Mersey Roads 24 Hour Time Trial with the Pontin Brothers
Report by Jonathan Pontin
So two years after pushing ourselves to breaking point by racing for 24 hours on a tandem, my brother Simon and I decided to tackle the Mersey Roads 24 hour TT on solo bikes. Armed with a bit more preparation and last years experience we set off for Wrexham on Friday afternoon with a 4 person support crew, two cars and a lot of energy bars.
The night before the race we discovered that due to roadworks appearing on the course we were now going to have to do two extra laps of the Espley-Shawbirch section, so a slight reworking of the timings and plans then to bed for an early night.
Sign on was the usual outside / social distanced affair but an opportunity to chat to a few other competitors and support crews. We’d made friends with Pete from Exeter Wheelers, who was staying in the accommodation next to us, as well as a team from Dulwich Paragon who had three riders in the race.
Only at the sign on did it really hit us just how hot this race was going to be, with predicted 27 degree heat and it being uncomfortably hot just standing around at midday there was a bit of a rush to drink even more water before the start.
Simon set off at 13:20 with me not too far behind at 13:30, after a quick chat with the timekeeper who remembered the great Eddy Mundy. Both of us had a target of 400 miles for the event, but we both set off a fair bit faster knowing that we’d slow down later.
Picking up our first feeds at 17 miles then the next at 27 we were getting through water much quicker than expected. The four laps of Espley-Shawbirch were really tough, the heat in the exposed roads sapped everything.
I made a decision after just two laps to stop and change my TT helmet for an ordinary road lid which helped enormously. After 4 laps (5:30 or 102 miles) I stopped for a quick bit of food and discovered Simon having a bit of a crisis after being hit hard by the heat, luckily another support team helped cajole him back on the bike and off he went to the day circuit.
On the day circuit by about 7:30pm, we set about getting the laps in while it was still light, focused on keeping the speed high and not taking too long for breaks/food. As it transitioned onto the night circuit I knew I was still up on my target, just keeping the laps ticking over and keeping the food.
I passed 12 hours with 211 miles on the clock so all was looking good. Simon had recovered and was back lapping at the same pace as me. At around 3am suddenly I felt like the legs had gone, they just didn’t want to work any more, I struggled back to my support crew and sat in a chair trying to eat but I could feel that it was going to be a rough few hours.
As the sun came up we moved back to the day circuit at around 6am, Simon was now finding his rhythm again and I was just willing myself to keep going to the end. Desperate to not be sent on another lap of the day circuit I rode up to the junction and sat there for 5 minutes until they started directing people to the finish circuit.
Riding over to the industrial estate that contains the 8 mile finishing circuit the sun really started to beat down again making the rolling 14 mile trip even tougher than it already felt.
I entered the finishing circuit after 21 hours 17 minutes with 327 miles on the clock (Simon was 21 hours 20 minutes and 370 miles). All I wanted to do was stop once I’d gone past my first timekeeper but I kept going as the support was amazing on the finishing circuit, one bloke was even handing out wet sponges.
Finally my clock hit 24 hours, and I carried on for two more painful minutes until I passed the next timekeeper for a finish distance of 363.78 miles good enough for 31st place. Simon kept his revival strong and finished with an impressive 409.89 miles, in a race where 20 of the 60 starters DNF’ed I was glad just to have got round in what were fairly horrendous conditions.
