National 12-hour TT

[Jon H]

The boys done good. Five starters and five finishers. Brief results below (I think I've remembered these correctly)...

George 261
Sylv 244
Rob 243
Paul 235
Andrew 207

I think that got our top 3 the ECCA team award. It was a far from ideal conditions, with rain early on and pretty windy all day. Despite that (and some mechanical trouble) George got pretty close to our club individual record, and G,S&R got close to our club team record.

[Dominic]

Fantastic rides guys. Hope you don't feel too bad today!!

[Dominic]

Photos here:

http://www.sarahbrookephotography.co.uk ... 243p1.html

[George]

Had a van load of supplies with everything labeled and organised so my 2 helpers my brother Eddie and Keith Wahman would be able to keep me going for the duration in a military style operation.
The morning was a bit rotten and the first couple of hours back and forth along the A11 dual carrigeway were a bit wet to say the least, my feet were getting soaked from all the spray but I didn't mind as I could see the miles clicking by, although it did seem a bit lonely and was a little bit windy.

My first couple of feeds were warm soup which was lovely, just what the doctor ordered on this inclement morning. The guy who started a minute behind me came past me, but I joked with him that I was gonna beat him to the finnish.

After about 86 miles we were headed off the DC over a level crossing which fortunately was up and so onto circuit B, this was a 12 miles of fast country roads so every half hour or so I would get some goodies from my helpers.
This was a fantastic circuit and I was bowling along with a nice high average speed, we even managed to get pushed up the long drag at Six mile Bottom by the wind too.

Everything was going well then my rear disc wheel started making a funny noise on every revolution.
I was a bit concerned as it was getting worse and worse where eventually coming up the hill where all the helpers were stood the carbon fibre disc just literally disintegrated beneath me and fell apart so I pulled over.
Luckily for me right next to Roy Green, he lent me and Andrews spare wheel to enable me to ride up the road to my brother who had my Bora waiting for me.
We swapped the wheel out again and I used the time to relieve myself in the bushes, which I really needed to do. So all in all I only lost 2 minutes so was very fortunate as It could have happened much further away from my van.

I was gutted next lap as they cut us off circuit B and I had only done 3 laps of this fast one, came past Sylv who was going along like a true tester, he looked very smooth indeed.
Then came across Robert R E, he told me he had done 6 laps of circuit B, I couldn't work it out at the time but later was told they cut him off from the dual carrigeway after 46 miles.
We had a horrible headwind all the way to Duxford where we started circuit C, Boy was I happy to see Keith and Eddie as I had just run out of drink and was starting to worry.
This was a triangle with 2 nice legs and one long nasty leg into the wind, I joked with Andrew on this nasty section saying this was the best bit of the whole course, He shouted back no its not its the worst into a horrible headwind.
Spotted Chris Watts sitting ouside the pub on the corner
There were 2 sets of traffic lights at Duxford I was pretty lucky and was only held up a couple of times, which actually was a nice little breather.
I was getting some great encouragement and cheering from all the helpers especially Chris and John Watts and Joyce.
I was feeling very comfortable with no pain, my position down on the Aero bars was just perfect and very nice and easy to stay down in.

So much food was being handed up to me and I was eating everything, I'm sure this was a key factor in keeping my energy levels up all race long, chicken legs, sandwiches, scotch eggs, cake you name it I stuffed it

Finally caught Paul who was being pursued by Mark his son and sonic909 in a souped up bad boy GTI wheelspinnin and racing around the country lanes.
Luckily the weather had cheered up some what and I even took my arm warmers off, I was on schedule for about 255 miles with 3 hours to go, I felt good so started to push it a bit more and opened up the throttle.

Onto the finishing circuit which seemed to go on forever and I was dead jelous of all the early starters who were finishing hours before me.

The last hour was actually the worst for my body, this it the hour where the pain starts to show its ugly head and my feet were killing me every time I pushed down on the pedals.

But I knew I had to push down even harder for this last bit, my speed was up a bit more now and I could see 260 miles was on the cards so I pushed as hard as I could to eek out as much as possible, for the last 20 mins I just treated it as a 10 and was really grimacing with all the pain and effort.
I passed a timekeeper with a minute and a half to go so had to push on for another 2 miles.

