SSUK

Last weekend was my best mates chance to shine: Matt Page and his Fiance, Nia, had spent the last few months burning the midnight oil in an attempt to organise the Single Speed Uk Champs. They were helped on this task by Andy (ex Trek Team 69er rider)who now works his magic at Hotlines. He, Andy, used to work with another close friend at MMA, who are one of my personal sponsors. It's a small world, isn't it?

So on Friday night a group of us, including Jo, pulled up at a farm near Llandovery and set about having one of the best weekends we've ever had. The group we were with was the old faithful bunch of lads and lasses from Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. This is a "crew" of Professionals from all walks of life (which includes some of the fastest riders in Britain) who's main aim is to mountain bike, enjoy it, and to support friends and their families through anything that they may need help on: Somebody moves house and half of the crew will help. Somebody decides that they have a cupboard full of beer that needs drinking? You got it; we are a sociable and supportive bunch.

These folks are very important to me, and I think it's fair to say that we all feel the same way about the group.

I'm going to cry! :)

So, we all got drunk on Friday night.

It was our job to wear the Morvello t-shirts designed for the marshalls at this event. You could tell that we were marshalls because they were a very distinctive bright green with the words "Responsible(ish) Adult" emblazoned on the back.

Huw and I went for a ride around the moorland for a couple of hours before he race and at one point we stopped because I was coughing so much I nearly barfed. Huw looked worried, but then we realised that we had done a 2hr route as done the previous day in the dry in 1.5hrs when it had rained all night. We got carried away, my throat played up a bit, and then we descended back to the arena to prepare for our responsible(ish) duties.

We got farmed out to our marshalling positions after arranging some bikes (hiding them) to make the start more exciting. Singlespeeders expect this (and beer) during a race. Nutters.

I did, however, find a bike that had gears that weren't disabled and took a little delight in the fact that when I had finished with it, the guy could be seen struggling to get it safely out a trackside tree as all of the others came by on their "Le Mans" start.

SSUK 2010 Start Line Carnage from Rob Khoo on Vimeo.

The racing started, and it was great to watch. Mark Spratt, Melanie Alexander (Spratt), Rich Lansdowne (Scamp), Pippa Lansdowne and lots of others that we knew raced like their lives depended on it, and got the results to show for it. Only 2 people climbed the "Climb", and only one of those managed it twice (Mark Spratt). Rich Lansdowne was the other. The above are all members of our local group.

Johnny Pugh (KCNC) pushed until he had a good lead and seemed to really flow on the downhill (which is great fun). Mel won the Womens race and Pip was 2nd.

Simon Smith, however, road past asking for more beer! (local group member- raise eyebrows and sigh)

Afterwards, we all got drunk again, and ate more of the good food in the "Drop Off Cafe Bus."

As I was getting slowly enebriated, with Huw, we watched as Jo, Mark, Pip, Scooby and Scamp (Rich) all played on the Tug O' War in a couple of teams. I honestly didn't think that I would enjoy this, but 10minutes into it and I was joining with all of the shouting and cheering coming from the throngs gathered around. It seemed that the whole campsite had come to watch.

How can a bit of rope do this to people?

The best fun we've had at an event for years, or ever, in fact.

Well done Matt and Nia. It was a real treat.