David climbs

During the last few years, Britain has been home to an explosion in the popularity of endurance events, and people are revelling in these challenges. Harder routes and events are being planned, as organisers try to go one better than each other, and eager riders are turning out in their thousands.

On the 17th and 18th July, Broadway House in Cheddar raised the endurance bar by several notches with the Cheddar Everest Challenge. Everyone is familiar with 24 hour races, but this one boasts 32 hours. The twist is that that’s a maximum time limit – the goal here isn’t to cover as much ground as possible in the time but to reach a distance target. Or, more accurately, a height target – the goal is to climb the height of Mount Everest, which for the purposes of the event was deemed to be a round 29,000ft. Off-road and road options were available and teams up to six are allowed, but there’s no stopping those mad enough to enter the solo category.

Team Justride attended this event with wide-eyed curiosity, wondering why anyone would host a 32 hour event. Surely 24 hours is enough? People do seem to like these longer distance endurance events. It must be some hidden craving for pain. Unfortunately, the curse of team events struck us at the last minute, with our four-strong team whittled down to a pair: Gary Jennings and myself. What could we do? Driving home was no option, so we decided to strive on and see what we could manage.

Gary descends

The event was very low-key, certainly no Mountain Mayhem, but that made for a much friendlier atmosphere than at the larger UK events, and nobody appeared to be taking it too seriously. It wasn’t a race after all and hence everybody seemed to be all smiles and enjoying the weekend, and mostly good weather. Everyone I spoke to out on the course was friendly enough, a nice change from the blank stares you get from people at some other events. People had travelled long distances; some I spoke to were from London, others from Wales and some Cornish riders even made the long drive. Broadway House is a great venue for mountain biking events, with solid facilities like essential hot showers, a well stocked shop, a bar and everything else you would expect from a top quality campsite. There’s even a world-class BMX track to have a play on.

We weren’t here to admire the amenities, though. There was riding to be done. One lap down and it was quickly apparent that there was no way we would be able to persevere for 32 hours, as the course was real tough. The problem was the intensity of the climbing. The course was 8.2 miles long, but that was kind of incidental – more importantly there was 1,000ft of climbing every lap, on a mix of singletrack, fire road and a hint of Tarmac, the climb to the summit would take between 35 and 45 minutes. A wickedly fast and dangerous final descent brought the lap times to around the hour mark.

Gary and I made good progress throughout the early stages of Saturday, riding strongly until the evening when the struggle started. After six laps each, aching legs signalled the decline of once-fit souls. It was difficult at times watching other riders appearing so fresh, but as they were members of larger teams, we could do nothing but struggle on with just the two of us. Punching the score card every lap and passing significant landmarks gave a much needed boost of enthusiasm and the next one gave us something to aim for. We crested Ben Nevis at 4,000ft, Mont Ventoux at 6,000ft and Alpe d’Huez after ten hours riding. Some time later we’d conquered Africa’s highest summit, Kilimanjaro at 19,000ft. Mount Everest would prove to be elusive to us – we were 9,000ft short. Many teams did successfully manage it, though, and with time to spare. The first team home got there in an impressive 27 and a half hours. A cracking pace set by them.

It was an event that made you dig really deep for the mental and physical strength to continue. It certainly made the 24 hour races I have done before appear easy. The first climb, the famed Hell’s Hill, filled my mind with dread each time I went out and rode another lap, and that climb would soon be the demise of me. The night laps were great fun and provided us with some much needed motivation to keep riding. There always comes a point when mere motivation just isn’t enough, though. That point came for us around 4am Sunday morning, after 19 hours of riding, when the struggle had overcome the urge to continue.

The Cheddar Everest Challenge had beaten us. But we’ll be back…