Teenager Owen Collins and over-60 Adrian Beale were both in the medals at the 2024 WEMBO World Solo 24-hour mountain bike championships at the weekend, as was ex-pat Manxman Kevin Wynne-Smythe.

The event was held at Stromlo Forest Park near Canberra, Australia where 18-year-old Collins was the star, winning the under-23 world title.

His father, Gavin, commented: ‘He rode his heart out all night, never stopping, and being pushed hard all the time by second-placed U23 Adam Harper from Australia.’

In a race containing more than 70 top ultra-distance riders, Collins began strongly, but arguably went off a tad too fast.

He remained in the top 30 overall for the first few hours, steadily moving up to 12th overall and first under-23 (seventh elite). Owen is the first Manx 24-hour solo world champion.

The second year apprentice electrician at Isle of Man College still has five more years in the U23 category, so he has a lot of potential.

‘To say we are proud of him is an understatement,’ added his father.

In total he covered 224 miles (32 laps of the course) in 24 hours, approximately half of which was during the hours of darkness. He also completed in excess of 28,000ft of ascent.

There was no resting on the course, the first half being almost continuous climbing, followed by a tough downhill. In addition to the sheer physical challenge was the added fear of snakes (none sighted), spiders, kangaroos and swooping magpies.

The Colby teenager is a member of the Team Utmost-Mezzo Isle of Man junior cycling team. He is sponsored by Bikestyle and his father’s company GC Electrical Ltd. He also wishes to thank Elliot Baxter at A-star Cycling for coaching him.

He rides a Specialized Epic mtb, that they took with them to Australia, but they also hired a spare bike incase he needed, but fortunately Owen was lucky with no real mechanicals. He rode the full event on the one bike, and only had one crash as it went dark.

Like many youngsters, he started cycling at the NSC in the youth league organised by Dot Tilbury and raced off-island quite a lot on road bikes.

Ironically, last weekend was only his second ride on the mountain bike this year. He was first in the Bikestyle Classic race, first overall in the James Berry Tour of Middle and third overall in the IoM National championships (second junior). He was also third u21 in the Gran Fondo race and first junior in Isle of Man Cycling’s summer series.

Owen has also raced at junior level in France, Ireland, Wales and England, winning two team bronze medals when representing the Isle of Man at the 2023 Island Games in Guernsey when competing in the mtb events.

He pulled his back quite severely a few weeks prior to travelling out to Canberra and initially struggled to simply get out of bed, but two-and-a-half weeks of treatment in the hyperbaric chamber treatment helped get him back on his bike, for which he thanks David Downie MBE for opening on Saturdays and Sundays.

He also wishes to thank everyone who sent private messages throughout the 24 hour event last weekend. They all got passed on to him and the words of encouragement helped him keep turning the pedals!

Adrian Beale finished runner-up in the 60+ category, despite a difficult year hampered by two doses of Covid, having won his age group in the British 24-hour championship in Scotland last January.

‘It was a fantastic but brutal course with lots of climbing and a banzai descent for each lap,’ said Beale after the long, tiring trip back from Oz.

He competed in the super vets against the defending class champion and was happy enough to ‘super solo’ the race and achieve another second place.

Kevin Wynne-Smythe, a former work colleague of Beale’s, secured a superb third place in the male 50-54 class.

Many will remember him as a leading local athlete before emigrating to Australia more than 15 years ago (he lives in Sydney). In his own words, he said: ‘Well. I finally bagged me a @wemboofficial podium after more attempts I could shake a stick at.

‘First and second were just another level and so strong. I consolidated third slot, but still had to work to the end to hold off fourth. I'll take that as a 52nd birthday pressie.’

Beale and Wynne-Smythe both achieved distances of 260 kilometres (161.5 miles), with more than 6,000 metres (19,685ft) of climbing.

JOHN WATTERSON