So we've entered a 4 man team in MM and being event virgins obviously need advice from the wise and experienced on here!

Strategy implies we're serious racers, we're not, but want to ensure we have a good time.

Now I know we need lots of beer but aside from that what else?

What about race strategy, one lap then change rider or more than one lap, different strategy for the night time?

Any advice welcome, oh dear what have I said?

Last year most of the quick teams seemed to do one lap then change rider and sticked with the same strategy through the night. I think that's probably the quickest but switching to riding in pairs through the night means the other two riders get a bit longer off the bike to get some sleep.

Here's a few tips to get you started –

Get there early if you want to camp together or near the arena area as the campsite fills up quickly.

Take plenty of spares, tools and some mud tyres.

Don't ride flat out on the first lap, teams with consistent lap times always seem to do better than those that start fast and run out of steam.

Take some decent lights, a helmet light makes it a lot easier to see where you're going in the more twisty sections.

Make sure there's always someone ready at the handover, you see lots of people riding in to handover only to find their team mate isn't there, if you keep a rough track of lap times you can work out when you need to be ready at the handover and maybe keep a record of who is up next.

There are usually plenty of places to buy food there (burgers, pasta, bacon rolls, etc) but it's worth taking some stuff with you to snack on between laps especially if you want to try and eat healthy stuff.

Last year most of the quick teams seemed to do one lap then change rider and sticked with the same strategy through the night. I think that's probably the quickest but switching to riding in pairs through the night means the other two riders get a bit longer off the bike to get some sleep.

Here's a few tips to get you started –

Get there early if you want to camp together or near the arena area as the campsite fills up quickly.

Take plenty of spares, tools and some mud tyres.

Don't ride flat out on the first lap, teams with consistent lap times always seem to do better than those that start fast and run out of steam.

Take some decent lights, a helmet light makes it a lot easier to see where you're going in the more twisty sections.

Make sure there's always someone ready at the handover, you see lots of people riding in to handover only to find their team mate isn't there, if you keep a rough track of lap times you can work out when you need to be ready at the handover and maybe keep a record of who is up next.

There are usually plenty of places to buy food there (burgers, pasta, bacon rolls, etc) but it's worth taking some stuff with you to snack on between laps especially if you want to try and eat healthy stuff.

Single laps during day, double laps at night allows everyone to get 4 or 5hrs kip. As it's your first time you may do as I do every year which is just get caught up in the whole thing and only get an hours kip if you're lucky. You will need spares that you don't think you'll need. Make sure you are all happy that if something/someone goes t1ts up you will all be ok with it (after all you don't have corporate sponsorship resting on your result), I broke 2 ribs in 2008 on the very first lap, took over 2hrs to complete, team ran as a 3 for rest of event and because it hooned it down in the night they had a break from about 12 until 6am, everyone was ok with that, no pressure to ride if they didn't want to etc. Take your own bottled water for camelbaks. dirtworker or similar is invaluable if it rains to keep drivetrains working, if you can get a f5th person to cook etc helps as the time quickly passes between laps, once you are back to your area, checked/cleaned/lubed bike ready for next lap, got changed in to clean/warm/dry clothes there's not much time to cook a warm meal before it's time to start getting ready for your next lap.

Enjoy it, it's brilliant

There's no right way to do it.

I certainly wouldn't do double laps (unless it's a really short course), but pairing off in the night works well and gives the other 2 some kip.

Take every item of kit you own.

A white board and clock helps to avoid missed changeovers, when you get in, write your time, the rider who's out, their ETA and who's next. Very simple, but works well!

One lap at a time but at night pair off, two of you sleep while two of you ride, swap half way through the night. Seemed to work for me and a my mates who placed 6th a the CLIC24 – we were 20th before the night shifts so leap frogged a lot of folk over night.

Edit: what the last two said…

What are you aiming for?
The advice will be different depending on if you're in it for a laugh and the experience or if you're in it to be as good as you can, even if it's scrapping it out for 135th place.

Do you have a team helper? If not then I'd suggest that most of your non-biking time will be spent sorting kit for your next lap, cooking etc whereas if you have a helper then s/he can do the cooking, cleaning and washing up while you eat/sleep/drink beer*

*delete as applicable

easy now dont be nickin my name 😉 i thought id entered something i hadnt then lol

Never quite got my head round the "double night laps" bit. When we've rtied this in the past our times have suffered slightly for the night laps – but were our sunday am laps better for the sleep – no idea.

We were going to try pairs last year – 2 on / 2 sleeping then swap. As it was we just kept going as a 4.

Depends on the conditions too – a double night lap in the eastnor mud takes some willpower

One lap each all through the night is a tactic I've used with teams to good success over the years. You barely need to sleep anyway, just resting for a half hour is enough, after you've cleaned your bike, fueled up, and put some fresh kit on.

Pairing up in the night just ends up with tight-legs, grogginess, and exhaustion later on due to the quick successive effort involved with doing that.

Ahhh, yes – MM virgins you said….

… Did I mention the Eastnor mud 😈

I've done both the double night laps and single and i have to say the double worked best. Last year when we did singles i didn't get any sleep and i suffered badly for it.

Definately take a helper too, in the mix up last year with the lack of time too, i only ate energy bars pretty much, which not only ruined my digestive system *cough* but left me feeling tired also.

All of this depends on the condidtion though, if its relitively dry, it will be enjoyable (relitively) 😉 but if its wet it can be hell.

Bottom line is just try to finish, thats what we do and we have a great time every year. This year we've got a few mates coming down to camp and watch too, treat it like it is in that its a time to enjoy your riding and spend some time with mates i/you/we don;t spend that much time with.

I like the event alot, just hope the weather holds off 😯

Definately take a helper too

I've no idea why, but I read that as "Definitely take a helicopter too", which is probably good advice, if a little impractical!

… Did I mention the Eastnor mud

Last year was my first time, and what a treat it was, weather was great nice and dry with a light rain to dampen things down on the Friday night all good. BUT after the 'Kenda hill' it started the Eastnor mud, the best way to think about it is, if the imagine riding over soft wet blue tack which sticks to you and your bike like Sh*t to a blanket does your be close. Get a nice set of 1.5 tyres, dirtworker, LOADS of Beer and a BBQ job done.
I remember about 2am coming in after my lap thinking next year you can forget this, but driving home on the sunday I started planning what we could do better and started putting a list together of what kit I need. Ive never been to a event where people are so friendly and the buzz on the saturday morning is outstanding!!!
Take loads of pic/video Im always watching our film we made last year as It makes me smile every time 😀 8)

Single best piece of advice is what Votchy said. before you go, make sure that all 4 of you have the same expectations and that you're all aware what they are. I've had events 'ruined' both by people throwing absolute paddys when someone missed a changeover by 10 minutes, and also the opposite, when someone was on a double lap strategy, decided he wouldn't do a double but would sleep when he should have been on his second one and then wake the next person up at the right time as if he'd ridden, only to oversleep and we missed having a rider out there for almost 4 hours.

DO NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, have anything for Sunday breakfast that contains BACON.

You are camping, so there will be a HUGE TEMPTATION to have a bacon butty or full camp fry up for brekkie.

You will be having it for seconds on the first climb, and for thirds on the second climb….

I've had events 'ruined' both by people throwing absolute paddys when someone missed a changeover by 10 minutes,

I've seen some pretty big blow ups at MM, including someone packing up and oing home in the middle of the night due to a combo of rain, mud and a late handover – although thankfully not in any team I've been in.

Don't miss your changeover.

Make sure you're all in it for the same reason (or at least happy to have a common team goal, be it drinking, finshing or winning)

Be honest with eachother from the outset.

I remember one year seeing a guy come off a lap at 3am having just turned hismelf inside out on his somme like nigth lap, carrying his bike (broken mech and hanger) only to find no one there waiting for him. "Dave? Dave? DAVE!? DAVE YOU MOOOOOTTHHHEERR F****CCKKKERR!"

I really can't wait for this years. Love it!

as you are not super competitive remember it's supposed to be fun and any plan you have can be changed up a bit.

at strathpuffer this year we went for triple laps over night!! this meant that everyone got a good old long kip (or two shorter decent ones at least) which helped seeing as we had a 12hr drive back to southampton. it also meant less changing kit; less gettign cold and less clean dry kit required.

this isn't something i'd recomend for a summer race (it will be dry at mayhem this year won;t it?) 😀

there is no right or wrong way.

we came a respectable 1/2 way throught the field at mayhem last year – just by always having a rider out. didn't miss a changeover all night. that was with a 1 lap rotation.

