Ten ten mile races, back to back. Then another ten the following day. Held over
the second weekend in June, the Welsh Castles Relay is a team event, but each
stage is a head—to—head race.
Seen from space, the distance between Caernarfon and Cardiff is not all that
great, however, the country between the two is Wales, and every stage includes
at least one climb or descent. Taking a cue from Le Tour de France, the toughest
stages are designated as ‘mountain stages’ and the winner of each stage gets a
yellow (or occasionally grey) sweat shirt.
The traditional relay format, with the runners competing through the night, was
staged 3 times (all of which the host team, Les Croupiers, won) from 1983–5. The
pilot run, again by Les Croupiers, was held in 1982 as a taster for the Welsh
Tourist Board’s "Year of the Castles" the following year.
Only in 1986 did the individually staged race format take place, with Newport in
devastating form, winning 13 of the 21 stages. Each stage starts on the arrival
of the first runner of the previous one, or at the judges’ discretion, and the
race pauses in Newtown on the Saturday night, where most athletes bed down in
the community sports hall. And, it is rumoured, some drinking goes on.
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| Mountain stages There are six stages to this competition and the winning team will be the one
with the lowest aggregate time over these six stages.
There will be an award given to the winning team of men (Kings), ladies
(Queens), and veterans (Monarchs). In addition there will be an award to each of
the individual stage winners, for the first male, female and veteran on each of
the six mountain stages. Note that the rule for first veteran is given below.
The six stages are:
- 1 Criccieth to Maentwrog Stage 3
- 2 Dolgellau to Dinas Mawddwy Stage 7
- 3 Llanfair Caereinion to Newtown Stage 10
- 4 Newtown to Llanbadarn Fynydd Stage 11
- 5 Builth to Drovers Arms Stage 14
- 6 Caerphilly Castle to Cardiff Castle Stage 20
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