I’ve been waiting 2 years to do this race again and to finish the job off properly this time by actually getting to the end of it and crossing the line with the chequered flag out!
Personally there was a lot at stake for me going into this race, as well as the money laid out in order to do it, I actually had to miss 2 days of my holiday with my family (didn’t go down too well that) as they’d already gone off to meet up with friends of ours and join up with them for a week away. And then of course there was the ghosts of the 2009 race that still haunted me as well as the rotten luck I’ve had so far this year, no pressure then! One thing I did have in my favour though, I was feeling quite fit with all the training that I’ve done recently so I was confident that at 47 yrs young I knew that if everything went ok, I’d be able to do the full 12 hours and hopefully get a decent enough result.
So it was off to the valleys of Wales then and to meet up on the Saturday with the large contingent of Camel Vale mcc riders who’d also traveled up there to take part. A mixture of young and old and a mixture of different types of races that we were all taking part in, 24hr team, 24hr iron man, 12hr team and 12hr iron man, among the riders were: Arthur Johnson, Hannes Tannzer, Jed Treleaven, Adam Blake, Colin George, Steve Jose, Steve Jay, Scott Johnson, Richard Jay. After the usual chit chat when I arrived it was off to watch the start of the 24hr races which started at 7pm, at least it wasn’t raining but it was a bit chilly all the same and the wind seemed to have got up a bit judging by the giant ‘windmills’ that littered the sky line for miles propelling themselves round at a vast rate of knots. After watching a bit action and hanging around the pits to see how the riders were doing on their first few laps, it was off to get some kip in readiness for the big day.
I got up about 5.30am, had a bit of ‘ready made’ breakfast, lobbed my gear in the pits and made my way down to the start to line up. It still seems a bit surreal getting ready to ride a motorbike in a race at 7 in the morning! But once you start lining up for that ‘le mans’ type start it all seems to go. Off went the hooter then and we all ran to the bikes where I kicked the little ‘Gasser’ into life and made my way along the MX section before we headed out into the forest. Didn’t make a bad start and was probably about 7th or 8th as we left the arena proper where all the spectators were stood watching.
The course itself basically consists of mile upon mile of forest trails with a bit of open quarry thrown in so you could open up the bike a bit. Some of the trials are quite stoney, some quite rocky, some are narrow, some aren’t, there are also some climbs, some downhills, a rocky stream that you rode along and 3 ‘extreme’ or ‘hard’ routes that were there if you wanted to save time by using them. Lets be honest, you don’t really need that much of a tough course if you’re doing 12 or 24hrs on a bike as it’s all about stamina as you just have to keep going. The 3 extreme sections weren’t really that bad, the 1st wasn’t actually anything at all, it just had a tricky little drop off involved in it. The 2nd was a steep downhill that had to be taken with a bit of care, I suppose if you were to walk up it from the bottom, then you’d have a job to, very steep, but the dry conditions didn’t make it that bad. The 3rd one was again a very steep rocky hill, but this time we went up it, but again with things being dry it wasn’t any problem. Just after this we had to go through a rock infested gully in order to complete the section, bit tricky at first, bit once the laps wore on you got used to it. So a decent enough lap and about 13 to 14 miles in length.
I was on a 2 lap strategy before I pitted, I knew it would be a close thing with the 125 nearly running dry, but it all worked out fine every time even though I was close to going on reserve a few times. So after the first couple of laps it was a quick pit stop and back out I went, everything ok so far! Lap 3 no problems, lap 4 I had a bit of a hiccup when I had a stupid little ‘off’ on the rocky gully in the extreme section no3. I picked the bike up and kicked her back into life only to find that the throttle was sticking wide open, what the f**k is going on here then! Took me minute to suss out what was going on, but found the problem. Where the throttle cable goes into the top of the carb, this had become twisted where it had got snagged on the rocks so was in effect opening the throttle wide open, a quick ‘yank’ on the cable and all was well so off I went again. Another pit stop then and a quick refreshment break and then it was back out on lap 5.
