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Bike Radar Live 2009

In the week leading up to the event I was feeling strong and looking forward to the event, although picked up a bit of a cold a few days before which I hoped would disappear before the race. We arrived on site on the Friday evening, giving ourselves plenty of time to setup and relax. The event site was quite big and so much going on over the weekend with riders from all types of cycling attending it had a great vibe.

Saturday was a really busy day and seriously hot. After the last few dud summers I just enjoyed the weather and didn’t even think about using sunblock. We spent plenty of time in the arena checking everything out and I decided to enter a competition Garmin were running. The idea was simple, beat Steve Peat and get the fastest time over a ¾ mile section on the course, which was mostly downhill with lots of tight and twisty corners and off-camber sections. Steve had been out earlier and set a benchmark time of 3 minutes 53 seconds.

Riders were kitted out with an Garmin Edge 705 and using the Virtual Partner you were able to see how well you were doing compared to Steve’s time. I gave it my best shot, trying to be as smooth as possible around the corners which is where I felt time would be gained or lost. At the finishing board I glanced down and looked at the final time: 3min 37sec. A full 18 seconds faster than Steve Peat and I was also the only person who beat him! The prize for winning was rather special: a top of the range bike, a Garmin Oregon or Edge 705 and a weekend riding with Steve himself, which should be fantastic!

After the excitement of the competition I turned my head to the enduro and started to make final preparations to the bike and do a few practice laps of the course. It was short, but quite fun and luckily very dry. If it had been wet and muddy the course would have been mostly unrideable. Starting at 8pm is not too unfamiliar for me, but this felt different as I was already feeling tired after a busy day in the sun. I had decided to enter both the 4hr and 12hr categories, as they both started at the same time.

As the race began I immediately took to the front and led into the first singletrack section. After a few sections I realised that only had one rider for company (who turned out to be in a pair), so half-way into the lap I already started to ease the pace slightly. From the start of the second lap I was totally alone, so just started to cruise round. The first few laps flew by, with lap times under 20 minutes, but then I started to run into problems. I started getting stomach pains, which although uncomfortable didn’t hamper me too much at this point so I kept the pace going and ate and drink the same quantities I usually do.

Just before 3 hours in I was still leading the race overall, including all teams and pairs and had lapped almost all the soloists but then things started to get worse. I had no choice but to stop and go to toilet to relive myself, not something I have ever had to do in a race before, not even a 24hr. I restarted and was still leading by some way, although many had now unlapped themselves. I was going through phases of extreme pain, but kept going and stuck to the plan in the hope everything would sort itself out, but it didn’t. Just before the end of the 4hrs I had to relieve myself again and lost even more time, although I was still leading both solo categories, the riders behind were now within 10 minutes or so.

I crossed the start/finish line just after 4hrs to take the win, but kept going for the 12hr. 2 laps later I stopped at the pit, in severe pain from stomach cramps, totally drained and absolutely shattered. With over 7 hours to go I made a decision to stop, as although I am sure I could have kept going it would have had to push really deep and struggled to recover for future races.

Although several people may think my initial pace was too high, I know that I was going pretty easy and that wasn’t why I had problems. I’ve never run into problems so early in a long race before, but can certainly learn this. I spent far too much time out in the sun, unprotected and I was on my feet all day. Despite not being able to continue and win the 12hr I am still happy with the weekend as a whole, as I have come away with 2 wins and a big lesson learnt. We are now in the Lake district, where I am hoping to sample some of the excellent riding both on-road and off-road such as Whinlatter forest and Hardknott Pass before heading to Dalby forest to compete in the Singlespeed UK championships on my converted Raven Pro.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 1st, 2009 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Athlete Diaries, Matthew Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.