At the 12 hour point my speedo read 261.2 miles so was very pleased with that, and finally pulled over and fell onto the grass.

[Tony]

A set of great results. 260+ miles in pretty mediocre conditions is going some and three others or around 240miles too. Not to be sniffed at. Given that Andrew's a lightweight and only got short legs, 200+ miles for him in those conditions is like 300+ for other people!

I saw George on Saturday, and his event was planned with military-style precision. I think he had most of the contents of his kitchen to be loaded in to the back of his van. The start of this event is many days in advance with all the planning, preparation and organisation.

UK Olympic Team had a super-Saturday. With Tok's result, and all the 12-hour results looks like ACC had a super-Sunday.

[Jon H]

George even had a mini-bar in his van

George, did you give Ian Cammish that knackered disk afterwards? I did notice that despite riding for Planet-X, he was riding on a Campag Ghibli

[Andrew G]

Thanks Tony . Oh yes it is military style preparation that actually made the build up a rather nervous affair as I ended up dumping so much stuff with my parents for fear of forgetting something (including spare cables).

Do you mind Jon it was 207.99 miles! 17.3325mph average, roughly.

This might go on a bit, but I’m making no apologies on this occasion .

A quick one word sum up – OUCH

I was a fairly early starter (5:20) and showers were predicted to last ‘til about 6:30ish. They were only very light as I was about to start so I left the rain jacket and stuck on a gillet to keep warm early on.

I had 2 laps of Circuit A to start with which is a slog up and down the A11/A14 for 80 miles. This was probably the worst 4-4.5 hours I’ve spent on a bike, it is the most tedious and soulless road I have ever had the displeasure to ride on. Add in the wind and the fact the rain kept falling intermittently, but fairly frequently, and it really was rather hideous .

At the end of my first lap I stopped by my Mum and Dad (who I’m indebted to for all the work they did) for food, drink, and a pee. On the return of the second lap the head wind really picked up and the rain was falling and being driven in to me and making me feel a wee bit miserable. This stretch of road is really dangerous in the wet as the traffic built up and lorries came thundering past soaking you in spray and reducing visibility to next to nothing. I was determined I was going to see this through though and was not packing, seeing Mum and Dad again for another pick up really did pick me up as well as the fact I now knew I was getting off this loathsome road.

Stopped for another pee on the transfer to Circuit B and Keith (Coffey) came passed while I stood there. He shouted something but I didn’t catch what it was as I was concentrating on matters in hand (so to speak).

Once on B I perked up. My speed and been pretty poor on A (in theory the fast bit) as I was going badly and the weather and road had got to me, but now on nicer roads my speed picked up and my mood improved. The rain had also stopped and I was starting to dry out. I ditched my gillet on lap 2 as the sun was starting to now show itself.

Throughout I was stopping briefly on each lap of all circuits to grab bottle(s) mixing PSP, water and once or twice flat coke, and a couple of small cups of tea and coffee and food. For food I was mixing the odd sarnie (although these were harder to digest so stopped them), chicken legs, malt loaf, dried apricots, cake, apples and tinned rice. The apples and rice were food from the Gods, they were the most wonderful things to eat on the way round. I also had a bacon sarnie on Circuit C which was very nice. Variety was the key that enabled me to keep shoveling stuff down without feeling sick of anything.

Where was I, ah yes, Circuit B was nice and I liked it. A bit of a slog with a head wind on one side but mainly quite enjoyable. I can never count laps but think I did 4 before being turned off for C. I stopped for another pee on one lap and yet again Keith came passed at that moment . Tamar please assure Keith I didn’t spend the whole day urinating at the side of the road . In fact that was my last pee stop of the day.

As George said it was a horrible slog back on the loathsome A11 to get to Circuit C. Along here I was yo-yoing for a while a lovely Bates tandem of a Chelmer pairing.

On my last stop on B I’d asked to get my spare shoes and socks ready as my feet just weren’t drying out and I was getting that horrible, almost grating feeling you get between wet toes. I hit C and stopped and my super team were ready with the kit out and ready. Keith (W) held my bike while my Dad changed the bottles and I sat down to ditch armwarmers, change my footwear and topped up the chamois cream.

