‘I’ll never do the Puffer’… words I once uttered. Turns out its actually pretty good…

Previous reluctance to do the Strathpuffer 24 was mainly as it was such a long way away and I could almost get to Finale 24 in the same time in sunny Italy! The last year has been a bit brutal on many fronts and I will spare you the sob stories covering collarbone woes, a 3-month (and still going) twitchy eye from stress blah blah etc. With the year tipped on its head a bit due to the above I had just started to get some more consistent riding going in early autumn 2023 but without the prospect of a big goal on the horizon until well in to the following year I was a bit nervous I might then struggle to get properly back on the training waggon (which also helps me be better at life in general). So with the lack of my party trick event the 24-hour MTB race suffering thing in 2023 I even thought about the mental idea of some sort of self curated DIY solo 24-hour event where people just rock up and we set a GPX course and see who does the most laps counted by Strava or whatever. Clearly the stress had really gotten to me by this point if I thought that might be a good idea! So looking forward there was only option in 2024 – Strathpuffer 24 – that might scratch that ultra suffering itch. Perhaps not the greatest rationale to commit to but honestly I thought, well if there’s nothing else on I should see if I can get an entry!

Long term sponsors Exposure Lights came to the rescue and got me an entry and not longer after, from pointing out there wasn’t a UK 24hr MTB National Champs in the diary they also helped the organisers upgrade the race to champs status, whoop, some better motivation there I think. But now I had an entry I could only go if I could secure the essential pit crew needed to give it a proper go. 17 hours of darkness, January in North Scotland, not the most attractive proposition for a pit crew. MTB Epics co-organiser Vince stepped up after doing an awesome job at the Newnham 24/12 back in 2021 (my last 24 hour outing). A phone call to Team JMC head man Budge to firstly run by him my idea of a DIY 24-hour event (which he promptly told me was a ridiculous idea) merged in to seeing if he was planning to take any team setup to the Puffer and ended up in him agreeing to come up and support me amongst others, what a legend!

So entry and pit crew sorted. A lot of panic cleaning bikes and fixing them from total neglect in the run-up plus attempting to get some decent training onboard then followed. I was ill over Xmas including spending most of Xmas Day in bed and in and out for the next few days, not ideal prep. If the race was a week earlier I’m not sure I would have gone. Even the week before my heartrate was pretty elevated but we were all in by this point so it was a case of crack on. On the plus side I did lose 2kg through not being able to eat!

The predicted logistical faff was indeed a faff but aided massively by the Team JMC community plus Vince. The time away from home is mad as well so thanks to Sarah for understanding the need!

The setup at Puffer was a bit chaotic to start with as the mass of people trying to get the best spots on the trackside queued for quite a while at registration. After a long drive up on the Friday we realised we weren’t likely to get a large enough spot low-down near the start so we went to the top of the hill to ensure we had enough space for all the Team JMC racers and pit crew to be together – which was good for space but a bit isolated for the pit crew gang. As always there was a really good group of JMCers each with their own goals but all having a laugh together. It really is a great group of people, you should really get involved if you want to go to events and hang out with an amazingly supportive group.

Race time: After the usual hectic pre-race panic I got right to the front of the Le Mans style run, fully intending to go immediately backwards but a quick sprint to the bike and fast couple of inital laps saw me in and around the top 3. Despite the recent illnesses I felt decent and also my collarbone was working OK as well. The weight lost over Xmas certainly helped on the big long first climb!

The course was way more technical and physical than I thought. There wasn’t any proper ice but it was pretty muddy and cut up in places. An absolutely brilliant mix but super rough in places. Interesting to see a lot of enduro riders seem to enter this one and I can see why! I know people say about it not being a Puffer without ice but seriously, fuck that. Ice and collarbones are not a match made in heaven so I was glad it was just standard nails rather than nails hard plus ice of doom. We did have some snow at least to aid the purists sense of achievement towards the end.

