As above – Im thinking about entering the 24 hrs of Moab (well Ive been offered a place on a team), I know nothing about 24 hr racing & obviously I dont want to let down the side or leave our american cousins with the impression that us brit bikers are a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys..Any top tips to avoid disaster?

dont try anything new for the race this means bikes, tyres, positions, food. especially food. drink. energy products. clothes.

basically what i am saying is race with what you trained with. sort out energy drinks/ normal drinks, camelbaks/ bottles, gels/ foods, etc etc.

if it's a team of 4 then it's only 6 hours. not an awful lot. but probably (i don't know the moab race at all) hour laps so train for hour laps. but be able to do 6 in a day. a good tent/bed is a godsend.

if you can hit every changeover you will be ahead of most of the teams already. sort out a timing system with your team early on.

practise lap always helpful. carry spares – the amount of people i see walking because they didn't expect a puncture in an hour. saddle bag is my recomendation.

all in all though it is just a ride – don't stress. sorry for the brain dump.

No problems tom – I appreciate the response, your advice sounds good & reassuring!

Top tips

– Bring lots of kit
– Bring lots of normal food that you can eat while riding/in between laps – energy food does most people in after a while…
– Be comfortable on your bike – no silly racer positions if you don't find them comfortable
– Change out of your racing kit ASAP between laps
– Don't charge off at the start – better to get to half way feeling like you've gone a bit too easy and then take it up than blow to pieces at half way and crawl round the rest.
– Eat and drink (not beer you kerazy people) lots
– Chillax 🙂

Mtbr 'endurance forum' is full of good tips. If you can find dave (from 2epic) 's guide it is very good. Aimed towards a soli but all very relevant. Also can probably get course unfo on the board.

Just go out and ride it – you can ride for 6 hrs in a 24hr period cant you. Dont over complicate it.

Ride at a normal "I'm out for a Sunday ride" pace, not an axe-wielding race maniac pace. Do a lap have 3 hours off, repeat.

Eat. After every lap eat a small meal as soon as you can.

Sleep. Don't assume grabbing 2 hours sleep isn't worth the bother, it really is.

Get comfy. Make sure you have decent camp setup. It all depends on the weather, so plan accordingly.

Doubling up with another rider overnight will give you more time to sleep. So rather than doing riders A,B,C,D swap to A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D.

Looks at GPS tracking like http://www.mapmytracks.com or use walkie talkies/phones to avoid those 3:00AM hand-over disasters.

Concentrate on the misery of those around you to cheer yourself up!

Take a stove so you can have a brew and make some porridge – very useful when you're trying to motivate yourself for a 5am lap. I take it you have decent lights?

All good stuff there guys, well most of it..Im talking to the guy in California regarding the details now so with the feedback here & his input I should be ok! (fingers & everything else crossed!)

Yeah, no matter how broken, crappy and horrid the sleep you get is – it's still worth getting. I was starting to get a bad back on the last one I did. Had 3 hours really appalling sleep from 2am on and thought I'd have been better off staying up but my back was feeling better and subsequently I got through…

1/ Speak to your teammates in advance so you all have the same aspirations (or where they don't match you an at least be aware of the differences) If 3 blokes are there for a podium finish and the other is aiming for a laugh and a few beers between laps, best to know that in advance.

2/ Change out of old kit asap. Sweat rash / crotch rot can set in surprisingly fast if you don't, and that's no fun.

3/ Prepare some bags of kit in advance with full uniforms inside – shorts, socks, top, etc. Then you just need to find a bag and you automatically can find a full set of kit, instead of scrabbling through a huge holdall trying to find he socks you know are in there somewhere.

[yes, uniforms is a shit word but i can't think of a better one right now]