Lynne Coldray Wins 10hr solo & Our Mixed team come 2nd at The Cheddar Off road Enduro

Milton Keynes had a fantastic weekend at The Cheddard Bike Fest with me winning the solo and the mixed team of Simon Cannings, Chris Smith, Ceri Dipple and Alan Coldray comming in 2nd in their category

It was my my first ever Off Road solo event and what a one to pick, what it lacked in distance (2.3 mile laps) it made up for in climbing over 180 m per lap with some very technical down hills. I wasn't sure how I was going to manage for such a long time peddling off road particularly after the guy's had described the course to me.

The race started in perfect conditions  but looked like something out of a Benny Hill show with a Le Mans style start round the BMX track!! As ever the first lap was rather stop and start with so much single track climbing and decending however things soon settled down, I was bizzarly enjoying the course, the ups were manageable and the downs fun. I led the category from the off andwas still leading after a couple of hours, feeling under pressure as second and third were only minutes behind the race got tactical, I was taking very short stops to eat, change bottles and lube my chain every 3 to 4 laps, however what really helped was the superb support I had, Katherine being there to provide me with gels, bars, time checks and general encouragement plus the support I got from other riders and the crowd it was amazing (emotional at times) as the race progressed I started pulling away from 2nd and 3rd,  finally finishing 1 lap and 11 mins ahead after completing only 53 miles but with 4008m climbing in 9hrs 31 mins. If I had raced in the mens category I would have come 10th! A really great result however I don't think the start of a solo career.

The mixed team had a very close exciting race they were 6th after the first 2 laps but soon climbed into 3rd place after some great racing, they were continually swopping between 2nd & 3rd, so they had to do some thinking and move the riding order around to get some quick laps in, both Simon and Alan came a cropper sprinting around! At one point Simon flw past me only for me to overtake him as he was picking himself out of a ditch! Tactics changed from double laps to single laps until Alan missed the change over due to Ceri putting in a brilliant time, so she did two great laps.

It was Back to double laps for a bit. Simon was flying along now we had a job to stop him they carried on like this for a while all putting in great performances

Then as the darkness came they were only 1 min 30 seconds ahead of 3rd so again Simon was called upon (he doesn`t like night laps!) who flew around,the 3rd place team sent out their best rider he stole a minute back but we had stuck to 2nd place.

They finished 2nd by 30 seconds, a great effort in a 10 hour event, well done to all Chris, Simon, Ceri and Alan.

However special thanks goes to  Katherine for her help & support and to Holly (the dog) for cleaning all our waste food from the floor.

Certainly an event to recommend for next year.