I had a week to recover before the seasons most difficult challenge the 12 Hour, I'd chosen the Breckland event in Norfolk purely for the fast roads and the chance to go for a big mileage as over 200 miles are on the A11 between Thetford forest and Browick just West of Norwich. I ignored the bad time I'd had here just a few weeks back in the National '100' and put faith in my preparation and race strategy, the week before had been almost total rest apart from a 'middling' 22 minute '10' on the Tuesday to test out the spare bike.
The team (Fiona, Adrian & I) met at the 'cruddy' Travelodge at Barton Mills where we would rest our heads for a few short hours before the early start, we still had time for a picnic with wine and a fresh brew on the idyllic banks of the River Lark with swarms of dragonfly and a couple of dwarf deer for company.
4.30am is an ungodly hour to think about racing but with rain as well the omens were not good, of course it had been showery all week but at least the wind seemed to have abated so we set off for the HQ at Scoulton in the dark. There's always a flurry of extra things to get ready for the 'half day' race, bike and spare, frame numbers, I cannot remember the last time I fitted one of these but at least we have 'zip' ties these days and not the old plastic covered wire that used to catch your leg, then we have to move it behind the saddle as it fouls the larger 750ml bottle in the reduced modern frame.
On the line - In the rain (Photo KLCC)
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Feeding strategy is simple, only one bottle "So don't let me go dry, whatever!" but with a good team I can relie on we have done this 2 or 3 times now and I have confidence. Food is rolls with banana and Chocolate spread or Ham & chicken for later I go to the line with only gels and a energy bar I plan to take in mouthfuls from the first hour so that my system is always working and does not get supressed. It's only spitting but I have to be careful on the road as the first 10 miles on 'B' roads with potholes and a set of lights, gratings and white lines all there to trap the unwary and put an early spanner in the well oiled machine of performance, of course I don't need that. After working perfectly my computer fails to start at the beginning so I have to stop after half a mile and adjust my sensors, then the sensors clash for 5 miles until I cannot stand it any longer, I toy with the dilemma of doing this on the move but in the wet just a slip and I'm over or take a finger off in the front wheel, but I just cannot have the magnet 'ping' for twelve hours, it would send me mad, or break the spoke or sensor, or both the frustration is boiling my brain and I want to get on with the race, so I stop again! two stops in the first 10 mile, probably just a minute but it feels like disaster, it feels like failure is stalking me.
Dreamtime
I get out onto the quite roads of the A11 it's light and the rain is worse but not bad, I have passed 3 or 4 riders already, I settle myself down, calm myself, try and get thing going in my favour. There is little traffic, but a car is up an embankment and the driver being attended by the police. Was a rider involved? Keep going at a steady pace, I'm at an hour for 25m, the field do a loop of the whole DC course to 53 miles but then we cut short at Eccles road underpass and do a shorter 20m loop which means we will see each other (and helpers) more often. It is here on this communal spot to both circiuts that most helpers have gathered, 50m in 2 hours dead and I take a bottle, 75m slightly slower in 3:01:42 but the wind is getting up and it's harder going East and the splits will be uneven all day so I don't need to worry that I'm a bit inconsistent. 100m in 4:04:09 two minutes up on last year but I'm three minutes up on Brian Phillips (E Grinstead) and eight on Nicholas Engilsh (Reading CC) my 5 and 10 minute men, Phillips catches English ahead of me but then begins to fade, English one of the most improved riders of the year riding to a power meter is keeping his pace very even but has gone remarkably slow at the start and will hope to pick us off one at a time. Dave Green (RAF) the man with the best distance is my 5 minute man behind me and I have not been aware of him but suddenly he is an extra 5 or more minutes down and I am in the lead. Ian Sutton (San Fairy Ann) my 15 min man is very strong but drops away after 120m. We have a 20m haul into the wind as we change circuits at 135 miles and I have to concentrate to keep it together but I'm managing 1:02:30 for my splits, I catch Phillips during this phase and we acknowledge each other cheery but short, neither of us in any doubt that we are not here to chat but to suffer, every rider suffers, for his speed and to defie the race, the race is not broken yet and we must suffer a bit more that the race will come to heel and be broken but not yet, closer to the end. English pulls back a little every lap but then has to stop (comfort break!) and looses it all, Sutton I am about to catch at 175m when he too has to stop and next time I see him he is another 5 min down.
The traffic has got up allot, mostly cars going to 'car booters' or the Snetterton race circuit but once we move onto the Borowick loop it seems to ease of, and then in the distance the sound of sirens and the screech of police cars, could be anything but deep down you know it affects you, as I reach the Eccles road turn I see flashing lights and a rider in the road, I go around the turn a mere half a mile up the road none of the helpers seem aware what is going on, I take a bottle and back out onto the A11, I pass the several cars and a helecopter is low overhead and lands in a fields adjacent to the incident, I'm almost blown sideways and the hay from the newly harvested field is all around me, as I pass away from the scene I get down to my riding. 200m comes up in 8:18:10 a whole 12 minutes faster than last year! I've done so well over the middle section, I'm still above 24mph and a quick calculation in my head tells me I only need to keep 22mph for the remainder to make the magical 280 miles maybe even more. 200 miles is a watershed, more than two thirds gone and 3:40 to do the remainder, it's lifts me into the wind. Still allot to do but after my early faltering miles it feels like relief. When I get to the far turn a marshall steps into the road and waves his arms, I carry onto the overhead bridge, more marshall's in orange coats "Race is cancelled" and some helpers confirm it is all over. I literally turn the air blue with my language as it sinks in, the ride of my life has just come to an abrupt halt, and a lady helper puts her arm around me instinctively she knows what to do I know it's over, then I have to apologise, we all know it's over.
The 'Grindstone' (Photo KLCC)
I have a 10 mile trudge back to the helpers, the A11 is closed to all traffic but the rider is gone, everybody is in a state of panic and confusion but the over whelming sound in my head is silence "Who was the rider?" "Is he OK?" It wasn't supposed to be over and yet we are sitting, standing resting our weary bodies on our bikes gradually as the late afternoon sun dries the sweat on our skin into scales of salt I have to peel off my skin suit and remove my number in an acknowledgement that we will not be going on. We pack away and go back to the HQ, there is a bit of discussion but we don't know very much, the rider is young Will Dorsett and local from the North Norfolk Whs. he's been taken Norfolk & Norwich hospital, tea and cakes are plentifully and free but they stick in out throat, we would pay twice for the chance to finish what we have started, no rider climbs off without regret and bitter is the taste when over eight hours of toil is against the 'grindstone'
Adrian, Fiona & I are the last to leave the HQ (even the organiser had locked up and gone) I felt like waiting until 6.35 when I was due to finish and I would wake up and it would have all been a dream. But by that time we were on our way back to Leicester in silence, lost in our thoughts for the day and the injured rider. We all take risks to race on the public roads, to a non cyclist like Fiona it seems like madness to share with cars and worst lorries but we all do it and we do it because we have a desire to go fast, statistics put DC roads at no more dangerous than 'A' or 'B' roads it is the circumstances and the individuals that create the danger not the roads themselves. We all use the highways in the (calculated) knowledge that to enjoy our sport, indeed ride a bicycle then we need to be allowed to make the choice about the places and circumstances but protected from the individuals who would make it a foolhardy choice.
Young Will was battered by a car that got too close and was lucky, he has a broken arm/wrist and required surgery on his knee and took a beating from his collision & fall but looks to be pulling through, others have not (& will not) be as lucky and we all must be aware that it is a danger we all face.
Accident report here
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