A Right Royal Mountain Mayhem 2013

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 18th June, 2013

I feel like I have been in a car crash, not a bike race. My arms hurt, my shoulders ache, my back is knotted in a dozen places and I don't even want to dwell on the state of my legs. Someone posted on Singletrack last week that they wanted real mountains at this year's Mountain Mayhem. Well, we might not have had "real mountains" but we definitely had some killer climbing.

 

In a break from tradition, this year's Mountain Mayhem was held at Gatcombe Park in Gloucestershire.  This is Princess Anne's back garden and usually host only to equestrian events. The previous Mayhem venue, Eastnor Deer park has earned  itself a bit of a reputation for being less than pleasant in the wet , and given it almost always rains over the summer solstice, many old hands had started to find themselves "washing their hair" when the call to arms came from potential team mates. The new venue however had all the promise of the fabled "all weather" course and attracted back a fair few old timers "just for one more go". With a lot to prove the organisers were always going to be up against it to make a success of the new site.

 Is it wrong to add a little something to the energy drink the night before a race?

 

First impressions where a significant improvement on access, no fighting through Ledbury Village at rush hour, and good signage onto the site. The organisers had warned of limited camping and I think this did panic people to some extent. I camped with a large group of friends - 1 team of ten, 2 teams of four and 2 soloists, so 20 riders in total plus associated hangers on, kids, wives etc.. We managed to mark out a pitch early on Friday morning but not wanting to take up more space than was needed ended up with a site that we overflowed out of and constantly ended up tripping over interlocking guy ropes. However, there didn't seem to be too much of a shortage of space elsewhere so there probably wasn't as much of an issue with camping as the organisers had anticipated. 

And they're off, but look at the colour of that sky!

The major bonus of camping on an equestrian site was that the ground was flat as a pancake.  Camping at Eastnor is on a hill and even Newnham Park (home of Bonty 24:12) and Minley Manor (home of Torq 12:12) have mole hills and diverts the size of craters. The downside of camping on an equestrian site was that in order to prevent contamination of the field with mud from the woods and oils from the drive trains no washing of bikes was allowed anywhere accept the designated 6 station Duck Wash area. Now, this was a great set up and well run by Duck and this probably would have been fine in the dry. But it wasn't dry (and quite frankly it rarely is) and 6 wash stations for nearly 2000 bikes was a recipe for disaster. By the third lap the queue for the jet wash was getting on to be longer than the time a four man team had between laps. We gave up washing and just pulled the worst of the mud from the bike and sloshed a bucket or two of water over the drive train for good measure - so much so for keeping the mud and oil off the field but what else was there to do. Significantly more wash stations are required if the ban on using your own pressure washers is to remain.

Jason Robinson - pit bitch extraordinaire, was allowed off pit duties for a lap or two on the team of 10

(Picture by Graham Haller.  More pics here : Graham Haller)

Now to the race course. A practice lap on Friday identified a 6.5 mile course that had a significant amount of climbing and was almost devoid of any single-track. It was very disappointing but as most of the course was hard packed double track we at least consoled ourselves it would stand up to any rain that fell over the weekend. Oh, or not as it turned out to be!  After some fairly heavy rain on Friday night the course was immediately an entirely different kettle of fish.  The starting descent (aptly named the Koffin Drop) became a treacherous rocky downhill and significant sections of fire road and double track became a muddy mess and fairly "Eastnoresque".  Reports of crashes and broken bones came flooding in.

Hannah Reynolds shows the boys how to ride it

 

 
As the rain stopped and the mud dried the situation became initially worse as the clay clogged up drive chains and wheels alike. I was fourth out and my first lap was my slowest of the entire race. I stopped at least five times to pull handfuls of clay from my wheels and frame, only to stop 200m later to do the same again. Sense of humour failure began to set in. However, with sheer volume of riders and no more rain the course soon developed a dry line which saw lap times improve and moods generally lift. The climbing really took its toll on most people with very few riders managing a completely clear lap at any point during the race. What had been steep but technically easy climbs on Friday became steep but technically challenging climbs during the race. The combination, plus fatigued legs resulted in streams of racers pushing up every climb.  This was a brutal course but thankfully keeping it short at 6.5 miles kept lap times sensible and the wide course made passing easy.

This photo is deceptive, this climb was a killer - very, very few rode this climb during the race

 

While the course did not run through the campsite this year, well signposted spectating areas close to the campsite meant great views for supporters and much needed encouragement for riders. The highlight of my seven year olds weekend was watching the crashes on the Koffin Drop.

I was racing as part of a four women team for Four4th Lights. Having been second for three years in a row we were set to do battle with the Contessa Scott Syncros girls (1st last year) and the Saddle Skedaddle ladies (3rd last year).  From the gun the other two teams went out hard and we immediately slipped into 3rd place. This continued until lap 6 when Nicky Hughes failed to return for Scott. We were quickly given the news she had fallen and injured her ankle and that, combined with a niggling injury in one of their other riders meant they were pulling out of the race. This put us head to head with Saddle Skedaddle who were at this point about 20 minutes up and pulling away. We rode single first laps then switched to a double lap strategy for the remainder of Saturday and early hours of Sunday morning. While this was hard on the legs it did maximise the rest between laps and this paid off in the early hours of Sunday morning when we finally caught and overtook the Saddle Skedaddle girls.  The dark is always when our home advantage comes into play (the green Holy Moses set up just provides instant daylight in the woods) so we pressed hard to maintain the advantage.  But it wasn't all over and we ping ponged each other for the next few laps, the time gap getting down to just seconds at one point. We switched back to single laps once the sun was up and the end was only 6 hours away.  By my last lap I was even starting to enjoy the course.

Singletrack were on hand all weekend and took some great photos

 

In the end we took the win, first place after 4 years of trying.  Tainted a bit by the early departure of the Scott Contessa girls who (with four national calibre riders) would have whipped our behinds good and proper if luck had been on their side.  Get well soon to Nicky Hughes who was eventually diagnosed with a broken tib and fib and required surgery on Sunday morning to correct the damage.

Womens team podium with HRH Princess Anne

Mens team podium with HRH Princess Anne

So how was it then? I feel a great improvement on Eastnor Deer Park. The access is better, the camping is better. The ground probably held up to the rain a little better (or at least recovered much quicker when the rain stopped).  The race course could do with a little work, the arena could do with a little more "atmosphere" and the bike washing needs a re-think. But the covered pit area was a god send and the lube station next to the wash station was great. The kids' area was a lovely idea and as always the marshals and supporters were second to none. Will we be back next year? I expect so, although watching my fellow clubmates ride as a team of ten may have given me an idea!

The team of 10 podium - a first for the Tunnel Hill Trolls trophy cabinet