The mud quickly became a factor in my race as despite some super slick bikes changes we had a bit of a miscommunication in the pits about lubing setup on the bikes which meant 10 minutes in to each lap I was getting a dry drive chain and horrible grinding noises which took a while to figure out and in the meantime had burned a hole in the amount of metal on my cogs. We sorted it out though which was music to my ears (literally). Having the pit crew to help with this sort of stuff was vital. However thrown into the mix was a rear mech explosion a few hours in after it somehow found a rock on the least rocky bit of the whole course. Jockey wheels, bolts and washers everywhere, I have no idea how I managed to stop in time to retrieve it all, bend it back together and carry on. I reckon it would have been an hour walk otherwise. My spirits took a bit of a dive at this point if I’m honest. Normally I’d be a bit more resilient in this sort of situation but for reasons I can’t yet fully explain the couple of bits of bad luck got to me and the enthusiasm waned. Vince and Budge did an amazing job of managing to fit a spare rear mech and get things working again despite their hatred of SRAM [Budge -it’s made of cheese]! My hardtail was bloody hard work though in the interim and my hands were suffering (just like everyone else’s of course). In all the bike swap chaos I missed grabbing a fresh bottle on two consecutive laps and had to stop at the marshal station for water which put me a bit behind in calories, adding to the self pity head space bonanza. My stomach was going well though and I’ve recently discovered adding some home brew energy mix to the Torq powder helps get a lot more calories in easily. When it started getting a bit tough mentally I actually had a sit down for a few minutes, which on stepping into the JMC pit was like stepping in to a warzone A&E department with a couple of other rider bodies in there looking worse for wear for various reasons. For anyone who knows my approach to 24-hour racing I probably haven’t sat down in one, and I mean at all, for one second since about ten years ago, so something was a bit different here, the Puffer is no joke!

Strangely though we plugged on through the night and I had some sense that I was still riding reasonably competitively. Everyone is suffering just as much remember. I loved the technicality and variety of the course and as always chatting to other people. The support up the first climb was like a party atmosphere, just brilliant. I didn’t quite feel that competitive buzz for some reason though and despite going OK I struggled to get the adrenaline going enough to really hurt myself as normal. On reflection one reason could have been that with the ridiculous challenges presented by last year it was hard to engage my head fully in the event and immerse myself.  Even just getting there and not being ill on the day felt like THE victory and perhaps completing the thing was just the aim rather than doing the whole thing trying to win. I can’t figure out yet if it’s because 24-hour racing doesn’t quite hold the same joy due to the sacrifices it now takes in the run-up, during and afterwards (more on the after in a bit). Is it worth it type questions?! Or whether it was just being a bit grumpy or something, who knows, answers on a postcard please. A few weeks later and the satisfaction is sinking in a bit more and I’ve pulled my head out of my arse a bit and I’m certainly feeling a lot more positive about how I rode.

Back to the racing…I was sandwiched in no mans land between 4th and 6th with an hour gap effectively each side so unusually for me I just sat up for the last couple of laps and held position as 5th seemed like a pretty decent result in the circumstances. I was also thinking a bit that I didn’t want to smash myself and return home after having taken all the time away to then be totally useless on return! In hindsight I really regret I wasn’t in the headspace to push hard for those last 6 hours where I can gain a real sense of satisfaction. I was actually nearly on the podium however unfortunately 3 out of 4 in front of me happened to be in my age category, ah well.

I should have realised at the start that my result was destiny though:

UK 24 Champs Palamares
2016 1st
2017 2nd
2018 3rd
2019 DNF (nerve damaged hand, was running 4th)
2020 Covid
2021 4th
2022 Did not attend
2023 Did not attend
2024 5th

Looking at the riders around me they were absolutely not messers with former champs and people putting in some serious training hours. My average of 10.5 hours a week including ebike commuting with the kids and a strength session to get 5th place is a bit bonkers really.  I’m speaking to Lee Eaton (my coach) about that at Advance Cycle Coaching as I’m not quite sure how the maths works around those numbers!

Massive thanks of course to the pit crew gang once again and sorry I was a bit miserable at times. My nerve damaged hand issue flared massively the night after and I had to get up every hour to shake it out and stop the horrible burning sensation. My finger tips are still numb so some more investigation work is needed there. I think some of the shorter races and who knows even some non-selfish pairs type racing could be interesting to mix things up this year amongst the event organising with MTB Epics.

Puffer bucket list ticked.