Dusk Till Dawn 2008...

This is my favourite race... right at the end of the season.. well beyond the end of the season.

8pm till 8am .... nearly entirely in the dark with just the last hour or so in the light.

The first year i did it i was 22nd, last year i was 3rd... expectations after the ups and downs of this year were low so it was gonna just be a fun night on the bike. I chose to race the single speed.. fully rigid... try and keep a steady rythmn through the night.

The weekend started on friday night with a 3 hour drive to Enfield to home of the West.. Paul West.. Transportugal regular and a source of much help on bikes, training, kit and life when i need it so the chance to stay at his place friday night. kick back and relax was too good to pass up.
I arrived greeted by a massive dinner.. as Paul was my support for the race he had assumed his role as feeder 24hrs early... every other breath was an offer of food and i was never left hungry.
Saturday day was sorting of bikes and going to Asda to pick up food for the race.... here in lies a rather large error of judgement... eating some greatt noodles at a place Paul knew and watching Paul suffer during a turbo session in his garage:)

We got to the race for 6 ish ... weather wasn't too great.. very windy and occasional showers.. after sign on and race briefing we headed into solo pit area to scout out Matthew (Barton).. unfortunately due to our late arrival we had to mix it with the team guys but as it worked we were right on course without stupid solo pit lane... Matt was very cagey.. he has a ton of miles in his legs and his prep is always good so i was pretty confident that he would be beating me after my 5 month lay off the training.

By 7.30 i was kitted, bikes built, lights mounted and race ready.. i had brought the scott rc10 just in case but was still keen on finishing on single speed.
To the start line for just before 8pm... i managed to shuffle my way to about 15 rows from the back... i could just see Tom Owen (Edinburgh Uni CC... wildboar 24 winner) 5 or 6 rows further forward.. a very friendly guy that lives to ride.

8pm.. were off:)

The quad bike led out a slow starting loop to try and thin us out but when its a sell out event there isn't much thinning to be had.... when we came back to the start/finish it was game on... and game on it was... i felt great.. i quickly got ontop of the gearing on my bike and was spinning like a mad man.. overtaking at every opportunity, to coin a Craig Gordon phrase "felt like there was no chain on the bike" and i may aswell use another, i was "smashing it".
Felt so good and had a big smile flowing and jumping through all the singletrack sections... i caught up to Matthew after around 4 miles into the 12 mile lap and gave him a big shout of encouragement as i came past.
Towards the end of the lap i caught Jenn Hopkins with Fi Spotswood in pursuit.. sorry Fi for the overtaking manouvre down middle of you and another rider it was close but there was just enough room:)



The first 2 laps went by quickly... as i started the 3rd i swapped bottles.. Paul had missed my first passing and was confused to what lap i was on... my back had started to stiffen already with the well known 'Thetford Back'.... course is very rooty and undulating which stiffens your back up a treat, especially with no suspension at either end... no worry though as i was sure my back would loosen up.
Mid way through 3rd lap my head started to hurt a little.. the rain was coming down all the time we were riding and sections where traction was minimal had already started to appear.. crappy thing about single speed is the inability to gear down and spin your way through gloopy sections instead you got to soft pedal and try and keep traction.

End of 3rd lap.. swap battery on helmet light.

Midway through the 4th my head started to really hurt.. i tried drinking more but it was getting difficult to focus.. i had backed off a little from the first laps and was going alot steadier..
As Thetford is mainly singletrack i was finding it difficult to eat or drink and was paying the price... i don't like to have big stops to eat and like to take on everything on the bike..

During the 5th lap it all went wrong... head was hurting and was finding it difficult to even look at my own lights... i started to feel really empty.. classic riders knock... i stalled out coming out first bombhole and took a big knock to my knee.. i walked t off and got back riding only to come down on one of the faster open sections.. i was really spinning the gear as it was slightly downhill and the front wheel just turned in the rut i was in washing the bike from under me dropping me straight onto my chest, i heard a great crack as all my weight came down on my chest but surprisingly it felt okay. The lap didn't get any better and i felt weaker and weaker.. as i finished the lap and got back to Paul i sat down and took my helmet off and according to Paul was fairly incoherent and couldn't muster a response to his questioning as he tried to coax me back out for another lap with strange maths.. i was 6 hours in according to paul after the lap he was trying to get me to do i would nearly be finished:)

Game over...i just had nothing.. i have knocked before but never with this intensity.. tent came out the car and i climbed in.. i must have been gone as we were right next to a huge generator cranking away powering the lights but i was dead to the world.
I had managed 5 laps in 6 hours.. the winning 3 riders did 11 laps in the 12 hours. Matthew got a very respectful 10th place with 8 laps.. good work Matt.

