Team Mud Dock!!!

The 12 hr night enduro Dusk til Dawn marked the end of my race career for my last team and the start of my career as a member of Team Mud Dock! But what a race...

Dusk to Dawn crept up on me this year. After the excesses of Mayhem and the Trans Wales I was not mentally ready for another battle with the mud. So I took a ‘just pitch up and ride’ mentality. Looking at the phenomenal start list I figured this strategy would probably be fine because racing against some of the best endurance females in the country I knew my chances of getting a podium finish were minimal. So no pressure. Fabulous! I can safely say I was the least prepared out of any race I’ve done this year. Only 1 bike (never before ridden although much stared at), a completely inexperienced pit crew, packing the morning of the race... Shocking behaviour.

So we had the usual blustery hellos and excited conversation about tires when we arrived but as the rain set in and dusk arrived I was wrapped in a sleeping bag in the tent thinking ‘do I want to get out there and do this again?’ I’ve had my fill of riding round in circles in the mud and the dark this year. But it was one last race for my team so I jumped up and lined up with lots of familiar faces.

The first lap was jostly and then calm as we waiting for people to remember how to turn corners on their bikes and pedal up hills. After that I settled down very quickly into a rythmn and enjoyed the first few rideable laps. I felt very self contained, riding cleanly through the singletrack and daring to put a little power down on the fire road. Many months of riding with Bristol’s one and only Tuesday Night Club has honed my technical skills and I really noticed the added speed I had through the labyrinthine singletrack… thanks boys!

To my horror I found myself riding within a stone’s throw of both Mel and Jenn (Hopkins), the two ‘favourites’ other than Jenn O’C. I briefly thought ‘well this pace won’t be sustainable for long’ and then realized that actually I felt pretty comfortable. We plodded on. The trails became less and less fun. People went to bed and fewer and fewer people held us up. Then Jenn disappeared and Mel and I rode together for a long while, chatting a bit, until she stopped to check something on her bike and I pulled away.

I can’t remember ever enjoying a race so much. I think because I never felt like I was racing! I was vaguely aware of the need to not stop and gave my pit crew a hard time expecting things to appear instantaneously so I didn’t need to get off the bike. Round and round I went, half waiting for Mel to catch me up again. I never asked where she was and would not have minded had she caught me up because I knew, 8 or 9 hours in, that I was having the ride of my life. I felt smooth and fast and totally in control. It was such a contrast to Mayhem which was a mental as well as physical slog that seemed to have little to do with being a decent mountain biker.

I came in once more at ten minutes to the twelve hours. That lap had been the first where I really felt it and was looking forward to stopping, but even then I kept saying to myself, ‘even if it’s one more, that’s cool. I can do that’. It was daylight and the trails were nearly empty. The solo leaders in the men’s race lapped me on that penultimate lap and it was great hearing Josh and Ant hollering as they flew past. I had ripped my ipod off in a bit of a mad moment and was loving the sounds of the forest. So I wobbled in and the pit crew and I had a bit of a conflab and only then I learnt Mel was 20 minutes down. I probably didn’t need to go out again. But then Jenn Hopkins, knowing me well, pointed out I’d finish on the same lap as the leader if I carried on. Knowing I had already pretty much reached my limits I asked ‘what would you do?’. Jenn just looked at me.

So I downed 2 gels and set off. That last lap was painful and I was a sorry state creeping through the trees. Flat barely-there inclines were taking it out of me to get up. I had only had 3 gears (rather hard ones) for the whole race (great prep!) so there was no option to get in the granny ring and spin out. I walked a few climbs and stood up for nearly the whole lap. I saw flamingos and lamas at one point in the trees and eventually after what seemed like hours (nearly 2) I rolled over the line. Having not eaten anything for the last lap I crashed off the bike onto my hands and knees and demanded a bacon roll. Jenn provided and soon I was back to my old self.

Dusk to Dawn 08 will not be forgotten by me for a long time. It had a great atmosphere as ever and the vibe on the trail was fantastic (until everyone went to bed). For me it marked both the end of a fantastic season racing for IronHorse-Extreme and the start of the adventure racing season and start of my membership of Team Mud Dock with Scott, Matt and Mikey. And now I'm thinking warm thoughts for the future... I’m off to Abu Dhabi in a few weeks racing over deserts – a contrast to the mud and rain which is all I seem to have seen this year on my bike!

[I must say a particularly big thank you to my pit bitches Will and Mike and to Mud Dock for "mechanical provisions"].