So far of the other Agreeables I’d seen Paul at the end of circuit A (I knew he was coming passed as I felt a hand on my back and a slight increase in speed for a few seconds ), Sylv had glided passed on B effortlessly and clearly going very well, metronomic Rob had also come by on B. On C though I saw George, and Sylv and Rob again, and it was great seeing them. All the other riders are friendly on this too as whatever speed you’re doing we’re all going through our own little bit of suffering. Some of the fast guys really offer a lot of encouragement and it was with great joy that on the hard head wind bit of C (knowing how mad you are George I thought you were being serious at the time ) that the legend that is Ian Cammish came passed me, for the 3rd time of the day, and eased slightly to give me a shout and if I recall correctly “bloody horrible bit of circuit!”.

C was odd though as the worst head wind bit I was down to 13mph and then when you turned back on to the A road and got the wind behind I was tickling pedals over at 22-23mph while getting my eating done,

From things I’ve read a lot of people go through a bad patch about the 7-9 hour mark, which can last an hour or so, and then you perk up again if you can ride through it. Never arrived for me though so I guess I’d got my bad patch over with in the first 4 hours.

Tamar, as I saw the clock go over the 6 hour mark I sang a little chorus of “Ohhhh, we’re half way there, ohhhh livin’ on a prayer” in tribute to you .

On to the finishing circuit and the end was in sight, only about just over an hour and a half left for me. Another little lift for the heart, If I’ve made it this far, I ain’t stopping now.

Blimey, it was a lumpy number. Probably not that bad really but with ten and half hours cycling under your bum it felt like it. Speaking of my bum I’ve been using a new saddle on my TT bike for the last few events and had acquired a slight saddle sore. I’d stayed off the bike for a week before this race but it hadn’t gone completely. It was a bit sore early on but then think it got beaten in to submission as it didn’t give me any real agro. To ease my bum for the last few hours whenever the road rose up I got out the saddle, this was a nice relief for the old ‘arris but in the last hour my feet started playing up a bit – hot foot so regularly squirted with water.

On the finishing circuit everyone gives you a cheers as they know how far you’ve gone to get there and how close you are to the finish. Clocked Hutch a few times ambling up and down the verge in his laconic style as he was out helping someone (look at the last pic in the link Dominic’s put up for a giggle of him looking like a rag doll ).

Some of my Dad’s old Essex club Crescent Wheelers were out marshaling and supporting and gave me a nice cheer. Throughout the whole 12 hours the support from all the Addiscombe support crews was fantastic and a real boost whenever you rode by their station, thank you very much.

I’d wanted to get 200 miles and with about half an hour to go I notched it up just as George caught me again and we exchanged a few words before he zoomed off in to the distance. I probably don’t need to mention that whenever I saw George he was grinning and enjoying himself, and Sylv was always looking like he’d been born on a bike he was so smooth and effortless.

Just after the 200 mile mark my legs fell off a bit. My feet were now sore from continually getting out the saddle on the lumps and my thighs were now getting in on the game. I plodded on to the end though but was quite happy to get off the bike at the end.

After the rain at the start the sun came out during the day but it never got very hot, just stayed a nice temperature for riding. The sun was there though so without suncream I now sport a lovely pair of red pins .

If you’ve made it this far, well done. A final thanks to all the support crews, particularly my parents for looking after me all day with super slick organisation and morale lifts. Looking at my bike computer I had 12 minutes off the bike in total with feeds, pee stops, and footwear change.

Cheers,

Andrew.

P.S. Next day report: Feel fine, feet, legs, bum all in good nick. A bit heavy legged but just feel like I’ve been for a long bike ride, which I suppose I have really.

P.P.S. Congrats to the others, 240 miles is a Holy Grail for 12 hours so for Sylv and George to do it straight out the box is phenomenal.

