It has been a long time between races, so going into the
Timaru 12 hour MTB race I was interested to see how my fitness would stack up against
the likes of Milan Brodina who I coach and know is going really well at the
moment. Besides this I was just fizzing at spending some time on the bike.
I started conservatively and quickly settled into a steady
pace lapping through in around 5th place. After an hour I was
feeling good so started pushing the laps a little harder and I started moving
through the field into 2nd. I was riding well and could not believe how
much fun I was having. It was great to be back on the bike.
At around the 3.5 hour mark I like so many others in the
field suffered a puncher. The sharp rocks over the top section of the course
were shredding tiers all over the place. A quick change soon turned into a long
one when I cross-treaded my CO2 pump and jammed up. Not being able to get it
un-jammed I resorted to begging others for their pump, which soon paid off with
a fellow competitor stopping to lend me his pump. Back on track I had only lost
1 placing.
The weather was
perfect throughout the day with it being warm and overcast with a slight
breeze. As the day wore on the hills started to feel steeper and longer, while
the razor sharp rocks out on the course were still playing havoc with tires. I
noticed a slow leak in my front tire that would get progressively softer over
two laps. I had to make a quick stop every couple of laps to top it up with
air. After repeating this process for a couple of hours the leak was getting
worse and I was forced to stop to change it in the pits. Luckily Nick Taylor
was in the pits and he did a quick change for me while I stocked up on some
food.
With 2 hours to go Nick was reporting back to me that I was
pulling slightly faster laps than 2nd place. I keep working on
closing the gap but the legs were feeling the day’s activity. With about 26 min
until the race finish I got the call from Nick that I was on the same number of
laps as 2nd place and that he had called it a day like most of the
other riders, as it was starting to get dark and a final lap in that time would
likely be completed within the cut off time. If I could do one last lap and get
back in under the 12 hour cut off I would move into 2nd place. It
was worth a try.
So with everything I had left in the tank I took off for one
last lap. With the light fading fast all I could do through some of the tree
covered sections that were now pitch dark was hold on and hope my bike knew the
way over the obstacles. Red lining it all the way to the finish I narrowly
missed the cut off by about 2 min so my final lap did not count. Oh well, it
was worth a try!
So with 223 official kilometres under the belt I finished up
in 3rd place in the men’s solo section. More than happy with my days
work.
