Red Bull Mountain Mayhem 2002
Full results can be found here and some selected photographs here
Thought I'd write some stuff about the Red Bull, just so y'all know exactly what it was that thirteen of us were daft enough to put ourselves through last weekend. I should point out that this is the longest email I've ever written in my life, if anyone makes it though to the end I'll buy them a lolly or something :-)
For those who don't know, the Red Bull Mountain Mayhem is an annual 24 hour relay race, in which teams of 4 or 5 riders aim to complete the maximum possible number of laps. It's the single most popular mountain biking event in the UK and typically the event's full within a day or so of entry forms becoming available. It's also the only event around where plebs like us get to mix it with pro riders like the Giant World Team. With a combination of good luck and excellent organisation (cheers Andy) we'd managed to beat the rush and get two Cambridge teams in for this years event. Also racing would be a CUCC old boys team. What follows is my particular version of the events of last weekend - most of it's probably true, albeit in a highly distorted, sleep deprived kind of way. Corrections/slaggings off welcome, as ever.
Tim and myself arrived at the site (Sandwell Park, nr Birmingham) around 11am on the day of the event. The sun was shining, the birds might well have been singing and everything was generally going pretty well. The others had arrived on the Friday afternoon and were out pre-riding the course, but we found base camp easily enough courtesy of the giant Specialized parasols (for want of a better word) we'd been told to look for. It turns out that the old boys team was competing as a five, with Carole from Specialized UK riding with them. She'd brought an unfeasibly large amount of Specialized kit with her including the aforementioned parasols, the team van and numerous sets of team kit - all of which gave us the comforting feeling of belonging to Team Specialized.
After a couple of extremely quick hours spent faffing, 2pm duly arrived and the race was on! The first riders to go had a short run to contend with before riding the course proper. Both Andy and Danny had blinding starts for CUCC, and after the run and first lap the A team appeared to be in the top 20 overall! This wasn't to last long however, as it was my lap next :-) The course itself was approx 10 miles long, and mercifully it wasn't particularly bumpy or technical. It was mostly really fast, with only a couple of slogs through rutted fields to spoil the fun. After one lap, 24 hours seemed like it was going to pass pretty quickly...
In a blink of an eye, we'd all completed a couple of laps each and it was time to think about sleeping and the dreaded night laps. By this stage, CUCC A were sitting comfortably in the top 20 of the Senior men's category, but CUCC B were slowly slipping down to the mid 40s, after a strong start. All was going well, in general - Tim's troublesome knee wasn't causing him undue grief, and Si was feeling alright having been under the weather for most of the previous week. The main thing about the night laps was the temperature - it might not have been that cold in absolute terms, but it felt freezing. It was about this time that the doubts started to creep in; my sleeping bag was so nice and warm, I was half asleep, knackered, and 2pm on Sunday seemed an age away. Still, we all duly rode our night laps, and were rewarded with a spectacular sunrise over Birmingham at maybe 4:30am or so.
As the morning progressed, the inevitable problems started to creep in. First up, something went amiss with the B team's planning and Dave wasn't woken up in time to do his lap - the result being frantic phone calls from the changeover area, and ultimately Bart having to ride another lap. Next, Si's illness finally caught up with him, and he was beginning to look decidedly ropey. All credit to him for turning out another couple of laps through the morning, despite looking as if he might keel over at any point. By 8 or 9am Tim's knee had given up the ghost, leaving just Andy and myself to finish the race off for the A team. For some reason I was feeling alright, and decided to put in (by my standards at least) a couple of pretty quick laps. It became obvious quite soon after that this was very silly indeed, as before I knew it Andy was back in and I had to go out yet again. This 12pm lap was just plain nasty - it didn't help to know that I'd have to go out at least one more time before the end. To make matters worse, I flatted with about 6 minutes of riding left on the lap, and elected to run the rest instead of fixing the puncture. By the time I'd reached the changeover area I was convinced I didn't have another lap left in me. Some wonderful moral support and mechanical assistance from the rest of the guys soon left me thinking differently, and when the time came I was able to ride again. The final lap seemed to last an eternity (and included another flat!) but sprint finishing in front of a crowd of maybe a thousand people felt great.
The results have been posted already so I'll not do it again. Suffice to say, we can now demonstrate to the Blues Committee that we're of a pretty good standard, so it's not impossible that Mountain Biking will one day become a half blue sport. Don't hold your breath, mind...
To sum up, then, the whole weekend was a fantastic experience. It wouldn't have been nearly as good without the contribution of loads of people, of whom there are far too many to mention. I've got a few personal thanks, though:
Bart - Top organisational skills, and a vat full of pasta salad. What more could you want?
Tim - Cheers for the lift, hope you got back OK and the knee's alright
Si - Sounds like you're better again, glad to hear it
Danny - Thanks for the loan of the wheel :-)
Carole - Super-helpful when I was struggling right at the end
Some bloke on the Mavic stand - Far too generous with his time and skills, much appreciated
Jon Ellis
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