[Toks]

Incredible stuff guys. I still say you 12 hours peeps are mad. Chapeau

[carl f]

Amazing
Your all nutters!
Carl

[Keith]

[quote="Jon Hemming"]
George 261
Sylv 244
Rob 243
Paul 235
Andrew 207

[Andrew G]

The legend Cammish won, by less than 1 mile after 12 hours of riding! It doesn't look like George will be far outside the top 10 either which is staggering for a debut.
From Bikeradar:
[quote]Veteran Ian Cammish (Planet X) secured his first National 12-Hour Championship title in Essex on Sunday, his first national medal since winning the National 100 19 years ago.

The Bedfordshire-based 51-year-old won nine 100-mile titles between 1980 and 1989, but had never won the half-day event. But when he saw that Kevin Dawson was not defending his 2007 title, he saw a chance to take the title which had so far eluded him.

But it was a close-run thing.

Covering 284.54 miles, Cammish won by just 0.65 miles from Team Swift-Allsports rival Carl Ruebotham, who had the consolation of leading Team Swift to the team prize alongside Lee Cairns and Joel Wainman, seventh and eighth respectively with 273.44 and 268.62 miles.

The battle for a place on the podium was one of the hardest fought and closest for years. The top five riders this year were separated by just less than four miles - in 2007 that gap was more than 14 miles.

“At my stage in life you don’t really plan things, you just do what you can and see how it goes. But when I saw that Kevin wasn’t riding I saw my chance to get the title,” said Cammish afterwards.

“It’s great to get another national title - I really didn’t think it would happen, so I’m well pleased. But it was very close.

“I kept getting time checks on Carl all the way around and to be less than one miles ahead after 12 hours of riding was incredible.”

Results
National 12-Hour Championship provisional results:
Great Chesterfield, Essex
1 Ian Cammish (Planet X) 284.54
2 Carl Ruebotham (Team Swift-Allsports) 283.89
3 Dean Lubin (PCA Ciclos Uno) 282.39
4 Bradley Johnston (Sportscover) 280.77
5 Ken Platts (Cambridge CC) 280.56
6 Paul Holdsworth (Hounslow & District Wh) 272.17
7 Lee Cairns (Team Swift-Allsports) 273.44
8 Joel Wainman (Team Swift-Allsports) 268.62
9 John Golder (Chelmer CC) 268.44

[Antloony]

Well done guys, fantastic effort. I dont know how you do it, masochists the lot of ya. Great write ups too, one thing I do enjoy is reading all the reports on races and the like. Guess your all suffering a bit today.

Promise me one thing, if I ever ever mention entering a 12 hour TT then please hit me over the head with a large pedal spanner to knock some sense into me.

[George]

[quote]George, did you give Ian Cammish that knackered disk afterwards? I did notice that despite riding for Planet-X, he was riding on a Campag Ghibli

[Sylv]

Well I really enjoyed my first TT over 10 miles (or was that 11). First of all big thanks to all the helpers who kept cheering us on through the twelve hours, I would rather have been on a bike than standing there all day - Chris and John, Joyce, Linda, Keith, Ruth, Roy and Jean, Mark, Sonic, Tamar, Eddie, and of course Jon H whom I owe a big one for acting as my helper. And well done to everyone for finishing, and of course George for his blinding result, but we never expected any less from him did we.

Right, get yourself a cup of coffee now ...

The day started for me at precisely midnight, time when the B&B alarm, which I thought I'd set for 4am, went off. Cursing myself for not trusting my phone alarm, I soon went back to sleep for another few hours. As I was getting ready and munching down on some brioche with jam for breakfast, it started gently raining. Mmmm. Set off in the car at 4.30 while Andrew rode to the HQ. Met Jon there and transferred all my food and drink boxes, spare wheels and toolbox into his car, and gave him the giant ACC car magnet I'd stolen from Paul's car (he had three of them mind you).

Fitted my powerful halogen front light which seemed to unsettle the commissaires at the start even though it was on the lowest setting - I wasn't sure if they were joking or not when they said they didn't like halogens - you know how funny TT people can be. I set off at 5.32 with just shoe covers and arm warmers, it was still raining but quite warm so I left the leg warmers and gilet with Jon, the arm warmers were as much to protect my arms from the TT bars pads as for warmth.