I had a little bit of bother on this one as another rider had me off. I went to pass him on his left hand side and he lost control just as I was level with him, we locked handlebars and down we both went. When I picked the bike back up I’d noticed that the front brake lever was broke, luckily I could still operate the brake as there was still half a lever there so no need to stop and replace it, phew, relief! Lap 6 was the lap that nearly put me out of the race. Whilst going at a fair old clip along a downhill stone/slate infested track, my front wheel washed out and even before I had time to mutter to myself the swear word beginning with ‘F’, I hit the deck hard. I won’t forget in a hurry the sound of my helmet scraping along the bits of slate that protruded from the forest floor as I went down, but to my horror one of the jagged pieces of slate went straight into my elbow. I’d hit the deck with so much force that it had twisted the body armour round and left my elbow exposed to anything that would to stick into it! Straight away I could feel the blood ouzing out and my arm was absolutely killing me, not good. The bike faired slightly better, just a smashed hand guard, a severely dented exhaust and a side panel hanging off. I took a minute to gather myself together and got back on the bike and rode off again to complete another lap. I was thinking on the way back round do I go to the ambulance (again) and get my arm sorted and then carry on? Or do I just keep going and hope I don’t injure the thing again. I still had about 7hrs to go but I decided to carry on as long as I could grip the bars and twist the throttle I’d be ok, so that’s exactly what I did.
Onto lap 7 and 8 then and these 2 laps were not pleasant as that ’off’ that I’d had really took the wind out of my sails and I seem to be cautious a lot more than I had been previously. I didn’t have any problems though and I made it back to the pits with a sigh of relief. Laps 9 and 10 went ok and I was starting to feel a bit better about things again even though my elbow was still killing me. It was at the end of this lap that I was absolutely ’Hank Marvin’ so a longer pit stop than usual was taken to try and stuff as much food as I could into my mouth in the shortest space of time.
At this stage I knew I could get 14 laps in and maybe 15 if I was lucky, with that in mind I knew I’d stand a decent enough of getting a good finish. So back out I went to do laps 11 and 12, no problems with these and although I was going maybe 8 or 10 mins slower than my fastest lap earlier on, I was conserving energy and that was the important bit. Another 2 laps completed and it was back into the pits again to get fuelled up, take a drink and get going again to do laps 13 and 14. These went without a hitch and I was overjoyed when I came back round to lap scoring with 8 mins to spare. A quick ‘splash and dash’ and it was out on lap no 15, my last lap!
Funny old thing this lap, you’ve got your fingers and toes crossed praying nothing goes wrong and you get to the finish. Also you have to tell yourself that you don’t need to do anything stupid and not to take any risks. I did this lap in virtually splendid isolation as there was hardly anybody left on the course apart from a few riders that I passed that were still going round struggling a bit trying to finish. So it was with a huge relief and a big smile when I finally entered the arena for the last time and saw the clock and the chequered flag waiting for me. I hadn’t got a clue where I was position wise, but that was a good thing as I felt I’d done my own race going by the clock without the added pressure of people telling you your place and you’ve either got to get a move on and catch up or keep riding fast to stay in front of whoever is behind you.
I got back to van absolutely ‘cream crackered’ and could hardly speak, I’d gave my all but chuffed as hell that at 47 yrs old I’ve rode a 125 for over 12 ½ hours and found out that I’d managed to get 3rd place. At least knowing that dampened the pain somewhat as I tried to remove my kit from my blooded elbow. Not only had the under layer that I wear beneath my body armour had stuck to the wound, but also the body armour itself! The blood had simply seeped through everything and dried and there was nothing I could do except tug away at my clothing and rip open the wound again in order to get my kit off. That bit hurt more than actually doing it in the first place because you know what’s coming up that’s the trouble!
A great day it was too for Camel Vale mcc, 2 first places, 2 second places and 2 third places. Pick of the bunch was Adam Blake who annihilated the champ/expert field in the 12hr iron man with 19 laps to claim 1st place. Also a mention must go to Colin George who collected a 3rd place in the ‘nutters’ class, the 24hr iron man in the vets. After the prizes were given out it was back off to the van for an early night to get some well deserved kip. Without a doubt this is definitely one of those races that you must do at least once in your life, hard work it was, but a great experience and unforgettable. Good stuff!
Finishing position: 3/32 (Vets)
Here’s what I munched through during the race:
1 packet Jaffa cakes
1 meal replacement drink
12 gel bars
1 honey sandwhich
6 slices flapjack
2 handfuls of jelly babies
4 litres energy drink
2 litres water
(Pic by Sue Pitman)
