Well it’s been a few weeks now since we competed in the Bontrager Twentyfour 12 race in
Plymouth. We opted for our team to compete in the 12 hour instead of the full
24 hour, like last year. This was a good decision but did mean we only
completed a couple of laps each. My older brother also travelled down from North
Wales to compete in the 12 hour solo (mad)

I started the race with a small start loop to help disperse
the group before continuing on through the main race loop. The start loop was
ridden at a steady pace along with by brother, but as soon as the race got
started properly Alan left me. Now I can only talk about myself but I knew that
the race was a long one so I wasn’t going to push myself too hard on the first
lap. The lap wasn’t a difficult or very technical but there were a few nasty
uphill parts (I hate going up, especially on a bike that wasn’t mine, but more
of that later). My first lap took a little over 1hr 20min before handing over
to Matt for the second lap, he was quicker than me taking a little over 1hr
before handing to Pete then Brad. This meant that I had a good 3 ½ to 4 hr rest
before heading out on my second lap. I went out on a borrowed bike again. I’m
borrowing a bike because my race machine was stolen a couple of weeks
beforehand and wanted another XC race bike to do the race on. Thanks to Zero
Group, Garlands I had a bike to do the event on. I did take my all mountain
bike with me too, just in case I didn’t get on with the borrowed one. Anyway my
second lap was slower again and I was struggling to get on with the settings of
the Bionicon, although given more time on the bike I think that it could have
been a fantastic piece of kit. This second lap took around another hour 20 but
without the start loop. Things weren’t looking good. Now with another 4 hours
wait I loaded up on food and water and went wandering with the kids to take
photos and generally get my thoughts together. The others were out on their
laps and by now the sun was beginning to set. By the time I had to ride again it
was going to be pitch black. I was ready in the transition area for when Brad
finished what was going to be his second and last lap. I headed off on my third
and final lap in total darkness with only the lights on the bike for company. I
also started this last lap on my other bike, this immediately felt a lot better
than the Bionicon, then it would, I’ve had years on this bike and know exactly
how it handles and how to set it up for me. This didn’t really improve my lap
time though as I had to stop a couple of times on this lap due to cramp,
ouch… Still I was having fun. I finished this lap with about 40 mins spare
and expected one of the others to pick up the last lap. However that wasn’t to
be. We covered 9 laps in around 11 hours 20. I also think that the starting and
stopping between laps contributed toward the cramp.

I think that if I knew there was going to be no around to
take up the last lap I would have pushed on through and completed the 10^th
lap. This would have meant a final placing of 17^th overall,  instead our overall placing was 23^rd.

Our next race is all booked and again it’s a long 12hr race.
This time it’s Torq in your sleep but as Brad and I against Pete and Matt, this should be
interesting…

My 24/12 photoset

It’s 1 day before the W-U-E Triathalon. Alan (last years’s winner), Mike and I went for a spin around the bike course today. We headed out from the pool and cycled the whole route. It was a steady pace, which suited me as I wasn’t really feeling it today. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll feel a little more competitive, although the thought of having to run is kind of scaring me.
I’ll be off to bed earlier tonight as it’s going to be a very early start in the morning, 5:30 alarm call so I’m ready to leave the house by 6:50. This should get me to the pool for 7:30 checkin and 8:00 start. I’m aiming for a sub 2hr race.

Come back here for the race reprot and results.