(it will be dry at mayhem this year won;t it?)

Yes, I believe it will be. Glastonbury is the following weekend.

HHHmm Im not sure hasnt it been wet every other year??

Don't take it so seriously. Just turn up and see what you feel like doing on the day. Bring beer.

Don't take it so seriously

This is a good point, we all took a 4 hr kip in the night and still didnt come last.

Of the years that I have done MM…. and based on fallible memory

2004 – Disastrously wet. I'd argue the worst at Eastnor
2005 – Not too bad, but some very heavy showers?
2006 – I seem to remember that this was the (only) dry and quick year
2007 – wet, but drying out & faster on Sunday
2008 – wet, but again, drying out & faster on Sunday
2009 – Dryish – but with a few big heavy showers that turned everything to gloop for a few hours – and with a very wet woods section that never dried.

The only years I didn't use mud tyres were 2004 – numpty MM virgin, and 2006

Hello team captain [waves].

Right then if I understand this correctly I need to bring everything I own that is even vaguely bike related plus a BBQ, my dirtworker, cakes, some new mud tyres, a sense of humour and definitely no bacon.

Next choices. Singlespeed or 1×9? Rigid or front sus?

Difficult one but pairing at night can be a bit of a pain if your paired with a 50 minute lap partner as it doesn;t really give you much time to do anything.

Double laps kill your overall time as you will always lose time on your second lap.

We have 2 sub 50 minute lap boys in the team and 2 that will just crack the hour based on last years course and weather. So we will get about 2 hours between our laps.

Work out your strategy once you have ridden the track once and roughly timed it.

We did SITS as a pair last year. To let my partner get some kip I did 3 laps through the night. The third lap was really tough, ran out of water and food and luckily bumped into another rider from our club who gave me some food.

As for bike choice, I would say a short travel full sus is the most common weapon of choice, that or superlight hardtails. Specialized's everywhere last year, Stumpjumpers I think.

I'll be Solo this year and riding this http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/my-new-bike-%e2%80%93-29er-niche-content
Will take my 575 as well for a bit of variety and a selection of spares.

2006 in the dry was awesome fun. Really hot, I never even put arm warmers on. Pray for that again!

Ride it singlespeed if there's even a hint of rain. Any extra time you spend getting round the course will be more than compensated by the extra rest you get from NOT having to spend 45 minutes degunking your drivetrain after each lap.

Camp by the circuit and swap riders at your campsite, not the main swap over point. Much easier.

Another vote for single laps and pairing at night – always worked best for me and based on how we fared against other teams who changed to doubles at night but had been similar paced up until that point, it does seem faster.

My big tip though is to bring the biggest tent/marquee that you can find. If it's wet, the most miserable thing is to have to get off your bike, changed and then sit in a small, cramped tent for ages until your next lap. We bought two cheap, big marquees from ebay (about £90 each and 6mx3m each) and they have been brilliant.

Stay out late, get drunk at a pub a long way from home and ride back once a week is good training for the overnight riding.

Oh, and camp a long way – sorry, a very long way, from the owners of this forum…..

Has anyone had a email saying they didnt get in???

Like many others above, we've done A B C D all way through.

We've also done AA BB CC DD at night and A B A B C D C D at night.

The best strategy for us was the last where you split into pairs and alternate laps between pair members.

Double laps was depressing!

ABCD – it's a 24 hour event, sleep deprivation is part of the fun :-/

The three lessons that have stuck with me since my first attempt at a 24 hour race are:

[list=1]
[*]No matter how tired you are after you finish a night lap, drink water before crawling into your sleeping bag.[/*]
[*]No matter how bored you are while waiting to do a night lap, eating a slice of bread shortly before riding is not a good idea.[/*]
[*]In the morning you may feel crap but you'll feel better once you're on your first daytime lap of the day. Unless you've seriously dehydrated yourself by ignoring (1) and spend the lap puking and dry retching…
[/list]

Except for the traumas implied above, the tactics of changing riders after each lap in the order 1, 2, 3, 4 but splitting into two pairs for the night and riding 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4 seemed to work for us.

I'm about to pop my cherry on this years MM, so quite keen to read and digest some of this advice 🙄

Don't enter, pay then ask for a refund as this will really **** off the organisers 😉

Not doing MM this year as I've done 12 or 13 24hr events and now retiring!

Dave are you doing MM?! Good man! whats your team name?