Monday 28 September 2009

Ending on a high

Wow, it's the last race of what's been a packed summer season, and it came around surprisingly quickly. It doesn't seem all that long ago that the first of the spring greening was appearing on the trees, and i was riding through the dust of most of the Expert field at Sherwood Pines at the first NPS. A lot has happened in the last six months! So, for my final race of the year, i decided to go back to the three peaks cyclocross. In the twelve months since the last edition, the 46th one since 1961, i've managed to submit a PhD and find a job, in fact i handed in my thesis about three days after getting back from Yorkshire last time around. It wasn't ideal preparation, and my lack of cycling and running, and in fact fitness in general, told on my pretty badly as i crawled over the line in 238th place in 4hrs37. I hoped that this year, with life a bit more settled and a few more running and cycling miles in my legs, things might be different...

Rachel was heading off down to Newnham for the last round of the NPS, on what sounds like it was a fantastic course, and a fitting end to the year with something of a carnival atmosphere, but i'm sure she'll tell you all about that in her own post from the weekend. I, however, had had more than enough of Newnham at 24/12 - don't get me wrong, i liked the course, and it's definitely somewhere that plays to my strengths on a bike, but 14 laps does burn a course profile into your brain rather! Anyway, i digress. Rachel left on friday morning to head over for the team relay, but unfortunately her team from AW cycles pulled out at the last minute, leaving her with more than enough time to get ready. I stayed home and packed my stuff, made banana muffins (i'm getting better, but they're still not up to Fenton standards), and cooked dinner for me and a couple of mates who were nice enough to cycle out from Cambridge to keep me company. A few preparatory glasses of wine (one simply has to carbo load on a chateau la fite, dahling) a lot of food and a new, improved recipe Tescos sticky toffee pudding, and i was ready for my wee bed.

Saturday dawned overcast in Cambridgeshire, and i packed up the last of my stuff, and headed off Northwards at about 11am. After a long, but thankfully uneventful drive, i got to Helwith Bridge, in the beautiful dales, and amazingly not that far from the Lake District (my geography was sufficiently bad, i had no idea of this - shameful eh?). I pitched up my tent by the pub as i had last year, but without Rachel and Mark for company this time, and then headed out for a pootle on my bike to loosen my legs after such a long. On my way out of the car park i bumped into Jerry Turner, so the two of us headed off together for a little trip. Unfortunately, little did we know when we parted way that the bridleway that Jerry was taking would bring him right back to the campsite where i was pitched, so we could have ridden together all the way anyway. I got back, de-kitted, read my book for a few minutes and then made some dinner.

Post-food, or actually really during food, Jerry returned, and we headed to the pub with him and a chap i'd met in the camp site, my neighbour in canvas, and one of the guys Jerry was looking after during the race. A nice chat and a pint of the local micro-brew, and of course a quick fuss of the Clarke's rather sweet springer spaniel, and again i was ready for some shut-eye ready for the next days antics. I slept pretty well, and awoke a bit snotty (pretty standard for camping) and then got about the busy business of getting ready. I had my usual super-strength pre-race coffee, kitted up, warmed up, pumped up my tubs nice and hard (60psi i reckoned, i'm not that heavy after all), and before i knew it it was time to head out behind the pace truck.

I lined up on the 4hr line, with an ever-increasing number of people trying to squeeze in in front. Once we'd started to roll out, Owen and I ended up riding together in the slightly terrifying 500-strong peloton where there were almost constant braking waves, including one that very nearly had me off as i locked both wheels to avoid the guy in front. This continued until the pace began to quicken through Horton-in-Ribblesdale, and out the other side in antipation of the start of the offroad that leads to Simon Fell, Unfortunately, a bunch of motorcyclists decided they simply couldn't wait for the group to disappear onto the farm track, and decided to overtake all 580 of us behind the pace van - after last year when a guy on a motorbike broke his leg and had to be ambulanced away in the middle of the race, you'd have thought they'd have learned. On we went, and up into the offroad section.