In hindsight the problem lay with my diet during the race...as funds are tight till i've done a good months work my race drink was asda smart price squash with a pinch of salt and race food was a mixture but i had only managed to down maybe 10 jaffa cakes in 6 hours:( So in reality i was managing to take on a measly 20 calories a lap.. it is a mystery as to how i managed to last 6 hours but the calorie deficit was definately large enough to finish me off in good style.

As my fitness is unknown its not possible to say how it would of went if i had eaten properly... we will have to wait another year to see.

Well done again to Matt, good job Fi (Spotswood, 2nd solo female) and another impressive ride by Matt Page showing that he is indeed on top form and should be the man to beat next year.

In short.. eat well.. race well:) eat bad.. die a death mid race:(

(Picture courtesy of David Birkin)

The importance of preparation

Been a few weeks since i moved to Manchester now and what riding i have done has definitely firmed up my belief that i was meant to come here.

The peak district is on my door step now.. not to mention having a world class velodrome just down the road in case the urge to start track riding takes me( at the moment its just a spectator sport).

Last weekend i managed the first real ride out since i moved here.. hilly road ride, really hilly.. taking in some of the great climbs which i think will be featuring in this winters training... never had easy access to 20 minute plus long climbs:) The ride was with a local rider that also uses the XC RACER forum, James (Tottle). It was this ride which highlighted the importance of preparation, with a limited breakfast ( i hadn't been shopping) and heavy commuting tyres on my cross bike instead of road skinnies i was destined for a hard day from the start.

The first proper climb up to the 'brickworks' was tough but managed, James spinning and easy gear and it felt like i was running flat tyres... the climb aptly named 'Long Hill' started to signal the beginning of the end.. weather was now typically hot for this time of year ( who shifted summer to the last few weeks of September, i obviously didn't get the memo) and the big tyres weren't rolling too well... the stomach was feeling empty.
After managing to get over Long Hill and down into the bottom of the Goyt valley i had to grovel up the climb to the Cat and Fiddle pub... from here it was a lengthy downhill with some cheeky uphill sections to get you out the saddle and working... to cut this tale short i cracked on the final flattish 30 minutes of the ride.. i just had to sit up and take 5.. nothing left in the legs. It has been a while since i cracked but was happy to have been worked, always happy to know i have had a hard day.. sure its makes you stronger somehow.

This weekend i did the same ride again, slightly longer as i got a little confused with the route directions but took in all the climbs again.. this time with a proper breakfast and skinny tyres on the cross bikes... everything i grovelled up last week was a big ring climb this time around..made me happy.. weather was great again and views on the climbs fantastic.. not all is lost i can still rde and last weekend was just a slight hick up:)

Mid week between these 2 road rides i managed to get in the first night ride of the forthcoming winter... led by Charlie Wigfall, XC RACER team manager and also joining us riding James (Tottle)... venue was Macclesfield forest as a starting point and then a nice loop taking in some great rocky climbs and descents.
The AY UP lights allowed some crazy descending in the dark although the combination of big rocks and rigid forks gave me 2 pinch flats.. one fixed with a borrowed tube from Charlie after i discovered mine i was carrying was knackered and the second with a patch from James...

Great riding already and i have only been here 2 weeks... Dusk till Dawn next week on the singlespeed... and the search for some sponsorship for next year continues with my preference now being to race single speed all year:)

Mission aborted

A combination of bank balance, a job interview and looking for a new place to live = no way i could justify racing and travelling this weekend.

Just Dusk till Dawn left to race this year... and a new desire to try my hand at log distance road time trialing:)

Torq 12 approaching....

Next race this coming weekend.. 12:12 TORQ in your SLEEP... 12 midday till midnight.

With moving to sheffield everything is up in air so preperation isn't gonna be great, might get some running in and a spin on bike but not much else.. Scott isn't finished yet so can't be test ridden so newly revamped singlespeed will be out to play.. hopefully conditions will be awful and the one gear riders will rule the day:)

Wildboar 24

As previously promised the race report from wildboar 24;


The day started early with a 7am start from Newcastle picking up the first pit bitch on route, a good friend from Uni ( Thanks Rich).

