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Amateur MTB Marathon: Our Week with Team Syncros Part 2
Team Syncros have invited Gary and crew to spend a week with the team. In this second part, Gary and crew member Steve go with Team Syncros to help crew Rob at Mountain Mayhem.

Words and Photos by Gary Lake, Additional Photos by Frazer Waller - posted 07/06/2010

Amateur MTB Marathon: Our Week with Team Syncros Part 2

As part of the final build up to my 24 hour race, Team Syncros manager and racer Rob Lee invited me and my crew to spend a week with the team to give us an insight to what it's like to prepare and compete in these events.

The second part of our experience was to join the team for the entire weekend at Mountain Mayhem. Team manager Rob decided to come out of 24-hour retirement to do one last race, and we were going to find out what it takes to crew a solo rider. I took Cyclist No.1 racing crew member Stephen Dolphin off to Eastnor Castle deer park and we set about learning the ropes.

We arrived around 7:30pm, but Team Syncros had already finished setting up the pit area and were out getting food and socialising. Good start! We tacked our tents onto the edge of their camp and took a tour of the event village and sourced some dinner. We chatted about what we might expect from the rest of the weekend before turning in for a slightly chilly and distinctly average nights sleep under canvas.

suddenly the reality of how unprepared we were set in...

The first thing you notice about Mountain Mayhem is that it's simply massive. It's often called the Glastonbury of mountain biking and it's not hard to see why! With bleary eyes we went back into the event village for a fry up and hooked up with the team. The Syncros pit looked frighteningly organised and suddenly the reality of how unprepared we were set in; both Steve and I felt somewhat lost at the prospect of even getting organised for this, let alone me riding and him crewing for me!

Team Dietician Zoe Hull was going to be running the pit for this race and set about briefing us. We went through the drill for Rob's pit stops and also the timing and logging of Rob's laps. We'd also time the rest of the top 10's laps as well as logging Rob's fluid and food intake on a per lap basis. We also went through the expected race schedule including getting the lights on the bike, night time clothing change and 4 hourly updates on position and competitor progress.

I thought Rob was being a bit cool about everything, still sat chilling out and eating at 11:55am. Of course no one told me Mountain Mayhem starts at 2pm, not midday. The race kicks off with an epic run, I don't know the distance but it was easily a kilometre round the campsite to get to the bikes - brutal! Rob came through cleanly not too far off the front of the pack and hopefully would avoid traffic.

He came round on his first lap slightly slower than he'd told us to anticipate but otherwise fine and importantly he'd stayed out of trouble. He was already running inside the top 10 in sixth place and interestingly he reckoned this was his most chilled and easy going first lap, but it was one of his highest ever positions for a first lap - looking very good! We got his hydration pack changed over, took his gel wrapper and packed him off for the second lap.

we could measure how much he'd drunk and work out the carb intake, very scientific...

Rob had chosen to use hydration packs and was changing every lap, the idea was to short fill them from capacity and provide slightly more energy drink than he'd need for the single lap - we'd have a new one prepped each lap for a quick swap. We would have to decant what was left in the old one so that we could measure how much he'd drunk and work out the carb intake, very scientific and yet more to think about! It was tough going getting ready for the next lap while keeping times of the competition. But we got quicker and more efficient, and soon me and Steve were fully into the swing of things even running the pit all by ourselves at times, freeing Zoe and other crew members to take a break.

Time ticked by, Rob came in lap after lap looking cool as can be and was running in third place for much of the afternoon. As the early evening began Rob dropped a few places but his lap times weren't suffering and only Ant White was pulling away from him, and only at a rate we were all comfortable with. The evening progressed but the assumption that Ant couldn't possibly hold this pace began to unravel - he simply wasn't slowing down!

As we approached the first night pit stop we had Ant down as 40 mins ahead, Rob was ok with this and still felt he could overhaul that by the end. Unfortunately, our timing was from the lap prior and as we were changing Rob over for the night shift Ant came through to lap Rob. It wasn't exactly the best news to hear at this point, having just been told it was only 40 mins, and although no-one said it, you could tell we all suddenly realised the race was now about second place, not the win.

it was only four above freezing and we weren't prepared...

It had been a clear, chilly day and by midnight it was a now a clear and very chilly night. It was only four above freezing and we weren't prepared; everyone in the pit was cold and so was Rob. He put an extra jersey, tights and a gilet on and hoped it would be enough. We ploughed on through the night, lap after lap, before I was finally sent to bed at 4am - I was so cold and had run out of clothing to put on! Zoe didn't want me getting ill with my own race a mere six weeks away, so there was no arguing.

I woke at 7am to an empty pit. It took me a minute to gather what had happened. Everyone was gone; all bikes were missing. I found the bikes locked up in soloist tent so they hadn't been nicked. I found fellow Syncros team member Scott Cornish and learned that around 5am Rob had retired. We didn't know why but we also learned the cold night had claimed another front runner in the form of James Leavesley.

I won't talk about what happened as Rob has already talked about his Mayhem 2010 in detail, and he's drawn a line under both this race and 24-hour soloing in general.

I kept asking myself what I was thinking even trying to do a 24...

I didn't know what to make of things. I came here to watch one of my biggest supporters and motivators - and I'd only come to watch him fail at the very thing I'm trying to do. I was desperate to talk to Rob and find out what happened but at the same time, aware of the fact that he'd just spent something like 14 hours on the bike, ridden to the point of no return and then most likely had a mediocre few hours sleep in a tent.

I kept asking myself what I was thinking even trying to do a 24. I started to panic about the six weeks illness; the time off the bike; how I'd let my diet slip a little while ill; how I was crewing at this race and I'd not even got back on the bike properly since being ill! I did finally get to speak to Rob and understanding what happened and how he was feeling put my mind at ease a little.

It was a really helpful experience crewing with Team Syncros and even better news is that to thank me and my crew for helping out, we're merging pits and Team Syncros are going to help my crew at the Twentyfour12! I think we've got a better understanding of what it takes to support a rider through one of these races and I've witnessed first hand what it might be like to take part in one. If anything it's made me more nervous, but given the choice again I'd have still helped out and witnessed the race.

In three weeks time, I'll have either finished or failed at mine.

Gary Lake - Executive Editor

Gary Lake has been mountain biking for over 15 years now and has had a passion for everything cycle related ever since. He is a CTC-qualified trail leader and wannabe endurance racer.

Gary has always been looking for a way to give something back to the sport. With a successful career in digital media and internet marketing, and with over 10 years' experience in the industry, it was somewhat inevitable that Gary would put these skills to use in something cycle-related.

After a year in the planning and making, in February 2010 Cyclist No.1 was born.