A Muddy Mountain Mayhem
Tim Lloyd / 05.07.2004
The new venue at Eastnor Castle Deer Park brought with it a very new experience for many of the riders whose previous Mountain Mayhem’s had been at the far tamer Sandwell Park. The new route was longer, hillier and far, far tougher than anything seen at previous events.
Heavy rain fell only 15 minutes into the race, and with thousands of bike wheels following the same course, the surface was soon churned into a slippery quagmire. Lap times were slowed as a result, with many riders finding it almost impossible to stay upright, even on their feet. For some, riding much of the 10.2 mile course was totally out of the question.
But for the top teams it was business as usual. The battle for the Elite Men’s race was close between Giant Racing and Evans Cycles A, with both lapping in very impressive times. Giant Racing got ahead by the finish though both did 25 full laps. The quickest lap time was by Oli Beckinsale of Scott/MBUK (48 mins 37 seconds), which helped his team to third place. In the Elite women’s race Giant Racing Technology were easy winners – 3 laps ahead of their nearest challengers.
Adventure Race athletes were represented throughout the categories, with team Saab Salomon/Orange battling hard for top spot in the Mixed team category against Pro bike team ‘Tomak’. Rob Jebb, Andy Pearce, Morgan Donnelly, Ben Bardsley, Helen Jackson managed 22 laps, just losing out to Tomak, but it was a great result against a pro team. Their second team also took 7th place with 19 laps.
Things were soon to take shape in the Solo category too, with Nat Ross and Jen O’Connor setting an impressive pace at the front of the field in the bad conditions. Nat was pressed hard by Jean-Claude Van Der Veken, but O’Connor was a class apart, setting the 4 fastest female solo times and winning by 3 laps.
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