The Manx End2End MTB Marathon Challenge took place on Sunday in challenging conditions, with Andrea ranking very highly in her first event of this type. Husband Paddy also finished well, happy to have finished at all given he had a broken front brake lever! Despite the blue sky and sunshine, conditions were very challenging with strong winds and extremely heavy and slippery ground after the preceding days of wet weather. This made an already gruelling event - full of beastly climbs, rocky descents, and any relatively flat ground being marshy - all the more brutal. The race had a record number of 1,359 riders on the starting list, and ended with a record finishing total of 1,002 competitors. The attrition rate is high, which is reflective of the ruthlessness of this event.
There is no let up in intensity from the very start of the End2End, with the potential for carnage extremely high given it's a mass start in a very narrow track at the Point of Ayre, the very north end of the Isle of Man. Wheel nudges are to be expected, as is the odd elbow, but these also occur on and off for the duration of the race too!
Riders and bikes were transported from Douglas, by bus and lorry, to the starting point. Andrea's bus was one of the last to get there, and so the challenge began……trying to battle from the back of the mass of eager riders, through a few hundred people, to get even a midway starting place!
Testosterone was flying and many male competitors clearly felt that females should have no place in the front half of the massive pack! Apart that is from Paddy, who was quite happy to start from the back and quite happy to send Andrea as far forward as she could get! By the time there was 2 minutes to go until the starting hooter, Andrea had worked her way up from the back to probably 600 people from the front. Ah well, at least it meant she could pick people off on the road section!
The 75 km route to the Calf Sound at the southern tip of the Isle of Man begins with a 20 km road section before 55 km of beastly off-road and mountains. Andrea decided to hammer the first 20 km, which in the first few km involved much more argy bargy than the starting area given the number of people cycling on a narrow road. From the start she found much amusement in guys struggling with the idea of a girl overtaking them. The End2End was Andrea's debut extreme MTB race, and she quickly began to think there is much more testosterone flying about amongst MTBers than amongst road bikers, adventure racers or triathletes.
The Ding Dong shorts also attracted much less attention in this hardcore MTB event than in other events. One guy shouted the slogan out as Andrea passed him just 1 km into the race – and then shouted Ding Dong and cheered her on in the finishing straight a few hours later. There was one other instance of it being said, but that was it.
Rather than focus on the Ding Dong, much of the attention in the road section appeared to be on guys trying to retake the lead from Andrea once she passed them. But more often than not they relinquished the lead again, as Andrea kept a constant pace, and they realised that she was riding at a high speed that she could sustain for the entire 20 km. Paddy on the other hand went for the 'let everyone pass you on the road and then get them in the long grass' approach! But then with a brake held together by 'duct tape' and a broken spoke in the rear wheel, finishing became the sole objective. All the time wondering how his wife was getting on and how his son, Young Gun Fraser, was doing at Tollymore.
On one occasion an irate male competitor shouted after Andrea, "You're riding that bike like you stole it" – little did he know how appropriate the comment was given Andrea's house unfortunately had unwelcome "visitors" over the weekend!
Andrea overtook a couple of hundred riders in the 20 km road section, but even with this she still hit bottlenecks early in the offroad, uphill sections and every so often had to stop cycling and hike-a-bike. Just as well she has had a lot of practice at this in the past few months!
The first part of the offroad section climbed the mountains in the north of the island, which may well boast stunning views across the Irish Sea to Ireland, but can not truly be taken in when you're going at an intensity that requires focus on the terrain just a few metres ahead of your front tyre! The whole route is a relentless course of long uphills and tricky downhills. There is little chat or banter amongst competitors, in the front end of the field that Andrea was in anyway, because such a high level of concentration is required to just keep moving. The choice of path along some of the rutted and wet sections was vital as was shown by one rider who, in trying to overtake Paddy, ended up quite literally swimming in a large puddle … and no, Paddy did not push him!
One of the long uphills in the second half of the course brought Andrea her only banter of the race. Shortly after going over the top of a punishing and lengthy ascent, a male racer passed Andrea and said, "you have got to be the strongest girl I know. I was going to say the strongest girl that I don't know, but I feel I should know you given that I've spent the last 15 minutes being pulled up that climb staring at your Ding Dong"!
