marathon Series, which follows the sportive on the Sunday. If you dabble in off-road riding you can have a weekend of road and dirt action, or just turn up for Saturday’s sportive.

The organisers have laid on two distances: 50 and 100 miles, and promise that the route will be challenging, and it’s fair to say there’ll be some serious climbing. The more experienced sportive riders will find the Gore Bike Wear Road Sportive Series rides a great challenge with the ‘classic’ courses taking in some serious hills complemented by rolling back roads and amazing views over the various regions of natural beauty.

Gore’s Ben Washington says: “We have created an exciting new road bike sportive series to partner the Merida Bikes MTB Marathon Series for 2008. Not only will our sportive rides provide the riders with a challenging route to test their form, but we’ll also provide everybody with the opportunity to experience the most technically advanced cycle clothing on the market.”

Head to www.mtb-marathon.co.uk/sportives/sportives.php to enter now.