Dusk Till Dawn 12 hour
Thetford: 21-22 October 06
By Ben Thomas & Calum Chamberlain
Now in late October the 2006 season is already over for many with the nights closing in and the cold weather approaching. However with three good pairs and two soloists entered into the Dusk Till Dawn 12 hour night race the team had a good chance of podium finishes. Mountain Trax had Dean and Warren, Chris and John, and Calum and me in the Pairs category. We also had Paul Howard and defending champion Lorraine taking part as Soloists.
The weather leading up to the event hadn't been ideal and we had driven through some rain on the way to the event at Thetford. We expected wet conditions but on arrival riders who had pre-ridden the course had experienced a perfectly dry course. The venue is known for its flatness but even the smallest of rises would surely hurt after 12 hours. The course started out from the changeover area on a fire road that twisted along joining the many singletrack sections. With not many hills the course was tough because there weren't many places for riders to stop pedalling. The course also had lots of whoops or small bomb holes that meant riders with good technical skills could pump a lot of single track and keep their speed. At the end of the 9.2 mile course there was one singletrack climb left to punish riders who pushed too early on in their lap, appropriately named The Plumb Buster.
At 6.50pm on Saturday the riders chosen to go first from the teams (Chris, Warren and I) and our two soloists gathered at the bottom of a long rise ready for the start. Chris and Warren placed themselves with Paul about six rows back. I decided it was good idea to be nearer the front and next to Paul Davies (Sagem) who was likely to be a podium finisher. At 7pm we were off at a speed familiar to a National Points Series and not a 12-hour enduro. Davies and Gavin Rumbles (Trek/SIS) amongst others were in the first group of about eight riders. I sat at the front of a second group not wanting to fall too far behind. On coming out of the first single track Davies had crashed ruining his brake lever and leaving him with only a front brake. I remained with Davies to the end of the first lap, which I completed in 40 minutes, Warren followed three minutes later and Chris another two minutes. Calum was eager to go racing and planned to stay with the Sagem team. With Patrick Schalbetter (Sagem) having problems with lights and Calum flying he pulled out a lead of three minutes.
As the first lot of results came through Calum and myself lay in second with the Army just ahead in first and Sagem third. Dean & Warren were in a strong position and Chris and John were doing well in the twenties. Chris and John were the first of the Mountain Trax teams to start doing double laps, Dean and Warren adopted this strategy not long after. Calum and I agreed before the event to not even consider doing doubles because of the disadvantages and certainly by the middle of the night it would be too cold to be sitting around for long periods of time.
On Warren's fourth lap he crashed causing him to somersault over the handlebars!! He steadily rode to the changeover area where he was still in pain. After a brief chat it was decided that Dean would go and do another two laps. This allowed Warren to either recover or decide not to continue. Unfortunately after seven hours, 34 minutes and eight laps completed Warren and Dean pulled out of the event. On arriving back to the pit area for my lap off I was already struggling and shaking in the cold with five hours still left. After hearing about Warren's injury I was losing motivation. I curled up in a sleeping bag and ate as much food as I could. I occupied the next few laps figuring out how many more laps I would do. A few laps later Calum was struggling as the track began to get damp making it harder to pedal.
After initially fighting for position with the Army team of Matthew Wex and James Cooper they had pulled away as we fatigued. Then Davies overtook me on the fireroad still able to turn a much bigger gear. The Sagem team never looked back and they began to pull out a gap as they chased the Army in first place. By now I was feeling really bad and was sure that we would be caught by other competition. After eight laps John and Chris were starting to fatigue and lap times began to increase to 50 minute plus laps. The next lot of results were released around 3am Sunday morning and to our amazement Calum and I were still in third with a decent lead over fourth place. This motivated us knowing we still had a chance to get on the podium. Chris and I completed the last laps for the remaining pairs and the relief and joy of crossing the finish line felt so good as we were cheered home by our supportive team mates.
Chris and John finished the race in 22nd place after successfully completing 14 laps. For the whole of the race the top three in pairs had remained the same and just changed order as riders fatigued. After being so unmotivated during the night and promising never to do Dusk Till Dawn again the feeling of being on the podium made all the suffering worthwhile. Calum and I had finished third and completed 17 laps.
Lorraine completed 13 laps in 12 hours 37 minutes riding in to finish a superb sixth place. Paul competed in a massive male Solo category over 120 riders and finished an excellent 16th place also completing 13 laps in 11 and half hours, but totally and utterly empty with nothing left to go back out for a fourteenth lap. The cold had really got to him despite wearing multiple layers of thermals and a head buff.
Calum completed his first endurance event with the fastest average lap time in the team by some margin. The team completed a total of 76 hours 14 minutes and 33 seconds of riding and they covered 524 miles. Dusk Till Dawn was over for 2006, or so we thought. Due to computer problems there had been an error on the provisional results that they used to announce the podium positions. On arriving home it appears that unfortunately Calum and me had in fact finished 4th and not in 3rd!! Maybe next year we will get on the podium and actually finish top 3!!
Calum's first night time Enduro
This race was an experience for me, having only ridden at night once before in the Gorrick day-night race last year, and never ridden with my light (a Light & Motion Solo Logic MV, which proved a treat). Before the race got underway I was rather nervous, this wasn't helped by my freehub having separated from my wheel the night before whilst prepping my bike.
Ben got us a really good start, landing us in the top flight of riders that was a hard task to follow. Thankfully I had some luck with my first lap posting the fastest lap in the pairs for the night (although in retrospect this probably wasn't the best pacing).
From this point on it was basically downhill for me as I suffered from cold and tiredness; afterwards Dean said that he had been watching me sitting in the EZ-UP dozing off. I got a slight boost when after about four laps we were told that we were in second just behind the Army. However this didn't last long as we were soon overtaken by Team Sagem which put a downer on both Ben and myself, and resulted in some 49 minute laps from myself.
As we progressed through the night towards the end it was a matter of counting down the laps till the end, when suddenly we heard over the loud-speakers that we were in third! This lifted spirits fantastically and forced me to push on, although the lap times don't show it particularly, I gave it my all on the last lap, and all that was left was for Ben to bring it home.
Overall, it was a bit of an emotional roller-coaster ride, but I'm sure that I will get used to it in a few years, and maybe even lose my sanity to the point of soloing like Paul and Lorraine.