Straight away, the difference from last year was noticeable - i rode much more of the run in, and even when it became a walk, i was able to keep a good pace, and put in the odd burst of a few steps of running - what a difference a year makes. The wall of grass on the way to Simon Fell wasn't quite such a shock this time, and i enjoyed the opportunity for a chat with the other guys around me, one of whom was wearing a bright red pair of sidis that got him the nickname Dorothy! The new widened stile was a nice suprise, and i was even more chuffed to find that i'd got to the top in pretty much spot on 1hr in 100th place. Things were looking okay! Down to Cold Cotes, and my lack of descending on a cross bike really showed, i felt very amateurish and unconfident, whereas i usually really like it when the course points earthwards. I suspect the dodgy brakes that i hadn't fixed properly (the springs are way too strong, which makes them really difficult to apply, even with suicide levers) and skinny tyres didn't help matters though. Onto the road section, i got into a nice little group that worked all the way to the foot of Whernside, where we were greeted by the dulcet tones of the commentator, a 3 peaks institution in his own right! So this is what i'd missed the previous year - mid race commentary. I got a bit of stick for belonging to a team with "Over the Hill" in the name - not appropriate for a team outside yorkshire apparently, and carried on up towards where the climbing starts on Whernside.



Surely bad brakes make you go faster, right?



The water station at the bottom was a nice surprise, as were the amazing number of people out to cheer - the support this year was second to none and really made you feel so great out on the bike, even when your legs were screaming at you to stop! I hiked on, still feeling good, and picked up a few more places along the way. There were a few people who didn't like being overtaken on the walking sections, and one particular guy sticks in my mind - every time i picked up the pace to pass him, he'd match me, and then walk alongside me poking me with various bits of his bike. This happened three or four times along the way, until i got thoroughly pissed off, and decided to take off at a run - when i got to the summit of Whernside, i couldn't even see him in the distance, so he obviously didn't have it in him to match me all the way - phew! Down the back of Whernside, and again my descending left a little to be desired although i was getting more into the swing of it, and occasionally getting carried away and slamming my poor tubs into the rock slabs - oops! I did have one spectacular "into a ditch" moment i front of a cheering family, who thanked me for the show, but made it to Ribblehead largely unscathed. Zipping along the road at the viaduct, surrounded by hundreds of spectators has to be one of my favourite memories of the whole year. And i remembered to take the man's line down the rock slabs too....

Along the road section i saw Jerry, and waved to him as he sat by the roadside taking photos. I still felt pretty good, probably in no small part thanks to my caffeine gel, and was well up for Pen-y-Ghent. This is probably the scariest of the three hills to me, as the riders near the front are hammering down at a great rate of knots whilst mere mortals like me are trying to hike and ride up. I saw Neal Crampton zooming down at warp speed, and clearly on for a great ride - i later found out he took up the last space on the podium after Nick Craig and Rob Jebb, closely followed by a largely wheelbase chasing bunch! It was a bit of a struggle to get to the top of PyG, but still not as bad as last year, although with my poor pumped arms, and naff brakes, i wasn't looking forward to the descent much. I made it down in one piece, and hit the road section, determined to leave it all out on the course, and dashed back into Helwith Bridge like my life depended on it - the timer on my watch had stopped and i hadn't a clue how close i was to making my aim of under 4hrs.



Still smiling on the way up Pen-y-Ghent - amazing!

In the event, i needn't have worried, as i made it back with 10mins to spare in 3:50! I was still 10mins off the pace of the first singlespeeder though. I have to admit, i don't really understand the mindset of entering events on a singlespeed, even if i do respect the results that people get. Singlespeeds are a great way to train in winter and not destroy your drivetrain, and they have their own events like the UKSSC and even a world champs, which is very cool, and very silly. But to enter an event like the 3 Peaks on an SS just seems daft, and even dafter if you're good - i wouldn't waste my fitness trying to ride a penny farthing or a unicycle over the 3 peaks after all! And if i did, you'd rightly tell me i was stupid!! Unicycling course record anyone?

