One Lap
One rider
One adventure
One hundred miles
So the flyers said. I saw the buzz of interest on forums and the event certainly had an attraction, the first 100 mile MTB race in this country and not too far from home too. I certainly never felt I would be fit enough to give it a shot and have been taking evrything one step at a time this year. Nigel however was showing quite an interest and so I promised I would enter with him if I survived SITS. I did so had little choice but to get signed up, sure that it would hurt.
Training was almost non-existant, for two weeks after SITS I barely looked at my bike let alone rode it. The next few weeks saw some rides but nothing approaching the size of the event. The constant rain falling in the North made Summer riding more like Winter and motivation which should of been bursting through somewhat jaded. A steady pace and underlying base fitness would hopefully see us through.
We headed up to the Youth Hostel at Kielder on Friday afternoon where we met up with Chris and Pat who were riding and Nick who was along for support. The weather was looking favourable, bikes unpacked and all signed on we were physically all set but mentally along with many others I wager wondering what we had let ourselves in for. We had barely slept when the 4.30am alarm woke us, Nigel and myself had a date with a full english breakfast at the cafe.
Fed and then changed we headed for the start line with the other 200 riders and awaited our fate. Just a few minutes after 6.30am we were off, a good stretch of fire road behind the lead car gave a decent steady warm up as the sun crept over the tree tops. Once the car split off the pack spread out, we were quite happy to sit mid-pack and keep to a decent average speed rather than burn out. The first 25 miles were a great mix of trails and we made good progress to the first food stop. The trails were a mixture of surfaces, some plain hard work and some sections of the fire roads very quick.
Nigel started to suffer chain suck with the Kielder grit playing havoc with drive trains and brake pads. He also suffered a puncture but soon after it was my turn to anger the trail gods and around 40 miles I suffered a loose left hand crank arm. We had bumped into Chris at a crossing point when it happened, at first I thought it just needed nipping up but it turned out to be a more serious issue. The insert in the carbon arm had come away at the bottom bracket leaving me heading for retirement until Nick offered me the loan of Chris’s Specialized Enduro which he just happened to be on. After back tracking to the trackside mechanic to swap the pedals we were back in action on a burly all mountain steed
With time lost and no GPS showing average speed we plodded along as best we could, it was hard going now with some demoralising sections but also some amusing parts such as the head tube height puddle. After the pipers welcome it was a great relieve to make the Newcastleton food stop with 2 hours to spare from the cut off when we thought we were going to miss it. And well worth a stop it was too
A good run round some of the red route was enjoyable before the route headed back towards England.
Breaking the ride into smaller sections certainly helped but it still hurt, the long draggy almost flat sections seemed much worse than the hills to me. The 80 mile marker was another great highlight, the stream crossing just after it sent a tidal wave over our heads as we sped through, it put a smile on our faces. The last 10 miles saw Nigel perking up and picking up the pace, cursing him I tried to stay on his wheel as the miles painfully passed by. Some lovely sections of red trails took us over the finish line just after 7pm, quite an epic day out.
Pat retired around midway and Chris just ahead of us, great effort from them both as well as everyone who took part.
A very successful event, well organised and brilliantly marshalled. After a few days rest I’m looking forward to next year already























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