“Once again out of all the competitors it has to be the solo riders that earn the greatest respect for attempting to battle through their demons as well as the tricky conditions to compete in such a stressful event, add onto that some truly awful conditions and all the soloists, regardless of where they finished need a huge round of applause. However the biggest slap on the back has to go to Matt Page, who despite all the odds recorded a staggering 20 laps to take the win, finishing in a much stronger and better state than he did 2 years ago at the same event. Richard Rothwell fought well with 17 laps placing him 2nd and David Powell did enough with his 16 laps to take 3rd…

With just 4 extra laps than the incredible Matt Page, the Salsa Factory racing team, took the honours in the expert men’s race”

“Matt Page - 1st Solo
I don’t know where I got my energy from this morning; I just kept going and seemed to have endless energy. I had a nightmare on the second lap, I didn’t have my mud tyres on and my wheels were just clogging up and I couldn’t push my bike and I just thought I’ve another 23 hrs of this, I wasn’t looking forward to it! After that I picked it up and started to enjoy it.
It rates as the worse one I have ever done, as every other one I’ve done there has been some period of dry, but here there was just mud for the full 24hrs. Highlight has to be the last lap, being able to enjoy the course and the realisation of what I’ve done, I was really pleased. There weren’t any worse parts, not really, well maybe the first couple of laps might have been a nightmare but I ended up enjoying myself. I’m not sure what’s happening next year; I’m aiming to go to the worlds so that will be my focus.”