We did all of them for a while right from the start. It became a big club thing, we had 2 teams, helpers, borrowed a van and a huge tent, was a good club weekend away and our team was actually reasonably good, we got onto the podium once and were top 10 on a few other occasions.
I remember riding a full lap of Sandwell with Ned Overend. I remember the Elite teams like Raleigh and Scott that used to thrash it out for the big (several thousand £) prize fund. Was great.
And then it became harder and harder each year to get a team as riders dropped out, family got in the way, people had been there/done that and the atmosphere changed a bit, became less XC race and more dominated by the groups of lads out for a weekend piss up with a bit of bike riding and then other events came along – Sleepless in the Saddle, 24/12, Dusk til Dawn, other formats like solo & pairs and it became more difficult to justify yet another weekend away and the weather was often shit.
I tried it solo one year (Eastnor) and called it a night at about 9pm when the heavens opened. Managed 2 more laps late morning once the course had dried out a bit but the course had taken one hell of a battering, it was torrential for a while. And I realised that I simply didn’t care.
I pit crewed a couple of others but the love had gone and I’ve not missed it since packing it in.
I think one thing to say though – Pat Adams changed the face of MTB racing in the UK. He had his detractors, people said it would never work and every year there was the usual shite about the course not being technical enough, blah blah. But every year, Pat pulled it out of the bag and his tireless work in that needs to be recognised. Thank you Pat for all of those years and for kickstarting a revolution in bike racing.