It was great to do the race feeling fit, and i'll definitely be back again next year to try to knock a bit more off my time - i suspect i'll need to do much much more running, but i'm getting less averse to that in my old age, i'm even toying with the idea of some fell-running events, but we'll see whether that survives the rosy post-race glow! For now, everything hurts, and i'm definitely more beaten up than i have been after any other race this year. And the sickest thing is, i don't want to stop....

Wednesday 23 September 2009

Midlands XC round 4 - final

We hadn't originally planned to race the final round of the Midlands XC this year since it was at a venue neither Chris nor I are particularly fond of - Sherwood Pines. There are just not enough hills here so the races tend to end being more like road races with those who get into the front pack the most liekly to win. When the series standings after round three came out however, it became clear that I was in for the series title in the expert category and Chris had a chance in the expert men's series so we thought we would come along and give it a go. Nadine Spearing and James Hampshire have again put on a good set of races this year. They have been technical and challenging. That said, the women's categories have been a little disappointing on the attendance front and it would be really great to see more girls racing this series next year. It is after all pretty accessible both from the north and the south.

Anyway another reason for us going to race at Sherwood is that we can stay at Chris's parents in Nottingham. So the morning of the race we only had a 45 minute trip up the road to get to the venue. After signing on we went to take a look around the course. It was actually pretty good for a Sherwood course with the usual twisty singletrack as well as a few ups and downs and a good little steep and loose descent. The only really bad bit was a wide track which because of the recent dry weather had become a sand pit and since I generally lack raw power was a really slog.

I was pleased to bump into Ruth Owen-Evans (Yeti/Chris King) when heading back to the car to sort out my drinks since this meant there was another person in my race. As well as Ruth, Jenn O'Connor (Altura Patterson Training) was lining up in the Elite category and Hollie Bettles (XCRacer.com) who I seem to end up riding with at Midlands races in the youth category. At the start we were disappointed to see we were going to be set off behind the Open Male category which meant a few hold-ups in the singletrack. But despite this spirits were high and the 18 or so girls all set off together. At the start I made a real hash up and ended up cutting in front of Ruth (sorry!) but then having got going I was shoulder barged by Danielle Rider. She did apologise but I lsot my rhythm rather. Jenn unsurprisingly took the lead comfortably with Danielle and Hollie following and me behind.



On the podium for the overall complete with tasteful green glass plate
By the time we hit the back of the open men I was with Hollie again and we were working our way towards Danielle. Then disaster, on the sand-pit section I was taken out by one of the male riders and took ages to get up to speed again because of the terrain. For the rest of the race I was chasing down the other girls. I passed Danielle on a corner at some point in the first couple of laps and could see Jenn riding with Hollie on her wheel just ahead of me in the singletrack. She had a lot more power than me on the wider tracks, but it was pretty pleasing to be able to see her going about the same speed through the trees. It was good to have a bit of a carrot even if she did eventually disappear. In the end I finished about four minutes behind Jenn after four laps, winning the expert race and the series. She took the Elite race and series, and Hollie and Danielle the same in the youth and junior races.

Chris seemed to be having a good time in the pits chatting to Paul from SIP events and Trevor Allen from Bath University and whilst I waited for my podiums and chatted to his parents they went out onto the course for a warm-up lap. At 2.30 the boys were off. There were six guys in Chris's Expert race and about the same number in the Elite race, so not a massive field but there were a good number of sport riders. Chris as usual did not have the best start and I had a nervous wait to see whether he would make any places up early on. After less than twenty minutes the lead elites came through in a group and a few minutes behind them the lead expert. As usual Giles Drake had ridden a storming lap and was off the front by some margin. Chris came in a couple of minutes behind him but was looking pretty good and took another bottle - something most riders weren't bothering with. He was less than 10 seconds behind James Hampshire. They have been battling it out a bit this year so this was definitely a good sign!



