SSUK10 – UK Singlespeed Champs

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Getting the this year’s SSUK was a bit of a mission for many riders, having to track down a tiny campsite in a tiny village in the middle of South West Wales. However, those that made the effort were rewarded with a great atmosphere, great food and camping and, best of all, a fantastic course worthy of a UK Singlespeed Champs at the little-known trail centre at ‘Cwm Rhaeadr‘ near Llandovery.

Riders were treated with the traditional Le Mans start – only, whereas the usual ‘jape’ is to mix the bikes up randomly while the competitors are down the road, this year they were all neatly organised (and in the case of Singulars particularly, stacked) by colour…

Before the off...
Still time for some early disco moves. Euro sunglasses by Shimano.
Keen and/or worried racers at the start
Dr Jon's infamous 'race pants' on the short ride-out.
Top racer-bod Matt Page gives the pre-race briefing

The course itself was four laps (if you were quick) of a fantastic trail in the woods. A big climb, with plenty of pushing, weeded out the weak, but then everyone was rewarded with a beer tent near the top of the climb for refreshment, ready for the fantastic singletrack downhill that followed – nearly all freewheeling from top to bottom – only to do it all over again.

As riders drifted back to camp, the slightly showery skies cleared and the evening entertainment started – with a tug of war, a HUGE prize giving ceremony, mini bike derby and free food provided by the Dropoff café. Dancing and drinking went on well into the night…

Many shapes were thrown that evening
Stripey socks mixed in harmony with wellies and skate shoes...
Now in its 13th year - the world's best singlespeed magazine lives on in style
Phillip Diprose and Deano Taylor give it the eye of the tiger at the tug of war
The tug of war. Skate shoes were not appropriate footwear...
As tradition dictates, many, many great prizes were handed out, for all sorts of spurious reasons.
Some of the event sponsors. Oh look, there's us!

And results? Yes, there were some:

Men:

1 -Jonny Pugh

2 – Steve Web

3 – Richard Lansdowne

Women:

1 -Mel Spratt

2- Pippa Lansdowne

3 -Ivy Denham

And, as tradition dictates… everyone else came fourth. Roll on next year! (Applications to promote next year’s events are still being accepted…)

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Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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