Onto the A11 for circuit A and I must say that, unlike the others, I absolutely loved this circuit - could've spent all day on it. Going North there was a good tailwind and my speed never seemed to dip below 21mph. I didn't even mind the rain, except when there were a couple heavy downpours, and I could feel my feet swimming inside my shoes. Only after driving on that section yesterday, in daylight and with a clear sky, did I realise how dangerous it was - to think I was riding there in the rain, often with my head down and not always close to the left side - I read after that with the conditions it was touch and go whether they were going to allow riders on that course. I passed Andrew who said his legs still hadn't woken up, and got passed by two guys, one on a fixed, whom a couple hours later I would overtake while he was struggling up a headwind climb.

Turning back at Red Lodge, and it didn't even feel like a headwind, more of a side wind, and the speed was still decent, with only a few drags to slow you down, and a couple hills taken out of the saddle for a change of position. My legs were feeling great, in fact I didn't even feel them until after circuit A, but my position on the TT extensions didn't feel right at all. I'd tried different set-ups, and just before the event had lowered the arm rests half an inch by removing the shims, and only done a mile or so test ride. I didn't want to have to move my saddle too far forward for fear of knee problems, so set the extensions as short as possible, but it just didn't feel right and I was having to vary the position every minute or so. On the second leg of circuit A I found a way to move my elbows close to each other, and holding just the very end of the extensions, which was fast, but painful as my arms were resting pretty much on the metal beneath the arm pads. From then on I only used this position when the speed was over 24mph. I had my schedule taped to the top tube, with split times and average speed after every 10km section, starting at 20.88mph then decreasing by 0.62mph every 10km, I was glad to see I was making up time on the schedule, up to over 10 minutes at the end of circuit A, but I knew the rest of the course would be slower. Saw a sign for London at 58 miles, which seemed like just a hop away!

First 50km @ 21.44mph
Second 50km @ 21.81mph

After 80 miles of circuit A I stopped a few seconds when I saw Jon, took some food in, lubed the chain and removed the shoe covers, to allow my feet to dry. Getting onto circuit B was a bit of a shock, and not a nice one. From averaging over 21mph and frequently being over 25, I was now struggling just to reach 20mph. The circuit was a 13-mile triangle, which managed the feat of not having a single side with a proper tailwind, or a fast section - apart from a couple downhills. I saw Andrew again, looking like he had a sore bum as he was out of the saddle on a flat section. A guy passed me, then from 200m ahead started peing while riding, so I had to avoid the wobbly wet trickle he left on the road.

Did circuit B four times over, and was about five minutes away from picking up a bottle from Jon, when they moved me to circuit C - what a bugger, I thought I'd do at least five laps, not that I enjoyed it but I really needed the drink. The link section to circuit C was horrible, a long drag with the wind in your face, I got passed by George who was looking good, while I was struggling and starting to feel dehydrated. Rang Jon to let him know where I was, and was relieved to see him at the start of circuit C, where I drank half a litre of Coke in one gulp. Then I started what was my worst lap of the day, the lap was again a sort of triangle, with the second side with a nightmare of a headwind and uphill drags, which made me feel like I was standing still, and my only real downtime of the day. The third and last side though was absolutely brilliant, full tailwind straight road where little effort got you to 25-26mph.

Third 50km @ 21.31mph
Fourth 50km @ 20.07mph

I stopped for more food and drink, I had prepared all those neat little ziplock bags with about 500 calories' worth in each, but that plan had gone out of the window right from the start, first I couldn't eat that much, and second I didn't feel like eating any of it, even though there was plenty of variety - my magic cake of course, ham and cheese bagels, tomatoes, pringles, fig rolls, chocolate brioche, bananas, apples, gels, boiled eggs, rice pudding - in the end I probably ended up eating only a third of it all. Second lap of circuit C and I perked up having got ridden of the dehydration effects, and it felt incredible - I was riding about a mile an hour faster every section - so much that I thought the wind had turned, but I realised it hadn't as the fast section was just as fast as the first time - only I was able to push the speed faster.

