I've had a filthy cold and been off the bike for almost 3 weeks (last night was my 2nd ride since the man-flu) although I'll still be going but have no realistic expectations about being able to complete more than 10-12hrs riding now.
Which is a shame as I had hoped for and trained with 17hrs (or more?) in mind.

Terrahawk and Twinkleydave of this parish are going. I wouldn't be too surprised to see them on the podium (missus).
Would it not have been a idea to train with 24hrs in mind from the off? 😀

Who spends 24hrs non-stop cycling?
That's plain silly.
Even the professionals have to stop to eat / loo.
It will be interesting to see just how many laps some of these guys can do as the list (minus Rob Lee) looks like a who's who of endurance riding:
• Rob Dean (Leisure Lakes)
• Mike Hall
• Steve Heading (Whytbe Bikes UK)
• Rory Hitchens (Exposure Lights/USE)
• Josh Ibbett (Syncros Endurance)
• James Leavesley (Genesis Bikes)
• Ian Leitch (
• Matt Page (Wiggle/Focus/Exposure Lights)
• Iain Payne
• Rich Rothwell
• Ant White (Exposure/KCNC/Skins/Mt Zoom Zoom)

And as you say, Twinkley Dave plus others not listed above will be out for a podium.
Should be interesting!

7 hours eating and crapping then.
It'll be a toughie though from what I've heard about the course.

What have you heard about the course as the Red route at Newcastleton is not tough.
I know they've extended it down to Rock UK with some new single track & that we're to have our names called out one at a time before being led out onto the course from Newcastleton.

Who spends 24hrs non-stop cycling?
That's plain silly.
Even the professionals have to stop to eat / loo.

Is that true? Okay, they might need to stop for 5 minutes for a dump at some point, but I'm sure when I did mountain mayhem solo, the good guys were getting most of their eating done on the bike – they had people passing them out bags of food each lap, and just kept going. Certainly nothing like 7 hours of stopping for them.

Joe

It would be very naive to assume everyone doing a 24hr solo event intends to spend all the 24hrs on a bike.
Witness last w/end's Clic24 for a perfect example of a relaxed 24hr event.
No one has to spend 24hrs on the bike, you ride as many laps as you can personally manage.
You pay your dues and ride.

Yep, will be poppin' my solo cherry, not done a whole lot of training so going for the pedal and see what happens approach 🙄

Please watch 24Solo if you haven't already; the top guys do actually spend 24 hours riding their bikes

Who spends 24hrs non-stop cycling?
That's plain silly.

yep. That'd be bloody stupid wouldn't it.

I favour the "ride fast for 10hrs, die, go to bed clutching a cheeseburger" style of 24hr racing. I'm good at that. 😀

Thought I might put in a sighting lap, take some pictures, have a meal and get an early night.
Sunday morning I'll review the weather situation but rather fancy popping into Newcastleton on the bike for the papers and breakfast at The Grapes Hotel.
All jolly good fun.

I'll be somewhere near the very back of the field. I've only ever done two 24s before, and i definitely won't be riding non stop for the full 24!
Hopefully i wont get in the way of the fast guys too much.
Off for my final "training" ride now.

I'm coming out to play!

Asuming my new bike's all ready to roll of course. With a week to go should I be concerned? Hmm…..

I'm a long way from "the professionals" and my computer told me I didn't actually stop for the first 8hrs of the last 24 I did (rolling pit stops, hell yeah!) there was then some stopping to fit lights, a few <20second stops for water & food between rolling stops and few stops on the course to have a wee and a single, 4min, stop for a brief leg rub and to settle a very nauseous stomach when I was at my absolute lowest point. And I'm just a doing-it-for-fun-ist!

If you want to see how it's done, watch 224 Solo. The guy who won, now he knows how to push himself and we can all learn a lesson about what being really tired is from him!

Can't wait, everyone should have a crack at one of these. The competitor list is pretty intensely fierce though, just a top 10 finish is going to be super hard, and there's podium talk up there!

Rob

The Olive Tree Café
This is a good place to grab 1/2 an hour if you want to chill.

Last ride will be Wednesday I think.
Put almost no miles in for 4 weeks now, so I'll be the back marker. I'd like to ride the 121 km Bucksoffroadsportive tomorrow (Sunday) but instead I'm photographing it. Ditto Clic24 last w/end.

