Hi, I’m James, a new member to the Wiggle staff team.

I have dabbled in mountain bike racing in the last few years and this year focused on some serious training for longer endurance-type events, with one main target being the Original Source Mountain Mayhem.

I have been racing for Wiggle during the spring and summer in a number of short course and marathon events to build up some speed in the legs to add to base miles ridden mid-week.

My season started with a couple of rounds at the Brass Monkeys Enduro Series where I was joined by fellow colleague and staff rider Del to slog it out for 4 hours in sub-zero temperatures around frozen and fast woodland circuits. These races had a habit of thawing out halfway through creating some nice technical sections bathed in copious volumes of mud!

I was also riding straight after work, made possible by the fantastic Exposure MaXx-D Mk3 front light, enjoying totting up the mileage in what seemed like permanent darkness. When it was too icy to ride Tacx Antares rollers were a great way to work on a smooth pedal stroke.

Onto the first shorter races of the year found myself and three more Wiggle riders the “Banks brothers” and Del heading to the Reading area to compete in the Southern XC series. The first round was a very technical course, nearly all singletrack with a lot of technical climbing. This was the first time I had ridden my hardtail since November 2010 and it showed – crashing twice on the first lap losing a lot of places. I tried not to panic and paced myself steadily back into the race, eventually finishing 4th.

The next round was also the Southern Champs so a lot of fast riders were present for the days events. This time I was gridded so there was a frantic sprint up a long paved drive to get into the rough stuff first. After a very bumpy ride on the hardtail I placed 6th.

From here I was concentrating on mileage for the Bristol Bike Fest 12 hour (done as 3-man team with Shane and Leigh) followed by the Mountain Mayhem 2 weeks later. The Bike Fest was an awesome race with newly built singletrack and blazing heat to keep us warm! We started strongly on a one-lap-each basis and ended up amassing a total of 27 earning 7th place in the 4 man category. At this race I tested my Mayhem nutrition, based around the High 5 4:1 EnergySource for drinking and Torq gels whilst waiting between laps. I have found these options a great way to keep energised as they are not too sickly and a lot more palatable than other energy products I have used in the past.

Onto the Mayhem.

For this race I was joined by Ham, one of the Wiggle mechanics, who had agreed to act as my race support during the solo event. On arrival we set up camp and got an early night in anticipation of the race ahead.

The race starts with a Lemans run and I sprinted hard from the gun with the intention of getting aware cleanly on the bike. I managed a top five position as I entered the arena surreally beaten by a man clad in a full business suit – what a run!

For this event I was supplied with a Focus Super Bud 3.0 full suspension bike. Setting up the bike we decided to stick with some 1.8” mud tyres and this proved to be a good choice as parts of the course were extremely slick with a thin film of mud. The bike performed so well on this surface, thanks to its wide riser bar and dialled in shock, really allowing me to let loose on the descents and dig into the corners on the slippery stuff. I tried the hardtail out for one lap, really suffering on the rutted descents and tight singletrack jumping straight back on the focus at the first opportunity.

I hopped on the bike and tentatively began the race, running really does hurt! I found it hard to get into a rhythm over maybe the first 5 laps but Ham kept me on course, reloading my food and drink every lap and very rapid service on the bike whenever necessary! Around 1 AM I completely went into Zombie-zone rolling into the pits thinking I couldn’t go on. I rolled into a sleeping back under a wooden table and conked out. About 2.20 AM Ham woke me and somehow convinced me I wanted to be back out there! Strapping a wondrously bright 1800 Lumen Exposure Six Pack light to the bike he released me back into the darkness with a few unintelligible grunts about how dark it was from me.

Dawn soon broke and I was lapping more consistently into the last third of the race. The crowds gathered as 24 hours came to a close and as I felt the finish post arriving I dug deep and put in 2 of my fastest laps. Sadly it was not quite enough to regain any places a lost during the night but was very happy to finish in 8th, riding 17 laps and covering a distance of 170 miles. Ant White took an outstanding win with 21 laps!

I must thank everyone at Wiggle for allowing me to race for the team and for the spare bits of kit they were willing to let me use/abuse and also Ham for keeping my spinning the whole distance. Next up for me are some more enduros in the Autumn and a little 1200 mile ride to the Alps and back in July… See you there!