Sleepless in the Saddle
Going (to) Sleepless in the Saddle
Ben (Monkeyboy) Shannon / 24.08.2011
It felt so much fun, beautiful flow with lots of single track to test technical skills (nothing gnarly or anything) just cheeky roots and some fun descents. Broken up with some awesome climbs and descents. First time riding with the racing Ralphs was fun and it took a while to build up confidence on them, but once it was there I was able to really lean hard into a corner, hammering it and they just gripped!
So, the ‘wilted whippets’ running order was to be Chris Rathbone (MTB extraordinaire), Martin Immison (The old wise one but still seriously fast) Ben Jeeves (Wiggocavallara - epically fast) and me (Adventure racer).
The 2pm the horn went off and everyone had a 400m run to get to their bikes, Chris came through towards the front and we headed back to ‘whippet base’. So, 2 laps each for the first stint. The sun was out, it couldn't be better. Eventually it came around to my turn and guess what. The sun vanished and a biblical monsoon followed as I was halfway around the lap. I wasn't impressed. The ground started to get slippy and the tyres weren’t doing what I wanted them to do. As I got to the second lap I was still overtaking well and flying by people, I decided to nail the first descent in the woods. However, as I descended what appeared to be a mud slide I saw 3 people walking. Sod it just nail it ...
The bike shot from under me and I slid down the hill on my bum still clipped in. Crucially however, I overtook the 3 walkers on my bum. This was an omen for the rest of the lap. I hit the open sections hard but once I got into the Rooty section I was being spat off a lot. Big wet roots on the exit of a tight hairpin, not ideal.
I got to one section and it was so muddy and clumpy that people were pushing their bikes because the mud was clogging everything.
Eventually I couldn't ride as the mud was clogging the wheels. I decided that I fancied a run at this point. I shouldered the bike and legged it. "Coming through" I called as I ran past loads of puffing and panting people with seriously mucked up bikes. "you're a bit eager mate, we are only 7 hours in" said one chap. Yes I was eager, I was in a bloody race with team mates relying on me so I pushed on,running through about 3 sections. The advantages to being an Adventure racer!
Finally I got on and rode and as the rain stopped the back half of the course was drying up. My spirits rose as I didn’t fancy 24 hours of rain.
Handing over to Chris was a relief as I headed to get clean and get some food.
We raced hard through the night and I did OK despite forgetting my head torch for my first night stint.
SleepMonsters
