Isle of Man End to End. A fat bike story.

For me it all started back in 2009 and then in 2010, but for the Isle of Man and its now annual End2End mountain bike event/race it started back in 1996 with just a handfull of local riders. Now fast forward to last but one weekend’s event that had 1,700 entrants.

After the event in 2010, the very rough ferry crossing back to Liverpool was enough to put me off going back ever again, I missed 2011 but in 2012 I had a new bike to test myself on and an itch to scratch even if it was just to see if my fitness had improved enough from 2009 when I finished in 3hrs 45mins and in 2010 in 3hrs 36mins on a much lighter race bike. This year I planned to do it a little bit differently and to do it on my 40lb Salsa Mukluk Fat bike and aim to finish in the gold medal position as I did in the past of finishing under four hours. Nick Craig, the perennial winner finishes every year in under three hours but some riders don’t even make the seven hour cut off time. What more of an excuse do you need to get out on your bike and train throughout the wettest summer on record?

On a personal note I lost my Mum to Alzheimer’s a month after the event in 2009. Having never done anything for charity in the past I thought I’d do it on the Fat Bike and collect for the Alzheimer’s Society, but as I hate charity and I’m a salesman I thought I’d make it a bit different. I divided up my possible finishing time slots into 200 and selling these slots at a fiver each, calling on some favours from the likes of my boss Paul, Richie at Silverfish and some guy called Chipps from a cycling magazine called Singletrack, I even put up £50 myself making a prize pot of £800 to give away with the aim to raise £1000. In the end I raised over £1240. Have a look at the link below https://www.justgiving.com/JohnClimber

So, how did this year’s event/race go this year?
The day started bright but very windy even down at sea level, with the clouds heading straight over us from the direction we were about to start riding into at a very high pace and with rain forecasted for after lunch and a 10am start only the quickest riders would be staying dry.
The rumour mill beforehand was correct in saying there were a couple of extra miles and another really big climb thrown in right before the very first summit which scuppered any plans for a record breaking time.
The start was very well organised with anyone pushing to the front having their legs scratched to pieces with 2ft high gorse bushes lining the sides of the trail. 10am came and went as the seeded riders at the front crossed the start line, I passed over the timing mat mid pack a couple of minutes later but the pace soon picked up and the overtaking started until several of us started working in a small group along the fast road section. Unfortunately because of the incessant head wind the first 13 miles on tarmac took 10 minutes longer than I’d done it previously and by the time I got to the top of the first hill I soon realised my targeted finishing time of under four hours would be impossible without an engine. I decided to sit back and pace myself and I started to enjoy the ride.
A new techie section was spoilt by roadie riders who where blocking the trail by pushing down the easy bits, but this only held me up for a minute whereas for those at the back there was a 20 minute wait to get to this section.

Should you do it?
If you like events like the MTB Marathon Series, if you’re competitive and like a challenge then this event is definitely for you. If you like downhill-tech trails then it isn’t. Next year’s event is already planned for Sunday September 8th, 2013. http://www.manxe2e.org/

So how did I do?
Well out of 1689 riders on the day I came in what I’d like to think was a respectable position of 59th in a time of 4hours 10mins 38secs, but in my own mind allowing for the headwind, extra climb and mileage and the fact that the winner this year took an extra 18 minutes I’m claiming that I did it in under four hours. Sean (SilverScoob) was the winner of the time slot finishing time prize who is a fellow Woollyback rider from our local club. Congratulations Sean.