Relentless 24 hour, what can I say? Totally blown away would be a good description; wouldn’t tell you what happened but would aptly describe the way I felt as I lay me head down to sleep in a hotel on the M6 sometime that evening after the race!
To my mind several things happened this past weekend: Josh took a massive leap forward, Dave took on an impossible situation and made it look easy, I found what could possibly be one of my favourite places on the whole planet, and we had a cracking good time along the way.
My weekend started on the Friday as Zoe and myself hooked up with Mark, from Reset Films, for a day roaming the countryside to check-out various sections of The West Highland Way which is to be the venue for 7ds4 in the early part of my 2010 season. The whole place looks stunning and I wanted to just climb on my bike and start with the out-and-back there and then! I can’t wait to do the ride next season and I’m really looking forward to getting back up there in November to ride some sections and hopefully do a bit of filming at the same time. Mark is a great guy and we enjoyed rolling from point to point and looking at the trail and other highlights along the way - a distillery and salmon leaping up a waterfall amongst the highlights. The day went too fast but Mark told us he was going to come up to join us at Relentless which made the whole weekend even better.
The next day we were up bright and breezy to meet the boys and set everything up for their race. Dave was looking for his first podium and Josh was set for his 24 hour debut. It’s been a long time coming but the anticipation was worth it, more of that in a bit. Rich was also on-hand to help with pit duties but managed to get an hour out on the trail as part of his first week back into training. He looked awesome in his Masters 24 Hour World Champions jersey which made me very proud of his efforts this season. Been moving his way up the ranks steadily but set all his eggs in the Worlds basket this season and reeped the reward.
The boys both knew what they had to do and looked very calm before the start. Ready for business in the mountains - good work lads! Everyone looked rock-solid and with Jo there to back Dave and Tim to support his son Josh I felt a bit redundant. Mark soon put an end to that when he turned up, wired me for sound and gave me the second camera to gather pit footage of the boys in action, nice one.
Dave had a plan, Josh had a plan, we all knew what we needed to do. The hooter sounded and the race was on; both our boys got away cleanly and came round lap one in the top 6 perfectly placed. I watched each soloist as they passed each lap and predicted when they would fall off the pace. Shame Ladbrooks weren’t on-hand to take my bets as I would have made enough to cover next seasons budget!
Both the boys rode perfect races. Josh looked like a Pro and you could have thought he’d been doing this all his life not that this was his first solo 24. I was very impressed and can say without a doubt that it was the best debut 24 solo I have ever had the priviledge to be a witness to. Dave wasn’t happy afterwards, feeling that it was his worst ever performance, but I think he is, as many of us are, way too hard on himself. I don’t think I would have finished if I’d had to overcome his woes leading into this race. The guy is as hard as they come.
Zoe was in charge of nutrition. I don’t think any other person has had such an impact on the performance of our team, awesome. Jo and Tim worked tirelessly (and took quite a bit of stick - Jo more that Tim - from their athletes) and made a massive impression on the outcome of the race. Rich and Mark both helped a lot more than they needed too and also managed to keep me out of trouble and in the mix. All-round a great team.
The final result was Josh 1st and Dave 2nd in the Senior mens solo, you couldn’t ask for much more could you? An absolutely amazing weekend, with a great bunch of people and set amongst one of the most beautiful places in the country. I’ll be back next year without a doubt.
