The 19th of March saw the beginning of the weekend long Battle on the Beach event and an evening of camping which was not welcomed by all. Liz Fu and Duncan headed down earlier in the day in order to take part in the single lap Battle in the Dark race that evening. They completed it in the amount of time it took for Alice Earle, Adele Coupland and Martha King to drive around the campsite looking for a place to camp (near the Bianchi tent), sit in the car staying warm and then put up their tent for the evening. The rest of the evening was spent carbing up in a little Welsh pub while England won the grand slam.
With a 12pm start time Liz, Adele, Martha and Duncan all made their way to the beach with the 533 other riders for the running start. The race was 45km, 15km on a beach and the rest either single track or double track. The course was not as technical as feared but some big puddles and sandy hills made it challenging. Liz completed the race in a respectable 377th position and 24th out of the women also picking up a rubber duck on the way, winning herself some tyres. Martha and Adele were happy with finishing not last and crash free as it was their third time mountain biking. A big thank you to Alice for supporting us and being a photographer for the day, hope to have a bigger group there next year, an event not to be missed!
Full results here: http://www.battleonthebeach.co.uk/results-2/
Words by Adele Coupland
Words by Adele Coupland