Strathpuffer: Slipping and Sliding to Victory

‘Strathpuffer’, what is it? 

I didn’t know what it was either before Alex, my team mate, mentioned it in Autumn last year. Essentially it is a 24 hour mountain bike race, in the Highlands of Scotland in January with temperatures as low as -10 and 17 hours of darkness! It certainly got me excited, I have done 24 hours solo before but suffered unimaginably so the chance of doing it in a pair seemed like far too good an opportunity to miss, I couldn’t go back now!

Preparation

Having completed the Rapha Festive 500 and done many hours before and after that I knew that the legs should at least have some kind of capacity to let me ride fast. The only thing I didn’t know was how fast and how long I could ride for but knew I would soon find out.

In terms of kit I packed everything I own, 2 helmets, 2 pairs of shoes, 6 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of gloves, 6 pairs of shorts, 1 pair of bib tights, 3 short-sleeve tops, 4 long-sleeve tops, 3 coats, 4 base layers and my trusty snood.

My  bike, a 3 week old Trek Superfly 5 29er in stock condition (other than tyres) would be the tool for the job. I ran it with a 10 speed block with twin chainrings, SPD pedals and relatively basic shimano hydraulic brakes. It isn’t a bike worth many thousands but a bike that I hoped would stand up to all this event has to throw at it.

Friday the 20th

After much deliberation around how we would travel to the event we decided to fly and by we, I mean Catherine and myself. Alex and his wife Holly were to drive from Swindon to Inverness and pick us up, we definitely had the easier option and after an hour and a quarter we had landed in Inverness where it was amazingly warm! A short bus drive and we were soon in Morrison’s and the team was complete, we would live, breath and suffer together until Sunday morning.

After purchasing the majority of Morrison’s (including sumptuous amounts of granola, the ultimate fuel), we were on the road for the short drive north to Strathpeffer, the local village and the place we would stay the night.

We were only there 20 minutes when we had a powercut so we unloaded our kit and escaped to the event HQ where we signed on, walked a part of the climb and the final descent before going to the village hall for an all you can eat buffet. Alex and I took this literally and had all we could possibly eat and a little bit more, the bread and butter pudding was the best thing ever.

Having stuffed ourselves we dug up the majority of the village green with the van as it was a bit stuck and retired to our B&B for coffee, a question of sport and mastermind, obviously the best preparation for what was to come! We were all in bed by 9, I couldn’t sleep for a while though, lying in the darkness, I was nervous, excited and daunted all at the same time!

Saturday the 21st – Race Day

We were up early and at the HQ for 7 where we secured a good spot on the climb, the gazebo was up and bikes ready by 8:30, we watched the sun rise whilst munching on some food, the scene was set.. we just had to ride our bikes now!

The race starts at 10 o’clock with a 200 metre run and I was to be our runner and began on the bike where it was decided I would do 2 laps. Bang on 10 and with bag pipes ringing in my ears we were off and running, I got to my bike and was off up the hill for the first time, riding hard, overtaking and learning the course.

The course itself is hard, technical and there to catch any rider out, irrelevant of how skilled you are. It goes uphill for around a mile and a half from the HQ (great for warming up) before going into a super technical section. This was full of rocks, steep descents and riders falling off, I am not the most skilled rider but did clear this section for my first two laps relatively easily. After this section there is a couple of ups and downs with the ups sapping strength everytime, it was hard but everyone was suffering, it is a unique club that only the competitors can be a part of, they are the ones who’ll know what I mean.

Following my two laps and Alex’s first two laps, it transpired that we were in 1st place, a nice boost to motivation, we just had to keep it going and that was terrifying!

3rd lap for me

Following our initial 2 lap stints we now changed to doing one lap each, changing every 40 minutes or so. I was feeling good, overtaking riders every lap, riding within myself and trying to do the simple things correctly. By now I had memorised the lines I needed, for instance; the first techy section after the climb you go over a bridge and my line was stay right on the grass for 2 metres before switching left and getting above the step up, then I would cut right again, skimming the little tree before going through the next right hander. I had these things going through my mind every lap, I knew what I needed to do, it was just a case of doing it.

The next few hours were quite straight forward, other than a puncture for Alex which he managed to ride around on! At 4 ish it was dark, lights were on and we knew we now had 17 hours of night riding ahead of us.. the next time we would see the sun we would be 2 hours from the finish. My first lap in the dark was a nightmare, my handlebar light had failed so was riding purely on my helmet light which was giving me about 2-3 metres of visibility, good fun when at home for an hour but when racing, it was stressful.

Thankfully, the handlebar light fixed itself after we put it on charge for 2 minutes and it worked all the way through to the end without needing any more juice. This was an exposure six pack for those interested, expensive but worth its weight in gold! Alex was running Gemini lights and they seemed to run sweetly too, a massive help when you are tired, cold and racing.

We continued on towards midnight but before we got there the ice arrived, it was properly slippy. The initial technical section was unridable in places and a couple of the climbs were a case of slipping and sliding up them as opposed to powering up them. However, as Saturday became Sunday we were still in the lead, trying hard to keep pulling away from second and trying hard to keep riding the bike.