Well, that was an interesting race. I thought that we were going to be in for a hot dry day, as Saturday was hot. How wrong I was! I woke early Sunday morning as I hadn’t prepared any of my cycling gear the evening before and the first thing I noticed was how dark it was, 6am this time of year is normally light. Then I noticed the rain, lots of rain. I guess we can always have dry race days, this was mountain biking and races start at advertised start times regardless of what the weather is doing.
I arrived at Ashton Court with about 40 minutes to spare, so I was a bit rushed, but made it. The rain was still coming down and didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon, it was cold too. I decided to start with a long sleeve top to keep some of the cold out, I could easily ditch the top later if I got too hot. The start was a Le Mans style start (I hate running) Pete shot off and grabbed his bike and rode into the distance. Brad, Matt and I picked up our bikes and started up the hill at a steady pace. Brad wasn’t happy though as Pete had taken the wrong bike, he’d taken Brads, silly boy… He did notice and stopped at the top of the first hill so they could swap back. This only ruined Pete’s start and gave us a chance to catch up, which wouldn’t actually had taken long even if he’d taken the right bike from the start. Matt and I took the first lap at a steady (chatting) pace, then all of a sudden Matt had lost my wheel and I was leading our team. Not really sure how that happened as I didn’t think I had increased pace. I went through the start finish line in about 35 minutes (+5mins for the Le Mans start) with rain still hammering down. From this point on each lap seemed to pass by quick quickly, it was slippery in places but the trails held up really well. The spots of Ashton Court that used to get really bogged down in the wet were holding up to a lot of abuse meaning that there were some riders putting in some absolute blinding lap times. I did start to get a bit hot coming through to start my 3rd lap so I ditched my top and continued through lap 3 & 4 in my race top to finish 30th overall and 1st in the team. The other enjoyed the race, Brad did actually complete 4 laps, but the rules are finish within the 3hrs or the lap you are on won’t count, he was 58 seconds short of claiming 4 laps. Harsh, bur rules are rules… Pete completed 3 laps too but stopped after his 3rd not attempting to get the 4th in. Matt stopped after 2 laps, think he had mud in his gears and was having shifting trouble.
Our times were
Jason Cole – 02:41:29 – 30th – 4 laps – (1) 00:40:38, (2) 00:39:08, (3) 00:40:28, (4) 00:41:13
Brad Cole – 02:19:06 – 43rd – 3 laps – (1) 00:51:40, (2) 00:41:01, (3) 00:46:24
Pete Beale – 02:27:59 – 47th – 3 laps – (1) 00:42:39, (2) 00:46:01, (3) 00:59:18
Matt Ancrum – 01:25:58 – 51st – 2 laps – (1) 00:42:11, (2) 00:43:46

First up I must apologise for not blogging as much as I should have. They were both were Saddle Skedaddle ones.
The penultimate race was a bit of a bit of a failed race. The opening lap for Brad and I found us dealing with a fellow racer that had crashed. At first we thought it was just going to be a case of picking him back up from the floor and untangling him from his bike. However he was a little worse for wear than we first thought. He’d come off pretty bad and concussed himself, he was still a little shaky and not feeling too good. We decided to stay with him and get some medical help. One of the marshals come to the scene quickly, the medical help were already busy dealing with another crash, a pretty bad one by all accounts. We took this opportunity to move the man we were dealing with to a location that was going to be more accessible by 4×4. This took some time as he was still a little wobbly. All this excitement ruined our race, we were happy to help and hope that if I ever need the help someone will be willing to give up their race for me.
The last race was a good race, well for me anyway. We started off good but immediately got caught up in a little off on the start line…weird…Brad had mechanical issues with a broken chain on the first lap, I was chasing Pete and Matt. I soon passed Pete and was then chasing Matt. The course was great, one of the better of the Saddle Skedaddle ones in my opinion. As I passed the start finish line I passed Matt who had stopped with back problems. To be fair though he was all strapped up and done well to complete 1 lap. This put me in lead team position for the first time so far this year. I hammered through the second lap making up a few places along the way.
All in all the series was good it had its ups and downs but got me back in the saddle racing again. I’ve enjoyed it so much so that I splashed out and bought myself a new cross country racing machine. The first race on the new bike will be 1st May, organised by the same group as the Saddle Skedaddle races, Gorrick 100. We are only going to be doing 30km but by normal standards this is 3 times the distance. I think we are all looking forward to it and looking forward to the challenge.
Stay here for more updates on the Gorrick 100.

Saddle Skedaddle Spring Series 4 photo set

Saddle Skedaddle Spring Series 3.

Well… What a close race.

The day started well, all meeting up at Brads’ house as planned, that’s right, the whole team turned out for this race. Travel to the race was only about an hour and ½ away. The journey took about 2 hours though, I think Pete looked up the wrong post code, we were close, but not close enough, we tried the road name alone. That did the trick, but now being a little later than planned we really struggled to find a suitable place to park the van, driving and reversing up and down the paths, we still had plenty of time to sort out our kit and prep ourselves for the race though.

