Kielder 100 Report

Photos courtesy of Amanda!

Some of you may have heard of this race, but as it's so far away I don't think anyone else from the club has ridden it. Here's a brief description:

The first edition of the K100 was held last year. It's a full on race, as opposed to a "non competitive" enduro. It takes place unsurprisingly within Kielder Forest, but also in the surrounding hills and moorland. The route crosses into Scotland, taking the riders into Newcastleton and the bike park there, before returning to Kielder proper. The route is mixture of purpose built bike trails, fire roads and high level bridlepaths in the hills. Unlike most enduros, it has just the one lap. Unlike most enduros, it's 100 miles, not KM, with about 13,000ft of climbing so it's pretty tough. There's also the small matter of an 800 mile round trip to get there! Amanda kindly kept me company for what would have been a very long few days.

In 2009 when I rode it, the weather had been dreadful all week leading up to the race, resulting in a very wet course with parts under a few feet of water. I finished with no brakes, as did most of the field due to the abrasive grit in the area. That time it took 9'15" to finish, so as you can imagine I was watching the weather forecast last week with some trepidation. This year proved to be a massive contrast. It had been dry all week in the area and we had good weather on the day, so only the course to contend with , not the weather. To ensure things weren't "too easy" for us, the organisers added more climbing to this year's event. This years' times were quicker but not massively.

We set off at 6:30 AM, all 700 of us with riders from as far as Australia and some top UK names (including 250 vets!) behind a pace car, road race style. It was quite civilised until it pulled over and the race began. The pace then went up to my all out one lap XC pace for the first 10 miles. The speed was ridiculous, but it did the trick, there was no bunching of riders by now, just a few dotted about in front and behind me. We formed constantly changing groups as people faded or got stronger. I was glad of the company of people like Ant White, Rich Rothwell, Dan Treby, Adrian Scott & co. Together we helped each other make pace over the next several hours, covering all sorts of diverse terrain from bogs (yes there were still a few) to board walks ( we crossed a bog where a JCB had sunk to its roof...)

By the time we reached halfway, things had really thinned out. I took care not to ride on my own to keep the pace up as much as possible, which really paid off. The group I was with gradually whittled down to me and Dan (5th 2010 solo rider at Mayhem on his single speed) who was pacing me up the climbs, with me leading out the descents. In the last 10 miles he was really suffering as he'd crashed very heavily and needed stitches. The course was unrelenting and had finished off a lot of the field. Stragglers were directed down cut off routes at the various check points if they were riding too slowly. 350 riders finished. The fastest time was Andrew Cockburn with a runaway time of 7'57", 15 minutes ahead of the next rider, with the last rider home at 14 hours.

For my part I got 2nd in the Vets category in 8'50" and 14th overall. Paul Ashby won the vets. He's a hugely strong rider who I've never managed to beat yet......but one day!

I would recommend the race to the club, if you are confident with long distances and climbing.