British team, Qoroz, paid a visit to the 24hrs of Nurburgring race in Germany recently and came with a win!
Qoroz sent riders Ben and Tom Stockdale, Matt Ullmer plus the founder of the company, Marcus Eales, to take on thousands of Germans in one of their biggest and most prestigious events. This account comes from the man on the ground out there, Chris Gearing.
He writes “This is the third 24hr race that I’ve had the honour of managing. Except for Marcus who was present in each, the teams have each had different people. The progression is also remarkable, 65th with very competitive cyclists, 15th with obsessed amateur racers and finally first with near professionals. The dedication of each set has been a marvel and on each occasion we have pushed to the limit of each team.
The Nürburging is the ‘Green Hell’ but the boys turned up with youthful contempt for it. Both Marcus and I warned them of the vicious climb that is Kesselchen, but the boys just said they climb hills like that on the big ring. For the first eight hours into the early evening, it seemed the Nürburging had met it’s match and the boys were staggering in their performance.
Then things changed, the Nürburging bit back, the climb that is Kesselchen began to haunt their thoughts, even as they ate or slept, the pain of the climb was in their minds. The experience of the second place team was showing in their consistency and I had to explain to three barely conscious riders that they had to pick up the pace or we’re be caught by the end, (Ben never looked anything but fresh and up for the fight).
The thing I’d heard of but never seen before was how elite cyclists just dig deeper, accept more pain. When you see someone young enough to be your son have trouble climbing onto his bike for his lap you ask yourself if you should call a halt. When he then takes two minutes out of the opposition, you realise these boys have physical capability and commitment that most aren’t lucky enough ever to witness let alone possess.
So in summary of the race, we always knew we could win, the boys thought it would just be another ride and had they walked it without breaking a sweat, it would obviously have been a fine achievement. But the whole team will say that the Nürburging is unique and 24hrs of it is true hell and whilst a win is a win, the personal achievement of being forced to overcome a unique set of challenges made the demanding but challenging victory all the more valuable.
And finally what’s more amazing about this story is that the bike we used to beat every bike brand* in the world would be a UK bike brand that is designed and built by Marcus in the Cotswolds.
