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Formerly known as the Red Bull 24hr, sponsorship for
by far the most popular mountain bike event on the UK calendar has now
passed into the hands of Saab and outdoors equipment supplier Salomon.
For the fifth year running, the race was held at
Sandwell Park Farm near Birmingham on the summer solstice weekend. Once
again, De Laune had two teams, imaginatively named A and B, consisting of
James' Lett, Lyon and Peckham and Ross Fryer, the honorary non-James in
the A team, with Bill Wright, Cliff Steele, Simon Pamplin and Chris Fitzer
in the B team. All except Chris had done the event before; in fact Chris
stepped in at the last minute when Andrew King couldn't make it due to his
PhD commitments.
 James
in control
Helping the teams out were Tig, Cliff's wife Carol
and James Peckham's dad, John, who supplied us with a huge van and tent
complete with generator, lighting, jetwash and microwave - luxury!
We got the campsite set up on the Friday afternoon
and headed off for a course recce. It was pretty similar to previous
years, a 10-mile lap with a mix of open fields and wooded singletrack,
although it was very bumpy and would favour lightweight, short-travel full
suspension bikes. The weather was fantastic, hot and sunny with the result
that the course was very dry and dusty. The course may have been similar,
however the event was far bigger with 249 teams in our category compared
with last years 188. We all knew we were going to have some stiff
competition if we wanted to better last years 2nd place result for the A
Team.
 James
Lett by Dave Arthur www.justride.co.uk
The race began at 2pm on Saturday with a Le Mans
style run of about half a mile to get to the bikes. James Lett reluctantly
volunteered to run and got a good start, picking his bike up from James
Peckham and getting out onto the course in the top 40 or so. Being the new
boy on the team and not really knowing the score, Chris had foolishly said
that he would do the run for team B but he also came through highly placed
in the field
James Lett came through in about 45 minutes and
handed over to James Lyon. We'd worked out our strategy from experience
gained over the previous years and had settled with a 1,2,3,4 format up
until nightfall. All of us were averaging about 42-44 minute laps early on
although James Lyon turned in a very quick sub-40 lap on his first time
out.
 Ross
is punished for riding too slowly
The A team had settled into the top ten, meanwhile
the B team were moving steadily up around the top 40 mark. Everything went
well up until dark when the new strategy of 1,2,1,2,3,4,3,4 came into
play. This gives two team members the chance to get a decent amount of
sleep while the other two swap laps. James' Lett and Lyon took the first
stint, riding alternate laps through until about 4.30am then James Peckham
and Ross Fryer took over riding duties until about 8.30am when we reverted
back to the 1,2,3,4 format.
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| For Chris in the B Team it
was his first time of night-riding and after his first lap, he came back
with a grin like a Cheshire cat, enthusing about the experience. Riding a
mountain bike, off-road, at night is something that most people would
regard as certifiable, however nothing can describe the feeling of rushing
through the darkness, twisting and turning along the narrow tunnel of
light that is all you can see, the ever-changing shadows passing by on
each side at a speed that feels twice as fast as it actually is.
 The
bats couldn't work out what was coming
By now the course was getting heavily rutted,
braking bumps digging up the corners and dusty ruts forming, making things
quite technical in places. Ross and James Lett felt the bumps worst as
they were on hardtails. Ross commented that his arse looked like the
Japanese Flag although after a lap of the course everyone looked like
they'd been down a coal mine; the dust covered riders from head to toe.
Fatigue was getting to everyone now - there seemed to be twice as many
small rises and dragging climbs as there had been at the start, hills
which on the first few laps riders had gone over in a big gear, hardly
noticing, but which now became an interminable drag in a middling gear,
the exertion etched on riders faces. Chris in particular was finding the
racing getting to him after such a long time and began to suffer slightly
although Cliff and Simon and Bill were still putting out consistent 46-48
minute laps for the B Team.
The pace began getting quicker again during the
morning, riders putting in more of an effort now that the end was in
sight. Ross went out for his final lap and managed to dig deep into his
fuel reserves, attacking hard a third of the way round the course and
pulling De Laune A two places up the results table. He handed over to
James Lett who completed his last lap in a fraction over 44 mins, coming
into the arena 12 minutes after the bell had sounded to mark the end of
the 24hrs and holding onto 6th place for the team. De Laune B had also had
a battle on their hands with only minutes separating many teams after
24hrs of racing.
Final results: - De Laune A, 6th place
with 32 laps in 24:12:13 and an overall average lap time of 45:22 De Laune
B, 37th place with 30 laps in 24:32:01 and an overall average lap time of
49:04
 James
Peckham catches some well earned sleep
On behalf of both teams, a huge thanks must go to
Tig, who stayed awake for the whole 24hrs, co-ordinating 8 riders in 2
teams with endless good humour and support, Carol Steele for the fantastic
food supplied at all hours of the day and night to exhausted riders and to
James Peckham's dad, John for supplying the tents, van, generator,
lighting and all the other bits and pieces that made the camping so
comfortable rather than a hardship. We couldn't have done it without you.
James Lyon |