The race start and camping was located and top racing fuel was sourced to kick of the day, sausage cob, Pretty sure that’s how Chris Eatough starts every race morning and who am I to argue.

As I had been informed by race manager, Charlie, the race started at 12 so I was ready and kit sorted to get going… only to find out it didn’t start till 2pm, thanks Charlie.

I wasn’t that keen on pre riding the course as I was sure I would see enough of it during the next 24 hours, and as many people know that race the first lap is generally a procession unless you’re very lucky to get a flyer off the start. We are used to trails changing from day to day and always looking for the quicker line so its adds spice to not know what’s round the next corner.. Well most of the time.

I occupied the extra time I had been gifted by the later start with my feet up, eating and drinking and listening to inspiring tracks on the mp3 player… still a little unsure of what I had let myself in for or how to approach the task in hand.

First little shocker of the day was the location of the solo pit lane and start/finish… over a mile from the campsite up a rocky bridleway! Not the best situation as everything we needed for 24 hours then needed to be carted up to the top.. Luckily wheelbase boys were shuttling the bikes and kit of solo riders up to the top. Downside is I had no bike to warm up on… so a lot of stretching was done.

1.50pm made my way to the start of the run to the bikes… a tradition on 24hour racing I still don’t understand… in this case it was over a mile long and up the aforementioned rocky bridleway… as I looked around the start line I saw 90% of the guys wearing trainers…. Me still in my mountain bike shoes… possible schoolboy error.

As the race was started the usual crazy running pace started, not for me I settle into a fast jog knowing that with 24 hours of riding ahead of me how much time would I lose over a mile of running… in reality very little. I made a few places on the run then made the most gains as people had to change into their race shoes. As I got to the top of the run I spotted Charlie grabbed my Superfly and got trucking.

The plan was to ride the first 14 hours steady…. That went straight out the window as the racing red mist descended… I knew Tom Owen (Edinburgh UNI CC) a good 24hr rider with some tidy results already under his belt had gone off the front, I thought Richard Rothwell (Ironhorse Extreme) was also in front of me too… at that point of the race I was unsure who else to be looking out for.

During the first couple of laps I got to ride with Iain Payne, another solo rider, holding a great pace and looking super strong, he was a good bet to follow for a few hours. As it happens Richard was behind us and as he caught us up on a charge we tagged on for the ride until he pulled us to being insight of Tom Owen. At that point he rode away to Tom’s wheel and I reigned back not wanting to use any unnecessary energy.

Within a couple of minutes we passed Richard again punctured, we wouldn’t see him for another couple of laps.

Myself and Iain rode out the first 4 ish hours together until I stopped for the first hot feed... I thought I would have a nice sit down… no chance... the pit bitches were on my case with an eye on the clock and getting me back out as soon as possible.

The lap itself was a mix of fire road and singletrack sections… it seemed mostly uphill with a loose steep descent mid way which required attention and some rear wheel steering and then a rocky descent to the start finish … by 6 laps I knew the course well and knew exactly where to place the effort, where to recover and where to pay attention.

As the daylight ran out the boys attached the batteries to the Ay Up lights and we went towards darkness… I always say it after every night race but I love my Ay Up lights…. They are so light that you don’t notice the weight and the light they give is more than enough for flat out racing.

The hardest part of 24 hour racing I think is getting your head around the timescale involved… it sounds stupid but when you have been riding for 14 hours and you still have 10 to go things seem a little grim.. So I work on laps and I count them off… for some reason it seems easier to swallow than time.

As the night rolled on I resorted to the Mp3 player for company, with a large 10mile lap and not many racers things were quiet out there… I hadn’t seen Iain since my hot food stop and so there was no one out there at a similar pace to ride with.

Big thanks to Jeff Buckley, Jose Gonzalez and Ray Lamontagne... all on repeat to get me through the night.

As I was told the greatest part of a 24 hour race is the day break…. Riding into the daylight is a great feeling…. Really does feel like the worst is behind you and you get a massive lift... pedals definitely go round easier.

I don’t remember exactly what lap it happened on and I don’t remember being lapped but it happened… Tom and Richard were both on top form and going well…. I was feeling okay but the relentless intake of sugary calories and drinks were taking there toll on my stomach.