Status normal for Midlands XC Expert Men - James and Chris off the back!


Over the next four laps the situation did not change much, but as usual Chris was getting closer and closer to James through the singletrack. Unfortunately on the 4th lap his saddle rail snapped and fearing a saddle spearing Chris decided to stop and not take the risk. When I spoke to James at the end he said he had been looking forward to a last lap battle so it was a shame. As Chris was having a massage, Nadine informed me that he had managed to scrape third in the series. So, despite the disappointment of not being able to finish the race there was something to be pleased about. The winners of the men's races were Rob Friel (Raleigh Avanti) Elite, Giles Drake (MSC bikes) Expert and Serge Hunt (Petracycles) in the sport race.



Some consolation for a broken rail :).

Thanks to Nadine and James for organising the series. Hopefully it will continue to be a fixture for years to come.

Friday 18 September 2009

Autumn's Coming

Well, it's official, the football season has started (although that seems to get earlier every year), the trees are starting to shed on my local trails and there are reports of the first 'cross races of the year up on British Cycling. Autumn's pretty much here. In spite of what you might think, i quite like autumn - it's a time for a bit of 'cross, which i find fun and stupid in equal measure, time to kick back, relax and take stock of the year. Autumn leaves weekends open for things other than racing, which after a summer as busy as mine and Rachel's can be a bit of a shock - if you're not away racing in some far-flung corner of the country, what do you do?!

You can also tell it's getting towards Halloween, Bonfire Night, and all those things that we associate with falling leaves, temperatures and rain in this country by the fact that it's now a little over a week until the 47th (i think that's right) annual 3 Peak Cyclocross. I've spent the last week dusting off my 'cross bike, truing wheels, gluing tubs (i've decided on the rather suicidal tactic of using Tufo hard-as-nails tubulars for this years race after last year's little experiment with tubeless 'cross tyres didn't go entirely according to plan) and generally sprucing it up and getting used to riding offroad on skinny little 34c tyres. I've also spent a week trying to get to the bottom of a very annoying squeak. Last night, it got so bad that i decided i couldn't just ignore it, so i decided to strip the chainset off the bike. Baaaaaad plan! It transpired that the cup on one side of the chainset had worn out - not a problem until i realised when removing the cup from the frame that i must have cross-threaded it when i put it in this time last year - it was harder than holy hell to move. So now, having planned everything meticulously, i have to find myself a replacement set of Truvativ GXP cups asap, and also get some kind soul to re-chase the threads in my BB shell. First port of call will be the ever-helpful Jerry Turner in Ely, a legend of East Anglian cycling and a wheelbuilder extraordinaire. Hopefully he'll not be too sick of me coming in with daft problems to help!

So the bike preparations have been alright barring this (ahem) minor glitch - how about body? Well, i've been doing some long offroad runs which tend to leave me feeling pretty beaten up; case in point was the last one on thursday which has left my calves still sore today! Unfortunately, there's nothing in these parts than even remotely approximates the wall of grass that's going to confront me for a second time on the ascent of Ingleborough - i remember last year not being able to believe my eyes. At least i've done some preparation other than sitting in a chair and writing a PhD thesis, so hopefully this year should be better (or at least over more quickly!) than last year was.

For those of you who haven't done the three peaks, you climb and descend the three highest peaks in Yorkshire, Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-y-Ghent; it's a 38 mile round trip, of which 34 miles is rideable, and 4 of which you have to walk/run. It's a truly crazy race, where you climb above the clouds with your bike over your shoulder, and then descend at breakneck speed down the side of very big hills with only useless cantilever brakes working over a tiny patch of rubber to slow you down. Possibly the most terrifying bit is Pen-y-Ghent where you climb and descend on the same track, so you spend your whole time going up hoping that some loony doesn't hit you, and then spend your whole trip down trying not to be that loony! It is nothing at all like your average cyclocross race, and yet almost everyone on the 'cross circuit does it because everyone else does! The last ten years have been almost totally dominated by fell-runner Rob Jebb, who just run away from everyone up the wall of grass and is never seen again - it's pretty amazing to watch even from the back-row seat that i had last year.

