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Part Three: Epic Westfalia
By tea time Mr K had finished his starter of wild mushroom pate on crusty bread, and had moved onto selecting his wine to accompany his main course of pumpkin ravioli. The mini fridge in his Westfalia was brimming with organic produce so the choices were clearly difficult ones.
Anyway, he managed to sneak in a second lap, again respectably close to the 1h 30m mark. HarryCrumb punctured on his second lap and still rolled in to the transition area at 1h 18m as the dusk was falling.
It was over to me for the first night-time lap. I powered up the Maxx-D as instructed by the marshalls and settled into a rhythm once again. Lights weren't really needed on the first half of the lap, except in the trees where the dark mud was hiding amongst the other dark mud.
Track conditions had improved though, but at the end of the Ridgeway Road, I had to stop to let an ambulance turn around after bundling up another casualty. This didn't bode well so I followed another rider down the next descent, wincing a few times as tires squirmed and shimmied both in front of and under me.
The climb out of campsite was no less of a monumental grind up to the monument. I did happen to look back and pause for a moment to watch twenty or so paper lanterns being released from in front of Eastnor Castle with the westering sunset behind. It was rather magical a moment, ruined only by the rest of the climb. I dismounted and pushed that section anyway.
The remainder of the lap was in full darkness now and I was thankful for the power of my lighting set-up. Full speed on the final descent once again smoothed out the bumps and managed an strangely consistent lap time of just over 1h 17m again. At transition I had the embarrassing ignominy of not having anyone waiting for me. I did find Woody in the transition area a couple of minutes later. He'd just arrived and was clearly surprised to see me back so early.
There's a bear loose in the woods
I sent Chris off on his merry way and returned via the jet wash to base camp for some cold pasta and Pringles. I was right on time for the commencement of the DJ Hoffmeister soundclash and spectacular Jean-Michelle Jarre quality light show. The addition of matching bear suits was brilliant.
The RB Heckleaphone was also now accompanied by a Heckle spotlight. A real highlight was JV warning riders of the bear on track as a furry Mr K crossed over to fill up his bottle.
'Watch out for the bear! The bear! He's got teeth!' and 'Careful, he's a randy bear!' as a track-side standpipe was dry humped.
Mr K was intent on doing his night lap in a bear suit so I issued instructions to take at least two hours and be sure to hide around corners to scare other riders. I also enquired about the last time he evacuated in case he wanted to answer a common bear based query. I think he packed some wet wipes just in case.
Meanwhile I chewed up some paper to make some ad-hoc earplugs and attempted to get some sleep.
Our strategy had changed a little at this point. We'd abandoned to idea of soul destroying double laps in the night so that everyone had a few hours to sleep, instead reverting to a one lap and then come back to the camp-site and wake the next rider up approach.
Sure it wasted some time, but it avoided team mates waiting for hours in the transition area getting cold and grumpy when they could've been warm and sleepy instead. I think it worked well.
It's all just a very bad dream:
Even though I'm sure I'd never fallen sleep, I woke up shortly after I went to bed and got up to make some breakfast. This could've been a dream for all I knew, but climbing back into damp cycling gear, made sure I was awake.
I was halfway through my porridge and strong black coffee when HarryCrumb unzipped the tent doorway.
Having ridden his night lap with what can only be described as substandard lighting, I think he was amazed that he was still alive. I'm sure the adrenaline took a while to subside.
My third lap was also the 4am dawn lap, starting out needing lights and ending up with them switched off. Doing the dusk and the dawn laps was really quite nice too, and there were moments on course when the birds sang their dawn chorus and everything seemed right with the world.
I did nearly hit the wall though and could've been suffering some form of hypoglycemia. I was very happy to get back to my tent to wake up Woody and eat some more much needed porridge.
The final countdown:
With twelve laps under our belts and the sun risen on a rather pleasant day we only had a few more hours remaining. I ate my second breakfast down at the heckle tent wrapped up in a big warm coat. 8am arrived and a short blast of siren on the Heckleaphone announced that it was time to get up out of bed.
This probably didn't go down too well with the sock police.
