Very ‘clement’ weather in terms of mildness and lack of precipitation. Ground wetness made bitsof the course cut up quite badly. The potholes of slurry/gravel that appeared on the fast descent took me by surprise.
Epic ride for me. My lights played up on one lap and I rode by the full moon in the open and other people’s lights in the woods. A bloke kindly yelled “jump!” at me on all the wee water bars on the descent when I asked if I could tail him for the benefit of his light.
An upsetting too-many-gels ‘Paula Radcliffe’ moment out on the course coincided with the middle of a lap where I had a hard otb in a wheelstopper and my freehub decided to play “guess when I’m going to engage”. A bit of a weep at the indignity of it all, a baby-wipe shower, fresh clothes, a bastardised bike, some real food, some immodium and a kip later, I was good to go again.
My pit crew, Roberta, druidh and graham went above and beyond the call of duty to get me through to 10am today.
….you really didn’t need to know some of that, did you?… My head, body and two bikes are sh*gged, I just don’t care anymore! *rocks gently in a corner*