Whyte Night Enduro: All the winners

Steve Heading and Jane Chadwick were the runaway winners in the 12 hour solo men’s and women’s categories in the Whyte Night Enduro at BikeRadar Live.

“I’m very happy,” said Heading, who wasn’t sure about his chances coming into the race. “There were one or two of us that I knew were quick.

Heading managed an impressive 32 laps for the 12 hours: “I went out not too hard then just knocked out the laps for eight hours and popped into the tent to look at the results to see how I was getting on. I was in the lead, so I did a couple more hours slightly steadier, had another look, and I was well in the lead so the last two hours I could relax a bit.”

Heading said he does “three or four” enduros a year. “I’ve just done the South Downs double so I’m a little bit tired after that.”

He, like many of the riders, was happy with the 5km loop, which is shorter than most enduro circuits: “It was good yeah. It was a nice course for when you’re tired because there were no big climbs. Every climb was rideable, you didn’t have to get off or suffer for any of them.

“It wasn’t particularly technical. I was on a full suspension Whyte Bike and that made things much easier. It was quite bumpy in places so 12 hours on a hardtail would have been quite hard. There are going to be a few sore people around.”

Women’s 12 hour solo winner Jane Chadwick (21 laps) was buzzing when we spoke to her afterwards: “Oh yeah I’m very happy, absolutely thrilled!”

Night falls but the start/finish tent is a hive of activity

She did have the advantage of being the only competitor, but she still had to finish: “This is the first time I’ve done a solo 12 hour enduro. I’ve done a lot of long distance riding, mountain bike marathons and team enduros but never a solo. I’m embarking on a 24 hour next so this was a taster for me.”

She loved the course too: “It was absolutely brilliant. At first I was a bit unsure about it being such a short lap because it might get a bit tedious but there was enough out there to keep you thinking all the time really.

Jane Chadwick finds one section hard going

Chadwick also had a look around the rest of BikeRadar Live on Saturday: “We intended to have a quiet day yesterday to prepare ourselves for racing last night but we just got carried away with it all. All our heroes. Before we knew it was five o’clock and I hadn’t had a siesta or anything. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant!”

Solo singlespeed (joint) winner Matt Carr in action

The male pair category was won by the Legends team with a fantastic 37 laps completed. The mixed pair category went to Team What Mountain Bike/Podium Kiss with 34 laps, while the men’s singlespeed was shared by Mike Wilkins and Matt Carr, who both clocked 21 laps and had the same elapsed time. Best male team of four was 11 hours too long  with 33 laps, while WROZ won the mixed team with 35 laps.

In the four hour comp category, Matthew Page took out the men’s solo prize with 12 laps while the only women’s solo entrant Melissa Thirkell failed to finish after four laps.  Andy Faulknall was sole entrant in the men’s four hour singlespeed, and he did managed 10 laps to win a prize. The best male pair were The Other Coalville Wheelers with 12 laps, while The Anglo Saxons won the male team with 9 laps.

Riders battled with skin scorching temperatures and high humidity during the start of the event

A mix of male and female riders made up the pack

A tired but happy finisher

Night falls

More images of the event are available here.

Results