Wild overcomes puncture to take second National title of 2020
Scot Mackenzie takes women's title after missing out on end-to-end attempt
Seven days after winning the National 100-Mile Championship, Adam Wild added the 12-hour crown to his palmarès, while long-distance ace Christina Mackenzie took the women’s title.
Wild, the 23-year-old GS Metro rider from Morpeth, clocked a provisional 294.90 miles to take the win in his first attempt at the distance – and despite losing around 13 minutes to a puncture.
Meanwhile 43-year-old Scot Mackenzie covered 251.64 miles to take the women’s title and make up for the disappointment of not being able to have another go at the End-to-end record because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
“It’s pretty cool to have the 100 title and the 12-hour!” said Wild. “The 100 was definitely an aim for me, but I’ve never done a 12-hour before so I just didn’t know what I could do.
“I punctured at about six hours, and after that I didn’t really know what was going on, but my dad told me I could still win it. I was about 13 minutes down on Fogarty at that point, so I just had to crack on and settle in because there was still a long way to go.
“In the last few hours I made up the time and caught him for the win. Maybe having a rest for 13 minutes helped me to finish stronger.”
Wild’s distance was just 1.27 miles more than runner-up Brian Fogarty, while Jonathan Shubert (Arctic Aircon RT) was third, 3.14 behind Wild.
But Mackenzie’s winning margin was more convincing, with her winning distance being almost 12 miles more than runner-up, former national hill-climb champion Fiona Burnie (GS Metro).
“My plan was to do Land’s End to John O’groats-, but because of Covid-19 we had to postpone it to next year,” said the Stirling-based rider who missed out on the End-to-end record last season.
“But I had done so much training for it that, rather than putting it to waste, when I saw the National 12-Hour was going ahead I thought I may as well see what I can do.
“Initially I was looking at 260 miles which would’ve been a new PB, but due to the course change it was hillier, and the weather conditions meant I was just looking at getting round and finishing with a decent mileage towards the end.”