The Strathpuffer
An Ice Start to the New Year
Marty Lee / 24.01.2008
The middle of January, in the Northern hemisphere, poses some interesting challenges for both the organisers of a 24 hour race and also for the poor (possibly unsuspecting) competitors. This year the Strathpuffer 24 hour mountain bike event threw curve balls galore at all concerned.Things started badly on Friday 18th; the event marquee was raised to the ground by the storm force winds, which led to concerns about using the same location as an event base and camp site for the competitors.
Alternative arrangements were made to use the local shinty ground as a temporary campsite; this came complete with rock hard frozen ground, or axle deep mud - you pick where you want to pitch your tent and try to drive your car. For a supposedly mtb-only event, certain other skills were already being drawn upon. If we had charged money for the number of cars we helped out of the mud, I would be in the Bahamas right now.
Saturday morning started with a briefing - the start would be delayed by an hour (to 11am), to allow the competitors to get into the original event site. All sounded well and the wind had certainly dropped through the night.
The event field was not without it's own challenges; the entry to it was very waterlogged, requiring a tractor to pull cars, vans, motor homes and even 4wd's onto the site. Slow progress was made even more challenging by one of the motor homes breaking down and effectively blocking the access road.
A number of competitors were stuck behind it, and with the race start fast approaching; the organisers offered no relief in the start time. Teams had to empty cars by hand and carry belongings about 1/4 mile into the event through the deep mud. Not the best pre-race preparation. Bad for teams, crippling for solo entries.
To the race itself the 160+ riders had an initial 200m dash to the start to find their bikes, then they could start the course itself. Reports on the web mentioned that parts of the course had ice, but I don't think many people imagined quite what lay ahead for them. If you still think this was an mtb-only event, think again.
The course started on a tarmac road up a hill; the road was 90% covered in ice, leaving a slim path at either side; half in the bushes. Once you got to the top of the first hill, you turned sharp left up a rough track, also covered in ice. Once this levelled out, you were on what should have been a cinder track, but it was covered entirely in thick ice. Getting some kind of idea that ice might be involved ... ?
When our first team member returned after his lap, he described it with a fantastic metaphor - 'it was like watching clown school'. The people trying to ride on the ice just kept losing the bike from under them; once they stopped sliding, they tried to stand up, and fell again, with arms and legs whirling all over the place. All that was missing was red noses and flowers that squirted water; although this might have been the original cause of all of the ice ... maybe not ...See All Event Posts
