As usual, we showed our faces at Bristols annual 12 mountain bike slog, bringing gels, noise, stoke and cheeky banter. We also fixed a few bikes and talked a lot about coaching.

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Every year Bike-Fest presents a tough decision; whether to jump on our bikes and race or just sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Being that we work inside the loop and don’t really enjoy long periods of pain we chose the second option again!

We set up at the finish line with a wallpapering table full of gels, spare parts and tees for sale. We also managed to salvage a few racers bikes over the course of the day but this isn’t the main reason we come every year. We come to enjoy the great atmosphere that comes from chilled out racing, good weather (ahem) and the great mountain bike scene that we’re blessed with here in Bristol!

The day started with some heavy rain but the sun soon came out to lift spirits. We hopefully lifted some spirits too as we stood half way round the first lap and nearly lost our voices shouting encouragement at the huge peloton that snaked its way past the shop.

Further good vibes came from a cider station setup further round the course for the Steve Worland memorial cup. This special event was for the legendary local mountain biker and journalist who sadly passed away earlier in the year whilst taking part in the ‘Park Run’ at Ashton Court. Many cider glasses and even a Camelbak were raised in his honour, as well as money (approximately £3500) to buy defibrillators, which will be placed in Ashton Court Estate. It was great to see many of the Future Publishing crew out on their bikes including Guy Kestervan on his custom made Nicolai tandem!

As the sun grew hotter and the energy gels started to flow like sweet nectar into racers stomachs, we moved the Pedal Progression jump ramp out onto the course and started to make some noise for the now clearly suffering entrants. Shout out to some of our coaching regulars Ian Williams, Paul Hilliar and Charlie Hindmarch whose faces told the story later in the day! Not sure if they saw the free cans of Red Bull like I did…

And so the ramp was jumped many times, our bare legs were avoided (just!) as we sat behind and the commentary of Matt Carr entertained the crowds who had gathered to watch the last few laps of the race unfold. The racers dug in to go even faster and to ‘really empty the tank’ as I heard one guy put it. Man I really wouldn’t want to have been him come Sunday morning… But that’s why people love it I think, the thrill of trying to squeeze in one more lap, knowing that one of those guys just up ahead within sprinting distance holds the difference between your current position and the next.

Of course, race organiser and tanned local ‘Giant’, Paul Newman had opened the bar earlier on so not everyone was putting the effort into spinning cranks. We saw a lot of people were hard at work lying down on the Red Bull bean bags drinking cold ones.

All in all another class event! Well done to all who took part and Mike & Paul for their hard work organising it. We’ll be back for Oktoberfest…

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