This however, was just the entree. A huge thunder storm loomed over the mountains and served the main course with vigour. There were near thunder strikes, and enormous rain drops saturated me quickly. I was glad for the first shower because of the temperature loss and the course changing a little to suit my tires and style. But now my tires were struggling to cope with the deluge. The dirt parts of the course soon were minced into quagmires. This was turning into an epic race. Lap times were now suffering in a big way, sub-hour and forty-minute times now were blistering fast. I quickly noticed that most riders in the race were not totally at home on the slippery roots and deep mud. I thought back to the thousands of hours I spent playing in the mud at Mangamhoe Forest, time no longer wasted.
The compulsory time for lights was 7:30 pm even though sunset was more like 9:30 to 10 o’clock. So everyone had to lug their systems around for a good two hours before really needing them. Luckily my Ay Up system barely weighed anything so I never noticed any difference, except when darkness did come and I turned on the powerful beams to see me through the summer night of mud. It was at this stage that I started to notice a disadvantage I was at with my set up. All the people I was competing against were using at least two bikes. My poor Ellsworth was taking the full force of the course, conditions and my relentless riding. I started losing gears on the rear sprocket to a frustrating bunch of neutrals. Only the bigger cogs were functioning regularly. This is common in muddy races but I still had 14 plus hours to go.
The main thing I try to maintain through these events is constant lap times. With the dark hours setting in and the track not in prime condition my times were certainly getting a lot slower than my first few laps in the dry. But everyone had eased off and I was deep in my rhythm and singing to myself. As midnight was drawing near, my constancy was paying some dividends. I got news that the gap to first in the Under 25 Category was closing rapidly. This buoyed my spirits and I put a little more effort out to reel him in. And around the midway point of the race I came up on Joel. His lights had failed and he didn’t look great. I am not proud of how I passed him. I went wide on the ski trail and snuck past to avoid him noticing me.
As I pulled into my pit, Marcello and Heidie were ready to do a big midnight pit stop. Heidie helped me get into some warmer iRule gear, and wool socks while giving me food and pain killers. Marcello did his best to get my bike going more like it did after being tuned by Bike Vegas and Bikesmith and changed my Ay Up batteries. All this while a camera man videoed our every move, not that any of us cared, too focused. I pulled out of the pits in seconds again, but with my biggest pit stop done and dusted. I caught Joel again on the first climb. This time I pulled alongside to say "Hi", and asked him if it was muddy enough for him. I knew that he too had come from winter riding and would not be adverse to the conditions. We both knew what was going on position-wise, and I pulled away. Again he was racing his race and going as fast as he could go, and so was I.
Thorughout the race I was thinking back to New Zealand where I knew people were watching the live web cast. I thought of how I was communicating with them by my actions. I’m sure they would be cheering me on if they were here. I found out later that my Dad was broadcasting race updates via text message most of the night. So my extended family knew I had taken the lead shortly after it happened across the other side of the world.
At around 1 am on the solo-only loop, something happened for the first time in a number of hours. I had until then been passing everyone in sight including the team riders. Really charging though the adverse conditions. But now I had someone coming up the hill behind me, catching fast. Soon he was alongside; it was Tinker Juarez. I was about to go a lap down on the elite’s and overall race leader. I felt a little in awe but I managed to have a chat about the race and conditions. He seemed more equal seeing as we were both in the same or similar circumstances. He slowly pulled away.
Being in the lead of a race gives you a sense of control. I had Heidie and Marcello keeping a watchful eye out for the gap to second. This grew quickly in half a lap to eight minutes. After this the gap became over 20 minutes and they could not stick around to find out for sure as they had to make their way back to the other feed zone. However, at no point did I feel comfortable with my position. Always pushing to extend or maintain the margin - I was not sure which. My support crew and everyone else seemed to think that it was fast becoming an unattainable distance. In past races I have chased down near half an hour deficits in the later stages of 24 hour solos. So I knew others could do the same to me. Joel seemed to be a strong rider and entirely capable of making a late charge. Hence my urgency to keep pouring on the acid and pull away further.
Marcello and Heidie began to feed me my overall standing instead of category ones. I had mentioned that I would like to be in the top twenty, and top ten would be excellent. And in the early hours I crept into the top ten. Sitting in 8th place I could hardly believe it, although my façade of pain and focus kept most of my elation under wraps. Also there was a very long way to go before any of this was for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment