Mountain Mayhem 24-Hour is one of the most high profile and well attended endurance mountain bike races on the annual calendar with over 2500 competitors taking part. This year Team JMC was represented by two solo riders, a men’s vets quad team and a women’s vets quad team. Based at Eastnor Castle just outside of Ledbury in Herefordshire, the race is notorious for its challenging muddy course if the weather turns wet and this year it outdid itself with the worst riding conditions anyone can recall.  The 10-mile lap started out being just about OK but soon turned into a boggy mess once the course was chewed up by the riders and the rain continued to fall.  Bad news for people in teams – disastrous for those racing solo.

Dave Powell and Jason Miles both entered as solo riders with Dave taking 9th place overall and Jason taking 4th place in the single-speed category.  A top effort from Jason bearing in mind he was riding a (totally inappropriate but great fun) prototype On-One fat bike.  Dave was running in 1st place until the conditions destroyed his motivation to continue after around 12 hours.

Our women’s vets team comprising Sally Burgess, Rachael Eaton, Debbie Miles and Jacqui Simcock – with both Rachael and Debbie having their first ever experience of mountain bike racing – finished in a very creditable 6th in category.

Our men’s vets team comprising Andrew Burgess, Phil Simcock, Lee Eaton and Andy Watson exceeded their own expectations with an excellent 2nd in the vets  class and 6th in the overall open class.

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All photos supplied by Harry Burgess.