Having earned some bonus points by spending Saturday in the garden, I was allowed to take Sunday off and visit Trentham Gardens to watch the endurance event there.


Despite the fact that no promotion of the event was anywhere to be found we eventually found our way to the course after one of the group actually heard the PA system.


A spartan crowd enabled us to get a seating area right on the course and an agreement struck with a chap to provide us with cheap beer resulted in a very pleasant Sunday afternoon watching other’s break sweat for a change.


An early exit meant that we were unable to obtain the full results. However, we did glean that Ian Cuthbertson was the overall pro/elite winner having completed eleven laps in the 6 hour race time and we think, Jamie Norfolk was second in. We were reliably informed that the course was eight miles long.


Having attended Bike 2000 last week, the atmosphere couldn’t have been much more different. A small but knowledgeable audience mixing with refugee’s from the nearby camp site enjoyed the sunshine and open area’s. Considering the amount of Bike shops in the Stoke area, the representation of products was dissapointing; USE were perhaps the best represented reflecting the XC influence of the race.


Apparently, it is the intention of the Race Organisors to make the event an annual occurance. Hopefully, this will mean an improvement in the marketing of the event leading to an increase in interest from the public and manufacturers.