Update:

Hi there,
We survived!!!!!!!!!!!

What an amazing experience. We started at noon on Saturday and finished at noon on Sunday with one rider continuously on the course with the others supporting. We had amazing weather throughout the weekend which really helped, however it made pedalling 10 miles up a mountain every lap even harder. The long gruelling up hills were a nightmare.

We completed 24 laps (six each – 60 miles) with 30 mins to spare the following day. I was the first to ride at night and saw the sunset over the Mendips but when it got dark...........it got very dark!! Extremely spooky and lonely place to be in the freezing cold, pitch black riding over boulders,  roots, under trees, through streams with drops either side. I also drew the short straw and had to go back out at 4.00am in the morning to do my 2 laps in one go! That was hard work – however I got to see the sunrise which was impressive.

The training has really paid off, I thought I would be totally wiped out for days after the event however apart from feeling sleepy on Sunday afternoon through lack of sleep I felt totally fine.  The bikes have taken a hammering too!

As a team we have raised over £3,000.00. To date the whole event is on target for £60,000.00 for CLIC Sargent which is a fantastic achievement.

Even though we won the luxury of the en suite room, we elected to share the atmosphere / burden of sleeping in the field with everyone else, the only trouble was they all had tents we only had an awning and sleeping bags – not even an air bed!!

We only had two ‘spills’, Chris went over his handlebars into a huge puddle on his first lap and I went into a fence at 5 in the morning. We will definitely be entering  CLIC24 again next year and may even put two teams together, so if anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know. I have uploaded the photo’s to the following web site for you to have a look if you wish:
www.flickr.com
Just search for ‘Derren Masters’ under the ‘People’ tab and select ‘CLIC24’.
We are entering another event on June 07th but I promise not to harass you for any money, we are just going to do this one for fun.

Once again, thank you very much for sponsoring me and the team, we really appreciate it.
Derren

Thank you very much for sponsoring me and the team - it's really appreciated.

We did the course twice last weekend and we are back out again this coming Saturday to do it three times leading into the big day the following weekend. The training events over the last two weeks have seen lots of punctures as tyres have hit rocks and a few accidents - very embarrasing when you fall off in front of a bunch of ramblers who have just given way to you!!

Anyway, we are lloking forward to the event, and will let everyone know how we get on.

Derren

Mark has very kindly volunteered us to take part in a 24 hour mountain biking endurance event on 10 / 11th May to raise money for charity (CLIC Sargent - UK’s leading children’s cancer charity) and would really welcome your support.

The event takes place in Burrington Combe, on the MENDIPS near Cheddar. It’s a Mountain Biking event across the Mendips, approximately a 10 mile lap as many times as possible in the 24 hours. Quite a challenging circuit, we have not worked out our tactics yet, but probably a lap at a time after our first run out on the 12th April. We did it again on the 19th April to fine tune our skills and game plan and again on Saturday 26th April.

I have bought a new bike for the event and am currently looking for a new pair of bionic legs if anyone has any for sale!! I am looking for plenty of volunteers who look exactly like me and would be happy to hide in the mountains and take over from me when my legs break!!

Feel free to come along and support us on the day. I’ll be the one at the back with ‘Captain Slow’ stamped on the back of my jacket!!

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: CLIC Sargent will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.


Many thanks for your support.

Derren