SITS was won fair and square by a newbie 24hr person, don't take anything away from them – they did nearly was many laps (only 2 less) than our 4 person girlie team. That's a mighty fine effort. Had certain other people been fit or had entered, perhaps he wouldn't have won, perhaps he would. 24hrs is a long race.

James, it is very frustrating when you put in a lot of training to gain a small advantage only to have your team throw it away by not being there on time. Hence the rant, which was unacceptable, sorry for the expletives. I've apologised to a lot of people about it.

We do take the event seriously – we are there to get on the podium. A 24hr race is has a big effect on training for XC races – so we do not do them lightly. I'm not going to beast myself for 24hrs for no good reason. This is not to say we don't enjoy them – Mayhem and SITS are among the best weekends of my year, and have been for the last 9 years. It was great to see so many first timers and people doing it for charity, stag do's, birthdays and the like this year; this really made the event have a fun atmosphere. However, please don't tell me we are not allowed to take it seriously.

GB

"I'll wager that could be won a cross bike pretty easily…."

If you think finishing a 24, let alone winning is it is easy then you're an idiot. These are tough.

I did win it solo, on a light 29er, but I also came 2nd at 24/12 on the same bike, a supposedly much techier course that was won by a team on 29ers. Dave Powell was going similarly fast on his 29er and terrahawk who came 3rd. These are good technical riders and one does well solo by riding efficiently and keeping speed, this requires skill no matter how "easy" the corners are. After 8 laps, looking at the overall pace, I was about level with the team that finished 20th overall (including all teams, mixed and pairs). That is not easy. The fact there were fewer drop offs and corners does not make this "easier" to win, it just makes the bike speed faster!

There are only three "big" 24hr races in the summer, and Strathpuffer in January, with so few podium spots available, I'd say anyone going top 5 was pretty damn 'core and has achieved something massive. Yes, not "everyone" was there, but it's impossible to do all of the events solo if you want to compete at the sharp end as your body just can't recover as all 3 come in pretty quick succession, hence there were 8 riders taking the 9 availabe spots, only Any White popped up twice.

I should add that, in my opinion, having an "easy" course makes solo tougher as more concentration is required as there's less in the trail to attack and keep you focussed in some sections or just to really look forward to. I was warned by my pit, who pre-rode the course, that finishing would be hard. Lots of time in the saddle pedalling per lap too, which made it really tough on the body and hard to eat (as I didn't stop, bar one 3min off the bike interval for a quick trackside leg rub at 4am)

I suspect that a lot of the perception of it being "easy" was due to the lack of speed one could carry through the twisties due to the sticky mud everywhere. That course in the dry may have been a lot less "easy".

Standing on one leg staring at a wall for 24hrs would be even tougher and require more concentration 😉

I was the "newbie"

I did do the 3rd fastest SDD earlier in the year, under 20hrs, oh and came 2nd in TwentyFour12 open Teams (winning the Masters sub-cat), 2nd at D2D in pairs last year and 3rd in the South Downs MaXx Exposure, all reasonably big events, I just haven't done "self publicity".

Of course if "certain other" people had been there they could have won, but this is true of EVERY race. You just can't have everyone doing every race.

There were a good few "names" on the start list: James Leavsely was there, he came 3rd at Mayhem, Rod Mason entered, he came 4th at Mayhem, Jason Miles was there, he came 5th at Mayhem, Dave Buchannan was there of the IronHorse Extreme Team, just done Welsh C2C in under 24hrs, Dave Powell of Ragley (formerly on-one) was there, Ed Toogood of Whyte Bikes was there. Just who did you have in mind? Just because Matt Page or Ant White didn't race doesn't make it easy. I've been training for this for over a year, building through shorter events (see above), this was not beginners luck, many hundreds of hours of prep and an amazing pit from Exposure who provided my lights got me to the top of the podium.

Ian Leitch was there, he was my pit crew! So that's a testament to how serious my attempt at a win was, I lined up at the start with a podium, and hopefully a win in mind no matter who was there.

