Bit of a shock

I hope they’ve booked Biblical rain – it wouldn’t be Mayhem without it!

Sounds like they’ve got something brewing for next year though.
UK’s first 48hr race?!

UK’s first 48hr race?!

I hope not, 24hrs round that loops gets mind numbing enough by the end!

Entries dropping off, it’s not sold out the last few years IIRC, time to rejuvenate it! If the weather’s good I may try and find a ride again this year! Not in the wet though!

jamesfts – Member
UK’s first 48hr race?!
I hope not, 24hrs round that any loop gets mind numbing enough by the end!

I think something like the old Singletrack weekender would be good, a mix of a events. Short XC/CX races, longer 6/12hr endurance and skills competitions etc.

Keep hovering over the tickets button but the videos of the course look mind numbing. Hmmm, can’t be any worse than dusk til dawn i guess.

24/12 is better….

There will still be a Mountain Mayhem, but one that is completely different to anything anyone in mountain biking has seen before

Relly?? Maybe you have to ride backwards for 24hrs ?

Or maybe that have found a location up north?

Or maybe they are just short of numbers and desparetly trying to pull on peoples emotions for back in the day to fill places.

To be fair, back in the day it did appear more fun.

Unicycles will be compulsory.

Anyone done a 24 hour solo off of the back of very little training?

I really fancy doing one but cannot put a massive amount of time in beforehand.

I have a reasonable level of fitness but not sure how I would hold up to it!

@eskay, i’m in the very same boat, another reason i haven’t got a ticket yet. I’m thinking provided i don’t go hell for leather should be OK based on nothing but guess work and hope.

@sandwicheater – that was my take on it, just ride nice and steady, take some breaks, have a snooze if I fancy. I don’t want to break any records, just want to complete one!

based on nothing but guess work and hope.

Same!!

Anyone done a 24 hour solo off of the back of very little training?

Me at Kielder 2 weeks ago. I packed it in after 9 hours but that was more down to the atrocious conditions, numb toes and bikes falling apart. I think if you’ve a good base level of fitness you’ll be ok as long as you go slow. Trouble with going slow though is you get very bored very quickly so have a mental challenge to keep going.

i’m in the very same boat, another reason i haven’t got a ticket yet.

Do it! I’m in again for some strange reason.

Hmmmm….!

Anyone done a 24 hour solo off of the back of very little training?

Yes I’ve made that mistake a couple of times. I wouldn’t bother.

Even though I’d never do it, it still makes me sad that it’s not happening. Which makes me the problem, really, doesn’t it? 😆 Still, shame.

The lack of replies on this thread tells you everything about the state of 24 hour mtb racing. Shame but the problems of boring courses and most people having done a few and not feeling the need to do more, means that they’ve run their course (with the odd exception).

What dragon said, first one was great fun, next muddy ones not so, then I tried solo, again great the first time…. never again

I did the last ‘original source’ sponsored one and then the first wiggle sponsored one at eastmoor. They just seem to be stripping the costs out the event yet charging more for it every year.
as a team of 4, its now £75pp to ride an uninspiring track.

They could do with using Ard rock as a model for the revamp!

Eskay

I ride regularly but in no way ‘prepare’ specially for the solo. This will be my 4th solo (and last by the looks of things) and I’m just heading out and enjoying my riding.

Everyone has their own way of racing solo and my way won’t be for everyone but I’ve learnt so much the last three years about physiology and myself!!

Edit: just to add I think the numbers have gone down and that reflects people’s riding nowadays. More people (myself included) enjoy technical riding (Trail/DH) than thrashing around a circuit XC style.
That said, the atmosphere at MM24 keeps me coming back and the course is about right. Some sections are pretty testing after you’ve been in the saddle for the best part of a day!!

I quite like the course. And I think Mayhem attracts a reasonable number of people who aren’t regular cyclists so you have to take that into account. If you want super tech then there are other options available.

Plus, it’s about more than the course. It’s a weekend with people I don’t see that often with an enjoyable side of competition and a nice atmosphere somewhere with lots of people on bikes.

Edit: just to add I think the numbers have gone down and that reflects people’s riding nowadays. More people (myself included) enjoy technical riding (Trail/DH) than thrashing around a circuit XC style.

XC has been dying for at least 20 years, I’m sure at some point someone probably said XC was dying and people were doing 24h races instead. It’s still not dead, if anything it seems to have had a resurgence.

I’m like Northwind, I like the idea that it exists, but it’s not for me. If I was going to invest the time/effort to train for a race like that, I’d do something a bit more special than SITS, MM, relentless, 24/12 etc. At least Strathpuffer, or even 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo and make a trip out of it.

Entry fee seems reasonable, yes it’s a lot for a team of 4, but they need 4x as many toilets, tents, car parking and everything else as a solo, so it’s always going to be 4x the price. And pales into insignificance relative to the amount of time spent training!

Bit off topic but for those that did the 2016 MM what would Gatcombe be like for an enduro? looks like a good size hill.

