4:30am, never a good time to have an alarm ringing in your ear. Rain pattering on the roof of the tent had constantly filtered in and out of my sleep since I’d gone to bed making it even harder to leave my sleeping bag. The coffee pot on the stove was to be my only luxury that day.
I’d spent Friday evening as Cycleshack’s newest top salesman, well maybe if I’d spent less time chatting and more time selling, and had some ability with the most basic mental arithmetic (I get other people to do that for me these days…).
Dave at Infinity Cycles had done a tremendous job sourcing a new set of wheels for me and Rich and Sho, along with the rest of the Infinity Cycles Team, had very kindly collected my new race wheels and brought them over. All this meant that I had spent the whole evening on my feet and didn’t get the bike finally ready to race before 11pm, not the most restful evening, but good fun all the same.
Over the last couple of weeks Rhys had been quietly winding me up over the beating he dished-out last year. He sidled over and gently asked if I’d been seeded this year “err no”, to which he beautifully delivered his cous-de-gras “oh, I have” and wandered off… By 5:45am I had my place at the front… just behind the seeded riders (Grrrrrr).
The race started at 6:30 with the first couple of miles neutralised behind the marshall’s van. The strategy was simple, start at the front and stay there for as long as possible. As the van pulled over the pace instantly kicked hard and a group of about 15 quickly formed, I felt able to stick with the pace ok, the group was shedding riders pretty quickly. Then we started to climb and the pace kicked again and my heartrate shot well into the red, it was time to back-off and watch the “fast lads” gently ease away up the hill.
I was working on the basis of a Zipvit gel an hour, four Zipvit energy bars and grab a handful something at feed stations should be enough to keep me fuelled to the end. At the first feed, Rich Munro was manning the Tech Station so I took the opportunity to ditch my outer jacket, gambling on the conditions not getting any worse.
It was a truly horrid day, whilst it never rained hard, it was constant and the Kielder sandstone/grit was getting into everything. By 50 miles I was beginning to wonder if there’d be any of the bike left to ride! I’d been having a good battle with one of the guys from the Morvelo Team, finally getting the better of him when he stopped for a pee.
The Bloody Bush trail takes you to the Scottish Border, a great point in the race where you cross between two stone pillars on a Drovers road in the middle of nowhere. The lone piper and the singularly “Scottish” weather all making it feel particularly atmospheric!
A fast descent on gravel gave me a big moment, feeling quite at home on this surface after the Transalps I was pushing it and drifted a bit wide on a right hand bend, the front started to slide and at something getting on for 40mph I really didn’t want to come off. Luckily I somehow caught it and stayed upright, that had me spooked for a while!
Rolling into the final feed station at 78 miles intent on a quick pee and a bottle top-up, before I was even off the bike someone was already sorting my bottle, and whilst I was sorting myself out, the guys had set the bike in the right direction, put it in the right gear for the hill and gave me a mighty push off… outstanding service! I’d thrown a couple of handfuls of salted peanuts and a handful of jelly beans in my mouth, an interesting combo that your not likely to experience most days!
I would occasionally get a glimpse of the guy in front and that was just enough to keep my internal Terrier yapping and growling… not that I seemed to be bringing him back much.
A final bit of technical descent brought me to the finish in 9hrs 28mins, 5th in the Vets and 16th overall. I even had a sliver of brake pad left, rather miraculous when many people went through 3 or even 4 sets of pads to get to the end. Of the 600+ that started only 177 made it to the end with the last lunatic rolling in after 14 hours of misery, there’s nothing like a bit of misery from time to time!!!
So a seeded place for next year, a score settled and a new target set.... next year should be fun!
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