The first race of the year is usually the one that hammers home the point that I am simply not fit enough. Muckmedden’s ‘6 Hour’ kept that tradition going in fine form. Six hours of endurance cross-country riding is perhaps not the best thing to do on minimal training and on a 30lb all-mountain bike. Alas, that was all the legs and stable would offer, so away we went. I say we, I wasn’t daft enough to race the six hours solo. Not this time anyway. I’d be racing in a mixed pair with Fort William stoker, Miss Becky Hyde.
The venue for the 6 Hour would be Pitmedden Forest, long renowned for its technical singletrack that creates a rabbits’ warren of trails that cover the forest. In some parts of the forest, tall Scots Pines offer open, flowy trails before diving into the darkness of the plantation that offers a more claustrophobic ride. What isn’t immediately apparent is the altitude change. None of the climbs are particularly long or drawn out, very few even on fire road. The painful drag up from the bottom fire road was a necessary evil in order to create ‘The Fifth Rule Climb’ and the most excellent descent that followed. On my final lap, I enjoyed a fast game of cat and mouse with ERC/Cube Bikes machine Rory Downie, who informed me that his Garmin was showing over 1400m of climbing after 6 of his 8 laps. My pitiful count of 3 laps would still see me pushing past the 700m mark.
So, with energy drink and food down my neck, I avoided stretching for the first, mass start lap. This would prove to be my undoing as the race went on, as would leaving my gels at home… Led out by a trials motorbike, everyone piled in behind on the first, longer drag up the fire road. The second lap would take in much more singletrack, the fire road being used to string everyone out. Soon we’d all be overheating as the sun showed its face for what seemed like the first time this year before we all shot off into some dark, twisted plantation trees for our first dose of singletrack. It was here the first lap became somewhat of a procession, fairly standard at a mass start race, but the first descent, freshly cut, allowed me to explore some line creativity to make some places up. It was on these freshly cut sections where the XC race whippet bike wasn’t so good, the Saracen Ariel on the other hand… The first fully natural section would begin to show more rock and root as the race went on, and thankfully, had fewer bikes and bodies littered about the shop on my next two laps. A short, flat gallop along a terrace brought everyone to a sharp, greasy plummet onto the fire road. Again, for the opening lap, this was made considerably more exciting by the amount of riders trying to negotiate it.
After getting the dropper up again and fighting the chain back up the cassette, we spun along past the feed station and the quarry before delving into the woods once again. Here line choice wasn’t really a factor but confident bike handling allowed for easy speed between the gentle, pine-needle softened climbs. Midway through this section we were offered two lines by the marshals. Stay straight after a short, sharp climb and hammer the rocks, off a drop that gave you your first taste of real speed on course. A longer, easier ‘chicken’ line didn’t even get a look in.
From here, the lap was where you really needed solid legs. Either flat or uphill, interspersed with moments of freewheeling, but never with the seat down, or the gears more than halfway down the cassette. Snaking singletrack wound its way through felled brash that required you stay on your toes. Lower down, a short descent had you dropping steeply into a river twice, both times requiring you to winch yourself out. Out of the last river crossing, you would be saddle up for some time. Hairpins brought you lazily onto another terrace, before climbing again to the first fire road we rode up. We would be turning up and off the fire road away from the start/finish and onto more root-infested singletrack, with short, punchy climbs that really turned the knife as cramp kicked in later in the day. A short, easy descent then brought led to ‘The Fifth Rule Climb’. The name clearly referring to the Velominati ‘Rule #5’, look it up. This was a long, straight climb through plantation rows up a long, steep face. As riders climbed out of the trees, spray paint indicated that the suffering was ‘Not Over Yet’. Two sharp, greasy punches of climbs took everything you had left. Yet, I’m happy to report I was one of only five to clean that climb in the race. I tried twice more and got very, very close… Alas.
It was at the breathless peak of the ‘Fifth Rule’ that the fun really began and I started turning the wick. Knowing my climbing pace was too much of an amble, I promised myself to hit the descents as fast as possible. A steep pitch with a sharp chicane at the bottom was dispatched with vigour, preceded on every lap by a shout of ‘rider’ to warn a floundering XC whippet. Out of the chicane, another steep pitch brought you onto a fire road before launching off into what could only be described as a short downhill track. Beautiful sweeping turns became progressively more whooped out as the day went on, but grip was superb and I was feeling good. Feeling good until I hit the bottom fire road, knowing full well I’d need to climb all the height I’d just lost…
Overall a fantastic course to race, superbly organised and under a rare March sun. Rain stayed off most of the day, and it was great fun to exchange excited stories of the lap just smashed as me and Becky swapped our timing chip over. When the dust had settled, we’d have done 7 laps in a time of 6:48.17 putting us 3rd in the Pairs 40-59 Combined Age category. Neither of us were expecting that as the cramp reared its ugly head, and props to Becky for going straight out for another, her 4th lap, when my legs wouldn’t play ball.
Martin Graham was the fastest overall solo, smashing his way around the forest to tally 9 laps in just over 6 hours. What a beast! Local lad and Scottish XC and CX champ Conner Johnstone managed 8 laps in 6 hours on the button, also taking the fastest lap in a ridiculous 34 minutes 42 seconds, a full 17 minutes faster than our fastest lap… Amy Hickman was fastest solo female with 7 laps in 6 hours 57 minutes, and fastest pair overall we David Glover and David McCulloch who hit the 9 lap mark in 6 hours 11 minutes.
A racier bike and some stronger legs will hopefully see us higher up the podium next year!
All photos courtesy of Ian Potter (www.pkperspective.co.uk)
