Original Source Mountain Mayhem, the UK’s toughest mountain bike endurance event finished on a high yesterday with glorious sunshine and thousands of exhausted, but exultant racers heading home in high spirits following an adrenaline filled weekend.
The event, at Eastnor Castle in Ledbury, Herefordshire, attracted a record 17,000 spectators and saw 2,650 riders competing to complete the most nine mile laps in 24 hours.
Throughout the course of the 24 hour race, 11,515 laps and over 103,635 miles were covered – the equivalent of flying to Australia and back five times or driving across America coast to coast 23 times!
Winner of the Original Source Mountain Mayhem Men’s Solo title was Anthony White, who clocked up an amazing 24 laps – his fastest was just under 52 minutes. Last year’s winner Matt Page took part in the Open Men’s event this year with Team Focus/Wiggle who came 9th with 27 laps. Matt’s fastest lap was just under 47 minutes.
Scooping the women’s title was Rickie Cotter, completing 19 circuits – her fastest was just over 1 hour and five minutes. Last year’s women’s winner Meggie Bichard came in second this year totalling 17 laps with a fastest lap of just under 1 hour and 3.5 minutes.
For the second year in a row, Team Scott took first place in the Mixed Expert Team with 32 laps and Clee Cycles/KCNC came first in the Open Men’s event with 30 laps.
This year’s event introduced a number of exciting firsts, including the selection of five teams of Original Source Mountain Mayhem Ambassadors who were chosen as encapsulating the spirit of the challenging endurance race and celebrating the passion demonstrated by its competitors, many of whom ride for charity as well as for their own personal achievement.
British Cycling’s Go-Ride development team was on hand to offer youngsters under 16 the opportunity to test their skills on the twists and turns of the mini mayhem course. And a specially designed course for even younger children on the start/finish stretch of the main course proved extremely popular. All those taking part received goody bags and certificates.
A high point of the weekend was newlyweds Nigel and Alison Moore who caused quite a stir when news spread they had traded in the usual romantic honeymoon getaway for a weekend of mountain biking.
Nigel Wolstenholme, Senior Brand Manager at Original Source, headline sponsor for the event, says: “We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us at Eastnor Castle to make this an absolutely tremendous weekend. We’ve had the biggest ever number of participants and spectators. The atmosphere throughout the event has been electric and for the second year running, the weather has been fabulous. We’re already planning how we can possibly top this for next year’s event!”
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