Dusk Til Dawn 12 hour
Mayday Meadow, Thetford: 6-7/10/07
Brutal - flat - twistyness! Just three words to describe D2D this year, oh I should just add FUN too! However, Lorraine (riding a Scott Scale) and Paul Howard (aboard a Scott Spark) both finished in fantastic fourth Solo places against some seriously tough competition around an 11.8 mile lap. In the Men's Solo field 130 riders competed, including 2007 Mountain Mayhem solo winner Anthony White so it was all to play for if you could endure the cold, mist, relentless humps, dips and continual pedaling. Little Dean gave it his best shot having never attempted a race of this length before but found the difficulty in eating too much to overcome so called it a day (night) after 5 laps, I'm sure he'll be back for more though! Read on for reports from both finishers and Ben's unique view as Pit Bitch.
Lorraine...
This is the third D2D I have taken part in, and for me it was the most enjoyable, and also one of the hardest races physically I've done this year. This was mainly due to the profile of the course, flat. This meant no let up on the peddling except for a brief but oh so fun downhill singletrack section that ran parallel to The Beast.
All I wanted to achieve this year was a better result than my rubbish 6th of last year, rubbish because I kind of gave up nearer dawn due to disappointment. So I was mightily happily to hear that I finished in 4th place this year. Paul Hore and Frank surpassed themselves as the course had an obscene amount of singletrack with lots to keep my mind occupied over the 12 hours. I had a new set of lights thanks to Rory from Exposure Lights which gave me a MaXx Enduro on the handlebars and a MaXx Joystick on the helmet plugged into a their unique 'Piggyback' battery; plug it in at the start of your ride and it turns your 3 hour burn time into 12 hours burn time.....just as it happens what I needed! I would recommend them and judging by the amount of people Rory had 'delivered' lights to, so would others.
A big thank you to support from Nigel and Ben, sorry for my food shovelling. Better luck next time to Dean. And a big thank you to the lady in the garage who gave Paul and I directions to the Transport Cafe for a well deserved (& cheap) greasy fry up!
Paul...
This was to be my fourth Solo D2D and I regard the race as my biggest goal of 2007. Last year saw me quit an hour early suffering with a total loss of energy and the cold temperatures had really got to my core, so I was out to make amends this time around. Not riding any 24 hour solo races this year has been benefical. I've enjoyed the time after the 12 hour at TwentyFour12 through the 'summer' building back up the volume whilst getting my speed work from regular cross country races... and eating cake on social rides to give me a bit of, ahem, fat for the cold night!
A few weeks before the race we had been invited to pre-ride the course and blast around much of the wonderful Thetford singletrack in Star Wars speeder bike mode through the trees. This was enough to tell me that 'whoever thinks Thetford is flat and easy, better be prepared and think again.' This was going to be a tough course in it's own special way due to the 'incessant flatness'. It requires continual pedaling and power. There are very few places to coast along whilst standing which normally has the added advantage of stretching the limbs and takes the pressure of your saddle (more of this later). But on the flipside there were plenty of fun bombholes, fast swooping turns and the highlight of The Double Shocker descent.
Dean and Ben had the gazebo all setup in the solo pit straight which was a rough and draggy detour across a field separate from the main race course, not ideal but we had little choice. We spent early afternoon laying out our individual supplies; food / drink / clothing / spares etc... then relaying them at least twice more just to be sure... obsessive planning or just nervous fiddling? As Ben points out in his item below I slipped into my seemingly automatic process of preparation; eating a couple of good sized pasta dishes, keeping the fluid intake high, even going for a half hour doze in the back of the car. Just before dark I headed out for 20 minutes on the bike to spin the legs and estimate how much clothing to wear. It was 7pm so time for a final check of my pit supplies, mount the light on the helmet, throw on the CamelBak and load my pockets with enough bars, gels and bananas to complete four laps on the trot without pitting. I had set a schedule of just two pit stops throughout the entire race as I know time lost in the pits is virtually impossible to regain on the race course.
Finally Dean, Lorraine and I joined the masses on the start line. The extra five minute start loop took us around some fireroads to thin out the crowds. I was mindful to avoid the inevitable crashes on the first corner (luckily they happened just behind me) and settled into what feels too fast a pace initially but soon begins to ease to '12 hour pace'. Dean had got a clear start and it took until the second lap for me to catch back up. We rode together briefly and had a quick chat before I overtook, only to find 10 minutes later that the horrible squirrely feeling from the back tyre signified a slow puncture. Nevermind, a quick blast of the Seal & Flate canister fixed the hole as Dean went by again briefly as I got back into my rhythm and continued on.
