One of last year’s hardest enduro events is back again for 2006. The MaXx Exposure South Downs Way Night Enduro does exactly what it says on the tin – 75 miles along the South Downs Way from Beachy Head to Queen Elizabeth Country Park, at night.

The start is at sunset, and the challenge is to reach the finish by sunrise. If our calculations are correct, that gives you about 12 hours to complete the course. Organiser Trail Break will do everything it can to make it possible. The full package includes camping at QECP, coach transport to Beachy Head, a kitbag drop to the second checkpoint, three checkpoints along the way, reflective route marking and, perhaps most importantly, bacon butties and tea at the finish. There’s also a ride-only package if you’re happy to sort out your own end-to-end transport.

MaXx Exposure is run in association with Exposure Lights, which is a fairly obvious fit really – lightweight lights with long run-times are just what you need for this sort of thing. If you’re quite quick you could do the whole thing on a single charge of an Exposure Enduro Turbo…

If 75 miles sounds a bit keen, there’s a “Mini MaXx” starting at Washington and covering just the remaining 35 miles to QECP. The start will be a bit later (around 8.30pm).

Last year 80 riders took part and 78 of them finished (including BM’s David Arthur – find out how he got on here, which isn’t at all bad for the first year of a faintly intimidating event. We’d expect a lot more this year. MaXx Exposure will be held over 23/24 September – further details and online entry at www.trailbreak.co.uk.