It’s 3am and I’m standing in a field in Herefordshire in the company of a couple of dozen apprehensive-looking mountain bikers. Every so often a dishevelled-looking rider appears, hollow-eyed and gaunt, from the marquee in front of us pushing a vaguely bike-shaped lump of mud and grass. He or she will seek out one of the nervously-waiting ones, hand over a tag, mutter something about “f*ck*n’ ‘orrible out there” and stagger off in pursuit of food and sleep. As you can imagine, these exchanges aren’t doing anything for the state of mind of the waiting riders, some of whom have been waiting anything up to an hour. Those going out know that there’s every chance they’re going to be out riding, and intermittently pushing, bikes in the dark and mud for about two hours. For most it’s not an enticing prospect, especially not given the alternative of a nice warm, dry sleeping bag.
This, then, is the crux point of the 2004 Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem. Some teams have retired for the night. Some teams have just flat-out retired. After several years of good weather and a fairly mellow course at Sandwell Valley, SSMM’s move to the old-school venue of Eastnor Deer Park has coincided with a freak burst of spectacularly wet weather. It all began so promisingly. Friday saw a new development for the Mountain Mayhem weekend, with the Dirt Demo Day giving potential customers the chance to sample the wares of a whole bunch of manufacturers on some proper off-road terrain. It being a Friday and the first time that part of the event had been held, the turnout wasn’t massive although the manufacturers we spoke to were all pleased with the response and the riders were all chuffed to have had a chance to try out some swanky machinery so it looks like D3 will become a fixture for SSMM in future years. The Demo loop was a subset of the full race course, so it was a good opportunity to try it out. Reports were good, of a fast course in an old-school kind of way – not much in the way of technical challenge but well-endowed with hills and suitably varied.
And then on Friday night it started to rain. It continued to rain on and off throughout Saturday and when the lucky 493 riders who’d drawn the short straw lined up for the traditional running start, they did so under grey skies and spitting dampness. At least the river crossing a couple of hundred yards in wasn’t too much of a shock. With the rain still falling the course was wet but the mud was good and sloppy and not much of an impediment to progress, a situation that continued for most of the afternoon. The Karcher/Motorex bike wash rapidly got a bit overwhelmed with pretty much everyone trying to get their bikes cleaned every lap. It really wasn’t worth it, though – just slosh the transmission out with a bucket and brush and relube it. It can’t rain all the time, though, and eventually it stopped but for the occasional downpour. Which of course meant that the course started to dry out. But we all know what happens to wet, sloppy mud as it starts to dry out – it turns into sticky, claggy mud. Which is about where we came in…
Anyone who’s ever done a 24-hour race will know that the early hours of the morning are the real test. It’s not just riding at night, although for many that’s challenge enough. Even experienced night riders don’t generally set off for a ride at 3am, when every part of your brain is making no secret of the fact that it’d much rather be asleep, thank you very much. Then of course there’s the psychological barrier of leaving somewhere warm and dry to deliberately go and get cold, wet and muddy. Add in the reports of doom and gloom and three-hour laps coming in from the course and it’s a wonder that so many people were in the changeover at all. A few teams stopped overnight – they’re the ones with eight-hour laps in the results. And a few stopped altogether. Most, though, kept plugging away. It’s an endurance event, after all. And yes, it was pretty unpleasant out there, you probably had to push your bike a bit, the descents demanded concentration and a degree of luck and a lap was going to take quite a long time, but it wasn’t like you couldn’t get round at all. Endurance, that’s the name of the game. Just harvest the spirit of shared adversity out in the bog and keep going.
The dawn lap is always a special experience, and even more so at Eastnor. It’s a very scenic spot and Sunday dawned clear and, yes, sunny. With sunshine and a bit of breeze the course started to dry out in earnest, with a good line developing over previously trackless wastes. Even though everyone was pretty tired, lap times tumbled and spirits rose and approaching the end of the race the changeover area was a hotbed of positive vibes, with grinning riders shooting in and handing over to eager successors. Somehow the rigours of the night were forgotten as the course became a high-speed roller coaster. And then it was all over, with organiser Pat Adams personally greeting every rider across the line in warm sunshine. It was hard to believe that we were at the same race we’d started, and the great conditions at the end were a just reward for sticking at it. It’s probably the toughest 24 hour race there’s been in the UK, and we’d be the first to admit that the pleasure in SSMM04 was more in the having done than the doing. But it’s already legendary… |
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Don’t forget to check out our 2,700 photos from Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem. And if that’s not enough photographic evidence for you, the organisers have gathered together some more on www.ssmm.co.uk |
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