This year, there's a curious mixture of people entered, some old faces like Rob Jebb & Nick Craig, and some newer-comers like Kielder 100 winner Neal Crampton and American NUE series winner Jeremiah Bishop. It probably gets said every yearm but it'll be an exciting battle, and interesting to see who comes out on top.

With the 3 Peaks very much at the forefront of my mind, i'm off to my last MTB race of the year tomorrow, the final round of the Midlands XC series at Sherwood. Not exactly my favourite venue, i'm not sure i could explain my preference, but i just don't like the flat-out speed and tactical nature of the racing there, i think i prefer the terrain to decide. But, worth a trip up there when combined with a trip home to see my parents who it feels like i haven't seen in ages. Hopefully my calves will ache less by tomorrow!!

After that, it'll be time to strip down the trusty MTB, and start slowly acquiring replacement bits for things that are worn out/in need of a bit of TLC - there are definitely plus-points to autumn. So long for now,
Chrispy

Thursday 10 September 2009

Torq in your sleep

The weekend before Chris's epic adventure in Kielder forest I had a epic outing of my own, albeit on a totally different scale! A friend from the XC racing scene Nick Evans (Beyond Mountain Bikes) asked Chris if he wanted to race 12 hour pairs at the Torq/Gorrick event and Minley Moor. With the K100 coming up Chris decided against racing but suggested me as an alternative. SO there I was entering a long race - not normally my thing but I've done lots of riding right?

With Chris heading to the peaks on the Saturday before for a day of torture with our Elite XC racing friend Andrew Cockburn (Cambridge CC) we decided we would head down to the race on the morning of. Nick only lives a short drive away so was doing the same. What could possibly go wrong?

Well aparently nothing since we both arrived in OK time Chris set up camp and Nick headed to the rider briefing and I went round the course. It was fun, lots of swoopy singletrack, a few short climbs and a bit of slogging through dry loam. It was however, also going to be hard work for 12 hours!

We decided that Nick would do a double to get us going, so just as I was coming back from my course recce I saw him heading out and setting a good pace overtaking on the lap of the field which was required to start. Coming back through after 1 lap he was in a good position and we were second in the mixed pairs - a good start. I started to get ready to go and was ready and waiting in the hand-over area in good time for Nick who had done another good 38 minute lap bringing us into first place - awesome.

Nick coming in to change-over

It turns out though that I was out against some of the male racers from the team in second though so it took about half a lap for them to pass me back again. We were however still in contention and 12 hours is plenty of time right...

Looking rather too relaxed whilst waiting for another lap

Nick did another two laps before we settled into singles for the rest of the race. We didn't manage to get back to first place again. They were just consistently a little faster than us. But we did manage to engage ourselves in a very exciting battle for second place. A team of Nadine Spearing (Patterson Training) and her other half James Hampshire (XCracer.com 29ers) had had a slow start and were gaining on us all the time. Nadine is a fast road racer as well as an elite mtber so when she came speeding past me on a road section of the course I though about going with her before changing my mind and sticking to my own pace. We rode pretty much in formation for the rest of the race, until in the last three hours or so we started to gain time on them again. This was mostly due to Nick staying a pretty much the same speed for the entire 12 hours compared to me and the XCracer team who were all slowing down! Going out on his last lap Nick was about 4 minutes behind Nadine who had just gone out and had been instructed to go for it by our pit crew extraordinaire - Chris! Nick must have given it everything because when he finished - just 18 seconds behind Nadine he was cooked.


At the finish with unavoidable dust-tan

Third place though! Great! Especially since I felt rough for the last 6 hours. I think i need to drink water more and not carb drinks for events like this in the future...

Thanks to Nick for being a great team mate, Chris for being a super pit-bitch and Nadine and James for a great race. We'll see you again at the Midlands series final round in a week or so!


