MERIDA ONE-TWENTY RC 9.9000

£7,300 / 29in / merida-bikes.com

Marathon racing is a niche within XC competition, where the increased race distance drives up the demands on both the bike and rider. It’s a punishing pursuit, often with multi-day events in terrain as varied as high-speed fire road, to super-tech alpine trails that wouldn’t look out of place in an enduro race.

So what type of bike works best for marathon racing? Often it’s a beefed-up XC race machine, but sometimes, as is the case with this Merida One-Twenty