Also, Richard Dunnett back up to 6th. Big up the flatlanders!

Brett Belchambers is another animal, only 2 laps down on overall leader and he is on a single-speed

Didn’t fancy it padkinson? After your demolition of every one last weekend I thought you’d have a punt!

Didn’t fancy it padkinson?

No bloody way. 6 hours in flat Thetford was painful enough, and besides, there’s no under 18 category.

Massive congrats to Ant White for 2nd, especially racing in elite rather than taking the easy* route and racing in vets.

*immensely downplaying the task

And the same to Richard Dunnett, who rode a storming few laps towards the end to bring himself up to 3rd, incredible ride.

Mark Deacon – MaD on STW – finished 3rd in the SS category. He’s also a little way past 40 too, 3rd best singlespeeder in the world 🙂

Craig Bowles was running happily in 3rd overall after the night laps when something went wrong….. He’s now being kept in hospital with a suspected pneumothorax – ‘collapsed lung’. In spite of which, he still did 2 or 3 more laps and managed to keep hold of the top spot in his 30-39 category.

Legendary effort, fella! Get well soon!!

yeah hearing a few people been off to A&E for a few things, more to get checked out of few things! this 24 hour racing is brutal!

Hello all. Just got back from FW, so a bit weary after the long drive, but will do a mini report and photos tomorrow if anyone is interested.

Spent the weekend between the JMC pits and Ant White’s pits, so got a good seat for the action.

Lots to say,but to sum up for now, WOW ! That was one hell of a race.

Apologies for dodgy flickr links before, I’ll rectify that tomorrow.

ToD

Was following Richard Dunnett’s ride. He was just inside top 40 when I went to bed and about 10th as I had my porridge. His last 4 laps were ~20 minutes faster each than Mark’s to get him on the podium. Very strong finish for the flatlander.

I survived. 4th in geriatric category, not that is anything to boast about.

For the first time ever I was took a geared bike to a race. Luckily good sense prevailed and the night before I lashed together a dropbar singlespeed 29er and rode that instead.

When I turned up at the start line and saw all the fit toned not so geriatrics on their megabuck superlight blinglespeeds my heart sunk a little. 🙂

I took it easy on the first lap but I did have a second thought when I arrived at the last bit of the course with its Orange Extreme sign. “Are you ready for this?” it says. Then it goes on to list all the things you need:

Full Face Helmet – nup
Body Armour – nup
Bike with suspension – nup
Advanced riding skills – nup

I loved it in daylight but it scared the poop out of me in the dark. I think I now understand why people like suspension.

My last lap was dire. For the last couple of weeks I’ve had a bit of a chest infection or some sort of lurgy (didn’t bother the doc with it, or my missus would have vetoed the race). I got an attack of the fever/shivering/drenching sweats and could barely stand – luckily I had brought a bike to lean on. The best bit was the hallucinations which added interest. (Lions disappearing into the woods – I hope it was an hallucination.)

But I survived. 🙂

It was a tough race for everyone, and congratulations to Jason English for a well deserved win (although I was really hoping our Jason would win 🙂 ). It is a great privilege to see the world’s best whip past on the same track as you.

As a an ex-Oz singlespeeder I was also happy to see an Ozzie win. His speed was phenomenal on a very SS unfriendly track. His long flowing beard must have taken tens of minutes of his times.

BTW for poetry in motion, it’s hard to beat Guy Martin. Took me a few laps to realise who he was. Very very smooth on the rough bits, and always an pleasant word.

Home now. Weak as a kitten and still shivery.

We were hoping for a Terrahawk win too! But it said over on FB that he had early mechanicals. When we went to bed last night he was at 16th. Then this morning he was 6th. He must have ridden like a machine all night.

Congrats all. I am still marvelling at how many mountainous miles (some) people can ride in 24 hours. 🙂

I was so far in front I had time to take pics 🙂

I have tried to put rider numbers in where possible.

I have also left some blurred pics in just in case the person in the pic wants it.

Feel free to help yourself to any pic for non commercial purposes.

Hi Epicyclo. Did I talk to you? I talked to almost everyone but can’t recognize anyone!
What a great time I had! Everyone so friendly and cheerful.
Race for me went very well. I started very relaxed, trying to save energy for the toughest bits of the course, eating and drinking plenty. At night never felt really fatigued or sleepy but lost tons of time trying to reach stuff in my back pockets under 3 layers of clothes. 3 times within 5 minutes the handlebar light attachment came loose and needed to reach multitool in one of those pockets, wearing gloves,etc…Also in that same lap I crashed 3 times in a row in the technical rocky bit after first big climb. Later in the morning felt so good and I was again fast. But I can’t cope with the speed Rickie Cotter rode the technical bits. We were swapping positions for the last 3 laps.
This was my first 24h finished race. I had no support but everyone cheered me up when going through pits. Tired and happy now, still in Scotland until Thursday or Friday.
Thanks to everyone involved in the event. It’s been superb!
Some things I didn’t like:
Course full of bars and gel wraps. I had to stop twice to pick up what I had accidentally dropped.
First time I had to pay for showers in an event, £1 for 3 minutes.
Bike wash free only during race time
Prize giving after race almost empty. Many medals left behind.

What bike did Guy Martin ride on?

That was eventful. 12 hours of mechanicals and a gastric rebellion (causing me to ride with a bog roll in my pocket, 2 trips to the bushes) followed by 12 hours of chasing tired riders in front. I’ve never ridden 240 miles and only finished 6th before. Well done to all who completed the race on the savage course and to Spook and Fraser for pulling it all together.

Guy was on an Orange Giro.

(Gyro?)

sarpullido – Member
Hi Epicyclo. Did I talk to you? I talked to almost everyone but can’t recognize anyone!…

No idea.