The laps were going by quickly and it seemed like there were more people on the course… in fact there actually was as the trails were still open to the public so it wasn’t uncommon to encounter large groups of the general public.. I remember on one of the loose long climbs not being able to catch quickly a women on a £100 bike wearing some joggers and trainers and laughing to myself that maybe it was time to hang up the wheels... or maybe it was just that this was her first time up this climb and it was my 18th hour of riding and probably my 15th time up the climb.

Eventually with 4 hours remaining I was caught by Iain in 3rd place, with a few more 24’s under his belt his strategy was a little more organised than mine and he took a lap.. Well at least now I had my riding partner back.

We rode the last 3 laps together…. After 2 last with some careful calculations it worked that he had a lap on me and I had 2 laps on 5th place so we only had to do a final lap and there was no way that any places would change… so we did the ‘granny ring’ lap, a whole lap in its entirety in the granny ring.. Which disturbingly was not that much slower than a normal lap...

So I ended up with 4th place, possibly the worst place to finish as its so close to the podium but not quite… another life experience under the belt... and I wasn’t short of finding people to tell that I would never do it again.

But this is the strange thing about racers... we say after every race no more, never again, last time… during every race we are planning to sell up and take up knitting or lawn bowls but less than a week later.. Sometimes even the same night we are looking for the next challenge...

All change...

So whats new?? EVERYTHING is the short answer....

The lull in posting on my blog was directly related to firstly an increase in university work then secondly to a more profound life change in that i became single again... decided i didn't want to race/train anymore.. drank some.. ate alot.. got slow.. lost my sponsor... then decided i want to ace again.

The few bad things that have happened in my life have more than equally been cancelled out by some really good things...

Firstly the being single thing.. well that lasted about 2 to 3 month before meeting a really great person and although i had vowed to stay single till i was 30 ( which was last week) some thing sin life are just too good to pass up the chance and Grace is definately one of those things:) We have been together for over 4 months now and it has been great, her love for travel is inspirational.

Well as this is a blog about my racing may aswell update that front.... although i haven't been formally training i had to do a 24hr solo that i was committed to, i will add a seperate post to detail the race, and i have also with my new found enthusiasm to train and race completed a 12hr solo about a month ago.. i may get round to writing this up.. in short as i now have no race bike with sponsors machine going back i raced my rigid single speed getting 9th place overall so either i am still fit or everyone else has got slower:)

Hopefully that briefly covers the past so many months and now its time to look forward.. i am MOTIVATED.. and i mean really motivated. Currently i am addressing the lack of race bike with the build of Paul West's Transportugal proven Scott RC10 frame and addressing the extra weight i have gained with some very careful dieting.

I am now living in Sheffield which is amazing as the riding is second to none and literally on my doorstep within 15 minutes ride i am in the peak district:)

Also have recently met some very cool riders and people that have attributed to my new found desire to go race again so big thanks to them... no need to mention any names you guys have big enough egos anyway:)

next on list is hopefully Torq 12 and then Dusk till Dawn:)

G2 Revolver Series - Nightrider 12

The G2 revolver series, the creation of Martyn Salt and Trek/Gary Fisher, a set of 3 races exploring all variations on the endurance race... all night, all day and some night and day.
The first round was to be hosted at Sherwood pines, only a short drive from my house in Nottingham, i knew that i would be riding this race as the race sponsor backs the Xc racer team, i even knew that i would be riding as part of a 4 man team as opposed to my usual solo efforts.. what i didn't know is that i would be designated course designer!!

After a short meeting with Martyn (Salt) and Chris Bray (forestry commission) i was armed with a map of the forest and Martyns input to the course design " i want it to start here, finish there and be about 11km'ish long" ... cheers Martyn, a first class introduction to course design.

Anybody that has ridden the pine will no doubt know that a map is of little use as the the area is littered with so many small tracks it was near impossible to sketch an outline, i had a few sections in my head that i wanted to use as they were fun and new but stitching the course together was a challenge. The great thing about Sherwood pines is the large number of singletrack trails of which i am still finding new ones, the bad thing is they all generally pop out onto the large fireroads that wind through the forest and they all look the same. After a few days up there of riding and much leaving of little markers by the side of the trails i managed to put together a route i could follow (almost) start to finish and i felt had a decent flow even on my rigid singlespeed.

Race Day....

