An annual event of 20 road stages starting in Caernarfon on a Saturday morning and finishing in Cardiff on the Sunday afternoon. Stages vary in length from 8.7 miles to 13.8 miles with varying degrees of difficulty. Held over the second weekend in June, the Welsh Castles Relay is a team event, but each stage is a head-to-head race.
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.
Further information, team selection and travel arrangements will be posted in the 'Team events' section of the Forum nearer the race date.