CHEDDAR BIKE FEST 2009

The Kona Cheddar Bike Fest was another very successful event for The Bike Mechanic Team which brought a few more podium places to finish the season on a high!

Results are as follows:

Huw : 3rd place in the 10-hour men's solo category
Anne : 2nd in the 10-hour women's solo category
Mark : 6th in the 10-hour men's solo category

Also riding for The Bike Mechanic Team this weekend were Zoe Frogbrook, who won the Women's Pairs category, and Scott Hodgskin, coming 10th in the Men's Pairs category. Hopefully they'll agree to ride for us on a permanent basis next year.

Full results can be found on TimeLaps.

Unfortunately Mark was put into the Men's Open Category at the last minute due to a lack of entries for the singlespeed category. Considering the gruelling course, the conditions, and being up against 28 other riders with a full compliment of gears, his 6th position is pretty amazing!

The course was as fun, but as tough as ever. I completed 26 laps, which amounted to 100km and 4,400m of ascent. The hot and sunny weather also added to the challenging conditions this year. I started off strong and was completing each lap in under 20 minutes, probably too fast as usual, but I felt comfortable. I had the pleasure of riding with Dave Buchanan from the Ironhorse-Extreme Race Team for the first 5 hours or so, and we were happily keeping pace and chatting with each other. Dave unfortunately dropped back and eventually had to call it a day, having not fully recovered from his previous 12-hour solo at the 12:12 TORQ in your sleep event just a couple of weeks ago.

After that I was alone, but was happily lapping consistently. The hot conditions and gruelling course started to take its toll however and I started struggling to keep motivation and my pace through the middle third of the race....

....enter the posse of riders and my support I had waiting for me in the pit area after each lap. A massive thanks to my wife Louisa, and Kim, who kept me topped up with liquids and food after each lap, and to Anne, Mark, Zoe and Scott when they weren't riding themselves. Special thanks go to Dave and Jo for staying with us and giving me encouragement, advice, updates on my position, and sometimes outright bullying (just kidding), to keep me going! I wouldn't have been able to finish without you all.

So a great finish to my, and the team's, season, which we can only hope to build on for next year!