So straight on the back of Saturday's Parham Park race, I was unpacking my road kit from my car and repacking with mountain bike kit, in anticipation of Sunday's 12:12. But despite my organisation, on Sunday morning I was running around the house getting the last few things together- energy gels, drink powder, warm clothes... Everything I might need for a 12 hour mountain bike race.
Now just to get anyone who's not familiar with the 12:12 up to speed; the 12:12 is a twelve hour mountain bike race, with the option of either riding it solo or in teams. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who does it solo is a madman. So on both occasions that I've raced, it's been as part of a team of 4, doing 1 lap each. This year I raced as part of the Mountain Trax B Team- a team comprising of myself, Kathy Beresford, Luke Kennard and Scott Webb.
Anyway, back to getting ready. So with my bike packed, kit in my bag, and race-face on, I jumped in the car and off I went, convinced I had everything I would need.
Alas, my confidence was in vain. Having assembled my bike at the race, I promptly realised I had forgotten my pedals. Fantastic start...
By the time the pedal drama was sorted (one of my team mates had a spare set- phew!) I had an hour until the race kicked off, and started to get myself ready to go- skin suit on, warm up gels etc...
Just to keep things simple, I'm going to do a lap by lap summary of my race.
Lap one
For the past few years the race has started with a short lap of the arena, behind a quad bike. As the most experienced road cyclist on our team, I was nominated to be the first rider as the first few miles are basically like riding in a peloton. Apart from they weren't- a bumpy surface combined with people who weren't used to riding surrounded by other cyclists made for an incredibly tense start. Within a few minutes I had to choose between hitting a barbed wire fence or getting my elbows out and shoving my way forward. As the racing kicked off, I felt strong and sat on the wheel of a Torq rider, quickly gaining positions. Then as I went to sit back down after a technical piece of single track, my saddle slipped- not just downwards, but sideways as well. I tried to keep going, but I couldn't get any power down and I was forced to jump off the bike, grab my toolkit and fix the saddle. By the time I'd tightened everything up and was ready to ride again, I had seen my solid start to the lap go out of the window, and had to start working my way back through the slower riders. I put down the power where I could, but was held up a lot in the single track by slower riders. I eventually finished the lap in 19th position in our category, did a quick transition and Luke got out on his lap.
Lap time: 40:22
Lap two
After the technical disasters of lap one, I'd spent some time getting the bike back to running order- tightening up bolts and tweaking bits to fit me better. So lap 2 had to get better, surely?
Well from a technical view, it did- nothing went wrong with the bike, and I was riding quickly. But the race still hadn't properly spread out, and I was constantly getting caught behind slow riders. I was using my road legs to get past as many people as possible on the fire roads, but just kept getting held up in the narrow single track. But apart from it being a slightly frustrating lap, nothing major really happened...
Lap time: 40:32
Lap three
In previous years, lap three has been where I've started to feel the effect of the previous two laps. But not this time- my legs felt fantastic as I left the transition zone, and I cranked up the gears and settled into a fast pace. By this point the race had spread out, and so I wasn't held up so much behind slower riders. I was riding smoothly, and on the fire roads I was out of the saddle and sprinting from one bit of trail to the next. However the sun had come out from behind the clouds and the temperature was rapidly increasing.
Now at this point, you'd expect the usual sun related dramas to come out; dehydration, sun stroke etc. But in my case, the drama was sweaty hands- as usual I wasn't wearing gloves, but I was using rubber grips instead of my normal choice of silicon. I vaguely recall musing to myself about this mistake as I went into one of the last sections of trail. The next thing I knew, I lost control as I tried to flick my handlebars around a corner, and smacked face-first into a tree. Well done me...
Lap time: 40:23
Lap four
My fourth lap was the first of my laps in darkness, which brought up a slight dilemma- where do you put a battery pack in a skin suit with no pockets?! I'll leave it to you to decide...