Shortly after 10:10am HarryCrumb arrived back at the transition area to find me still adjusting my clothing and not quite ready for a fourth lap.
Setting off I felt quite strong still, and had to make a decision whether to get round and handover for one more lap, or just take it easy and roll in after the 24 hours were up.
It was difficult as I was riding quite well and the course was by now much drier and faster. I passed lots of riders on the climbs and the short downhills which only increased my desire to push harder. I caught up with Longun on the big climb up to the monument. He was wearing a sweat soaked bear suit for his final lap and I think he may have been regretting it on that gradient. By now it was really quite warm.
I stopped briefly at the top of the final bumpy descent with an increasingly large group of other riders who were clearly intent on whiling away the final half hour. I overheard a conversation about how hard the descent was on a hard-tail. I had to draw their attention to my bike and then set off down the hill at full tilt passing a modern full susser on the way too. Loved it.
Anyway with about 25 minutes remaining I pulled in outside the RB heckle tent to sit on the grass and eat some of OrangeEd's malt loaf. (thanks Ed)
As time passed another group of riders began to assemble to count down the remaining time too. Of course the Hecklaphone was used sparingly to offer words of encouragement. 'Can we have a marshall down here please? This is clearly a rule infringement'.
With other riders still racing past on perhaps one of the fastest parts of the course it seemed appropriate to hit the siren and call some of them 'slackers'.
With three minutes remaining I threw the megaphone strap around my shoulders and joined the masses to complete my lap. Riding whilst trying to operate a megaphone is tricky but well worth it for the fun to be had.
I got a big laugh from the crowd for saying 'passing on the right' to a couple of riders on the final arena bend.
Full sirens blazing across the line and it was all over bar the handshake with the big man.
The aftermath:
16 laps completed, medals collected and pats on the back all round. I had a great team to ride with and great people to share a weekend with. Despite writing alot from my own perspective, it truly is all the others who come along who really make this event such a great and memorable one.
Great effort from everyone who raced, rode and turned out to support and just be there. We easily had the best spot on the campsite and clearly (probably) had the biggest representation as Retrobike.
Well done everyone. Long may it continue.
By tea time Mr K had finished his starter of wild mushroom pate on crusty bread, and had moved onto selecting his wine to accompany his main course of pumpkin ravioli. The mini fridge in his Westfalia was brimming with organic produce so the choices were clearly difficult ones.
Anyway, he managed to sneak in a second lap, again respectably close to the 1h 30m mark. HarryCrumb punctured on his second lap and still rolled in to the transition area at 1h 18m as the dusk was falling.
It was over to me for the first night-time lap. I powered up the Maxx-D as instructed by the marshalls and settled into a rhythm once again. Lights weren't really needed on the first half of the lap, except in the trees where the dark mud was hiding amongst the other dark mud.
Track conditions had improved though, but at the end of the Ridgeway Road, I had to stop to let an ambulance turn around after bundling up another casualty. This didn't bode well so I followed another rider down the next descent, wincing a few times as tires squirmed and shimmied both in front of and under me.
The climb out of campsite was no less of a monumental grind up to the monument. I did happen to look back and pause for a moment to watch twenty or so paper lanterns being released from in front of Eastnor Castle with the westering sunset behind. It was rather magical a moment, ruined only by the rest of the climb. I dismounted and pushed that section anyway.
The remainder of the lap was in full darkness now and I was thankful for the power of my lighting set-up. Full speed on the final descent once again smoothed out the bumps and managed an strangely consistent lap time of just over 1h 17m again. At transition I had the embarrassing ignominy of not having anyone waiting for me. I did find Woody in the transition area a couple of minutes later. He'd just arrived and was clearly surprised to see me back so early.
There's a bear loose in the woods
I sent Chris off on his merry way and returned via the jet wash to base camp for some cold pasta and Pringles. I was right on time for the commencement of the DJ Hoffmeister soundclash and spectacular Jean-Michelle Jarre quality light show. The addition of matching bear suits was brilliant.
The RB Heckleaphone was also now accompanied by a Heckle spotlight. A real highlight was JV warning riders of the bear on track as a furry Mr K crossed over to fill up his bottle.
