This was the first time any off us had entered the Salisbury Plain Challenge, it's a 50K enduro event. On arrival it reminded me of the Kona100 - there were hundreds of riders all over the place and 100's of thousands £'s worth of kit! We finally managed to get out of the warm car and into the -4 deg C morning air! (it must have been cold because Mike actually had his coat on!!)
We registered in the tent and then continued to put our bikes together. The start was 10AM but we needed to be on the line at 9:50 for the briefing, we started making our way down but only to see all the riders disappearing up the hill!! Oh s*it we were late for the start, not to worry though as the 1400 rider tailback on the first road sections gave us ample time to catch up with the group.
The ride was sensible - by that I mean it was achieveable with a good mix of fireroads, double track and the odd road section. The hardest thing on the day was the surface as the heavy frost (and temperatures not rising above freezing) meant the ground was frozen solid, this made the rutts more tricky than normal and turned puddles in to skating rinks!
There were two laughing points for me, the first being at this massive puddle which everyone was walking around - well nearly everyone as one guy decided to show us all up and ride it! he made us all wait whilst he pre-selected his gear and then he was off - well only for about 3 metres before he fell off sideways and ended up with his head underwater, he laid there like a tickled trout untill one of the marshalls cracked him out the ice and sent him on his way. The other point was me following Mike through a tank track rutt - we reached a section which was all iced over so with a "Sod This" Mike hopped up on to the bank and then promptly disappeared down a pot hole - face planting in to the grass!!
The event was really well organised and everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves. I think it's safe to say we'll all be back next year. TO check out the results go to www.spambiking.co.uk.