Enduro 6h mtb ? Catton Park 30/04/06

[sylv]

Hannah Reynolds 2nd place solo women (despite coming to race in a pair), full report and results from my race to follow soon!

[img]http://www.singletrackworld.com/mod/mainpage/images/Jen-and-Hannah.jpg[/img]

[sylv]

Last year I did a couple team endurance races with Simon and lads from the Midlands who race for Goldtec, and this year I am doing a 6h, a 12h and two 24h with them. This Sunday was the first of those, fittingly only a 6h to cut our teeth on. We had three men?s pairs and a mixed pair racing. I was looking forward to my first mtb race of the year, until I got told that my partner for this one was an ex team GB track rider, James Notley ? who for instance beat David Millar and Bradley Wiggins in the Devil race, Manchester Revolution 2003 ? and who was reconverting to mountain biking. Needless to say I was a bit apprehensive!

[img]http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/images/news_lead/2004/August/Madison_Championship04.jpg[/img]
A track move by James on the left (pic bcf)

I?d been to Catton Park (North of Birmingham) last year for a 24h, and to be honest the course wasn?t the most exciting ever, there were few good singletrack sections, but a number of fireroad downhills and tame field crossings. For this event though, I was surprised while doing a test lap on Saturday afternoon, to find the course completely different; first it went the other way round, turning two nasty off-camber climbs into sweet descents, second it was much shorter (5.5 miles), and seemed to have kept only the good bits from the longer course.

I first went round for a test lap on a hardtail, but the course was bone-dry and rutty (on some trails the mud had been tramped on by horses before drying up), so I quickly decided to ride the second bike I?d bought, which had full-suspension, as well as more gears and disc brakes ? the lap on this felt much better. In the evening we favoured watching in succession three of the most inspiring mtb videos ever in the Singletrack tent, over going for a one-lap time trial night race.

[img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/E6-NTT_files/JAD_5132.jpg[/img]
Jon Webb (pic joolze)

The day had been nice and sunny but in the evening it turned really cold, and in my lightweight tent and sleeping bag, despite being fully clothed I had trouble finding sleep. The worst were the feet - I?d only packed light cycling socks, and it's the cold feet that woke me up before 6am on Sunday ? or maybe it was the drizzle that started falling, slowly making its way through my ?showerproof? tent. The rain didn?t last long, and though the morning was fresh the ground was hardly affected.

James, who said he couldn?t run for his life (you can?t be good at everything), kindly let me do the ?Le Mans? ½ mile run to the bike. A bit late after a warm-up ride, I took place on the start line towards the back of the 300-odd field. Here I met a few acquaintances, including Hannah, who was supposed to ride in a mixed pair, but whose partner had changed his mind ? so she was going solo! After a run where I tried to gain as many places as possible (the trick is to be on the sides), I went for the first of my two-laps stints. It?s always hard to start a bike race after a run, trying to recover your breathe and slow your heart down, whilst at the same time trying to gain more places than you are losing - here there was a mish-mash of riders who were out for one, two or however many laps they could ride solo, all at different speeds.

[img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A1_files/JAD_5184.jpg[/img]
The start (pic joolze)

The course had three steep rutty climbs, for which I could just avoid getting in the ?granny ring? on a 34*27. There were three nice twisty forest singletrack sections, a couple fast fireroad downhills where you could get a drink from your bottle, some gentler climbs, and a few tricky sections. One of them was kind of a bombhole, grassy but in which jeeps had created ruts on both sides. It was still slippery on that first lap, and when I overcooked the turn at the bottom, the bike skidded on both wheels and nicely fell on its side. No harm, but scary nonetheless and a gentle reminder to watch those tight turns.

[img]http://thumbs.fotopic.net/798028000771.jpg[/img]
Steep & rutty (pics sheldona)

While the top guys like Nick Craig, who at 36 is still at the top of the UK mtb and ?cross scene, were lapping under 23 and even 22 minutes for the fastest pairs, my first two laps were 27"26 (including run) and 25"19. James then went for two laps, which he did in 24"24 and 24"01. Not bad for someone who admits he still has progress to do on the technical side! As we both did three sets of two laps, the routine when you got in would be: get some warm dry clothes on, get some food and drink in you, check your bike, go to the loo, and then just lie down in your 2m * 2m pit area (you weren?t allowed to get out) for what felt like a very short time till the other rider came in.

