Anybody done a 24 hour mtb race solo and with no pit crew etc?
Fancy doing the relentless 24 solo but doubt I could convince anyone to stand around in the dark on Halloween etc.

Yup. MM24 totes solo last year as I have no friends. Suspect same this year.

Made major error in wasting loads of time brewing tea and taking loads of Cornish pasties. Won’t do either this time!!

Yup done mayhem and bonty solo quite a fee times with no crew (I don’t like people 😉 ). It takes a lot of prep (sort all your food, kit, spares etc) but it’s more than doable. Ride a HT and there’s less to go wrong.

cool.
thanks for the replies.
Do you just come off track at the start/finish line and go back to your tent?/car and fettle food and drink for the next lap and rejoin?
As above do you bother with tent. was considering just locking bike on roof and sleeping in car.

was considering just locking bike on roof and sleeping in car.

what are you considering sleeping for? It’s a 24 hour bike race, i.e. you ride your bike not sleep 😉

The ones I’ve done there has been a soloists marquee where you can lay your kit out with an entry off the main course. Others have allowed camping right next to the course so you just jump off.

cp – Member
was considering just locking bike on roof and sleeping in car.
what are you considering sleeping for? It’s a 24 hour bike race, i.e. you ride your bike not sleep

The night before. arrive Friday so already there on Saturday. if I pitch a tent to sleep in for Friday night may as well leave pitched.

having said that might to inviting at 3am 🙂

Tents are far more comfortable than cars – they’re a damn site warmer for a start. I tend to take a 5 man job tunnel tent which I can stand up in and also put up myself if needed.

Preparation preparation preparation. Have everything pre-organised and thought-through. Have flasks for hot water pre-made, have everything laid out in sections – clothes, food, water/drinks, bike bits, batteries etc… DON’T leave everything packed up in bags.

I took a little beach hut (the one you can buy for £10 in the beach shops) with me on the last Bonty 12hr night solo. got all my stuff in there.

The mistake I made – I took no blanket/sleeping bag… Nedded to go for an hour nap and I can tell you – it’s freakin’ cold at 5am when you sleep laying on wet grass, uncovered, with your torso and legs sticking out from the tiny beach tent… 😳

I’ve done a few unsupported. I always took a tent for a good nights sleep the night before – this rarely happened as I was too busy “socialising”, but the intention was there. Take ear plugs. Tent is also good for a sleep before you drive home (assuming you’re getting yourself there and back) – THIS IS IMPORTANT! You don’t want to survive the race only to die in a car 😉

During the races I always used a corner of the soloists tent – do they have that at Relentless? Don’t plan to stop and sleep – you’ll regret it – so don’t make it easy to stop and sleep. I’ve had other people’s pit crew take pity on me and make me tea.. I must have looked pathetic.

Try and work out what you actually like eating when you’re really really tired and can’t be arsed to prepare anything (and there’s no one to prepare it for you. I ended up with spaghetti hoops and creamed rice (not together) as my reliable food source. Bacon butties are great for a morale boost – there’s bound to be a van dishing those out.

i found a good way to motivate your self to keep going was yes have a tent – but take it down before the start – nothing motivates you to keep going like knowing that to have a sleep you have to assemble the tent….and that takes time so a simple nap takes 30 minutes prep or more when your in the doldrums at 3am. so it seems easier to keep going on the bike :d

Keep wrapped up with a fresh set of dry clothes in the small hours.
Also after the race, get to the dunnies before they shut them!!

I had a very terrifying half hour post race where my body functions reactivated and all the loos were locked!!!

I’ve only done the one so I’m no guru… but we had a team running as well. I went to the team camp 3 times for proper meals. I could just of easily popped to the food tent. So for me at that race support didn’t make any odds.

I think I drove home too.