Some of you probably saw me, long hair and beard riding a Lynskey.

You’re Spanish right? Did you ride Beastway earlier this year? I was camped opposite you in the solo area – and also rode Beastway. Bad luck on the DNF.

Yes,Kryton57, I am. I did 6 rounds of the Beastway this year. Loved them!
Congrats for your first 24 solo

My second year at this event and I just love it. So much going on and a great atmosphere, which is something events like Mayhem could learn from. Can’t wait until next year.

About as good an event as it gets tbh.. Only grip is the food van, why is there ALWAYS and issue when you go up. Oh sorry ran out, ah sorry waters not hot, ah sorry not ready. Wont ever be having my money again.
And really looking forward to next year 🙂

That cottage descent was great fun! Just pinging off the rocks all the way down.

+1 😀

The highlight for me was riding the sunrise lap. It was my turn to do a lap at that time and the sky was amazing going up over the fist climb/field.

+1 😀

Only grip is the food van

+1 🙁 I want to like them, really I do, but the food is often lukewarm, the service slow, and they’re not cheap. Had a baked potato with chili (six quid) at quarter to one (they weren’t ready at midday (lunch at noon? Who would have thought people would be hungry at that time of day?), “come back at half past”, and weren’t quite ready at half past either), and the chili wasn’t hot enough to melt the sprinkling of cheese I put on top. Sad thing is, I bet it would have been lush if it had been served piping hot.

Pretty much my only gripe from an otherwise fantastic weekend. Amazing how quick the memory of midnight despair floats away. 🙂

+1 food van, after finishing 12hr pairs & needing some half decent food & a cold coke all they had were bacon sandwiches & red bull not exactly what I was wanting.

Just got back this afternoon. Made the most of the extra nights camping with an afternoon at the local pub. Poured with rain last night for a while as well. Think I got 9th in the 12 hour solo vets,but need to see timelaps to be sure. Did 14 laps and my last one was mtpy quickest! Thanks for the support around the course, especially the kids who seemed to be having a great time.

Another ace 24/12. It is a real shame about the braking bumps, imho newnham is a little bit more fun to ride when it is just a bit wet, but then i suppose i seem to suffer less in the wet than others, and my tiny roadie t-rex forearms just couldn’t cope with the 2 worst braking-bumpy bits by about lap 10. I blame the enduro they had there a month or so ago as it was already quite lumpy 10 minutes after the course opened for practice on friday. Also amused to see that despite the proliferation of 170mm enduro-sleds at the enduro, there were some really excellent strava times for the cottage descent set by whippets on 80mm forked hardtails this weekend. 😆

Once you got braking bumps, they’re there to stay – even grading don’t seem to shift em. Make the track wider where they turn up and you can pick a line. 🙂 Thought they were rough by the end, but not outrageously so.

Mind you, my shoulders ain’t half sore today! 🙂

I am so glad someone else mentioned the food tent. I thought I was just being grumpy and Jockish but the service was somewhat mediocre and I thought the pricing was outrageous. I had planned to buy my Saturday night meal but could not bring myself to part with £7 to eat a lasagne with a plastic fork.

Dogsby

The food was poor, as it was last year. Previous events had Quaver doing it – great choice, good service & always open. It’s a shame because with that sorted (and maybe a few more showers) it’d be perfect.

I am so glad someone else mentioned the food tent

I didn’t want to mention it in case I was the only one who thought it was a bit crap!
The stuff they were selling was stupidly over-priced and not exactly great quality. After grabbing something Friday evening after we arrived, we made a trip down to the supermarket the next day to grab some supplies rather than having to eat on site for the rest of the weekend.
Probably the only problem about the whole weekend.

Great weekend. Managed one out of three on the high five, and very excited he seemed too!
The oggy oggy oggy kids were pretty excited too. Food choice was poor, I thought they were better last year?

Completely agree, cracking event.. I did Ventoux the week before in 37degree heat so was kind of acclimatised.. still bloody hot though.

loved the course, tough if you pushed hard especially the firat couple of miles, very pleased with our 11th in male pairs 12 hours.

kids were brilliant with cheers, water pistols and high 5’s!