Well into the swing of my pace by now I was learning where to put the effort in and trying to overtake riders before the narrow tracks began as you could get stuck behind people for ages. My first pit stop at the end of lap 4 was just shy of four hours in and it went smoothly thanks to Ben and Nigel. Throw on a thermal top, change the CamelBak and battery, fill the pockets with grub and I'm off out in probably under 2 minutes. For the next few laps I didn't have any major dramas, but did manage to hit the same innocuos root every lap which rattled my bones - sadly breaking someone elses though! Thetford did it's usual trick of laying on a nice thick mist in the open areas which cleared as soon as you got back into tree cover. For some reason I find riding with a head torch in the mist a hilarious experience as I still go at the same speed but it heightens your reactions, feel and senses to the trail. Hey I needed something to laugh about, but at least I wasn't halluncinating like many others were! Giant rabbits indeed!
The second pit stop went to plan albeit slightly 'messily'. I came to a halt and immediately vomited all over the track, mainly banana and gels by the look of the contents! Sorry was that too much information? I think Ben and Nigel were a little shocked to see me gather what I needed and head straight back out so quickly.
The time must have been about 4 or 5am now. The course had become strangely empty, where had all the riders gone? Which was strange as someone had calculated the lap was long enough for one rider every 50 metres. I heard afterwards that many riders (soloists especially) had packed up in the night and gone home, no staying power eh?! ;-) At least this meant less overtaking was needed. The sun was soon to be appearing and I began figuring out how many more laps I could complete. Bearing in mind I was doing about 58 to 60 minute laps excluding pitting I knew I'd have to push on to get out again for a 13th lap before the 8am finish time. Starting my 12th lap at 7:04 meant going under 56 minutes. I worked as hard possible but also tried to leave enough energy to complete a final lap. I could feel the leg muscles twinging to the point where they might have suddenly gone 'twang' and cramped. Sadly I crossed the line just over a minute too late - my race was over. It was very satisfying to hear my final position called as fourth Soloist. Looking at the lap times I'd been closing on 2nd and 3rd but wouldn't have made back the eight minute deficit on the 13th lap. So that was it another D2D over and good results for Mountain Trax. Many thanks to the pit bitches, the shop for the Scott Spark, and Clive & Richard for the loan of the L&M batteries. Roll on 2008.
If you've got this far, sorry, I seem to have rambled on a bit as usual.
View from the pit lane...
With the season already over for me (Ben) I volunteered to become part of the support crew for the three people racing the 12hr race solo. The job was made easier with the arrival of Nigel Grantham who was helping out. The main task was to support Dean who was doing his first solo 12hr event. Lorraine and Paul are experienced 12hr and 24hr soloists and as soon as they arrived they began what seemed like an automatic preparation process.
By 7 o'clock all 3 riders were ready and with the light fading headed to the start arena for the mass start. At 8 o'clock the race began; Nigel's and my work was about to begin. Tasks included refilling bottles/camelbaks, passing food like fig rolls / jelly babies / bananas / energy bars / energy gels etc, giving additional clothing, fixing any mechanicals, providing spare parts such as inner tubes/co2 canisters etc, and recording lap times for the thirsty / hungry and cold racers. The key objective for us was to limit the racers pit times. Seems simple? Not at all when cyclists don't want to eat and drink even though they must to allow themselves to sustain a decent level of performance.
Dean pitted as planned after 3 laps, followed by Lorraine and then Paul 1 lap later. Despite our best efforts Dean wouldn't eat anything while out riding the circuit. This left the interesting scenario where Nigel and I near enough had to force Dean to eat during the pits stops he made! Lorraine pitted for a new Camelbak and began shovelling down the food. Paul seemed uneasy as he arrived and admitting he'd gone too fast in the first few laps (but he always says that apparently!), however he was quickly back out on his way. The worst point of the race was when Paul decided to vomit everywhere after about 8 laps (his second scheduled pit stop), however he immediately grabbed an energy gel, an energy bar and a banana and he was off cycling again!
I'd just like to say thank you to Nigel for coming along and helping support as I would have been unable to cope on my own. Also a huge well done to Dean, Paul and Lorraine for all that they achieved. My thoughts are that Dean will be back racing another 12hr solo next year even stronger with the knowledge he gained from this race. It was fascinating to watch how Lorraine and Paul approached the race preparation, and how motivated and focused they were during the race. For some reason I have the feeling that I'd like to join these 3 and become the 4th soloist next year!
Lap 1 Lap 2 Lap 3 Lap 4
5 6 7 8
Pos Laps Time Name 9 10 11 12
------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOLO MEN
4 12 12:01:44 PAUL HOWARD 58:00 56:59 55:32 59:21
1:04:19 59:11 59:09 1:03:11
1:02:50 1:04:12 1:00:59 58:01
84 5 05:54:07 DEAN MORGAN 57:37 57:55 1:18:23 1:06:16
1:33:56
SOLO WOMEN
4 10 12:11:05 LORRAINE STALEY 1:06:01 1:09:25 1:12:49 1:16:12
1:08:57 1:09:56 1:22:35 1:15:07
1:19:20 1:10:43