We reported before the Original Source Mountain Mayhem 24-hour race that outdoor gear company Alpkit were looking for willing riders to race on its team. Well, they found s bunch of riders and here’s their account of the event:

Last month seven complete strangers came together in the shadows of Eastnor Castle to pull on an Alpkit cycling vest. The occasion was Mountain Mayhem, the UK’s largest 24-hour mountain bike endurance event. Since there were three Paul’s in our team we decided it would be simpler to refer to everyone as Paul, however for the sake of this article we shall refer to everyone by their real names.

The team

Some people don’t do teams. Like Clint they prefer to ride solo, they go the duration non stop but don’t think for an instant that they go slow. Those looking for an even greater challenge do it single speed, but their numbers are few and most riders do it in teams of four to ten. Our team was one of the tens – seven strangers and three of us. None of us had done Mayhem before. Gulp.

Amy was the first to join the team. She hopped out of her car at Alpkit HQ, and hopped right over to say hi. We say hopped because Amy’s right leg was either in a cast or the most outrageous SPD shoe you are likely to see! To confuse us even more she pulled her bike from her car and thrust it upon us – no mistake, she was riding!

The rest of the team arrived in good health during Friday evening; Sarah, Harvey, Stephen, Paul P, Paul M and Paul B, each wheeling in an impeccably prepared bike which trumped those that we already had. At one point with four Genesis i0’s and a Kona Explosif in the stable it looked like we were going to be an all singlespeed team.

The balance was addressed with the new arrivals and we were looking at a well balanced team. They looked like they knew what they were doing and when chat turned to components, tyre choice and fettling it sounded like they knew what they were doing, and if we hadn’t discovered Amy had her tyre on back to front we would have given them full marks for preparation. It was all getting a bit bikey when we were saved by some good odours wafting from the kitchen.

The strategy

By the morning things had calmed down. Bikes and beer were wheeled down to the Shimano guys in an attempt to secure a last minute service and it was finally time to confront the nitty gritty. We figured it was the done thing to have a race strategy. If all else failed we could at least make a scapegoat out of team manager Mel Ross.. there would be resignations, recriminations, scandal, intrigue and all manner of hoo-haa. Cut the drama, it didn’t come to that, to be honest we really could not have been in better hands.

Mel is as experienced at these kind of events as Claudia’s blueberry sponge cake was moist; so experienced that she had had the good sense to manage rather than ride. We also had the bonus of Mel’s husband Shaggy, a Jekyll and Hyde kind of guy who shuffles around behind a beard engineering airplanes by day, but put him on a bike and he turns into a pure riding machine. A regular MM soloist, Shaggy was this year taking it easy by riding for the The Kinesis Morvelo Project. In short we had the insight to compete with the best.

Despite the deep insight the team didn’t actually know what it was capable of. How many laps could it do? Would it fold in the dark? Would the rain stay away? How crucial would tyre choice be? Our strategy to take it in turns and see how far we got seemed sensible, but we still needed someone to get us on our way.

Alpkit Race HQ

While each rider was out sweating for the team the others rested in camp Alpkit. We discovered that to save weight Paul B used tied off condoms as inner tubes, Sarah was celebrating having passed her uni course just the day before, Stephen showed us his collection of esoteric cameras, Nick plotted how he could switch his factory build i0 for Paul P’s custom job and we merrily scooted around on Harvey’s electric bike.

They were good times but we couldn’t get complacent. We knew that if we were to keep the team functioning at peak performance for 24-hours we would need to maintain focus and operate from functional and comfortable facilities.

Night follows day

Each member of the team managed to get a lap in the bag before darkness fell. The rain had held off, it was a clear night, the moon floated up above the hillside and stuck. Shaggy would be out there somewhere and he wouldn’t be thinking about elevators or airframes, we pitied all who had the misfortune to cross his path. Back in the safety of the Alpkit camp the bikes were prepared for the night laps.

The team got their stuff together so all they had to do was remember… wake, pee, ride. Nick put out enough food to see us through, a fire was lit and the projector was set up for the evening’s entertainment. Still fresh from his efforts on the Genesis team, Paul Errington was first to commandeer the DVD player and embarked on a recruitment drive by loading up his copy of ‘Riding the Great Divide’.  Not sure if he had any takers, but it was a joy to watch others suffer. Later we moved on to something a little more light hearted.

The team was equipped with lights from British company Exposure Lights. Toros were mounted on handlebars and Joysticks on helmets. The excellent illumination provided by these Exposure units meant that, bar a few minor incidents, we could continue to ride safely through the night with little impact on our lap times.

Home straight

Even though there were still a good 8 hours of riding still to go we were securely on the home straight. Now we just had to keep the team motivated, fed, watered and hungry to get back on a lap. Aided by chef’s challenge that if we could come home before 2pm he would do a lap the team galvanised to pull out all the stops.

The reality of the challenge meant that the final two riders would have to put in personal best lap times, a tall order at this stage in the race. Nick was feeling pretty smug until Paul B did just that. The final rider was Paul M, it was his fourth lap but he was game for the challenge. James from Genesis entered the fray and donated his prototype hardtail to the cause while the team mobilised around the course and made some noise.

So what are the team up to now? All of the team have said that they would like to do MM again. Paul P has the Kielder 100 in September and quite likes the look of the Black Mountains 3 day challenge.

Sarah is in a women’s team for this year’s Bontrager 24/12 which is going to be much more competitive and with fewer riders. Paul B would like to get his kids involved in Saturday’s Mini Mayhem and Amy is also already entered in the 24/12 in July as part of a mixed team and is just hoping her leg is fixed by then, otherwise she’ll be acting as team manager/chief supporter and passing on everything she learnt at MM!

Thanks to www.alpkit.com for the report