Sunday: race time 15:00...
I made it back to the pits some time around 3:00 and man was cooked. I was in the land way beyond f***ed up. I just sat down and started shivering. After a while I wondered around the pit row and found a gas heater. Eventually the support crew who owned the gas
heater decided I was OK and booted me out saying I should go and do another lap. They were right of course and I head out for lap No. 9 at around 4:20. Sun was up but a night of racing had churned the track into a hill swamp. Didn’t really matter as I was doing a sort of zombie shuffle up the hills.
As I completed lap 9 the crowd of spectators and race officials were still cheering and ring those dam cow bells. They’d done this for every lap and every soloist for whole race. It made me feel really special. And as is usual I get very ‘tied and emotional’ at about this point so there was couple of tears in the corner of the eyes (and it wasn’t ‘cause of the mud).
Sunday: sometime around 20:30...
Completed lap No 9 and worked out I had enough time for 10 laps which would make 200km. The goal was in sight, so all was good. Still wasn’t sure of the place but I was fairly hopeful I’d gone top ten. Sat down in the pit area for a while and then eventually dragged my arse out for one last long walk of the course. To brake up the walk I did do some riding ;]
As I head out on the last loop of the course for one last time I went past the funky Scottish med student from the hostel. She was cheering and saying nice things. These things seem to really matter after a long night.
Sunday: 23:47:35 and my race is finish…
Thank god it was over. I ambled around for a while and washed the bike down.
Russ Baker was still there hanging out and rushed over to take another photo which helped to heighten the feeling that I’d achieved something special. For most of the post race time it was all a blur really. The final offical result was 207 klicks and 7th place in my age group. My arse was intact so things had turned out OK. It did'nt feel that special until few days latter when all of my friends start emailing me and telling how amazing it was and how awesome I’d done. Here comes the gooey part… it was the comments from back home which made me reflect on how I’d gone and really put my achievement into perspective.
What a year; 3rd outright in the NZO and now a 7th in age group at the Worlds. I guess I’m not such an average rider after all ;]
Post race tripping…
After packing up the pit I headed back to Banff. I stopped in for some race recovery Macers. I drove straight into the pick up lane and had to back out and start again in the order lane. Then I drove back to Banff where I fell asleep at the traffic lights. I woke up, the lights were green and the cars in front had driven off and about eight cars waiting behind. Wooops!
I made it back to the pits some time around 3:00 and man was cooked. I was in the land way beyond f***ed up. I just sat down and started shivering. After a while I wondered around the pit row and found a gas heater. Eventually the support crew who owned the gas
heater decided I was OK and booted me out saying I should go and do another lap. They were right of course and I head out for lap No. 9 at around 4:20. Sun was up but a night of racing had churned the track into a hill swamp. Didn’t really matter as I was doing a sort of zombie shuffle up the hills.As I completed lap 9 the crowd of spectators and race officials were still cheering and ring those dam cow bells. They’d done this for every lap and every soloist for whole race. It made me feel really special. And as is usual I get very ‘tied and emotional’ at about this point so there was couple of tears in the corner of the eyes (and it wasn’t ‘cause of the mud).
Sunday: sometime around 20:30...
Completed lap No 9 and worked out I had enough time for 10 laps which would make 200km. The goal was in sight, so all was good. Still wasn’t sure of the place but I was fairly hopeful I’d gone top ten. Sat down in the pit area for a while and then eventually dragged my arse out for one last long walk of the course. To brake up the walk I did do some riding ;]
As I head out on the last loop of the course for one last time I went past the funky Scottish med student from the hostel. She was cheering and saying nice things. These things seem to really matter after a long night.
Sunday: 23:47:35 and my race is finish…
Thank god it was over. I ambled around for a while and washed the bike down.
Russ Baker was still there hanging out and rushed over to take another photo which helped to heighten the feeling that I’d achieved something special. For most of the post race time it was all a blur really. The final offical result was 207 klicks and 7th place in my age group. My arse was intact so things had turned out OK. It did'nt feel that special until few days latter when all of my friends start emailing me and telling how amazing it was and how awesome I’d done. Here comes the gooey part… it was the comments from back home which made me reflect on how I’d gone and really put my achievement into perspective.What a year; 3rd outright in the NZO and now a 7th in age group at the Worlds. I guess I’m not such an average rider after all ;]
Post race tripping…
After packing up the pit I headed back to Banff. I stopped in for some race recovery Macers. I drove straight into the pick up lane and had to back out and start again in the order lane. Then I drove back to Banff where I fell asleep at the traffic lights. I woke up, the lights were green and the cars in front had driven off and about eight cars waiting behind. Wooops!
2 comments:
Good photos Andrew - in 'Blighty' we have 'crud catchers' ;-)
In decent riding countries we have dry weather...
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