The Beast from the East – A Helper’s Story

A Beast, probably from the East

A Yeoviltinie’s memoirs

The “Beast from the East” is only run every four years…. thank goodness! It is an epic 600+ km Audax ride from Waltham Abbey to Taunton Dean Service station and back. It is also a 2015 Paris-Brest-Paris qualifying ride.

Mark Brooking is the keeper of the Beast and he organises this event exceptionally well. Mark is exactly on the wave length of the riders and the helpers, as well as always being available to answer questions or to solve problems as the event unfolds.

Traditionally the Willesden has two controls on “The Beast”, one in the relative comfort of the Yeovil Scout Hall and the other in a bleak field near Middle Wallop! Fortunately we had drawn the long straw and were asked by Mark to “do” Yeovil. The kitchen Crew at Yeovil, a.k.a. the “Yeoviltinies”, consisted of Vyv Baker, Jim Mears (on kind loan from Wendy), Jane Moore and yours truly. Meanwhile out in the wilds of Wallop with a short straw, were Wendy Mears, Lynn Corr, Joselyn Chappel, Phil Magnus and Liam Fitzpatrick to run the second Willesden control at the 450km point.

Vyv and Jim are highly experienced in running the Willesden support points on three consecutive Paris-Brests, so the Yeovil Branch office of the Willesden CC was in very capable hands. They were amazing in the kitchen, Vyv has head chef, planner and buyer, whilst Jim multi-tasked between helping in the kitchen, stamping brevet cards and acting as a human (and humane!) alarm clock to riders wanting an early morning wake-up call. Jane helped with the serving, making drinks and washing up duties, made all the more remarkable as she also helped at the start/finish at Waltham Abbey, stamped brevet cards at the Tutti Pole café on the way to Yeovil and later helped out at Wallop control. Whereas my defining achievement was slightly scalding my forehead in the Yeovil kitchen ….I know….how??!!

Our first customers were an elite groupetto of thee riders who arrived at Yeovil around 7:30pm, having scampered across 355km of rolling terrain in 13 hours. They had a brief rest and a bite to eat before dashing back to the Waltham Abbey finish before their kettle went cold. The majority of the field of 40 or so riders started arriving for food and a few hours sleep from 10pm until the early hours of the morning.

At about 4:30am the riders began to awaken, at which point Jim and Vyv switched in to breakfast mode serving porridge, fried eggs, beans and bacon to appreciative faces, whilst Jane and I helped with the drinks, serving riders and washing up.

All was done and dusted by 8:00am, but it was sobering to learn that the fastest rider was back at Waltham Abbey just after the tail-enders left Yeovil….we must have fed them well!

Miles Back

Not an appearance on Audax TV, but Vyv and Jim though the serving hatch.

The Beastly Menu

A varied cyclist’s breakfast!!

A small Beastie in the bananas

A large Beastie in the kitchen