I can’t agree more about the food, utterly useless, no eggs for the egg and bacon sandwich, Mrs Bedds asked for a pulled pork roll as advertised at 6, told that it wouldn’t be ready for another four hours!! Bring back Wilfs/Quavers for selection, price and seating!

We will be back nezt year though 🙂

Great event as usual. I took my kids for the first time and they loved it – especially my 5 year old daughter who was counting the amount of smiles she could get with her cowbell just after the road crossing. So thanks to everyone who gave her a smile/wave/stuck their tongues out! I did promise her £10 if she could get any of the Torq riders to smile but knew my money was safe 😉

Fantastic event as always, weather was great but awful at th same time, really struggled with the heat on Saturday, drank over 4 litres on Sat afternoon and still didn’t pee till 9pm!

Braking bumps in the woods were getting a bit big but it adds to the fun the course evolving through the race like that, and it was a great course this year, loved it!

Managed 14 laps, it hurt, and I’m sure I could have done more if it hadn’t been so hot but I’m pretty pleased with that anyway!

Also managed to get my Bonty signed by Mr B himself so I’m well chuffed 🙂

Some of you probably saw me, long hair and beard riding a Lynskey.

Real shame you DNF. I was SOLO and we spoke for abit along some single track you mentioned your knee then – it was dark, you were spanish (?), you had an awesome beard and I was knacked (thats all I can remember!). Well my beard came off this morning as you put mine to shame! 😮

No – not our kids. I thought it a touch risky. Sorry if that makes me a grump!
Just seemed that that spot was a bit quick.

I managed all 3! Though, I had stopped at my stash of food & drink situated under the tree they were stood by!

I did promise her £10 if she could get any of the Torq riders to smile but knew my money was safe

Now THAT’S funny. 🙂 They certainly make going fast look no fun. 🙂

It was unfortunate about the service with the Luff Bus. Normally they’re great, especially when the owner, Ian, is there. On this occasion he wasn’t there for some reason, and the crew he had running it couldn’t seem to tell their arses from their elbows.
I also thought the pricing was not bad, as long as you were careful what you bought. For example, £5.50 for a massive home-made burger with all the bacon you could want on it (plus salad and cheese) is not bad at all. I had chilli on the Saturday evening, and although £7 was pretty pricey, it was really nice.
Of course it’s going to be more expensive than a supermarket/maccy dees/gregs etc. but you’re paying for the convenience of having hot tasty food served to you on site. It’s a shame the service wasn’t great this time, but they’re at pretty much every event down here in the south-west, and they’re normally spot-on.

I have no connection with the company, but I just feel it’s a bit unfair that they seem to be getting a panning, and called rip-off merchants, where they’re actually pretty fairly priced for what you get.

Some of you probably saw me, long hair and beard riding a Lynskey.

Hi Javi, we were the guys next to you with the exploding tent and the bastardised Ragley Ti – was great to meet you and nice to see another ti bike out there. Maybe see you next year, same place same time, but we both finish, yeah?

I had a bloody awful race. I don’t do heat very well and after five laps or so (24 solo) I felt like a car with a broken radiator and a constantly rising temperature gauge despite drinking loads. I was getting a mix of nausea and headaches plus disorientation, which turned out to be not so good for line choice, so reluctantly canned it after six laps, definitely the right decision for me. Early symptoms of heat exhaustion basically.

A real shame as it was a great event as ever and I was really enjoying the riding. I never thought I’d have been wishing for rain at a 24-hour race, but there you go. Still felt rough on Monday morning. On the plus side, I don’t have to spend six weeks recovering again, so I can go ride something else, something cool maybe with lots of big rocks 🙂

Gotta say, it’s not the first event I’ve been to where they weren’t my favourite bit of it. I say again, I want to like them, I love the ethos and the menu and the funky bus – but lukewarm food and queues do not a happy customer make, especially at premium prices. To be fair, without exception, everyone I’ve ever spoken to on the other side of the counter has been lovely.

The folks Mayhem use have it sorted – loads of people at the counter and the food looks, feels and tastes like it’s straight out of the pan. Might not have the charisma, but at the end of a long night stint, I just want hot food fast.

+1 on the catering being rubbish.

They did it last year and we were told to build our own burger on the Friday as that was all that was available. We asked about pasta and/or jacket spuds and was told there might be some later….we hot footed it to Sainsburys after that to stock up for the rest of the weekend.

