24 Hours of Mayhem
A novice's perspective on Mountain Mayhem by Rich Preece
Images: Joolze Dymond
Posted: 2nd July 2009
Mountain Mayhem is something I have wanted to enter for several years. Having been a spectator to the event for the last couple of years, this year I jumped at the opportunity to ride in a 4-man team. Having been training for road events I knew my fitness level would allow me to ride quickly enough not to let my team mates down.
I chose to go down to the event and set up my tent on Friday afternoon, with the race starting at 02:00pm on Saturday. When I had my tent up I decided to drive back home, about an hour away so I could sleep the night before the race in a ‘proper' bed to try and get some quality rest.
On Saturday morning I got up early to arrive in plenty of time and went to sign on before the 11:30am cut off. Our team decided on a running order with one rider choosing to take the first lap with its obligatory run. I was rider number four which meant I watched the start and then went back to the camping area to get ready for my first lap. We chose to do single laps until we had ridden two laps each. Once we had all done two laps each, we would switch to double laps during the night, to try and allow sleep.
After my second single lap which finished at 10:30pm I had until about 5:00am to try and eat and sleep. I grabbed some food and headed over to get another shower. The facilities were really impressive. Title sponsor Original Source made sure that there was shower gel and warm water aplenty, which proved very popular.
I then retired to my sleeping bag to try and sleep. However, racing at Mayhem is like doing intervals - short time, high intensity riding. So when I lay down my heart still raced and my mind couldn't switch off. I was terrified about over sleeping and missing my changeover. Try as I might I just couldn't sleep and soon enough my alarm went off and I started getting changed. Whilst in my tent the rain started to fall and I thought about photos of wet Mayhems I had seen. With a double lap just about to start I chose to switch to mud tyres, just in case the rain continued to fall or worse still intensified.
Luckily the weather held off and the mud tyres I switched to weren't a necessity. The double lap allowed me to ride a night lap, which is eerie and exciting at the same time. The lap felt much faster - mainly due to the fact that I couldn't see my bike computer and my second lap finished off in the morning light.
The laps were testing for me as I ride on road all the time. My technical skills in mud or roots are non-existent so a couple of sections I chose to jump off and run the bike through. For me this was the quickest and safest way to ride. The climbs and some of the descents were lots of fun though and for a non-mountain biker my lap times were pretty average. Elite riders were pushing out some crazy fast times and riding over terrain that I found hard enough to walk on but these riders were courteous and patient even when stuck behind a novice like me.
What stood out for me about the event was not only the level of organisation but also the camaraderie between competitors. After finishing one of my laps I rode back to camp alongside an elite rider who was genuinely interested to know how my team was doing. Some road events I have done seem to lack this ‘togetherness' and the support is a really positive aspect of mountain bike enduro events.
The team completed 22 laps all together finishing in 93rd place out of 229 teams - which I was delighted with. To put it into perspective Matt Page, winner of the solo category completed 26 laps, which is just mind-boggling.
A great event and experience which I am glad to have been a part of. Luckily it was the first dry Mayhem for a few years and I was on a like-minded team who had a similar end goal, so I came away happy but very tired.