We kept going at pretty much the same rate, lapping for me in 27"05, 26"33, 27"34 (another spill) and 26"54, and for James in 24"10, 23"57, 25"18 and 25"03, lying in 17th overall place after 9 laps. Our other fast pair was fairing better in 9th place. After six laps each (I had to laugh after realising I?d only rode 33 miles at that point, but it felt like at least double that), there were 50 minutes to go. We decided to do one lap each, and try do this in under those 50 minutes, which would allow for one extra lap to be completed. Determined not to let my team-mate down, I went for it despite heavy legs which made me come to a near standstill on the hardest climb. Lapping in 26"19, I watched James go, not sure whether I really wanted him or not to come back before 4pm. I don?t know how it happens, but in most of those team races I?ve done, it always seems to come down to that last lap, and the pressure which builds on during that uncertain moment when you wonder whether you are going to have to go out again for a final lap or not.

Eventually James came storming in, in a sprint battle with Martyn one of our other riders, but unfortunately just 30 seconds after 4pm with a laptime of 26"40. I was a bit disappointed, as I knew that my extra lap, no matter how slow it had been, would have been likely to increase our ranking. But on the other hand I was kind of relieved, finally able to just relax and take off those chilly damp shorts. No beer unfortunately as I had a long drive home to look forward to. Our team ended up in 4th non-Elite position (15th overall ouf of 96 teams), while Martyn and Matt were 2nd (13th overall), only 8 seconds ahead of us!

After the race I got to reflect with James, who also races on the road, on the differences between off-road and road racing. To me they both require different levels of concentration: on the road you are constantly trying to stay close but not too close to the riders in front and on the sides, not to get dropped, take your turns at the front, and attack if you feel strong enough. Off-road you have to pay attention to the course and pick the best lines, to what your bike is doing and to your position on the bike. You might get a bit of drafting on long straight stretches, but most of the time you are basically on your own (especially in a relay-type race). And off-road, no matter how hard the course is and how much you are suffering, there are always sections that you will be enjoying and looking forward to at each lap. This time it was a tie-up between the sweet singletrack, which swerved between trees, and which you could just about manage without hitting the brakes with the right amount of ?body English?, and the final downhill, an off camber which menaced to throw you off-line and into a gate if you didn?t stay in its narrow line, but which when hit just right got you to speeds of 35mph onto a grass field where you could pretty much keep that pace till the finish line was in sight.

[img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A2_files/29c.jpg[/img]
The singletrack (pic joolze)

Next team race Bristol Bikefest 12h 11-12 June, hopefully lots of road and mtb racing in the coming weeks will get me closer to the level of these guys!

[img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A3_files/JAD_5585.jpg[/img] [img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A3_files/437b.jpg[/img] [img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A2_files/260.jpg[/img] [img]http://web.mac.com/joolzedymond/iWeb/Site/Enduro%206%20-%20A1_files/191.jpg[/img]
Pics joolze

[Rory]

Good write up, Sylv. Surely the Beastway Series will help build the fitness - not that you need it.

[Dr Frigo]

Yes the final year of Beastway should see the return of good competition between Adidscombe members, with strong riders as Richard, Kevin, Huw and Aodan and Grahame joining me. Who knows maybe even Joel will turn up from nowhere! I don't think we're all in the Masters category, but it should be fun nonetheless. It will be tough improving on Richard's 5th place overall last year and Rory's 4th the previous year, but will give it a shot!

[Grahame]

I think I'm too old to qualify for Masters this year. So it looks like I'll be pootling around at the back of the Vets race, blocking non-Addiscombe riders from the masters

I'm thinking of forming a new team for this season, inspired by an old favourite from World Superbikes - team Fogerty

F at
O ld
G immers
E njoy
R acing
T oo
Y 'know.

Considering getting a T-shirt made up with that on the back and a pair of Foggy's piercing eyes on the front. Nobody will ever see the eyes , unless they look over their shoulder to see how fast I'm disappearing after they have overtaken me, but I'll know they are there.

[Dr Frigo]

Reminds me of the Addiscombe team at Sleepless 24h in, wow, was it 2002?

A ddiscombe
R eally
S enseless
E ndeavour


Think it was Cushtie, Adam, Pete Kerr and myself. Little Joe was too young to race.

[Toks]

Damn! that was looked bloody tough well done mate!