We had a quick look at the offerings this year and decided to do the same thing again.
My team mate bought dinner on the Sat evening; £7 for chilli and rice! Eek! Really?!
I bought two coffees on the Sun morning. There was no queue and it took almost 10 mins to do them both…the bloke in charge of the coffee machine seemed more interested in eating his bacon and egg roll.

Quaver were much better. More staff, more choice of everything, better pricing….
Perhaps The Luff Bus are ok for a hippy festival or something (that is the vibe I get from them) but not for this type of event…

I thought the luff bus was ok really, and although i concur with the ‘festival’ vibe i thought they seemed a lot better organised/set up than last year or other events in which i encountered them. And fwiw i did spot Luffy a couple of times. You can also buy booze from them which was never the case for quaver iirc.
Sure i am biased as a couple of friends work for them and they are one of my favourite lbs’s, but Rockets and Rascals also did cheap but great coffee very quickly and had far better music in their tent.

I would also like to add my warmest thanks to whichever family/team it was camped trackside right at the far end of the main field, no matter what time if the day or night it was, however fast or painfully slow i was going and every lap without fail they had something really nice and supportive to say. Best cheerer-onners ever!

And my wife said the tea ladies in the shooting ground were just lovely. (She was in a bit less of a hurry than me and had much free tea and cake out of them over a few laps) If you only did the 12 hour event you missed out!

[edit] oh and i say it every year, but Matt Carr is still very funny and great commentator/compere.

Second that the tent at the end were so nice cheering us on and spraying us with water! The heat just took absolutely everything out of you and solo-ing was really very hard, after about 6 hours I spent the whole time in constant pain as well so at times was all I could do to point the front wheel. Would like to say a huge thanks to the person who picked me up on the Cottage Descent after I threw myself off in front of him and rode with me to the end! – it sounded and probably looked much worse than it was! Also the RAF man who chased after one of the very twitchy riders down there who almost had me off with some bad overtaking and made him apologise!! But especially my OH who stood in the sun mostly as no shade (or only a black gazebo)! waiting patiently for me to come in and was the best supporter ever! 1st time we have been and we loved it.

The event was brilliant as usual. First 12 hr solo. Spent the whole day trying to stave off cramp. Could not get liquid in my body quickly enough to replace the stuff pouring out as sweat. The people supporting were all brilliant and loved the kids chucking nice cold water over the riders.

Agree with the food, I REALLY want to like them as they were all so pleasant, but, it’s not rocket science…

The race finished at 12, cue a lot of hungry people heading for the bus. No food ready. Surely the benefit of a 12hr race is the predictability of your customers. I was so desperate I paid for cold lasagne. Seriously, get a watch, at 11:30 stick a load of burgers on and warm the lasagne.

Timelaps now seems to be up and running. Although for some reason they’ve not split the solo results for the vets category, it usually is as it’s listed as a separate entry.

Total China Syndrome on my part. 7 laps in and it started going a bit pearshaped – 9th lap in (7hrs) and I had to pull the plug. Heart rate at resting 130bpm, and would max at 145bpm …. and I hadn’t pee’d in that 7 hours. Game, over.

Sat down in the shade with a beer and talked with my pit, realised I was not right and pulled out. First 24 solo I’ve not finished. Sad, but not that bad as I’d been sick for 4 weeks before hand and only had 9 days back on the bike before the race. Oh well, roll on the worlds.

Well done to Chris, ace result from his first Solo.

Also hello to whoever said hi to me twice when I was totally f**ked. I’ve no idea who you are. I was not in a great place at that stage

Ace weekend for the Team/Supported riders. With a 1st in 12hr pairs and 3rd in 12 hr solo.
Very luck to have a such a great bunch of riders.

What a great event! My 2nd time at Bontrager and it gets better. The course was spot on, with just the right amount of climbing and plenty of fun bits to break it up.

The atmosphere was great too – and a huge thanks to everyone shouting ‘SUMO’ to us fatties. Dragging that thing around was pretty tough at times, and keeping hydrated a real problem. I had to stop late afternoon for a bit of a lie down in the sumo disco tent but got going again, and managed to plod around 7 laps in the end.