At this point in the race, positions were firmly established- we had sat in fourth place for a while, and we were slowly closing in on third. Knowing that I would have to go out for a fifth lap, I decided to take this lap a bit easier- I figured it was better to lose some time now and be able to do a fast final lap than to blow up later on. I eased my way round, holding back a bit on the fire roads and trying to not push myself hard in the single track. It worked, and I finished the lap only a few minutes slower than normal, and feeling fresh. It was now down to Kathy and Scott to put in some fast laps and get us on par with AQR, the team in 3rd place...
Lap time: 43:52
Lap five
The part which I enjoy about racing in the darkness is that you start to lose track of where people are on course, and this was the case. I started lap 5 at 11:20 pm, and set out with the express intention of finishing it before midnight so Luke could get out for one more fast lap and get us into 3rd place. I was absolutely flying- overtaking even in the narrow single track, and sprinting on every fire road. When I glanced down at my Garmin I saw that I was maintaining 25 mph on the flat fire roads. However as I neared the end of the lap, more and more riders were slowing down, trying to not cross the finish line until past midnight- the absolute opposite of what I was trying to do. When I finally got past them, I knew it was going to be close, and it was- as I exited the last bit of single track, I heard the finishing gun go. I rolled into the arena at 52 seconds past midnight...
... only to be greeted by my teammates celebrating our third place! In the confusion of the darkness, we had overtaken AQR and I had started my last lap with a 1 minute 30 second advantage, instead of the deficit I believed we had. I had continued to put time into them on my lap, and we had beaten them by just over three minutes!
Lap time: 42:39
The final top five was...
TORQ Fitness- 19 laps
Four4th Lights- 18 laps
Mountain Trax "B"- 17 laps
A Quick Release Holidays (AQR)- 17 laps +3min 11sec
Mountain Trax "A"- 17 laps +4min 8sec
I was genuinely quite shocked to be on the podium, and it was great to be there after working so hard to get 3rd. I'd like to say a massive thank you to my team mates, Luke, Kathy and Scott, for putting in some really good efforts even when it looked like a good result was out of our reach.
Next up on my race program now is the Tour of Tidworth, an E12 stage race. It will be a tough race, but hopefully my fitness is now at a level where I can hold my own, but I guess we'll see. Watch this space...
Now just to get anyone who's not familiar with the 12:12 up to speed; the 12:12 is a twelve hour mountain bike race, with the option of either riding it solo or in teams. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who does it solo is a madman. So on both occasions that I've raced, it's been as part of a team of 4, doing 1 lap each. This year I raced as part of the Mountain Trax B Team- a team comprising of myself, Kathy Beresford, Luke Kennard and Scott Webb.
Anyway, back to getting ready. So with my bike packed, kit in my bag, and race-face on, I jumped in the car and off I went, convinced I had everything I would need.
Alas, my confidence was in vain. Having assembled my bike at the race, I promptly realised I had forgotten my pedals. Fantastic start...
By the time the pedal drama was sorted (one of my team mates had a spare set- phew!) I had an hour until the race kicked off, and started to get myself ready to go- skin suit on, warm up gels etc...
Just to keep things simple, I'm going to do a lap by lap summary of my race.
Lap one
For the past few years the race has started with a short lap of the arena, behind a quad bike. As the most experienced road cyclist on our team, I was nominated to be the first rider as the first few miles are basically like riding in a peloton. Apart from they weren't- a bumpy surface combined with people who weren't used to riding surrounded by other cyclists made for an incredibly tense start. Within a few minutes I had to choose between hitting a barbed wire fence or getting my elbows out and shoving my way forward. As the racing kicked off, I felt strong and sat on the wheel of a Torq rider, quickly gaining positions. Then as I went to sit back down after a technical piece of single track, my saddle slipped- not just downwards, but sideways as well. I tried to keep going, but I couldn't get any power down and I was forced to jump off the bike, grab my toolkit and fix the saddle. By the time I'd tightened everything up and was ready to ride again, I had seen my solid start to the lap go out of the window, and had to start working my way back through the slower riders. I put down the power where I could, but was held up a lot in the single track by slower riders. I eventually finished the lap in 19th position in our category, did a quick transition and Luke got out on his lap.
