I have absolutely never wondered what it would be like to ride my mountainbike for 10 hours. Have had a few problems recently, what with my forks dying and my hand being totally spack have been toiling a bit in races. Managed to scrape a win in the Masters at Fryrish but was riding like a bag of spuds on the descents. Got Steve to sort out my forks, and adapted my right hand grip (Ergon grip on backwards) and the situation is much improved. Apart from all the people coming up to me and going "you've got that on backwards" that is.
So didn't enter 10 Under the Ben with a lot of confidence. Wasn't sure my hand would hold out for that long. Not sure how to pace it, so looked at last years results, the female winner did 7 laps, figured I needed to do 8. Budgeted myself 1hr15 mins per lap, filled a box with many many many bottles of drink, abandoned it in the pit area and away I went. Oh yeah and set my HRM to beep if I went over 80% of max. Death or glory and all that.
All went very well. Got stuck in loads of traffic at the start, but as the race went on I clawed that back and settled in. Actually got faster towards the end, as a result of a) increased confidence on the descents as I got back in practice and used to using my right hand more b) 2 cans of Relentless at the start of 7th lap c) less traffic. The heat prolly went in my favor as well.
Had no idea how I was getting on, Peter from Finishline was doing timing and kept saying "you are going well" every time I came by but I never managed to hear where I was. Few events of note on the way around. Realised I was seriously hungry on lap 5, shoved way too much food down, threw up a bit, swallowed it back down, needed the calories !!
Turns out I was well ahead. 8 laps in 10.06. The nearest woman was 7 laps in 9.37. I would have got 22nd overall. I think that is called releasing the furry AND crushing the souls of the weak beneath my wheels.... Fiona D did well too, taking 3rd place, we are shaking hands in the picture.
Pure knackered this week, so have taken a week off the bike, will start training properly soon for the World Masters in Pra Loup in august. Has been weird, and even more oddly my hand has been really sore and I have lost some movement in the joints, can't close it or grip well at all, so obviously biking is good for it.
Heading down to Inners tomorrow night to map the course for the TT series, have set up a wee website for that http://innersmtbracing.blogspot.com/
This weekend was the World Cup at Fort Bill, will post on that soon Fi has sent me some ace pics.
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I won !! I won !! I won !!
Full report later, but Jacquie has asked me to say that she predicted my victory...
Highlight: caning it on the last two laps after 2 cans of Relentless. Lowlight: swallowing my own vom on lap 5. Archie would have been proud of me.
Here is a picture of me with Jacquie Phelan, Legend of Mountainbiking and my roommate for the last few weeks. We were at the premiere of a movie called Hardihood at the Edinburgh Bike Film Festival, about a week in the life of some pro Downhill racers in the USA. Great film ! Jacquie was in it so she introduced it and did a talk about it afterwards. It all got a bit political v quickly, highjacked by some folk who want to ban mountainbiking cos people drive to Trail Centres. Better than sitting in the pub watching boring soccer matches and drinking beer I reckon, which is prolly the other option for the Trail Centre Punters.