'Watch out for the bear! The bear! He's got teeth!' and 'Careful, he's a randy bear!' as a track-side standpipe was dry humped.
Mr K was intent on doing his night lap in a bear suit so I issued instructions to take at least two hours and be sure to hide around corners to scare other riders. I also enquired about the last time he evacuated in case he wanted to answer a common bear based query. I think he packed some wet wipes just in case.
Meanwhile I chewed up some paper to make some ad-hoc earplugs and attempted to get some sleep.
Our strategy had changed a little at this point. We'd abandoned to idea of soul destroying double laps in the night so that everyone had a few hours to sleep, instead reverting to a one lap and then come back to the camp-site and wake the next rider up approach.
Sure it wasted some time, but it avoided team mates waiting for hours in the transition area getting cold and grumpy when they could've been warm and sleepy instead. I think it worked well.
It's all just a very bad dream:
Even though I'm sure I'd never fallen sleep, I woke up shortly after I went to bed and got up to make some breakfast. This could've been a dream for all I knew, but climbing back into damp cycling gear, made sure I was awake.
I was halfway through my porridge and strong black coffee when HarryCrumb unzipped the tent doorway.
Having ridden his night lap with what can only be described as substandard lighting, I think he was amazed that he was still alive. I'm sure the adrenaline took a while to subside.
My third lap was also the 4am dawn lap, starting out needing lights and ending up with them switched off. Doing the dusk and the dawn laps was really quite nice too, and there were moments on course when the birds sang their dawn chorus and everything seemed right with the world.
I did nearly hit the wall though and could've been suffering some form of hypoglycemia. I was very happy to get back to my tent to wake up Woody and eat some more much needed porridge.
The final countdown:
With twelve laps under our belts and the sun risen on a rather pleasant day we only had a few more hours remaining. I ate my second breakfast down at the heckle tent wrapped up in a big warm coat. 8am arrived and a short blast of siren on the Heckleaphone announced that it was time to get up out of bed.
This probably didn't go down too well with the sock police.
Shortly after 10:10am HarryCrumb arrived back at the transition area to find me still adjusting my clothing and not quite ready for a fourth lap.
Setting off I felt quite strong still, and had to make a decision whether to get round and handover for one more lap, or just take it easy and roll in after the 24 hours were up.
It was difficult as I was riding quite well and the course was by now much drier and faster. I passed lots of riders on the climbs and the short downhills which only increased my desire to push harder. I caught up with Longun on the big climb up to the monument. He was wearing a sweat soaked bear suit for his final lap and I think he may have been regretting it on that gradient. By now it was really quite warm.
I stopped briefly at the top of the final bumpy descent with an increasingly large group of other riders who were clearly intent on whiling away the final half hour. I overheard a conversation about how hard the descent was on a hard-tail. I had to draw their attention to my bike and then set off down the hill at full tilt passing a modern full susser on the way too. Loved it.
Anyway with about 25 minutes remaining I pulled in outside the RB heckle tent to sit on the grass and eat some of OrangeEd's malt loaf. (thanks Ed)
As time passed another group of riders began to assemble to count down the remaining time too. Of course the Hecklaphone was used sparingly to offer words of encouragement. 'Can we have a marshall down here please? This is clearly a rule infringement'.
With other riders still racing past on perhaps one of the fastest parts of the course it seemed appropriate to hit the siren and call some of them 'slackers'.
With three minutes remaining I threw the megaphone strap around my shoulders and joined the masses to complete my lap. Riding whilst trying to operate a megaphone is tricky but well worth it for the fun to be had.
I got a big laugh from the crowd for saying 'passing on the right' to a couple of riders on the final arena bend.
Full sirens blazing across the line and it was all over bar the handshake with the big man.
The aftermath:
16 laps completed, medals collected and pats on the back all round. I had a great team to ride with and great people to share a weekend with. Despite writing alot from my own perspective, it truly is all the others who come along who really make this event such a great and memorable one.
Great effort from everyone who raced, rode and turned out to support and just be there. We easily had the best spot on the campsite and clearly (probably) had the biggest representation as Retrobike.
Well done everyone. Long may it continue.