And you can only race who turns up on the day!

I've now done three solo 24's and for me it's not just a case of getting the miles in and turning up. You have a lot to get right from a bike that will last 24 hours continuous riding, endurance training, handling the mental side, nutrition to technical skill. Yes, even on an "easy" course your technical skill will allow you to save energy thru sections and keep your speed up, both IMO important aspects of a 24 hour solo.

I am well impressed with everyone who gets a top finish and if anyone thinks it's easy but hasn't done it…enter MM next year, get a top 10 placing and prove me wrong 😉

hmmmm, maybe I got a little over excited there, but I hope my (over?) reaction can be understood due to the amount of effort both before and during the race to achieve what really is a dream come true, and getting a solo 24 win.

Hell, even winning a small local race is never EVER easy!

Rob – I was spectating for a couple of hours and was amazed when you went off so fast. I expected you to blow up at some point but glad you didn't !!!!

As for "There were a good few "names" on the start list" you're now well and truly one of the "names"

Cheers Dave. I was glad I didn't blow up too! It was a bit brutal at the head of affairs with everyone going hammer and tongs to break the others and get a lap. It was very very exciting, nail biting even as the gaps opened and closed and positions were swapped. I didn't realise it would be so much fun! One second it was the start of the race and the next minute, still out the saddle attacking the climbs, it was night time!

My first 8 laps were:
00:44:19
00:41:46
00:42:52
00:44:12
00:45:04
00:47:44
00:46:49
00:47:48

Whilst the course may not have been electric, the racing was. What a lot of fun! It'll be a while before I've recovered, not sure I'll be 100% for the Kielder 100, which will be annoying, I've been told 6-8 weeks to be back to anything near 100%, crikey!

Rob you don't need to justify yourself, you did a brilliant race. If anyone thinks they could win "easily" then they should enter and see just how easy it is.

Yes, it's not the most technical of courses, but there is also nowhere on the course you can rest, it is really hard work, you had to pedal a lot of the downhills as well in those conditions. Add on to that that you get so tired that the trees are jumping out at you and you can't tell your left from your right any more and just keeping going is all you can do. So to win that is a tremendous acheivement. Well done Rob.

It was a great rode by Rob, we only got two lap times below 50 minutes (neither me)which I have done regularly in previous years.

I rode a 29'er for the first three laps and my chain snapped twice on second lap and again on the thirrd so I switched to my ss.

There was a couple of flat sections in the mud where I only just kept going on the ss, feeling a twinge in my leg on one of them. Went to an ostepoath yesterday and I have damaged a muscle in my calf!

Thanks people, glad it wasn't just me that thought it was really quite hard and yet quite a lot of fun to race for 24hrs!

Oof ouch, Blackhound, riding a SS around the tacky leg emptying sections is truly heroic. Recover quick and recover strong 😉

I daren't go to get looked at – I'm feeling pretty messed up from head to toe. Still, I'm hugely looking forward to tearing it up at the BrightonBigDog tomorrow, the course is utterly stunning, standout course of the season for me. For those people that will be at the sharp end the prize fund is bonkers too!

Easy? Easy my arse. I’m not a bad rider but I couldn’t compete with Terrahawk/Twinklydave for an hour (I know, I’ve tried), let alone 24. I’ve an idea how much effort goes into the training and competing at these things, and anybody who tries to take away from the achievement of those who did well at the weekend is a prick.

Rob – you rode an excellent race. Well done. Don't let any of this lot put you down, as you say 24 solos are mind-bendingly hard at the front of the field (and I've only ever done 2).

Anybody who thinks it is easy should try it. It was my first solo and must admit it was hard work physically and menatlly. It's the little things that become hard, I had an hours sleep in the night and decided to put some clean shorts on before I went back out, I had three pairs with me and got them all out and found I was totally incapable of making a decision on which pair to wear.

Well done to Rob onb the win, I reckon he must have had a mortorbike stashed somewhere on course though…