Obligatory podium shot!

Now back to nursing my midge bites from marshalling the Kielder 100 (a suberb event BTW I'm quite tempted by it for next year!). There are loads more pics from the Torq 12:12 that Chris took. I'll get him to upload them to the blog gallery this evening.

Monday 7 September 2009

A Big Day Out

Possibly even a massive day out. I'm referring to the first Kielder 100 race, i say first because i hope it is the first of many. It certainly felt like something special, from the moment i arrived and saw the size of the terrain around Kielder, a place i'd last visited as a shy, long-haired seventeen-year-old about to head out on a Duke of Edinburgh's walking expedition, to seeing 230 people all gathered in the courtyard of the castle, it was clearly a serious undertaking. It was all a pretty groudbreaking idea, the first 100mile race in the UK, the first enduro to cross the border into Scotland, the first single loop race (as opposed to that oft-used get-out "challenge"). And the earliest start of any race i've ever heard of in the UK at 6:30am - ouch.

In the week running up to the event, the weather in Cambridge decided it was going to turn decidedly autumnal - gone were the sun drenched, breeze tousled summer evenings to be replaced by harsh winds, cold rains, and less daylight. It almost sounds ridiculous to admit it, given that officially at least there are another couple of weeks left before we even get to the beginning of autumn, but the start of the football and cyclocross seasons do sound the knell of summer to me, and try as i might, i can't help but start counting down the days and weeks until halloween when the winds start sweeping in across the fens from Siberia (at least so the urban legend goes...). Whilst i was being blown around in the flatlands, biblical amounts of raining were falling on the borders, soaking the Kielder peat even more and swelling the local rivers and burns almost to the point of bursting.

I took the friday off work, not fancying starting the 300mile journey north on a friday evening on the A14, and Rachel and I made a day of getting up there. We stopped off in Oakham, the county town of Rutland (according to Steven Fry the second smallest county in Britain, after the Isle of Wight at high tide) to grab some cash and some food, and to have somewhere nice to eat our packed lunches. We then carried on North, making it to the border town of Kielder, set in 250 square miles of man-made forest shortly after 6pm. Rachel headed over the the castle to help out Sara and the sip-events team, and i tootled out over the first few miles of the course to see if there were any bottlenecks to worry about, and to spin my legs out. We reconvened for the age-old favourite of noodly-stir fry at about half-seven, and then went back over for Rachel to get to the marshall's briefing. Unfortunately, and this won't suprise any of you that know us, we got to the castle too late, so helped out with sign-on instead.

I made friends with a beautiful weinmaraner (sp?) dog, who was intent on licking my face, but wonderfully well-behaved and belonged to the chap doing the kit checking. In spite of her best efforts, Rachel didn't manage to get a photo of me making a fool of myself over my new canine best friend! 9:00pm came around amazingly quickly with all these distractions, and it was time to head down to the courtyard to be told of what was in store. I have to admit, when the reality of what i was planning to do hit me as Sara ran through the details, my stomach did tighten - i can't have done 100 miles on a road bike more than half a dozen times in my life, and every time it's been an experience. The closest thing in terms of effort and concentration i'd done previously was the Ardechois cyclosportif in the summer of 2006. That experience had left me so tired that i managed to stagger to the event village, buy a 1kg jar of ratatouille and a 2litre bottle of coke, eat entire jar of veg with the only utensil at hand; a piece of cardboard i found (it's amazing unhygenic you are when you're that hungry!), drink the coke and then fall sound asleep under my bike! I woke up three hours later with one of my mates tapping me on the shoulder with his foot...



Hydrate or die...