The gruelling nature of the start of the second half of the course is clear when you see your bike computer take 57 minutes to move from 43 km to 52 km. Demoralising! On numerous occasions throughout the day Andrea felt like a hamster on a wheel. There you are, grinding away, putting in 110% effort constantly and working in excess of 85% of your maximum heart rate….and you are barely moving! On the most challenging climbs Andrea's average speed was only 5km per hour. Oh how often she thought to herself that on a smooth surface and road bike, on a similar gradient, the reading would be at least three times that!
Then every so often you think great, the ensuing downhill will make up for it. No chance! The big downhills were daunting, all the more so because testosterone filled boy racers were coming at all angles behind and passed you. Remember, this is on single track with very little margin for error! Now very few would claim that Andrea is faint hearted, but it has to be said that with her minimal XC (cross country) and downhill ability she didn't enjoy these sections at all. There was admittedly a lot of brake pressure on these sections, and while she wasn't going at snail's pace, she was far from being a Manx Missile!
The forest sections were challenging too, with slippery roots and muddy downhills. In fact the whole route was challenging. The End2End is brutal. As simple as that!
From the final mountain top of the course, the panorama of the finishing area and southern coastline is spectacular – and a downhill grassy section actually lets you take it in! On this section Paddy took in some of the awesome sights and scenery of the End2End, as well as picking up bits of chat and comments >>>
people have done this before and come back for more?
people make funny sounds when they collapse with cramp
you can 'hike-a-bike' faster than some people can ride up a hill
anyone who drags a whole group of tired riders up the final big off-road climb deserves a medal (anyone who knows Paddy knows he is not built to climb!).
After such a demanding event you'd think that the organizers would end it with the pleasant, grassy descent to the finish line? Not a chance!
Having come off the fields and onto the main road to the southern tip of the island, fatigued from a few challenging hours in the mountains, riders finish with a one mile steep road climb – with gradients of 12-13% - on the Howe Hill. Then, reaching the top, there's a final leg-sapping 200m on grass to the top of a field and the finish line.
Having been overtaken by a good few riders in the last downhill section, Andrea relished this finish and she passed about 18-20 riders on the final climb.
The reverse tactical approach applied to husband Paddy, who having passed riders on the last downhill and flat road sections hit the 'wall / hill' on the final climb and saw them pass him again as he crawled up the hill to the finish … in fact he could have put the bike on his back and crawled faster on all fours than he cycled, but pride and determination forced him to get there on the bike.
Andrea finished in 4hrs 43min and provisional results showed she was 7th female overall and 2nd in her age category. However these were wrong!
Final results place her as 11th female overall and 7th out of the 35 girls on the female 30-39 category …. not to mention an impressive 280th overall. With regard to the female finishing place, a look at the top 8 places shows a high caliber of racers with notable experience in MTB events. The first female took 3hrs 55 min, with the first male taking an unbelievable 2hrs 57min. Many riders didn't make the cut off times and the last recorded time was 7hrs 52min.
This was only Andrea's 3rd MTB race of any type – her first race was the Irish XC Championships in July 2009, which she unexpectedly won, and her second was the Bull Raid 12 hour Enduro with Belle Julie in August 2010, which they won. The End2End was an entirely different league, a baptism of fire for a third MTB race ever!
The finishing area, which provides a fabulous view of the Sound, was hiving with the excitement of battered bodies and spectators. Andrea was able to relish it as she stood waiting (for hours and hours and hours - JOKE) for Paddy to finish! Paddy came in 725th and 70th (about midway) in his own age category (which we won't mention in detail!).
Paddy agrees the End2End is brutal, but highlights that the varied surfaces, terrain, forests, rocks and scenery make it a very enjoyable route and give great satisfaction to everyone who finishes.
Riders' satisfaction was palpable in the finishing area. Apart from the odd rider, bemoaning some incident or other during the race. One guy in particular happened to walk over to two of his mates, just next to where Andrea was standing but hadn't realized she was there, and when he was asked how he did he said ….
"pretty good, 4hrs 55min. But bloody women. They are useless at downhill and they go so slowly that you just get stuck behind them for ages".
…..Andrea, who had been feeling pretty pleased with herself and was enjoying the glory of the finish, felt her blood start to boil, and tapped the guy on the shoulder and said…..
"if you were better at the uphills you wouldn’t be behind women to begin with for the downhills"!
There were a few smirks all round!
Hmmmmmm, now here's a thought…….Andrea + even a smidgen of downhill ability = ? finishing place
Ding Dong!
Andrea
