The UK’s first and only event dedicated to solo mountain bike racing over 12 and 24 hours, the 12/24 Hours of Exposure – the UK & European Solo MTB Championships – is going ahead on the weekend of 7/8 April.

Now in its third year, 24 Hours of Exposure and last year’s addition of the 12 Hours of Exposure will see some of the top endurance racers battling for the various titles in their preferred discipline alongside the many Rookie racers taking up the challenge for the very first time.

Continuing their amazing support title sponsors Exposure Lights will be providing trophies and a host of their lights as prizes. Winners of each category will receive the prestigious Morvelo designed UK and/or European Solo Champion jerseys from Vitesse. There are also jerseys for the newly named Halo Singlespeed Champions, welcoming on board new sponsor Halo who will be providing some first class prizes for these categories.

And with over half the field being rookies, we’ll be awarding the Morvelo Rookie jerseys to the top placed first timers. This year we’ve added in a new ‘Inter-Services’ trophy for the best placed rider representing any of the Armed Forces or Emergency Services.

Exposure Lights’ Marketing and Events Manager, John Cooskon says: “It’s a huge pleasure to be linked to such a brilliant event and being part of an incredible race with great organisation. Exciting developments for 2012 will push it further ahead of the competition.”

There’ll be all the usual rider support from our fantastic sponsors to make sure each rider can concentrate on giving their best race performance: light charging and hire from Exposure Lights, Torq energy drink, bike servicing and washing from Juice Lubes, excellent on-site catering, logistics support from Saddle Skedaddle and more.

Giro and Kinesis are also joining our distinguished list of sponsors alongside Joolze Dymond photography, 7Stanes, Ergon and BikeSeven; Giro will be awarding prizes for the fastest laps and Kinesis will have two of their XC130 frames to give away to a couple of lucky riders – how’s that for a spot prize!

There are also a variety of things to keep the support crews and family happy: children’s racing Friday afternoon, an evening Ceilidh, outdoor activities throughout the weekend with Rock UK and an indoor, heated ‘Chill Out Zone’. This is luxury endurance racing! (Did we mention the indoor swimming pool and sweet shop?)

The now legendary race start will again be in the centre of Newcastleton with all riders signing the sign-on board in front of a packed village crowd before the peloton is lead away down the street by the Copshaw Common Riders, complete with Bag Pipes. The race starts for real when riders join the course in the Rock UK arena and head off onto the challenging 11 mile route around the all-weather Newcastleton 7Stanes trails.

There’s more information including online entry, racing and training tips on the event website www.24hoursolo.co.uk but we like to keep a few surprises up our sleeves too. (Did you hear about the Gorilla in the woods?)

This year the event takes place on the closing weekend of the Newcastleton Cycling Festival – a week of cycling events around Newcastleton, including the new Cross-Border Classic Sportives. For more information about the Festival, please visit www.border-classic-sportive.co.uk