After driving to Sherwood the night before to show the guys that were marking the course the finer point of the courses design, as the map i produced wasn't very clear, we put some finishing touches on race day itself taking out a section which would have been a little too interesting in the dark... on a side note must say how impressed i am at the bike/quad handling skills of the guys marking the course, anybody that rode the course will be amazed to hear that a motorbike got through all sections of the course that i thought were mountain bike tight...

Weather although already 'see your breath' cold was dry and the course was in good shape... not allot of mud anywhere and what there was didn't halt your progress much...
After setting a flying lap for the Gary Fisher boys Garmin fastest lap comp that would run alongside the race all there was to do was to set our teams pit area up.. which in fairness on my part had little involvement, thanks guys:)

The camp/start/finish area was excellent.. we were right next to the track and there was already a good atmosphere developing amongst racers ( even if i was a little nervous my course design skills would be brought into question).

Team tactics were discussed and decision made to do a single flying lap each to start with then settle into double laps... 8pm came around quick and Phil was lined up and the start and then on the move... QUICKLY..
I am always amazed at the starting speed of endurance events... what was more amazing was Ian Leitch's incredible start speed as a solo rider... making it obvious from the start he was going to be adopting the 'Craig Gordon' approach to endurance racing in riding every lap as if you only had one to do.

Ian's start was shadowed though by the man Morris... Phil started in around 5th place off the start but by the time we could see him again after the first 200m he had a near 20m gap... much respect.
By the time Phil had done his lap we already had a 1.30 minute gap. Next up was Matt (lewis), then James (Hampshire) then myself. By the time the single lap rotation had finished we had around a 5 minute lead as our nearest rivals, SOUTHFORKRACING .CO.UK, had started with double laps.
By the time Phil had done his first Double lap stint we were up by nearly 10 minutes... he is a machine and i'm glad he's our machine:)

Gaps can quickly diminish in endurance racing as the sport is always open to outside influence.. in our case this influence was a thorn in Matt's tyre on the first lap of his first 2 lap turn, this puncture was fixed only to be followed by another one but luckily Matt managed to get back to start/finish on it and we swapped the wheel out for the freshly tubelessed wheel from Jame's (Hampshire)bike... look on Jame's face was priceless as we took fresh wheel from his shiny bike an left it disabled:)
With this minor mishap we lost a fair few minutes and the gap came down to 6 minute mark. Not one for leading a boring life Matt decided on his other lap to test a little used braking manoeuvre in hooking his bar end around a tree, effective in that i imagine it stopped him, well at least his bike, almost instantly but did mean he only had one bar end... until amazingly someone found it by falling off in exactly the same spot and discovering it.. only in mountain biking:)

In all the solo events i have done i have always been envious of the Team boys sitting around their lavish camp set ups socialising while i was out for the duration eating and drinking on the move, i have always thought what an easier life team racing is.. but in reality its just a different kind of torture... you race flat out for an hour to point of explosion then cool down to freezing waiting to do it all again, even if you wanted to sleep you can't as you may be called upon out of turn to race and generally solo racing you have very little concept of position in race or time gaps but as a team you know every second and so pressure is always on.

The rest of the 2 lap tints went uneventfully and we etched out a much larger lead to the point were once we had all done our second 2 lap turn we were 17 minutes up from 2nd place, SouthForkRacing, at this point we were at 6.30am and decided to round up with some single lap turns.. well at least 2 of us would have to do one.
Unlike other races that allow the laps finished after the 12 hours are up this race was made more interesting in that any lap completed after the 8am finish would not count so there was alot of maths going on as people gauged how many more laps they could get in and if it was worth trucking back out for another lap.

In the end this system played to our advantage and we gained our lap margin victory as even though it looked like the Southfork boys had switched back to an all out single laps effort time just wasn't on their side.

First win for the Team, and at our sponsors event it was a sweeter victory... was a pleasure to race with the rest of the XCRacer.com 29ers team.

Was great to meet Jay and Maddie Horton for the first time and they had a real battle all night in the mixed pairs eventually taking a much deserved 2nd place.

Congratulations to Ian Leitch for a truly amazing piece of riding in the solo category, i shouted that you were 'killing it' as i passed you the first time.. and you were... any plans to put on any weight and get slower before Mayhem???

Such a good event.. i drove home with a big smile.. hopefully course was well received and people are fired to get to the next round in Brighton.. i know i am.

Fantastic work Martyn.