Just in case Bristol Bike Fest followed by Mountain Mayhem 2 weeks later wasn't exhausting enough, Mike and I decided to spend the Saturday in-between at Afan, giving the intriguing Kona MashUP competition a go. According to the organizers, this was the ultimate challenge to unite riders across the board - from XC whippets to the most technically gifted downhill riders and every breed of trail warrior in-between i.e a little bit crazy, a little bit different and a whole lot of adrenaline. Perfect!

An early start had us arriving at Afan about 9. The idea behind Mash Up is simple, the technical category people were timed on 3 downhill/fast xc sections (that you could complete as many times as you wanted) and the enduro category people were timed on 5 overall sections, including a climb. I clearly chose the option with as little climbing as possible while young mountain goat Mike opted for the enduro

The event itself was amazingly chilled. You had between 9 and 5 to get as many (or as few!) laps as you fancied in, with a chill out station up the top giving away red bull and bananas and even pumping out a bit of music. Had we been a bigger CC group the atmosphere and camadarerie would have been excellent as it was Mike and I chatted with loads of other riders and kept checking in with each other from time to time between stints!

For both Mike and me, this was our first chance to really gun it on some downhill and fast single track we loved it!!! The trails were really sweet, the weather was perfect and you could take your time on the rest of the tracks in order to focus on the timed sections. There were over 300 riders taking part so we knew we had some tough competition out there Mike especially. For me it was made a tad easier by there only being 12 or so women in my category I was hoping that coming in the top 10 shouldn't be too hard! By the time 5pm came around (and Mike had climbed up the top 3 times!!) we were pretty shattered but feeling great. Most people gathered in the Drop Off cafe ready for the party that night (Staying overnight is definitely a must for next time!) which was cool as the atmosphere was buzzing. We decided to hang around till the results as the live timing on the black run had hinted I might be up for a prize which I was pretty stoked about. In the end I managed an overall 3rd place which was completely unexpected to say the least, especially as Tracey Moseley was first! (Ok so admittedly our times were a million miles apart but hey ho) I got loads of prizes which was cool, including some rather funky pedals and what seemed like a million bottles of MucOff- think they were trying to tell us something! Overall I came 72nd out of 229 riders and Mike came 61st out of the 110 in his category. Jolly respectable!

All in all though it was a fabulous day and some real quality riding. The trails at Afan (esp for us newbies!) are just so sweet and flowing. And neither of us hugged a single tree or demonstrated any over the bars loving – result! The next Kona MashUp is on Sat 5th December, Mike and I are pretty much signed up already. It would be great to get more of a club showing and we can't recommend it enough. Definitely great riding, whether you want to take it seriously or for fun and most definitely a good night afterwards. Hopefully see you all there!

Rachel