All kitted up and bikes ready we headed off to the start line and signed on. # 1, (Matt) # 2, (Pete) # 3, (Jay) & # 4, (Brad). That would look nice as a results table, no such luck there. Numbers applied to the bike now just a little wait until the starting whistle.

Go…Go…Go… Down a small stretch of fire road before heading back up a small incline. Pete when off for a flyer, leading the 4 of us up the fire track. That was his undoing though as he soon ran out of steam before heading off the track and onto some single track through the first wooded section. Matt lead into this section with me clinging quite nicely onto his wheel. I can’t say for sure where Brad was at this time but could sense he was close, possibly only 2 or 3 riders behind. I stayed on Matt’s wheel until I had a little incident with a tree. No damage or harm done, I just clipped it with my bars, which put me on the floor. I didn’t lose any places as we had opened up a nice gap to the riders behind. Matt, quite rightly steamed off. He was now the carrot to chase! I continued through the wooded section up a little climb and out into an open area where I could now see Matt, he was 150 – 200 yards ahead just turning onto a nice flowing switchback section. I could catch him, still conscious Brad was chasing me down though.  By the time I got to the turn into the switchback I could see Brad, he was just leaving the wooded area. If I could see him I’m sure he could see me and would be drawn by the same motivation I had when I saw Matt. I knew I was in trouble! This was made worse by a crash ahead of me, just after a small downhill. There were already 2 riders stopped and helping the crash victim up off the floor. I could see the crash wasn’t bad and that no one was injured. By now all I could think was “Brad’s going to catch me” my focus was leaving the possibility of catching Matt, this was my undoing. Brad, more motivated than ever was very quickly on my wheel as we entered into a wooded section with a nice technical downhill. I stretched out a small gap over Brad again, which was short lived. Just a couple of little sections left and we would soon be starting our second lap. I lead through the start/finish line then was passed shortly after. I wasn’t having that!!!

Into the second lap, I sat on Brad’s wheel thinking I was going to get a rest for a while. I was wrong, Brad continued to push. We went up around the top of the course and passed that tree (missed it this time). We would soon be back out into the open and one of very few places to pass for equally paced riders. I pushed and passed him, easier than I thought. That was it; if I now pushed hard for a while I could open up a small gap then ease off a little. This worked, through the wooded section I lost him, although he could still see me (apparently). Things were going well, then I hear “LEAD RIDER”. Dam! I had to move over and let the racers through from other categories. These riders were much faster than me, but I latched on each rider as they passed for as long as I could. The first 4 riders came through, then came the main bunch of riders; there were probably 10 – 15 riders all shouting for me to move over. I was looking for a convenient place to pull over and let them through. Found one, but had to completely stop to let them pass. There was another small bunch directly behind, “shall I let them pass too?” NO! I could see Brad had latched onto the back of this group and was coming up fast. I was racing too, so I pulled back out desperate not to let Brad catch me. The lead I had over him very quickly disappeared and the faster riders were shouting for me to move over. I pushed on knowing that the technical downhill was coming up. My bike being an All Mountain could handle this much better that the whippet XC bikes, this worked, down the hill I went, big ring engaged, push, push, push. I established a huge gap in just a few hundred yards. I made it into the last wooded section ahead of this bunch, they did soon catch me Brad still on their tails. I had no choice but to let them pass, 3 or 4 bike lengths behind was Brad, this should be enough to pull back onto the track still leaving Brad behind me. It was Brad is still behind me with less than ¼ mile to go. Wow I could see Matt ahead of me, oh! He’s on the side of the track, he’d finished and was cheering us on. No cheering Brad on, what’s that all about? I rounded the penultimate corner, slipped on a tree root and almost went down. I didn’t though and managed to keep Brad behind, there was nowhere for him to pass. I didn’t quite stop, but managed to use the little momentum I had to get my feet back into the pedals and ride up the final slope. Onto the home straight now, I locked out the suspension (I knew a complete lockout would come in handy one day) selected a higher gear and sprinted for the line, Brad hot on my wheel we powered towards the line together and finished….That was it I lay on the floor to get my breath back, while Brad head over to Matt to cheer Pete on. I joined them shortly after and waited for Pete. Pete was suffering, he’d had problems with some back pains.

