5 Trail Centres in 24Hours - Why, When, Where and How?

For sometime i have pondered this challenge, a contender on my bucket list of rides and challenges that i want to conquer for myself.

This year 2020 has been tough in so many ways for people worldwide and life has definitely taken a different turn for us all, making us think about things in different ways.

The passing of my brother Nigel, in June this year made me realise that the 5 trail centres ride seemed an obvious choice for a challenge when considering how i could help the wonderful staff at Myton Hospice continue their great work whilst being a way to say thank you for all they did to support my brother in his last few weeks. I have set up my own Just Giving page for donations to Myton Hospice. I have been blown away by the generosity of people and I thank you for your support. Here is a link to the Just Giving page https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/5tcin24

What is 5TCIN24?

5 Trail Centres in 24 Hours

The idea for this ride stemmed from following progress of a fellow cyclist in 2014 who undertook a challenge of riding 6 centres in 24 hours. I remember thinking at the time of following his progress what a nutter he was, but I also couldn't help feeling what an amazing achievement it must have been and found myself wishing that i could have ridden a ride like that too.

So an idea stemmed from another, Since following Marcs ride the trail centre challenge has always been something that I wanted to do. Now I am not quite capable (or silly enough) to take on 6 as Marc and his friends did back in 2014 but I am however silly enough to attempt 5. A slightly modified version as per the map below. Cannock and Hopton are two of my fave trail centres and i have ridden both Eastridge and Hicks also. I have not yet had the chance to visit Mortimer Forest, the finale destination for the challenge.

The route is something like this:

Start Off road at Hicks Lodge Leicester Ride to Cannock Chase on Road

Ride Cannock Chase off road Ride to Eastridge on Road

Ride Eastridge Off road

Ride Eastridge to Hopton Ride Hopton Off Road Ride to Mortimer on Road Ride Mortimer Off Road

When?

I chose to attempt the 5TCIN24 ride on the 27th September 2020. The last weekend in September is usually a painful riding weekend for me as thats the normal date for 3 peaks Cyclocross Race in Yorkshire. Understandably the race has been cancelled this year leaving me with a September that does not involve several hours of pain on a cross bike.....or so i thought!!

How?

On a CX bike of course. Those of you that know me can often hear me banging on about how much i love my Liv Brava CX bike (i genuinely do) For me the only bike that can stand the rough terrain of the off road trail centres and still be efficient on the road would be my faithful Cyclocross Brava machine. I am going to attempt the whole ride on the cross bike.(insert painful last weekend in September on a cx bike here)

I do of course have the fabulous support of my Partner Mark who is in my opinion the best cycle mechanic bar none. Mark will be joining me for the off road sections of the ride as he is to gnarly for tarmac riding. With Mark on hand in the big yellow sponge bob square van aided with tools and know how to help me out should the bikes or I need it. I am lucky enough to have a hardtail Liv Obsess MTB and also a Giant Propel Road bike too. I will be taking these bikes as back up to prevent the ride having to be cut short should i have an unfixable by the roadside/van mechanical.

I am hoping to A. Complete the challenge and B. Complete it within 24hrs.

I have guestimates of times for each section based on average speed and terrain type etc but I cannot add into the equation weather conditions, how my head is feeling, legs, lungs, fuelling etc so I am going to explore timings and details in future posts so please keep checking back for that.

Meanwhile i'm off to prepare and fine tune the routes, this weekend sees the first visit to the Mortimer Forest which i am really excited about, its a new place for me to ride and this is also where the challenge will finish, so i need to make sure they have sufficient nearby hotels with large beds to collapse on!!!

M.....gone out riding somewhere