Post briefing, i headed to bed, mindful of the 5:00am start i would need to be ready in time for the roll-out, and with every intention of getting a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, my pre-race nerves had other plans, and i tossed and turned restlessly in the sleeping bag until long-gone midnight before finally getting some shut-eye. If anything, the arrival of the alarm was a relief - i could get up, and occupy myself with getting ready. It was pretty chilly so early on a september morning, and i kitted up and then put all my clothes on over the top. I forced down a couple of bowls of crunchy nut, a coffee, and then headed over to the line, pain-au-chocolate in hand. The sun was poking his head over the trees, and starting to warm the air, unfortunately bringing out clouds of midges that were out for blood on the start line (as if they hadn't feasted enough on the assembled throng whilst we were being briefed the night before!). We headed out on a neutralised start at 6:35, riding behind the lead car at a fairly sedate pace intended to keep the bunch together until we hit the first climb.

As soon as we did, all hell broke loose and the guys at the front started tearing strips off each other. My legs were already feeling a bit heavy, and didn't thank me for trying to get them going faster, and i floated back through the group from about 10th position to 60th or 70th as the climb went on. Bugger, losing contact so early on, not a good sign i thought. I decided it was too cold and too early to start worrying, i'd just ride a steady pace and see what happened as the race progressed. The first descent was a bit sketchy, covered in muddy water from the previous week's rainfall, and by the bottom i couldn't see a damn thing through my oakleys - so it was going to be like that was it?! As we carried on, i caught up with the guy who designed the graphics for the numbers, Dean who was riding for VC Moulin, and as if the event wasn't hard enough had decided to singlespeed it too. We rode to the first feed, where i grabbed a bunch of gels and a refill, and started to feel a bit better, and picked up the pace a bit. Further on, i came across Rachel marshalling a "three arrow" descent which transpired to be nothing more than a steep rock slab you could roll down or drop off, although apparently lots of people freaked out at the idea that it deserved three arrows, got off and ran! She shouted to me that i was about 20mins down on the leaders - 20m in three hours, not so bad i thought.

I pressed on, passing group after group of people who seemed intent on riding really gently along the flat fire roads, and then hammering up the climbs; not the most efficient way to ride such a long event. Just by riding steadily, and descending reasonably confidently i seemed to be making up quite a bit of ground. The slog up to the piper at the bloody bush bridge was worth it just to see the quintessentially Scottish sight of a man in a kilt standing in the rain piping. Good work, sir! By the time we got to Newcastleton at the 65mile point, i was starting to suffer though - the riding kept me going, being fun swoopy descents, and then i got another boost from seeing Paul of sip fame who told me i was nudging the top-15. He very kindly put some oil on my poorly, creaking chain, as I dashed inside, grabbed a couple of handfully of jaffa cakes and some more energy drink, and then headed out to try and catch a few more people. The remaining riding is a bit of a blur, i remember really enjoying my bottle of flat coke from feed 4, and riding down the slightly wet & slippy boardwalk with the abandon of someone who no longer cares for their safety, and the enthusiastic marshalls who told me there were only 6 miles left to ride. Oh joy, i was nearly back. Sadly, most of those 6 miles consisted of horrible, half-finished tracks that felt like riding over the foundations of a wall - apparently they were no less rattly and horrible on a full suss, and they even caused my saddlebag to come unhitched. But it didn't matter, i was so nearly home. I exchanged pleasantries with Mike Powell over the last couple of km, and we came in almost together, me for 9th senior, and him for 2nd vet in a bit over 9hrs.

It was a big day. I didn't feel too bad straight after, and wandered around for a bit chatting to the guys at the finish, and then catching up with more peeps at the castle. I had some food with Si Ernest and Neal Crampton who'd come first and second, and then staggered back to give Rach a sandwich (she'd been finish-timing quite a while by this point!) with the soreness really starting to set in to my legs. The rest of the evening's a bit of a blur, probably aiding in part by Ian Leitch, purveyor of fine pale ales, but the experience did nothing to dampen my post-big-dog enthusiasm for the idea that all races should end with a party!

So, in short, a superb event, and definitely a proper man's race (none of this lapped nonsense!) - one that will definitely be on my list to do again, in spite of mud, rain, wind, cold, wheel-swallowing puddles, and nasty unnecessary boulders. Maybe i need my head examined...