The last 24HR Mayhem, and my first in 25yrs of mountain biking….
Only live a 30min ride away from Gatcombe as well…

I’m with Mikertroid and MrStu here, have entered MM every year since 2006 and ‘enjoyed’ the challenge of them all in their different ways.
They’ve got the course right at Gatcombe now, fast, fun and for balance a few long climbs. All rideable. Even for the average rider (like me).

Most important bit though for me is to set MM as the target for year and getting to ride with mates – full weekend of just bikes…happy days.

Let’s see what 2017 (and 2018) brings.

The lack of replies on this thread tells you everything about the state of 24 hour mtb racing. Shame but the problems of boring courses

Pivot (nee Bontrager)24/12 is brilliant, I think* it sells out completely, definitely does for solos. It’s bloody good value too, £45 for racing, goody bag and 3 days camping on a great site and a top notch interesting course.

The course can’t be too technical otherwise it’d be nigh on impossible after 20 hours of riding with severe sleep deprivation, talking solo here. It’d also slow it right down, it is 24hr xc racing afterall, not ‘nduro sleding.

Any clues as to what format they’re thinking of in future years?

Any of you old-skool lot heading up to Pat’s tonight with your entries? … he may just drop a hint…

Chipps?

It’s not just about the racing, it’s the sitting in silence at 4am all looking miserable but then seeing that first glimpse of the sunrise and cracking open a beer.

We did all of them for a while right from the start. It became a big club thing, we had 2 teams, helpers, borrowed a van and a huge tent, was a good club weekend away and our team was actually reasonably good, we got onto the podium once and were top 10 on a few other occasions.

I remember riding a full lap of Sandwell with Ned Overend. I remember the Elite teams like Raleigh and Scott that used to thrash it out for the big (several thousand £) prize fund. Was great.

And then it became harder and harder each year to get a team as riders dropped out, family got in the way, people had been there/done that and the atmosphere changed a bit, became less XC race and more dominated by the groups of lads out for a weekend piss up with a bit of bike riding and then other events came along – Sleepless in the Saddle, 24/12, Dusk til Dawn, other formats like solo & pairs and it became more difficult to justify yet another weekend away and the weather was often shit.

I tried it solo one year (Eastnor) and called it a night at about 9pm when the heavens opened. Managed 2 more laps late morning once the course had dried out a bit but the course had taken one hell of a battering, it was torrential for a while. And I realised that I simply didn’t care.

I pit crewed a couple of others but the love had gone and I’ve not missed it since packing it in.

I think one thing to say though – Pat Adams changed the face of MTB racing in the UK. He had his detractors, people said it would never work and every year there was the usual shite about the course not being technical enough, blah blah. But every year, Pat pulled it out of the bag and his tireless work in that needs to be recognised. Thank you Pat for all of those years and for kickstarting a revolution in bike racing.

I remember jumping on Rune Hodahls wheel going round the lake a sandwell early one morning…..happy days they were!

Kind of agree with crazy-legs on this bit

the atmosphere changed a bit, became less XC race and more dominated by the groups of lads out for a weekend piss up with a bit of bike riding

And friends were reluctant to pay the increase in price every year.

I’ve done a quite a few, mostly at Eastnor, and then the first at Gatcombe. But then my kids, and team-mates kids hit school age and without fail, MM clashes with too much stuff to make it unviable. However 24:12 is spot on – always the first weekend of the holidays and always a cracking course.

Yeah – used to get to Pat’s early in the morning to get the entry in too. That was part of it.

I enjoyed them – even the mudfest ones as we mostly ran singlespeeds, but they just didn’t fit with our available time anymore.

I’ve done three- Eastnor and Gatcombe as a team of four. I enjoyed them but this year instead of Mayhem we’ve booked a fully catered weekend at CyB as we fancied something different. I’ll miss the whole Mayhem weekend atmosphere and riding a lap as the sun comes up, but look forward to riding terrain that is a bit more interesting than grassy fields.

Done a few Mayhems in the past, it’s kind of sad to hear that this is the last one.
For me, it was more about the socialising, the atmosphere and the endurance challenge rather than what the course was like. It seemed to lose all that after the OS sponsored events. The first one a Gatcombe just wasn’t the same.
Anyway, with a young family I can’t commit to riding in the event nowadays so yes, I might be another one that’s ‘part of the problem’

That said, with my daughter being a bit older I was contemplating my first solo effort next year (no chance of being fit enough this year) to coincide with my 40th.

I hope the new format delivers a worthy replacement. Did I read somewhere that the old Malverns Festival was making a comeback? Now that really would be something to be excited about!

PaulB – that would be Malvern’s Eastnor spectacular https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/details/158959/-Malvern-Cycle-Sport-MTB-Challenge

Pivot (nee Bontrager)24/12 is brilliant, I think* it sells out completely, definitely does for solos. It’s bloody good value too, £45 for racing, goody bag and 3 days camping on a great site and a top notch interesting course

plus you get a beer handed out by me 🙂