falling off bikes since 1975

I didn’t get to race the Specialized EnduroPlus last year, under doctors orders, so I missed the move to Catton Park. It feels strange to ride past Trentham Gardens on the way, a course I must have ridden over 50 times by now, via Potteries Classic, Mountain Mayhem, SITS and Enduro6. The extra hours driving time means an extra early start too in order to get the four legged beasties fed, watered and mucked out. We were a little worried about making the 08:30 time that registration was supposed to close. Thanks are due to SteveM for being my registration stunt double, though it seems we needn’t have rushed as we weren’t the only ones late to arrive.

It’s Not (Just) About Fitness

At the back of the pack I played my usual tortoise/hare game with those fitter than I, but with less skill. On each climb they would winch away from me. On each descent or singletrack section I would catch them up. The first half of the course had more climbing than technical allowing them to pull away. Then, on the second, more technical half, of the course, I would catch them up.

I don’t claim to be a great technical rider, and certainly not a downhiller. Downhilling got too scary for me sometime just after 1997. But even so there are guys out there who would benefit from a skills class instead of just going out and puting the miles in. In fact every single lady I saw out there could probably take the lesson.

“Stay on the Track”

The new course took us past the side of a ploughed field, which for some reason had been given not one, but two caution arrows. A single ribbon of trail that was slightly smoother than the rest was the line. Smoother is relative, halfway down a large pile of ejected bottles mounted up throughout the race. On a Five Spot though, it’s ALL track. So there I was on lap 5 or 6, riding in the grass, spinning out the biggest gear I had, merrily overtaking the pro-elites being shaken to death on their hard as nails hardtails, when I spotted a guy walking on the course. Despite warning him in plenty of time, and giving him as much room as I could he hurled abuse at me to “ride on the track”. Fuckwit.

Niggles and Smiles

I’d forgotten how, when racing for any decent length of time, the mind starts to wander, and things start to niggle. I swear that I’ll never buy another Magura product so long as they use the Ashford & Simpsonesque “Solid as A Rock” tagline, after I suffered said annoying tune in my head for most of a lap.

I’m not sure who had the most annoying bells, the RAF with their cowbells, or the Army with their bear bells. I mentioned this to an RAF singlespeeder who replied simply “The Army. And they smell”.

It’s not just me being driven mad either. Some guy came past apologising for a “sense of humour failure”. Another was being driven slightly mad by his front mech cable rubbing on his front tyre, with an insistent annoying brrrr. And one guy was even inflicting the creaking of a Whyte PRST-1 on himself. Though if it’s self-inflcited I have no sympathy.

The body doesn’t have it any easier. Neck and knees ache start to ache. Calves get cramp. Salty helmet straps rub your chin, Palms get sore. Little fingers go dead (they’re not too bad today), and wedding rings give you really, really large callousses. Worst of all, for me at least, is carbo-bloat. I need to find something that will allow me to maintain a constant intake of carbs without bloating up like Bibendum.

Despite the niggles there was lots of smiling. Catton has some excellently twisty bits, and reversing the course direction linked more of them together in better ways. And there were extra opportunities for some airtime :-) I really must get some risers on the front though after I only just recovered it from one kicker that had the rear wheel somewhere up around my ears.

Uniquely Catton has one of those magical downhill in either direction sections. The uphill in both directions track is far more common, every rider knows at least one. I’ve never known anywhere else that has a section of track that spins out your biggest gear in either direction though. (For those who know Catton it was the grassy section after the off-camber sheep-track downhill).

Without lurking I finished a lap just after the 6 hour deadline, and I was pleased with the way I maintained a steady pace.

Next stop, SSMM. Best get some strength in my legs for that one, there’ll be no easy geared and suspended option.

Updates:

I’ve banged my rim, missus. After 6 hours of hammering it’s gone a funny shape.

Joolze Dymond has a report and pictures on her website. Follow the Enduro links…

I think I’ll save my picture for the fridge.

And now I know what the pit crew did for 6 hours.

More Updates:

Results are in.

And the banged rim was probably from the MTL attempt.

There’s a photo gallery up at Singletrack magazine.