Have you ever entered a mountain bike race? Well before the Muc-Off 8 we hadn't, but after a fantastic weekend I think we've caught the bug.
By we I'm referring to me, Kitch and my riding buddies Mark, Dan and Will, who along with a few other riders make up the riding group, and now fully fledged race team, Bike Club (think fight club… the first rule of bike club is etc…it seemed a good idea at the time). We're a group of guys who all enjoy riding our bikes, we've all got different riding experience but none of us have raced, and for 2010 we've decided to step it up and get competitive.
So for our first race we chose the Muc-Off 8, an enduro race set in the pleasant Pippingford Manor and organised by VOtwo events. The premise of the event was 8 hours of racing, 9 until 5, round a 7-8 mile lap, and this could be completed as a solo rider, in a pair, or in teams of three of four. Obviously we'd entered as a team of four, and as the laps were rumoured to take around an hour we planned a nice and easy tactic of 2 laps each.
Now for those of you not in the know, Pippingford Manor is in East Sussex, which created our first problem as we're from the North, so 6 hours of M1 and M25 traffic, an over piced motorway service breakfast and a few sat nav issues later we rolled into the events car park on Saturday afternoon, registered our team and dominated the camp site with our ridiculous eight man tent. Opening our complimentary goody bags and taking a quick look around we soon realised what a fantastically organised event we had entered. Nice free t-shirts and a variety of edible samples awaited us in the bags and free Red Bulls, Clif Bars and the use of Muc Off products were available all weekend, as well as free mechanics from Cycle Surgery (they bled Dan’s disc brakes free of charge). Best of all the vibe of the event was excellent, scoping up the other riders milling around collecting freebies we felt comfortably in between the range of riders, going from lycra clad, carbon bike riders, to riders with an even less pro look than our selves, and its always encouraging to see people entering events on unicycles or with ET hanging out of a handle bar basket.
Soon we found ourselves going for a scouting lap of the course. This turned out to be vital, its so helpful to know where you are on the course, knowing you can give it all on the last climb, and imagine spending ten minutes fixing a puncture only to find you could have ran your bike into the pits. Overall we were pretty impressed with the course, it was all on private land so much of the trail had been built specifically for the race. The first half consisted of several singletrack sections linked by small climbs, and included a downhill section that was timed separately so you could compare your dh runs with Steve Peat who threw down a 2.02 a few weeks earlier to give mere mortals something to aim for. The second half was made up of a large climb, a screamingly fast open downhill, a nice singletrack section next to a lake and the final lung bursting climb into the finsh/start line and rider transition area.
Back at the tent it was time to settle down for a night of carbo-loading, beer is full of carbs isn't it? So it was a slightly hazy start to the race day morning, and a late rush from Will to make it to the start line on time, he'd been the unlucky one pulling the short straw of the first lap. The problem with the first lap was the Le Mans style start which meant running over two hundred yards with over three hundred other riders to your bike, then having to ride in a much more congested group, and then finally the worry of the first transition between riders, swapping the timing chip and remembering where you had to push your bike before riding and of course, where you had left it, which was not so easy in the heat of the moment. It also didn't help when Mark managed to rack his bike next to an identical model.
As we'd never raced before we were not sure what to expect, be we needn't have worried. The race itself was far more fun than anticipated. As soon as your out there competing against other riders your adrenaline gets going and you find yourself powering down bits of track you'd normally cruise down, your whole mind set changes. After a few laps we'd managed to figure out the live timing screen in the events tent, and after double checking we realised we were doing pretty well, much better than expected as we were well into the top 100 overall and 5th out of 32 team of four. This was mainly down to Will's heroic first lap getting back around 85th and setting our teams second best dh time of the day. Suddenly we got a little bit more serious and competitive, the nerves were slightly tenser and the heart rate even faster (this may have also been the free red Bull). In the end a few incident filled runs including a flat, several crashes, a case of cramp and a final last ditch lap, starting at 4.45 from Dan whilst setting our best lap time at just over an hour saw Bike Club finish with 8 laps in just over eight and a half hours. This put us in 62nd place overall (bearing in mind many of the entries were solo riders so we gradually over took many of these guys) and more importantly 7th out of the 32 teams of four.
The overall results was a bit of an eye opener. Third place overall went to a solo rider, who managed to complete 10 laps, whilst the top team, a pair, managed 12. These guys have amazing stamina and riding ability, it was very impressive and we gave much appreciation at the prize ceremony. The biggest cheer went to the winner of the dh timed section, with one guy riding a 2.07, only five seconds behind Peaty, now that's scary!
We may not have been on the podium, but we cleaned up on the spot prizes the announcer was giving out, and then cleaned up our bikes for a final time with yet more Muc Off products. Thoroughly happy with our race results and overall weekend we celebrated with much more vigorous carbo-loading this time and spent a final night in the now questionable smelling tent (no showers were available) before setting off on the long trip home.
So for anyone who's never tried racing and fancies giving it a go, get out there and do it! You'll have a fantastic time and you never know, might even get better results than expected.
Did you enter the race? Let us know your thoughts.
Words and Photos:
Kitch
