With the NPS DH Round 3 being postponed, what better way to spend your weekend competing on a mountain bike than choosing the hottest day of the year to do a 12 hour enduro!?! Mad dogs and Englishmen…..

Scorchio! With temperatures reaching +30°C at the middle of the day, this wasn’t the time to be wearing body armour and a full-face helmet. That oh so comfy feeling of lycra against skin was what was required as the Rapidracers XC division put in some lung bursting laps to claim a commendable 8th out of 93 teams in the Fun category of this gruelling race.

In my role as team captain I had assembled a crack team of riders handpicked from the Bristol area for this one off event:

Myself (Mackie): Cigar chomping captain always with a plan and on the jazz (mags).
Steve ‘Mr W’ Webster: Gold clad hard man of the team relying on brute force and ignorance when the going gets tough. Doesn’t like milk.
Dan ‘The Face’ Eastwood: Cool under pressure and riding his new shiny black stead (SC Nomad) to impress the ladies.
Bruce ‘Howling mad’ Kerridge: Broken out of a mental asylum especially for this race, the whiley old space-cadet can ride anything with two wheels – even his wife’s bike!

If you can find them and noone else can help.....

Rapids Master DHer Gummy (aka ‘Decker’) was also in attendance at the Bike Fest but had defected to a team that included ex-national points XC champion Paul Lazemby (surely that’s cheating?).

So, to the race. First things first, a big ‘well done’ must go to the organisers of this event who had managed to put together a fantastic course that seamlessly linked together the best bits of what Ashton Court can offer. The bands, tents, food stalls and commentator made this a really fun event to take part in – other race organisers should take note! The preceding hot weather also helped, as locals know that the slightest moisture can turn Aston Court into a clayey ice rink for bikes. So, semi-slick tyres on high pressure were the order of the day. More important however was keeping the engine running during the day and keeping the coolant levels high....fluid intake was of paramount importance.

Also of importance was having somewhere to get out of the sun. Howling Mad Kerridge brought along his campervan for this for this event (unfortunately my analogy can’t extend to a van painted black and grey with a red stripe down the side, but hey it served it’s purpose really well). After an hour and half of trying to figure out which poles went where, we also managed to assemble a gazebo (aka ‘not very eeze-up’!) next to the van to complete the essential shaded team pit area.

Unfortunately I drew the short straw of having to ride the first lap and jostle for position on the tight singletrack. With over 150 riders on the start line, getting a good position on the first lap was essential to getting a good result for the rest of the day on this tight course with few passing locations. With elbows and limbs flying I sprinted the first lap alongside Gummy as we bit, scratched and clawed our way to a position about 1/3 off the top of the pack. The sprint had taken its toll however as I thought I was going to vomit for the following hour!

A slick change over and Webster was on track utilizing his course knowledge to perfection and picking off riders at will. One piece of the course he didn’t know however was the man-made over bridge constructed especially for the race. With the riders still bunched, Big W’s gears failed him on the up slope and the resulting pedal slip meant an off, and a slide down 4m of chicken wire slope as following riders piled into the back of him - oops!

Brushing this crash off, the baton was handed to Dan Eastwood to cruise round on his new bump-eating Nomad. Rapidracers is predominantly a downhill team and all the Bike Fest team riders here were also competent descenders. Dan in particular found the descents most frustrating being held up by wobbly XC riders as his long travel machine devoured the downhills.

Looking fresh as a daisy, Dan changed over for anchorman Bruce Kerridge for the fourth lap. A solid lap from Bruce and it was back to myself for the fifth lap. The par lap time for the day was 29-30 minutes – but pacing yourself in the midday sun was also important.

And so we went on, putting in lap after lap of consistent times. Passing more riders than passed us. Then disaster! On our 7th lap the team was all chilling in the pit area out of the sun only to be startled by Webster running up the hill bike on shoulder! Major mechanical – derailleur into spokes – ripped off derailleur! Dan quickly took to his lap, but the unforeseen delay resulted in a lap of 50minutes.

With Webster’s mechanical we rallied around with a welding kit, an old Chevy truck, allen keys, and whatever else we could get our hands on to fix the problem. Big thanks to the Santa Cruz stand though, who lent Webster a Blur LT for a lap – which prompted Big W to put in his fastest lap time and also to have a bike orgasm!

In the middle of the day I decided to utilize the sports massage service available. Now, there were two masseurs: a fit looking 20 something redhead with a supple touch and gentle voice, or a big black bruiser of a man. Being single and desperate to have the soft touch of a woman on my skin, I wanted the young lady to rub her oily hands all over my body (‘full frontal please love’), but of course, with my luck, I got big bad Luther. I was slightly perturbed however when face down on the bench, my lycra shorts were pulled down exposing my lilywhite glutials! The massage however was really beneficial as Luther’s strong thumbs pressed hard into my lactic filled limbs as I squealed like a piggy!

This day also coincided with England’s first game in the World Cup. The organisers had very considerately erected a large screen TV in a marquee for the football followers - I wonder if NPS would go to such lengths?

But the sporting drama of the football was eclipsed by the team’s last lap of the day. The format of the race means that it starts at 9:00am on the dot and finishes at 9:00pm on the dot. It’s the most number of complete laps in that time that determines the winning team. So, if you passed the finishing line 10 seconds after the bell, then that lap wouldn’t count! As the day went on the lap times got slower across the board as fatigue took it’s toll. Bruce had cramped on his penultimate lap, but bravely stepped up to the plate for his last. It needed to be done in approximately 35 minutes for the lap to count. As the clock ran down fewer riders come through. There was no sign of Bruce as the commentator counted down, 5 minutes left, 4 minutes to go, 3 minutes…. Surely all our good teamwork wouldn’t be undone at the death? With 1 minute 30 seconds to go Bruce burst out of the woods and into the finishing arena, cranking some big gears! Crossing the line with about 45 seconds of the 12 hours remaining, it couldn’t have been a closer finish! Team hugs ensued as we hit the bar for some celebratory wine and beers… 23 laps completed and 8th out of 93 teams was an impressive achievement, and without the mechanical, it would have been 4th - C’est la vi.

It's not all about the beer you understand!

With the race over and the Rapids team satisfied with their first outing in a team enduro it was time to put Webster back on a plane back to Clifton, Kerridge back into the asylum, and Eastwood back into a bar to smooth talk the ladies. I would be back in my normal guise to compete in downhill again.

But remember, if you’ve got a team endurance event, and no-one else can ride it, and if you can find us, then maybe should call………..some else – cos it was bloody knackering!!!!!!!

Average Lap Times:

1. PSM: 28:51
2. SGW: 30:34
3. DE: 30:40
4. BK: 31:29