Sunday the 22nd – Race

Into the cold we went, my Garmin was reading -11 on the top of the mountain. It was cold, slippery and lonely. It seemed like most riders had hidden and gone to sleep, there were only the hardy ones left riding, it was amazing in retrospect but at the time it was hard. The hardest thing for me though was trying to motivate myself after resting. One moment in particular at about 3 in the morning will stay with me forever.. I had managed to get around 40 minutes sleep when Holly shook me saying “You’re on your bike in 8 minutes”. I didn’t want to be on my bike in 8 minutes! I sat up, looked at both Holly and Catherine and knew I had no choice, we were still winning but a bike ride when it was so cold, so dark and I was so so tired was incomprehensible. However, I did get up, go out and get on the bike for another lap but this lap was to be extra hard.

My bike, though it didn’t let me down, had frozen gear cables. I was

Tiredness

stuck in the big ring for 3 laps, unable to make it any easier, I never got off but my legs were screaming, my body hated every part of itself. I can’t really explain it, it was horrific, I just kept telling myself that ‘if it was easy, everyone would do it’. I repeated this again and again, ‘if it was easy, everyone would do it’, it was the only crumb of comfort, my body was breaking.

We carried on with the 1 lap turns after both taking double turns to let the other rider rest and we did this all the way to the finish now. I would see Alex for 5 seconds every lap, he was always smiling and I always tried to return it, we would give the customary ‘well done’ to each other, swap our timing dibber over and then leave with the standard ‘keep it going’ and that was it. Whilst we were together in this, I saw him for about 3 minutes in the whole 24 hours, just as well really as we weren’t looking or smelling our best!

Finally, after what felt like far too long there was a smudge of light in the sky and I went out for my last lap. I couldn’t sit on the saddle, I was sick twice, my legs had nothing, the arch in my right foot was cramping and my fingers were so cold I could no longer feel the cramp I know that they had. The final descent was amazing, though I can’t really remember it, it was fast and I knew I had done my bit. The one thing I do remember though is a guy crashing hard in front of me, I stopped (the only time I stopped when on a lap) to ask if he was okay. The camaraderie for those 10 seconds was bizarre, I helped him to his feet, put my hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes, he was as broken as I was. I can’t remember what I or he said, thankfully he was okay but it was a moment that struck a chord with me for some reason, everyone was either breaking or was already broken.

Finally I got back to transition and gave the dibber over to Alex, I was done, couldn’t walk and, having been sick twice on the last lap wasn’t hungry! I got back to the van, hood pulled tight over my eyes and cried! I don’t know why, maybe it was tiredess, maybe it was relief, I have no idea but there I was, crying to myself! At this point we realised that Alex was going to finish his lap 20 minutes before 24 hours, we had time to do another lap. We were winning by 20 minutes but I just couldn’t go any further, I can’t explain the feeling other than being empty, I couldn’t even take my shoes off. Alex was broken too and couldn’t do another lap, he also couldn’t take his shoes off! 2nd place went out on another lap, it looked like we were going to finish the Strathpuffer in 2nd, an achievement that we didn’t think possible!

Our Pit Crew

I can’t go much further without writing about our pit crew. Catherine and Holly were the two people who kept us sane and on the right track the whole 24 hours. They were there when we needed a cup of tea, there when we needed to discuss tactics and there when it was time for us to head out to transition. Without both of them we wouldn’t have done as well as we did, something as simple as a smile when all I wanted to do was sleep made everything just that little bit easier.

Apparently, at about 3 Sunday morning I threw my soaking socks at Catherine and they hit her in the face. I was most miserable but fair play to her she didn’t bat an eyelid! Both of them were as much a part of the team as Alex and I were and I have no doubt that without them we would have failed in riding constantly.

After the finish there’s a moment where we were all stood in a queue to get some food, we were all shattered, but we were together, not in a physical way but together in knowing that we had all gone through this together; we were a team!

Presentation

After seeing many an inspirational rider collect their prizes it was time to go up and get our prize. We waited for our name to be read out in 2nd but it wasn’t said! We all looked at each other confused, it was then announced ‘and in 1st place, with 30 laps, Performance Cycles’. We had won!! The other team hadn’t completed their lap in time and thus we had completed our 30 laps around 20 minutes faster, I couldn’t believe it and stood there on the podium, tired, grinning and clutching the coolest trophy I have ever won, we had done it!

Thanks 

So many people helped us win the Strathpuffer and I must mention the individuals and businesses etc that helped us!

Alex; Cheers for that mate.

Catherine; The most amazing person I know and the one who kept me going when I thought I couldn’t, sorry for the sock issue!

Holly; For feeding me, giving me tea and a hot water bottle, your organisation made everything a little easier.

CMI Pro Cycling; They have believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

Performance Cycles; You have been a constant, the best bike shop in the Cotswold’s and a pleasure to work for.

Severn Valley Cycles; The spannering of my bike and helping with tyres, the best bike shop this side of the Severn, legendary stuff.

Strathpuffer; You guys are awesome, you know how to make an event hard!

All others; Whether it be the van, the lights or the list of things we borrowed and broke, I thank you all, the victory couldn’t have happened without you.

Thanks for reading,

Jack