The EUCC posse headed down to Lodgewood Park in Shropshire for the inaugural running of the Bontrager TwentyFour 12, a new 12 and 24 hour endurance event. Traveling down on the friday gave us the opportunity to muck about in Tesco in Wrexham, laugh at the boy racers in the car park, and generally not make much progress.
When we arrived Tim had already set his tent up in the non-quiet camping area. Being a rowdy lot, and wanting to make a nuisance for everyone, we all helped move Tim’s erected tent about half a mile down the campsite. We stuck the gazebo and tents up, then got some kip for the day ahead.
The following morning we got up and pretty much just lay around in the hot sun, ate, and hydrated. Some of the lads went off to the briefing, which was more recap on passing politely and drinking lots. Just before 12 midday we made our way to the start line.
The start was pretty fast, with dust throughout the air making it hard to see in the first singletrack sections. At the end of my lap I had to take my contact lenses out to give them a clean. The course itself was a bit of a tardis. The camping fields were flat as a pancake, but as soon as you dipped into the woods you were soon faced with a series of short sharp descents and climbs. The majority of the course was on tight rooty singletrack, which I loved! Most of the remainder was on part of a motocross track, with humped climbs and flat sections making otherwise boring parts somewhat interesting. The surface appeared to be mulched-up reclaimed landfill, with bits of plastic and glass visible on the surface.
The dust was soon seen to just before 6pm. Just as I was heading out for my 3rd lap, a storm blew in and started to totally dump on the course. The previously dusty course was now an ice rink, and some serious time was to be made on competitors by running fast as they slipped around trying to stay upright. The course didn’t really dry out much till about 8am the next day when the hot sun came out again.
Throughout the race our team had quite a few mechanicals. On Geoff’s first lap his contact lenses fell out. Adam broke his saddle rails on his 2nd lap, meaning he had to stand up for half a lap. His third lap saw him break the chain twice. On his first night lap his lights failed, and he broke his chain another two times. I then had a light failure on my second night lap, but was still having great fun passing people in the really dark singletrack. Gavin the snapped his frame behind the bottom bracket on the chain stays, meaning he could only cycle slowly and run the harder sections. Adam then snapped his chain unrepairably on his final lap, and like the legend he is, he ran the last 6km of the lap. Top effort!
My final lap was by far the most fun, the now dryer course allowing me to totally fly, and clean the whole thing without even dabbing once! This is probably a good time to mention that throughout the whole race, everyone was very polite, even when I screwed up lines while passing people in the wet. I gave lots of encouragement to other riders, and got lots in return, and some major respect from two marshalls who were wandering around and saw me riding without lights through the singletrack. Even the great Gary Fisher was kind enough to let me past on my final lap, and was most polite about pulling to the side as he heard me coming (Hope Pro II Hubs are the daddy at these events, everyone hears you coming).
In the end our team finished 7th overall, and first Uni! The champagne Geoff had cheekily bought on the friday was put to good use, most of it being sprayed over Gavin.
Our lap times are in the table below…
Shout outs – Big thanks and congrats to all the other EUCC teams: EUCC Phoneys – Chris, Ramsay, David and Doug; EUCC Fresick – Tim, Max, Sandy and Matt; Fat Tread Bikes – Euan and James.
Thanks also to Holly and James’ dad for helping us out.
Great banter as always from Mr Andy Mee, and respect for cleaning all the climbs on your singlespeed. Less respect for going to bed for the whole night!! Lol.
Best Moments – Giving riders we didn’t know random names and cheering them on for their final lap. They all loved it!
Cheering our own riders on, and shouting the now legendary “Pull a wheeeeeelie!”, especially the support Geoff got on his final lap, we were all going mental. All those roundabout us were loving it! Doug has a great video of this sort of abuse from the first lap, I’ll see if I can get this of him.
Tim shouting “Get your fisher out!” at a certain moutainbike legend.
I’ll definitely be back next year, I had such a good time, and the tired legs were more than worth it. Always one for self promotion, a pic of me can be found on the Jools Dymond site. Nice chatting to Jools after the race too.
