WWC25 was the fourth edition of Wild West Country and brought with it our first manned checkpoint, at the Old National School in Sampford Spiney on the edge of Dartmoor, where riders were welcomed by the Windover Bikes crew. 60 riders set off from The Bike Drop at Brimscombe Mill in waves of eight, with a tailwind and near-perfect weather to see them on their way.
It made for a fast edition. Dicky Hibbert reached Dunkery Beacon 45 minutes quicker than the previous year’s winner and, fuelled by digestives, chocolate bars and spicy sausage, never looked back. He was back at Brimscombe on Saturday night after 37 hours and 22 minutes – the fastest time yet and two and a half hours inside the previous best. Defending champion Tom Reynolds also beat his winning time from 2024 to take second, with Nathan Woodhouse third.
Colin Smith took fourth despite starting while still recovering from a broken back, while Alli Holland – riding on two artificial knees – was the first woman home in eighth, faster than her ride at WWC23 before her surgery. James Page and Jon Cox, christened J.Pox by DotWatcher’s Robbie Britton, were the first pair back.
Further back, Laura Massey-Pugh put her former career as a vet to good use by freeing a lamb trapped in a fence, and George Morris left a near-full bowl of chips outside a pub in Porlock for anyone who could beat the seagulls to them. Laurence and Elizabeth Brown stopped for almost seven hours in a field with less than 50km to go, timing their arrival to coincide with the coffee machine. And Hashim Hassan, having battled sickness and come close to scratching, reached the finish with a list of Devon villages he wished to apologise to for vomiting in.
Saturday’s heat kept the Dartmoor ice cream van busy, before a little rain arrived on Sunday. Nick Dobinson, James Pearce and Adelice Ashworth were the last riders home on Tuesday afternoon, enjoying the final day’s sunshine, with 43 of the 60 starters completing the route.
