Wild West Country 2024

The Wild West Country was conceived by childhood friends, Rob Gardiner and Andrew Phillips, during lockdown, when Andrew had his aspiration to race in the Transcontinental dashed two years in a row. Rob thought jokingly the two could organise their own race. And then they did. They set out to create a route that took racers over as many famous English cols as possible. And the route truly lives up to its name, never really leaving the countryside - resupply points are few and far between, with there effectively being none in the last 100km except the odd pub (if it’s open). I want to say this was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But that can’t be true. But it was.

Friday started off well. The UK’s first big week of warm summer sun (though still far too early for it to be +25). I was warm. Then I got too warm. So did everyone else. Then we all got heat exhaustion. Riders from the front to the back reported vomiting, an inability to eat, and the chills. Scratches followed. The field was falling faster than any of the first two editions.

I limped into Tavistock, having almost given up on riding through the first night as early as Porlock. Determined that the one thing that could save me was a hot meal. Bob’s East End Cafe was like finding an oasis in the desert. I instantly bounced back, and with an egg and hashbrown bap in my saddle bag, I set off to conquer Dartmoor. A frequent visitor by car with my local cousins - where we hire a ramshackle, no mod-cons, unheated bunkhouse in the depths of winter - I had frequently envisioned the day where my pastime would see me slogging it up the national park’s steep and repeating climbs.

A previous practice attempt 5 weeks earlier had me bailing at the last minute due to a massive snowfall covering the roads and morning thunder showers. With my energy back, I went from walking up Dunkery Beacon in Exmoor the previous day to riding every climb. The one time I enjoyed a headwind, as up top it had a cooling effect.

I made it just shy of 600km when the idea of finding a place to lie down for a minute quickly turned into visual distortion then heavy eyelids. Another rider, Nick Hodgson, looked to have the same idea. I found a very posh audax hotel in East Lulworth, where I checked in for a 20 minute lie down. I had all but secured a top 10 finish, but found the comfort of the three sided bench of the bus stop interior incredibly comfortable. I could lie down on 2 of my 3 sides. The only thing stopping me from a complete roll was some large object in my cargo pocket - which when I arose discovered was a cucumber. The prior evening, I passed Amy Powell who looked to be scratching, but had really just gone off course to find a hotel. When I awoke at 4am she was hot on my tail, having closed the gap I thought was safe. I was cleaning up at the toilets near the Kimmeridge Bay outlook (CP3), when I heard her wheel whizz by. The speed at which she’d caught up, and the lack of hesitancy in her wheel meant she knew I was in there. I jumped on my bike and climbed out of the Bay intent on that being the last time she got close to me. I was managing to keep a safe distance between us when mechanical disaster struck. It started when I made eye contact with a driver coming towards me; he was giving me the finger. This man who rises early on a Sunday morning, or probably every morning, finds cyclists to lock eyes with, and waits for their reaction when they see him giving them the middle finger. I didn’t give him any reaction. But immediately got a puncture on my front wheel. A terrible product review here: don’t ever use the Park Tool tyre boot. The plastic is quite hard and it creased inside my tyre, puncturing my inner in two places. Then whilst trying to reseat the tyre, maybe from exhaustion, I proceeded to give myself 5 pinch-flats not properly refitting the tyre. When I finally gave up and put a new inner in, I then couldn’t get the bead to pop into place. An hour into 1.5 hours of this, I flagged down Amy to say hello. She said she was pleased to “finally see another human being”, and that her legs were destroyed from Dartmoor. This gave me hope - I could catch her. But I never did. Each time I brought down the distance between us, she increased it. I imagined her and I both incessantly checking the tracker. When she didn’t stop at Amesbury services I knew she had recovered from Dartmoor, and resolved to myself that this was her race, and everyone else ahead of us just as determined to hold their own. With the final 100km back to “normal cycling” as one rider put it, I took the time to relax and not think about strategy. It also helped that no one was chasing my tail. It was a great honour (and complete coincidence) for my first “ultra” race (TCRno9) to be directed by Andrew Philips (& co), who I have gotten to know and become quite chummy with, and then for my second ever race to be with Rob Gardiner, unbeknownst to me to be Andrew’s childhood best friend - both great people. It felt coincidental but also very telling of how truly small the “ultra” distance cycling scene is - yet initially seems like it has a ton of potential (e.g. based on sponsorship and media success). Whereas Audax is “old” and out of the spotlight, seeming actively to not have any desire to put itself “on the ‘gram”, yet acknowledges it needs to attract fresh blood to continue to exist. “Ultra-cycling” events have jumped in front of randonneuring based on the amount of publicity and sponsorship they’ve attracted in such a short time, but really the effect this has had is that this is where new joiners go. If Audax want to avoid losing a generation, and Ultra want to achieve longevity, maybe the two communities would stand to benefit more if they set aside any differences and worked together more to bring more people into the sport? I certainly think the two complement each other, and would love to see more cross-over and collaboration taking place. One to think about. Closing remarks: Rob, Nadia and Kitty, you have a fantastic event here. I would expect it would challenge any “top spot” for “hardest ride” in England or even the UK (obviously within the category of pavement by bicycle). Anyone looking to challenge themselves more need look no further than towards the Wild West Country. An excellent mid-season race to test body, mind and bike.