After a Final Mayhem, The Return of Mayhem, and Mayhem Maybe Not, there’s another twist in the plot of Mountain Mayhem.
Having officially retired in 2017 after the 20th anniversary edition of Mayhem, Singletrack Legend award winner Pat Adams left the Mountain Mayhem team to crack on with whatever would come next. Something nice and quiet like painting the toy soldiers he makes, perhaps. There was no Mayhem in 2018, but 2019 saw a new location and a successful event with a course enjoyed by many. 2020 and 2021 saw the perhaps inevitable cancellations, and it seems that the passing of time has been enough for Pat to have enough of retirement and get back in the Mayhem game.
For 2022, Mountain Mayhem returns to the 2019 venue at Marston Lodge, but it won’t be the full 24hour format yet. Here’s the press release from the new/old Mountain Mayhem crew:
PVS Events Ltd is delighted to announce that Mountain Mayhem™ will be returning to the MTB calendar this year on 18th June. However, it seems nothing is straight forward in the post-Covid world, so it’s not all that simple.
First things first, organisation of Mountain Mayhem™ is back under the watchful eye of Pat Adams & Alex McNicol of PVS Events Ltd. “Technically I’m meant to be retired now.” Pat says, “I stepped away from Mountain Mayhem after the 20th edition back in 2017, to take things a little easier. However, it turns out I’m not all that good at taking things easy. It looked like it was going to be another year without a Mountain Mayhem and that just doesn’t seem right to us. So, Alex & I have stepped in to take back control and ownership of the event & bring it back in some form this year in preparation for a full-scale return in 2023. 2023 will be the 25th anniversary of the event that changed the face of mountain biking in the UK. Surely that deserves a big celebration!”
As for 2022, as Mountain Mayhem has only recently been acquired there just isn’t the time available to organise Mountain Mayhem in its normal 24hr race format. However, what there will be is MAYHEM.25, a one-off event as the precursor to the full return of Mountain Mayhem’s silver anniversary in 2023.
So, what is MAYHEM.25? In a nutshell it’s a smaller scale event that encapsulates all the facets of the classic Mountain Mayhem events. Enough to get you all reacquainted with what a Mayhem weekend is all about; Bike racing, campsite camaraderie, a few drinks and catching up with old friends & new.
MAYHEM.25 is a 6hr XC endurance race for solo riders & pairs, held on the full Mountain Mayhem course at Marston Lodge, near Market Harborough. Alex McNicol, course designer & event director said “The course we built at Marston Lodge in 2019 went down an absolute treat with the riders. The feedback was that it was truly a great mix of trails and tracks perfectly suited for this kind of race. Plus, the Marston Lodge estate is a really stunning location and a great place to spend the weekend, so we are delighted to be back there again.”
The race will start at midday on Saturday 18th June 2022, for a healthy 6hr dose of racing. On completion, every finisher can look forward to a well-earned finishers’ beer and something to eat at our post-race shindig. Once the dust settles from the racing (fingers crossed it’ll be dusty!) and the trophies are awarded to our winners, there will be a charity raffle, music and entertainment laid on, good food and some fine ale being served, so we can all get together to reminisce about the old days and look forward to next year’s full Mountain Mayhem 24hr event.
Entries are available now at www.mountain-mayhem.com
Entry fees for MAYHEM.25
- Solo £60
- Pairs £80
- Car parking is an additional £5 per vehicle, payable to Marston Lodge on arrival. A proportion of this fee will be donated to the local air ambulance service.