Lap time: 40:22
Lap two
After the technical disasters of lap one, I'd spent some time getting the bike back to running order- tightening up bolts and tweaking bits to fit me better. So lap 2 had to get better, surely?
Well from a technical view, it did- nothing went wrong with the bike, and I was riding quickly. But the race still hadn't properly spread out, and I was constantly getting caught behind slow riders. I was using my road legs to get past as many people as possible on the fire roads, but just kept getting held up in the narrow single track. But apart from it being a slightly frustrating lap, nothing major really happened...
Lap time: 40:32
Lap three
In previous years, lap three has been where I've started to feel the effect of the previous two laps. But not this time- my legs felt fantastic as I left the transition zone, and I cranked up the gears and settled into a fast pace. By this point the race had spread out, and so I wasn't held up so much behind slower riders. I was riding smoothly, and on the fire roads I was out of the saddle and sprinting from one bit of trail to the next. However the sun had come out from behind the clouds and the temperature was rapidly increasing.
Now at this point, you'd expect the usual sun related dramas to come out; dehydration, sun stroke etc. But in my case, the drama was sweaty hands- as usual I wasn't wearing gloves, but I was using rubber grips instead of my normal choice of silicon. I vaguely recall musing to myself about this mistake as I went into one of the last sections of trail. The next thing I knew, I lost control as I tried to flick my handlebars around a corner, and smacked face-first into a tree. Well done me...
Lap time: 40:23
Lap four
My fourth lap was the first of my laps in darkness, which brought up a slight dilemma- where do you put a battery pack in a skin suit with no pockets?! I'll leave it to you to decide...
At this point in the race, positions were firmly established- we had sat in fourth place for a while, and we were slowly closing in on third. Knowing that I would have to go out for a fifth lap, I decided to take this lap a bit easier- I figured it was better to lose some time now and be able to do a fast final lap than to blow up later on. I eased my way round, holding back a bit on the fire roads and trying to not push myself hard in the single track. It worked, and I finished the lap only a few minutes slower than normal, and feeling fresh. It was now down to Kathy and Scott to put in some fast laps and get us on par with AQR, the team in 3rd place...
Lap time: 43:52
Lap five
The part which I enjoy about racing in the darkness is that you start to lose track of where people are on course, and this was the case. I started lap 5 at 11:20 pm, and set out with the express intention of finishing it before midnight so Luke could get out for one more fast lap and get us into 3rd place. I was absolutely flying- overtaking even in the narrow single track, and sprinting on every fire road. When I glanced down at my Garmin I saw that I was maintaining 25 mph on the flat fire roads. However as I neared the end of the lap, more and more riders were slowing down, trying to not cross the finish line until past midnight- the absolute opposite of what I was trying to do. When I finally got past them, I knew it was going to be close, and it was- as I exited the last bit of single track, I heard the finishing gun go. I rolled into the arena at 52 seconds past midnight...
... only to be greeted by my teammates celebrating our third place! In the confusion of the darkness, we had overtaken AQR and I had started my last lap with a 1 minute 30 second advantage, instead of the deficit I believed we had. I had continued to put time into them on my lap, and we had beaten them by just over three minutes!
Lap time: 42:39
The final top five was...
TORQ Fitness- 19 laps
Four4th Lights- 18 laps
Mountain Trax "B"- 17 laps
A Quick Release Holidays (AQR)- 17 laps +3min 11sec
Mountain Trax "A"- 17 laps +4min 8sec
 |
| A very happy Mountain Trax "B" team on the podium. Photo courtesy of Vermont Images |
I was genuinely quite shocked to be on the podium, and it was great to be there after working so hard to get 3rd. I'd like to say a massive thank you to my team mates, Luke, Kathy and Scott, for putting in some really good efforts even when it looked like a good result was out of our reach.
Next up on my race program now is the Tour of Tidworth, an E12 stage race. It will be a tough race, but hopefully my fitness is now at a level where I can hold my own, but I guess we'll see. Watch this space...