Again, if it wasn’t for all the amazing support I don’t think I’d have made the 12 hours. Best bit was lurking at the top of the final decent at midnight with a cold cider, watching the fireworks, and knowing it was just a roll down the hill to finish 😀

The marshalls were excellent, especially teh ones at the top of the first climb who shared banter every lap. And even the Torq racers were having a laugh with us as they fired past!

Another good bit was after finishing, sitting in our disco tent and heckling all the 24 hourers on whilst drinking cider, until I finally faded away about 4am. Then reapeat from 8am when I came round!

Kudos to our man Rich who did the 24 in his sumo suit too. I think he managed about 13 laps!

Edit – just checked and I came 66 out of 94 12hr solos – very sorry to anyone I beat! 😳

Hi Javi, we were the guys next to you with the exploding tent and the bastardised Ragley Ti – was great to meet you and nice to see another ti bike out there. Maybe see you next year, same place same time, but we both finish, yeah?

Hi Jon, nice to meet you! Yes, it was hot out there. Fortunately not too hot for me. Now you’re lucky you can ride your bike. See you next time.

Real shame you DNF. I was SOLO and we spoke for abit along some single track you mentioned your knee then – it was dark, you were spanish (?), you had an awesome beard and I was knacked (thats all I can remember!). Well my beard came off this morning as you put mine to shame!

Hahha!! It’s just there, a bit messy but not an awesome beard. Some people want to get the scissors and have some fun…maybe next race I have a moustache instead eheh.
I mentioned to a few who asked about my knee hoping i’t be better and could carry on. I don’t like moaning too much. Never mind, next time won’t happen again.

Oh, I forgot to mention how helpful the guys at Cycle Surgery were when I discovered on Friday afternoon that the bearings in the brand new Hope BB on my bike had collapsed. They had a man in a van arriving that evening and they got him to collect a new GXP BB for me and fitted it on Saturday morning in time for me to be able to start at noon. Thanks guys.

There did seem to be a lot of photographers about, if anyone comes across links to pics please post them up here!

There did seem to be a lot of photographers about, if anyone comes across links to pics please post them up here!

+1000001

Some photo’s here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinsheldrake/

And here:

http://www.davehayward.com

Hi Jon, nice to meet you! Yes, it was hot out there. Fortunately not too hot for me. Now you’re lucky you can ride your bike. See you next time.

Yep, not spending six weeks recovering is a bit of a bonus / silver lining scenario. I particularly enjoyed your assertion that beards helped with temperature control btw. I am growing mine now in readiness for next year… it may take a while 🙂

What a great race! Best 24 that i’ve done so far. Fab course and great atmosphere. Loved the supersoakers! Too hot though. I really felt it. A big thanks to a very lovely bloke called Alan who stayed with me for 15 minutes when I was feeling properly sick by the beginning of the cottage return at about 10.30pm.

I’m really very chuffed indeed with winning my first solo 24 (vet female) I may be back….

Need to know how to get in touch with this dude

https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinsheldrake/

As he has a few pics of me 🙂

Monkeychild – contact

A big thanks to a very lovely bloke called Alan who stayed with me for 15 minutes when I was feeling properly sick by the beginning of the cottage return at about 10.30pm.

I’m really very chuffed indeed with winning my first solo 24 (vet female) I may be back….

Well done! I’ll pass on the thanks.. Al was on our team taking part in his first race (Simon – Sarah’s friend, randomly cheering you through the campsite 😉 ).

Also hello to whoever said hi to me twice when I was totally f**ked. I’ve no idea who you are. I was not in a great place at that stage

That was me I think. At the bombholes? I was still feeling alright then, a few laps later 2 weeks in the highlands and a serious lack of sleep in the week between that and the race all caught up with me at once and I went back to the pits, sat down and fell asleep. Not impressed, had hoped to make 200miles this year! I basically just recognised the bike and thought I’d say hi!

Hugely enjoyed the race, nice to do it in the dust rather than the mud! Highlight for me was riding through the camp with a massive ham roll waving it at everyone and getting cheered in return. Crowds in general were just fantastic.

And, as always, enormous respect due to the sumos

That was me I think. At the bombholes?

Possibly…. I was cramping quite badly at that stage I think. Anyway, HI! 🙂