Sunshine, a super dry yet physically and technically challenging course with most of the old favourites, a laid back atmosphere and a good mountain biker party were the ingredients to the second Kona Cheddar Bikefest held at Broadway House Caravan Park on the 26-28 September.

Around 900 riders in teams of four, two and solo took part in the 10, 5 or newly added 3 hour novice event held over the sunny weekend and enjoyed a great day racing on the short but tough Cheddar course. The much-loved sections like Vipers Vale, Devils Drop and Witches Wood put big grins on the riders faces. Every lap remained a physical and technical challenge until the very end but it didn’t stop the riders putting in some astonishing amount of laps and lap times.

Before the main events kicked off on Saturday morning around 30 brave souls joined the NiteRider Night Time Trial and took the chance to check out the course under race conditions before the 10 hour event on Saturday. The last starter of the evening, Martyn Brooks from Yeti Cycles, blitzed the course (which was a little longer than the actual race course due to the start in front of the bar) in an impressive time of 16:44. The winners and runners up of the NiteRider Night TT were awarded with some very generous light prizes from the NiteRider lighting range. See the complete night time trial results on http://www.bike-fest.com/cheddar/index.php.

Saturday morning had a misty start but the weather, as well as the race action, warmed up later on in the morning and once more we had some astonishing lap counts and times. The 10 hour solo event was won by Keith Jones from Back on Track Bikes with 31 laps in 9hours 26 minutes. The woman’s solo event was won by Lynne Coldray from Team Milton Keynes White bikes with 23 laps. The pairs competition went to the LVIS Finest Pair with the Mixed pairs going to Team Ed and Meg. The team competitions were won by Team www.BikeCity.biz in the Men’s teams with an impressive 38 laps.

Sunday morning saw another early start with the 5 hour and 3 hour events at 10am. The course was, by then, truly ridden in and it offered a variety and new challenges even for the riders who had already took part in Saturday’s 10 hour event.

John Whittingtont from Bath University won the solo men’s competition and effectively beat all the other teams of 4 and pairs. Kathryn Bushnell from Bristol Bike Workshop won the ladies solos and would have placed in 6th position in the male category. For complete results on all events please check http://www.timelaps.co.uk/.

The general atmosphere of the weekend was yet again super friendly and yet competitive with all the racers being extremely polite when overtaking. It shows that an event can be laid back without losing its competitive focus.

Photos and results

Event photographer Jon Brooke was out on course on Saturday and Sunday taking pics of everybody. Jon has a new website this year – http://www.rightplacerighttime.co.uk/ – and you can find your photos there to view or buy. The results on the Saturday and Sunday events are up on the TimeLaps site – http://www.timelaps.co.uk/.

The event village was busy with traders and manufacturers showing off their stuff. We had displays from Kona, Bionicon, Cannondale, Torq, Shred, Giant, Dodgy Gear, Cube, Nite Rider, Embers Merino, Zero G and Merida just to name a few.

Big Thanks!

We would like to send a big thank you to our title sponsor Kona Bikes (www.konaworld.uk.com) who did a great job sorting the event and making it happen. The guys will continue with their support for 2009 (provisional date: 6-7 June 2009 for the Bristol Bikefest and 26-27 September 2009 for the Cheddar Bikefest). Big thanks also go out to Dave Moore and to the new team at the Broadway House Caravan Park, to the guys from the toasty kitchen and to Graham from Cafe2U for keeping the troops going!

We enjoyed the event immensely and we think that it was a worthy second edition of the Kona Cheddar Bikefest and hope that we can keep building it for years to come. Hope to see you all in 2009 at the Bristol and/or Cheddar Bikefest. To keep updated on what is happening on the events and what other events we are working on please subscribe to our newsletter via our website www.bike-fest.com.