Even the professionals have to stop to eat / loo.

You're joking right? The top guys may have 30 minutes stopped cumulatively, at most! 24 Solo is definitely a good watch, as others say, it really does put things into perspective regarding how hard you can push yourself!

Sorry fellows, the last place is mine.

I've been training hard for it by doing nothing, and now I've managed to get a 4" slash in the back of my left thigh. It hurts to pedal. How far are you prepared to go for the lantern rouge? 🙂

I'll be there, trying not to think about it as I'm scared!

I'm really looking forward to it.

Even the professionals have to stop to eat / loo.

Not true. Eating on the bike is easy, as is grabbing food & having a pee is possible on the bike. I don't think I was actually stopped for more than 5 minute in total at Mayhem last year and that would be for things like putting on lights where I had to stop. Given the choice I would not have stopped at all.

if you want to do well, don't stop. at least not for long (definitely don't go to the shops/to bed/to the pub). As long as you keep going you'll do ok.

keep going reasonably fast and you'll do very well. Or you'll die on your ass. Either way, you'll have got your money's worth.

I've never understood the 'ride a bit then have a big long break' strategy.

whoop, me and a mate are doing it. Did a solo in 2006 but did crap and I was fit then. Not expecting much from myself, just wanted something silly to do to 'celebrate' finishing uni. Should be good 🙂

I try to keep riding thru' … at a speed that looks like i've entered a track-stand comp. I defo have to have breaks for a sit-down meal or 3 though. Its planning these meals that keeps me going.

Myself and Anthony from on here are going although i'm just coming as driver/support/cook and to soak up the atmosphere of the event as it will be my first ever MTB event 😀 I'm bringing my bike too and hoping to pop out for a couple of hours riding somewhere out of the way 😀 Anyone got any ideas of where i could go?

if i could get the time off i'd enter as well but i cant. Shame, think i could of done quite well

Clearly a gulf between the elite riders, be they 24 endurance riders or the sorter courses & us others.

I've spend far too long with colds and a swollen knee in 2010 – to the point I almost didn't bother as it's a long old drive north.

Since the beginning of May it's not been good news either, so I'll honour the contract I have with the people who have been generous by sponsoring me (there was a built in caveat allowing me to choose the Kielder 100 over the 24hr solo if I needed to) as I'm raising £ for The Alzheimer’s Society.

Looking forward to it now as I have few expectations, whereas before I wanted as much time on the bike as I could manage. Now I’ll enjoy myself a little more. No support crew either as I stood them down 4 weeks ago so today was the BIG Tescos shop.

I will be there for my second crack at 24 solo. The first, at Sleepless last year, ended with me blowing up after 14 hours so I'm hoping to go the distance this time. Other than that I have no aspirations I am just doing it for the challenge and the experience. I would say fun, but that tends to take a few days 😆

Does anyone have any more info about the course such as a map or gradient profile?

It's based on the Red route but they've built single track down to the UK2 Rock setup.

It's part of a push to promote this particular 7 Stane. As it stands, the trail head is remote from the town, by maybe 2 miles as the crow flys, something that's being directly addressed. You could consider this phase 1 of a 2 phase plan. In time, they business group will be building trails down to the town so that riders can base themselves in the town & so use the facilities that Newcastleton provides. I think they witnessed just how successful the Montane Kielder 100 became almost overnight and SIP Events were able to offer up a solution. Clever, eh?

Apparently there's a really steep hill that might cause a problem for non-4×4 vehicles that are towing caravans…like wot I've got.
So if anyone sees a grey Passat estate trying to drag a caravan up a 1 in 3 scree slope, giz a push 😉

I assume this is also the tarmac road that runs up to both the trail head and the Rock UK set up.

Ergo, it's the same road that we will be led out of the town on inorder to get all the riders up to the trail proper.

don't worry. I won't leave my caravan in the way.

Ive opened a book on it, knowing what Passats are like!

I rang VW's main 0345 line 2 weeks ago about a recall notice, "Which Passat?" was all she asked. Not which VW, nor even who was calling!

The weather look good. Dry if a little overcast for the whole week.