Ruthin Merida

Sunday saw the start of the Ruthin Merida, a mountain biking 'enduro' event in the Clwydian hills in Wales. You can do 25, 50, 75 or 100km on a marked course. I'd entered the 100 in an attempt to tick off one of my biking goals this year - a 100km enduro on the singlespeed.

1000 of us set of in a bunch at 9:30 (after obediently dipping our wheels in the disinfectant bath, foot and mouth having popped up again in Surrey or somewhere). Me and Wayne took a leisurely start at the back of the bunch, both intending to do a steady singlespeedy and relax into the ride. The first climbs and narrowings resulted in a 20 minute jam, and riding snailspace up steep roads is hard when you haven't got a low gear. Things got moving, eventually.

I felt pretty rough for the first half, and even considered cutting short onto the 50 or 75km, I've had a cold for a few days. I switched my brain off as best I could and just plodded on. Wayne had pulled away into the distance after an hour or so. The trails were a mix of forest tracks, moorland singletrack and grassy drags, with a real surfeit of climbing, 3000m of it. Just as I had got my head around this being a bit of a grim ordeal, I started to feel better and picked up the pace a little. After an hour or so I caught Wayne, stood at the side of the trail waving his arms up and down. He'd got a singlespeeders cramp, the muscles on his shoulder blades had seized after too much hauling on the bars on the interminable climbs.

We rode the rest together, and finished smiling, after 6:45. Nick Craig did about 4:30 :o)