XC Racer Blog Post

Relentless 24

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BY: Niall Frost

Published: 11th October, 2011


Sometimes you do an event that no matter how terrible the conditions, how much damage it does to bike or rider, you have to do again.  Not necessarily the race itself will have determined this, but a combination of; the atmosphere, the banter, the competition, personal challenge and usually.. beer.

Relentless 24 combined all these things to the composite singlespeed team known as, "Derailleur? Nein Danke!" (DND).  Brought together by a sordid interest in single gear riding, Neil Richardson (RAF Cycling), Mark Smith (Angus Bike Chain), Martin Smith (Godiva Trailriders) and myself ended up in a wee Spean Bridge pub on Friday night, drinking beer and chatting rubbish with the rest of the Angus Bike Chain teams.  This is how good weekends start.

With the morning brought the rain.  Light banter ensued before the morning forecast was delivered by the landlady, "It's gonna rain this weekend.  Did you lads say you were doing a bike ride?"  You know when a Scotswoman in the North of Scotland utters these words, it's going to get emotional.

Pitching up at Aonach Mor ski centre (home of the UCI best mtb event of 2011) and the ABC team pit was already under construction.  A giant 10ft bike stand was erected in minutes, mere chance that nobody got hurt by the nail gun and the triple gazebo was waterproofed for all 11 riders to keep dry.  The addition of two generators, music station and leather sofa only added to the surrealism that we were actually camping in a car park.


Knocked together with consumate ease, the ABC bike rack caused a few jealous stares

Signing on we spied our chief competitors, Glencroft Rabble, who had won the event many times previously.  We reassured ourselves that they'd have reliability issues with gears and suspension forks and other such things we didn't bring.  Come midday and to our amazement, the Rabble sent one member for the run and the other to hand over and do the first bike lap.  This enraged Mr Richardson.  No mercy was shown as his poor overused bike was hammered round the first lap in what was to prove the fastest lap of the event which included stopping to fix a flat!  No fluke was that top 5 in both the worlds and UK champs then.

Neil getting away at the head of the race to post a stunning laptime.  Someone teach him how to work gears out!

Sadly for Neil and the rest of DND, I took the second lap and discovered a little too much detail about what is stored at the bottom of my lungs.  Riding the course for the first time was a little daunting, especially as I'd only finished building the bike on the previous Wednesday.  I'm not known for mechanical wizardry, so when it came down to trust whether I'd put the headset in correctly, I erred on the side of caution.  Despite my feeble ways, the course offered up an entertaining test with enough slippery singletrack and climbing to keep the 32:16 riders on a par with the geared competitors.  I was just slow to lose 1.5mins on my first lap, nothing to do with the bike!

Mark after another wet double lap.

1st place lost and the Smith brothers took the race on into the night to consolidate a 15minute deficit.  By this time the rain was still falling and kit changes were necessary every lap.  A change of strategy to double laps we felt favoured our simple and reliable bikes.  A few gritty tears were shed as the rain got heavier in the middle of the night, but the motivation stayed high.  Our feeding strategy of sports mixture, brioche, coffee (with honey), snickers and pot noodles may be one that Olympic chiefs will overlook but you can't knock it for diverse calories.  Simple bikes need simple riders, who eat simple things.

Morning dawned and we were pegging the gap at around half an hour.  Neil R, after consistently posting the fastest laps had a lap with the demons while Martin and I suffered badly.  Mark kept posting the same laptimes like a metronome, despite me constantly harassing him about not falling off again.  Hope remained high that one problem for the leaders might see us close them down.

Singlespeed on the turbo, in front of leather sofa.  Giro's 2012 flat cap ready for the next lap.

Alas, after 23hrs we were resigned to 2nd place, so we sent Martin out for one final lap with the promise that the course had, "dried out" and he'd, "really enjoy it after no sleep".  Needless to say he smashed another quick time out to finish the event on a high and the podium awaited for a 100% podium return from team DND outings (that'll be one then...).  Both Angus Bike Chain teams also ended up on the podiums with a 1st and a 2nd.


Martin heading off the final lap.  Nobody has told him that he didn't actually need to go out...

Thanks must go to my team-mates in, Derailleur? Nein Danke! And the Angus Bike Chain for the awesome team pit.  If you are after a fun event to close out the season yet still test you to the limit, look no further than Relentless 24.

Niall
Xcracer.com
Thanks to my sponsors
Gateway Cycles
Mt Zoom
Exposure Lights


My poor bike, 2 days on.  Note improvised front mudguard.  The "sans grips" is due to them coming off all the time.





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Niall Frost

Niall Frost is a XCRacer.com team rider

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This blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com

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