Talked to just about everyone. I’m easy to spot though – white beard, wearing a Scotland gillet, and I was on a black 29er single speed with dropbars. 🙂

terrahawk – Member
That was eventful…

Thanks for the encouragement during the race.

One of the nice things about 24 hour racing is the lack of prima donnas barging past or yelling abuse at slower riders, and if anyone is entitled to be a prima donna in 24 hour races, it’s you.

Savage is a good description for the course. 🙂

3rd in the 30-34 category. Utterly ruined my knee and had to work like a dog to stay ahead of Captain for the race.

Sitting in work feeling like crud and consuming my own body weight in coffee and ibuprophen. Cycling in was NOT a good idea.

tazzymtb – Member
Jules rider is storming along

As ever! And he had a fantastic, well deserved result.

Having seen him speed training down fire Cannock Chase trails on his Fatbike – sounds like a Chinook approaching – it’s no surprise.

Some mighty impressive racing.

Curious to know what the course route was. Looks similar to this year’s 10 Under from the photos.

It was awesome, really friendly riders giving each other lots of encouragement and so funny hearing all the different accents as the leaders passed you – they really were incredibly polite. Yesterday I never wanted to ride a bike again. Today I want to do another one. (I was the lady with the very squeaky brakes – sorry for the noise!)

Great event once again by nofuss team. Great crack on course with everyone. Some seriously nasty stuff happened to many people on the brutal course. It’s a world champs though so it’s good that the level is raised all round.

17th overall and won my age cat (limited numbers in that one mind), felt pretty solid through with no major dramas and actually for once got the eating right which makes all the difference.

Massive congrats to Ant White, what a legend and top top bloke, his last 24?! Might give the rest of us a chance now 🙂

Well that was a tough but fun (I think?!) race. Happy to come away with 9th Elite in such a competitive field. Happy for Ant to get second. I still need to sleep it off but I’ll try do a report on it soon. Good to see everyone again.

Congrats to all who made it round. What an awesome course..had a bit of everything. I was totally gutted to have to pull out after 8 hours with a recurrence of this bloody ankle injury. Shame as I was within 90 seconds of Brett Bellchambers & feeling ok. Would have been a good tussle I suspect. Oh well, stuff happens. Time to recoup over the winter & focus on Weaverville 2015 for another try at toppling the Aussies 😀

My just about gathered together thoughts are here: https://mattjonesmtb.wordpress.com/

My blog from the weekend! 😀

Here…

Blimey, that was a trip and a half 😀
Brilliant event, toughest 24 course I’ve seen yet too.
Mark got 3rd in singlespeed which I just amazing, he wasn’t too happy when we told him he had to do another 2 laps toward the end as he though he was in 5th, but then went and knocked 15 mins off his previous lap and then lapped 4th place on his last lap.
Gareth had a touch of the Fort bill belly early stages and then got going picking riders off through out the night but had to stop at 6am due to a badly pulled tendon having ridden for several hours with it until it finally let go, still finished 18th overall and would have finished inside top 10 elite if could have continued.

Thanks to No Fuss for a great event, Peter and Paul Mark’s supporters, Alex Gareth’s supporter and Stu who helped out after calling it a day after not felling it from previous the weekends race (I’m sorry I convinced you to try another lap)
And Ant White’s support from Saddle skedaddle (sorry terrible with names) for the use of the electricity to help run our heater/jet engine which kept the marquee boiling all night 😀

Roll on California next year 😉

michaelmcc – Member
My blog from the weekend!

“the guy with the beard and the strange handlebars” – that was me 🙂

awesome event.
I have raced 10s and 12s solo and 24s in teams of three and four but never solo.
flipping tough climbing course. at 6am I had completely broken after 15 laps. my support team fed me and forced me to sleep for 30mins and bullied me back out on my bike. I did not think I could make the 19laps that was the height of everest climbed at that point.
4 laps later I finished – 19 laps complete 5th in 35-39cat and 55th in the world! I need to race more 24 Solos!

Some great write ups guys. Had a brilliant, brilliant time. Obviously had some big lows, and a bit of digging deep was required on a few occasions. Well worth it though.

Here’s my write-up.

http://wp.me/s1UsVe-119th

“the guy with the beard and the strange handlebars” – that was me

Nice one haha! I hope you managed to battle on a bit longer with the deteriorating eyesight? You were struggling to see at one stage when I saw you!

michaelmcc – Member
Nice one haha! I hope you managed to battle on a bit longer with the deteriorating eyesight? You were struggling to see at one stage when I saw you!

It got even better. 🙂

I think that must have been early symptoms when you passed me because it turned into hallucinations and a fever later.

Finally some words on paper (??). Similar race to Captain, but it dropped me just one place ahead of hi,: WEMBO 24hour Worlds

Worth noting that Kim Hurst while now living in NZ was brought up racing the Welsh, then British XC series. The report on the front page almost makes her out as some kind of novice yet she’s been racing mtbs to a high standard for years.

Fun event! I managed 5th in singlespeed.

The course was good at beating the body up – especially on a rigid bike.

I felt pretty bad after 3 hours and had to back off the pace a bit – especially on the descents as my wrists were very sore. By the end I’d recovered a bit and felt like I could have kept going for a while.

Kim has also placed 2nd in the BC bike race, won the karapoti and been a general machine in NZ for quite a while now.

Newcomer to 24hr solo racing though I think? I think that is either her second or third race, 2 of which have been WEMBO champs.

Quite a few successful 12hr races under her belt though and has raced World Cup XC (including at Fort Bill!)

I’ve been looking without much success for photos of the race.

Anything other than what has been published here.

Searching on flickr only produce a few pics.

Try Anthony Pease Photography – link to FB & image set.