Revolve24 brings 24-hour bike racing to Brands Hatch

Looking for a challenge for later in the year? Revolve24 is a new series of 24-hour relay events based at famous motor circuits, and the first one is at Brands Hatch on the weekend of 19-20 September.

Motor circuit relay events aren’t new, by any means. The Rad Am Ring event has been going on at the Nürburgring for many years, and there’s one at Le Mans every year too; there’s been plenty in the UK as well. Revolve24 looks like it’ll be a really interesting new event, with a few extra facets over and above just ranting around a circuit as quickly as you can.

The Revolve24 team are big on technology, and they’ve developed a smartphone app (iOS/Android) to complement the race. And not just for the 24 hours of riding, either: it can link with the most popular cycling apps to keep a record of your training, and it’ll build that data into a race grid for the day. The pole position teams will get the best spots in the pit straight too, so you’ll need to get your game together a long time before the race weekend.

Once the race is running the app will switch to real-time tracking of your team’s position in the overall standings. There’ll be a host of other competitions too: king and queen of the mountains, fastest lap, sprints and rider categories.

King of the mountains? Yup: if you’ve ever been to Brands Hatch you’ll know it’s far from flat. There’s 35m of climbing in every 3.8km lap, with gradients as high as 9%, so it’s not just a case of ranting round on the flat. Assuming you can crack out 6-minute laps for the duration of the race (you’ll need to be going some for that, but it’s not unachievable) you’ll rack up 8,400m of climbing over the 24 hours. And the best part of 1,000km of riding, of course…

If you’re a real glutton for punishment, you can enter as a solo rider. Most of the riders will be in teams, though: you can choose from two, four, six or eight rider options. It’s £225 if you want to do it on your own, and the more riders you have the cheaper it is per head: £210 each for a team of two, £195 for four, £175 for six and £150 for eight. If you’d like to do it as a team but you can’t find enough willing buddies, Revolve24 will be offering a team matching service to put individuals and smaller groups together into bigger squads. That entry fee gets you your track time and the ubiquitous goody bag, of course, but a bunch of other stuff too. You can camp at the circuit for the whole weekend, and of course you’ll get the use of your allocated pit garage. There will be an event village on site with a range of different retailers and brands, and all riders get 24-hour access to tea, coffee, water and energy snacks. Revolve24 will have a massage team on site too, and every rider will get a free massage. There will be shower facilities, WiFi and charging points for lights and devices too.

Sound good? We think so, and we’ll be getting a team together for Brands Hatch – more on that soon. If you fancy enrolling yourself (and some mates) in the race then there’s currently a 10% early bird discount until 31 May.

For more information on the event, head over to revolve24.com

This story was seen on www.road.cc