Only a few weeks before we head out to infamous trails in Ashton Court for the 1st Kona Bikefest of the 2009 season www.bike-fest.com. The event will take place on the weekend of the 6-7th June 2009 in Ashton Court, Bristol.

Entries to the Kona Bristol Bikefest 2009
Due to huge popularity of the solo categories at the 12 hour event of the Bristol Bikefest we were forced to close the solo entries a few weeks ago. But there are still places for all pairs and team categories available for the 12 hour event. So if you haven’t got your entry in and want to be part of the Kona Bristol Bikefest then be quick and go onto our entry page to get all the details of how to enter the events.

If 12 hours is a little much for you anyway and you feel that either the 6 hours or the new 3 hour novice event is more up your street then you still have the choice between all the categories (solo, pairs and teams of 4) on offer. To enter the 6 or 3 hour event also go to our entry page and either download your entry form and send it through to us or enter via the new online entry.

Categories
As stated on the entry form we might be forced to combine various categories if we don’t receive and more entries in those categories. So far we will combine the Team Open Female category with the Team Old Gits Female category, the Pairs Open Mixed category with the Pairs Old Gits Mixed category and the Solo Open Female category with the Solo Old Gits category.

Signing On Times
Please check the website for exact times, for Saturday’s race registration will open at 5pm on Friday till 8pm, then Sat from 7am till 8:30am. For Sunday you can register from 7:30am till 9:30am on Sunday morning or during Saturday afternoon if you are around.

Entertainment
We will have DJ Winnerz playing some tunes on Friday night and the bar will be open for the pre-race carbo-loading that is essential for the Bristol Bikefest. Besides that we will have various food stands open for business from Friday evening onwards. On Saturday we will have the party with some more DJing as well the main music act ‘The Mudheads’.

Recycling
We looked into recycling facilities for the race but on top of the estate cost we can’t really afford it this year and we don’t want to increase entry fees really. So please try and take home as much of your recyclable waste as you can, bottles, cans, etc, we will of course have bins for the non recyclable stuff but as cyclist we think we should all make an effort.

Loyalty gift – make a proper riding weekend out of it
We as organisers depend on riders being ‘loyal’ to our events and we like to show our appreciation by giving you a loyalty gift (worth more the £ 25) if you either enters both events over the Bristol (or Cheddar) weekend or if you enter an event at the Bristol Bikefest and an event at the Cheddar Bikefest on the 12-13th September 2009. Even if you have entered one event at the upcoming Bristol Bikefest already and you decide to enter the other one even as late as on the day you will still be entitled to the loyalty gift if you enter the 6 hour event now.

NEW camping setup and road crossing
You are probably already aware of the fact that the Kona Bikefest 2009 will have showers available for the first time since we started the event many years ago. Besides that we have two campgrounds so that we can accommodate the growing number of campers. One campground is behind the event village and the other one is across the road (B 3129) at the Cotham Park Rugby Football Club (please see the facilities page for details. We would like to advice everybody to be extremely cautious when approaching and crossing the road as the B 3129 can have fast moving traffic in both directions, especially during the hours of darkness.

Event village
The event village is still growing with more and more companies joining the Ashton Court fun. Here the line-up so far: Kona, Ritchey, Sombrio, Saris, CycleOps, Litespeed, Merlin, Torq, Cannondale, Cube, Bionicon, ZeroG, Red Bull, Intense, Maverick, NeoGuard, Merida, Ergon, Upgrade, Lezyne, Chris King, Howies, Merion Wool, RAM Bikes, Yeti, Rolling Resistance, Andy Watsworth with his VO2 Max test rig and High5. Watch this space for updates.

The course
The course is in super condition at the moment but we are working with the Ashton Court rangers and the Bristol Trail Group to polish it off a little bit more for the event. The majority of the work will focus on the final sections in Beggar Bush and maybe a little bit along the quarry trails to provide the riders with the typical Bristol Bikefest course of the single track.