10 Under The Ben, 17 Jun 2023

A 10-hour endurance MTB race at the foot of Ben Nevis at Fort William. The goal is to complete as many laps as possible in the 10 hours and if cycling for 10 hours wasn’t hard enough the course was up long climbs that got very steep in places and descents that were super rocky. There was never a time where you wouldn’t be punished for slightly switching off. The weather also added to the challenge as it was very hot and humid.  

The race started at 9:30 and it was already pretty warm and the midges were out in full force on the start line. From the start the course went straight uphill on a wide fire road but from the briefing I knew the first section of tight single track was coming very soon so I tried to position myself well for this without expending too much energy, as the race was a mix of solo racers and pairs. I think I managed to do this well as I had pretty much a clear run down the first descent. The end of the first lap I had no clue where I was positioned, I knew there was females ahead of me, but I wasn’t sure if they were solo or pairs so for my second lap I kept it very steady and tried to sit in behind some of the men that were coming past me as much as possible.

Half way round the second lap I was informed that my first lap was 6 minutes 30 faster than the second-place female solo. Initially, I thought I had maybe gone out way to hard - I felt comfortable, I just wasn’t expecting a gap like that after less than an hour of racing. I carried on plodding my way round riding at my own pace, steady up the climbs and then enjoying the downhills. The gap continued to grow but on a course where there was people puncturing all the time anything could’ve still happened so I was still trying to push out lap times as consistently as possible.

All was going really well up until around the 6 hour mark. It was here the descents started to become less fun, my upper body and back were starting to ache, and the palms of my hand were feeling bruised. Luckily, I had a great pit crew with me that were keeping me fed, watered and well looked after. As I finished the lap I had a quick stop to get my back cracked and grab a cooling towel. I quickly got back going and got a few more laps under my belt before doing the same again as I was fairly confident in the gap I had. I took a little bit longer this time before heading out for one last final lap. I finished first solo female completing 10 laps 132km with 3,729m of climbing, a result I am very happy with and looking forward to the next one.

Kim Baptista