Results

Matt = 1hr 04:50 Placed 37

Jason = 1hr 09:50 Placed 44

Brad = 1hr 09:51 (yes just 1 second in it) Placed 45

Pete = 1hr 24:26 Placed 53

All in all the most enjoyable race I had this year, and although we don’t race for overall victory, racing between the 4 of us is challenge enough for now. The course was excellent, all be a little short, another great job done by the organisers. The others enjoyed themselves too and hopefully will be doing the next race on the 20^th March. I know I’ll be doing the race anyway; I would be a shame to miss any considering I’ve done the whole series to date.

 Another race finished For some reason this one felt tough, not really sure why, there weren’t many hills and the ground was good going. I can only put my feeling on the day down to not doing any kind of warm up, as a result my HR went right up to near max within the first few minutes (182). This took longer than expected to get under control by which time the majority of the pack had ridden off into the distance.

I can’t fault the course in any way, especially as there was a location change mid week. It was short but had a few challenging technical sections through the woods. The bike handles these sections with ease, all 160mm of travel was used and I felt the rear shock bottom out a couple of times. That in itself isn’t a problem; in fact it’s a good sign that I had the shock set up just about right for the terrain. As for the result I’m not particularly pleased with the 50^th place from 55. If it were to write my own report card I would see something that came up quite a bit through my school days ‘Must try harder’. The next race is on the 6^th March, so between now and then I’ll have to clean off the winter cob webs from the road bike and get some miles in the old legs. The gym work is fine for staying reasonably fit, but doesn’t seem to be improving my fitness level. In race 3 I hope to see an improvement and start to get myself into the middle of the results table instead of hanging around the back end.

GPS track

Just entered into Saddle Skedaddle race number 2. I’m only doing the fun race but any race is good in my book, and only about and hour and half from home.

Race one was excellently organized, start time reasonable too.

Well the race has been ridden (sort of)…

We arrived at the site in plenty of time, went direct to the registration hut signed our lives away on the dotted line and collected our numbers. That’s it, commited to the race now. We had around an 1½ to get some fuel in us, prep the bikes and gead over to the start line. The weather was being kind, cold but dry, around 2 degrees, it is January after all. Not too sure either of us were prepared for what was about to happen! We were a bit slow getting ready, Brad still a little hung over from a friends’ stag day. All ready and about 15mins to the start time, we headed over to the start line.

All lined up and not really ready to race in a category beyond our class. We were signed in to the Sport Male category (I used to race this category 20 years ago) 3 laps of a muddy course. Well we though 3 laps until the race organiser promptly decided to change his mind and added in another lap…Huh! Oh well, we were on the start line now, no going back.

30 seconds to start, then HORN. We were off…

Within the first 20 yards we were heading up a steep hill and reaching for the sky. That’s a tough way to start a race, but normal. It sorts the men from the boys, 300 yards in it was clear we were the boys in this race. Brad, Pete and me were bringing up the rear of the pack, Matt was a few place ahead but still insight. Up over the hill things eased a little as it levelled out and onto a part of the course ridden before on other races at Newnham Park. Things were slippery over the exposed tree roots but not a muddy as expected. This was the highest part of the course so mainly downhill from here with the occasional bomb hole and short rise over small undulations. The downhill’s were taken at a reasonable pace by everyone, slippery but fun with the main downhill across one ridden many times before. Each lap was short about 3½ miles but took a long time, for us anyway.

Brad only managed 1 lap and was suffering from knee problems, so thought it safer to stop than to risk further injury. I only managed to complete 2 laps, mainly because my lungs were struggling and heart rate up through the roof, not quite hitting max but close to it, I was having bike problems too. Pete took this opportunity to push himself through another lap, just so he can say he beat me… He pushed through his 3^rd lap, which helped him sleep for 2 hours all the way home. I think Matt found things a little easier but also stopped after his 3^rd lap. I think that we all need to get a little fitter to compete at this level, or I do anyway.

Results

Matt   24^th in 1:51:01      3 laps

Pete    27^th in 2:19:59      3 laps

Jason  30^th in 1:29:03      2 laps

Brad   32^nd 00:41:41       1 lap

Ride details and GPS route (only my 2 laps)

Official Soggy Bottom video

This is the official video for round 2 Soggy Bottom. Both Pete and I are caught on camera