I started enjoying circuit C, you just knew there was this really slow section where getting up to 17.5mph was a struggle, but then the sight of the service section, which signalled the left turn onto the expressway, was the sweetest of things, you could just shift down four or five gears and get up to warp speed. At first I was lucky with the two traffic lights - one had a marshall, I wasn't sure if it was to make sure we respected the law (I had in mind the story of this guy DQ'd from an Eastway race when an official saw him jump the red light to the venue), but I got the red light three times, made the most of that time by reaching for food in my back pocket.

Fifth 50km @ 18.83mph
Sixth 50km @ 19.89mph

My bike was working great with not a single mis-shift or anything, legs were still good but it was frustrating being let down by the upper body position. I started to have to get on the drops more often, for speeds under 17.5mph or so. It got warmer but getting rid of the arm warmers would have made by forearms more painful, so I just rolled them down a bit. I'd stopped for a pee on circuit B, but would manage till the end without another one. I also took three wrong turns in the race (when moved from circuit to circuit), but only lost about 45 seconds altogether.

Despite the pain in the arms I was still enjoying myself, and was keeping tabs on my schedule, which was great to occupy my mind. From it I could tell how many minutes I was ahead of schedule, and how much that time translated in distance, and these two measurements were done alternatively about every 5km, so I wasn't getting bored - if your mind starts drifting to any other thoughts though, you end up slowing down. My time ahead of the 240.5 miles schedule had reduced to 4 minutes, but it was now growing again, as the schedule allowed for an ever slowing average, and I wasn't actually slowing down. It translated to almost 2 miles, so I started thinking of Paul's PB of 242.5. Got moved to circuit C which was the most hilly, but I didn't really mind it as it allowed to get out of the saddle for a change, also there were lots more spectators on the sides cheering on. I got Rob in sight for the second time as the circuit backed to itself at a roundabout, he was going strong and it took me ages to come past, on a climb.

Final 96km @ 20.26mph

I was now over 2.5 miles on schedule, and still feeling ok, slight pain in the knees which had started earlier on, but thankfully never got worse. There was less than two hours to go, which felt weird - almost done, yet thinking of a usual two-hour ride it didn't feel that short a time. I'd had that thing before in an endurance MTB race where I was still feeling good with an hour to go, and was tempted to just kill myself going real hard till the finish, but like before I opted out of that, on the basis that it could easily do my body a lot of harm - I didn't want this race to wreck the rest of my season. So I kept going at the same pace, working out that there was about 4 minutes between every time-markers, so I wouldn't have to ride for more than that over the twelve hours.

Picked up some Coke from Jon on the last lap, but forgot about the small whisky flask I'd prepared for the least half-hour. I thought I'd luckily reached a time marker at exactly 12h, and was also surprised to see my uncle and aunt there, who I'd told about the race and was planning to travel the 30 miles to visit them afterwards, but thought they weren't coming to the race - somehow they'd managed to track me down from the marshalls' information, down to the exact place I would stop. I slowed down but everyone shouted to keep going, it turned out I still had 45 seconds to go, so carried on to the next stop, where were Andrew and his parents (finished 12 minutes before), and Jon.

My computer had just over 396km, or 246.4 miles at the finish, so the provisional distance of 244.35 miles sounds about right. Was extremely pleased with my result (I was leading the board until the fast late starters began to appear, and with my 60-mile handicap think I was still 4th overall on handicap, and about 26th on scratch), not overly tired though sore in a lot of places. Couldn't sleep in the evening, I still had the whirr of my carbon wheels ringing in my ears, and just could not seem to relax in bed - slept for just 8 hours with a few disruptions.

I would definitely have another go at it, but only with all the aerodynamic help I can get - proper TT bike and position, disk wheel pointy helmet etc. After a mostly rest day on Monday back on the commute today, feeling good and would love to race at Palace, if I'd had the time to get the bike ready when I got home from Norfolk late last night - with the rain forecast I just didn't have the energy to do it.

[Snoop Doug]

Utterly well done to all riders and their support teams. I bottled this by taking a summer vacation - I've ben looking forward to getting back and reading all about it. Great stuff, and all over the 200 mark too, nice

Snoop