The Hardest Race You’ve Never Heard Of Is Going Past Your Door Right Now

The Great British Divide – something you’ve probably never heard of until about… now – is a 2200km off-road mountain bike race that’s going on right now. There are people on bikes at the moment, racing to the end, and there will be people racing when you get up.

Catching the Race Leader

The Great British Divide started in Kent on Saturday, July 31st at 10am. By Wednesday lunchtime, the current leader, Chris Hinds had crossed over the halfway point… 1100km deep. And as this happened to be just up the hill from Singletrackworld’s home town of Todmorden, it made sense to try to catch him on the trail.

By following the very accurate live mapping, I was able to intercept Chris Hinds, the leader and ride with him for a few miles of our local trails. He was in remarkably good spirits and had been moved by the number of random people trailside who seemed to know who he was and who cheered him on.

Half Way

After we got down to the canal, Chris made a(n allowable) detour into Hebden Bridge, where he emerged with three different sorts of juice, an Irn Bru (he’s Scottish, he reckoned that finding Irn Bru in shops was a sign he was getting further north), some sort of all-day breakfast sandwich and the last jam doughnut in the shop. Oh, and an ice cream. He was immediately accosted by a spritely 73-year-old local boy who wanted to know all about his route and his bike, which Chris cheerily regaled him with before making his excuses to ride back up the canal and rejoin the route.

The Great British Divide route itself is a mostly off-road loop of the UK, starting in Kent and traversing the Kent Weald and the South Downs before the New Forest, up to Bath and Chepstow before doing a long arc through the lumpy bits of Wales before re-entering England in time to ride Jacob’s Ladder and the entire Pennine Bridleway, which is where our story began. This is only the halfway point, though, as the riders then head up the spine of England before heading to Peebles, Edinburgh and Glasgow. At which point they knock out the 100miles of the West Highland Way, over to Skye from Fort William before finally riding over the Bealach na Bà pass to finish in Applecross, after over 2200km. Phew! (Chris pointed out that if you’re getting the train back home, you then have to ride back over the Bealach na Bà in order to get to the train station…)

It’s another one of those races that a very small world knows a lot about and the rest of us are oblivious of, occasionally seeing a tired-looking rider on a trail, complete with bike bags and a bag of Haribo.

24-Hour Saviour

It seemed only fair to try to catch the second place rider, Donnacha Cassidy, who came through town 12 hours later. By then the conditions had changed and the sunny skies had turned to slick, wet rain. Donnacha appeared about 11pm and apparently hadn’t seen anyone since leaving Hayfield. It seems that every rider has found this section super hard and he was no different. While not as cheery as Chris, he was still pressing on and had a plan that involved the shortest possible detour to the all-night garage in town before finding the car park by the local fishing pond, flattening a few nettles and turning in for a few hours. He was gone again at first light.

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It’s Not All Plain Sailing

I just missed third place Niel Copeland, 24 hours later, who ducked into town and checked into a hotel for the Thursday night after filling himself with three courses of Wetherspoons’ finest. The following morning (we’re on Friday now) we did spot Rob Gardiner as the Great British Divide course crosses the main road here. Despite having his bike and all his gear stolen in Newport, he’s in an impressive fourth place on a borrowed bike. While he admitted that the previously bumpy 90km had taken its toll on his hands, he was keen to keep moving and head on to the smoother trails as they head up to the next checkpoint – which happens to be at the Dales Mountain Bike Centre, in the middle of the Ard Rock festival this weekend.

While some riders have had to retire due to fatigue, illness, injuries or just the endless rain, there are still a load still soldiering on. And the slower riders will be taking a couple of weeks to complete the route – something the leader Chris Hinds was in awe of – the only reason he reckoned he was riding so fast was to get it over with as quickly as possible and enjoy the rest of the time he’d booked off work.

So, have a look at the map. Thanks to the winding, mostly off-road route, it probably goes close to many Singletrackers’ houses. Have a watch and if you get a chance to put a face to a moving dot on the map, do so. They’re out there in all weathers while we’re all indoors staring at our computers and wondering why we’re not fitter… Get out and cheer and get a bit of inspiration going!

Sunday Update: Since writing this, I’ve seen a couple more riders coming through town, and watched the dots on many others. The weather has been awful here since Wednesday night and riders have been coming through soaked, but usually still very cheery, like Stevan who came through on Saturday night. Luckily, the Hebden Hostel was just still open and he managed to snag a room (and a radiator…) for the night… Many riders have understandably scratched, but many are soldiering on. Epic mountain biking at its epicest, in the worst of summer weather…

Monday Update: The news on Sunday lunchtime was that the course had been shortened due to the relentless weather conditions and its affect on the course. The new finish is now Fort William, just shy of 1900km from the start. And Chris Hinds duly showed up on Sunday night to take the first ever finish of the Great British Divide in under nine days of riding. Other riders are still on course, so keep tabs at: https://greatbritishdivide2021.maprogress.com

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