240.603mi officially, 256mi actual
Since a great time was had riding the National 24 hour and knowing the Kent 12 was organised by the same people (Esther and co. I believe) I was keen to have a go at a 12hr and set a marker at this distance. Whatever happened would be a PB, right 🙂
Unbelievably Malwina and Scherrit were again willing to form ‘Team Foreigners’, get up at stupid o’clock (before 4am! urgh!) drive us out to Kent, hand up food/drink, wrench and cheer. They are the nicest, most enthusiastic two nutters I could hope to have following me around. Thanks guys!
Up before 4am the three of us loaded the car with bikes (the Planet-X TT, Kinesis road bike spare and Scherrit’s roadie), food and drink for rider and crew, race clothing and then headed to the M25/M26 making rapid progress towards Bethersden via Ashford. We arrived in good time, grabbed my numbers (arms and lower back) changed into the same Assos and Grupetto kit as I used during the 24hr. Mal and Scherrit prepped the bike, filling the Speedfil with Go and the Profile pack with Powergels. It was a very short ride to start. I had a caffeine gel and remember wishing Chris (clubman) well as he left. I told the holder not to bother even though he was worried I might knock his teeth out if I only lost by a second 🙂
The plan was to hold 24hr pace for the first 6 hours and then try to add 10W onto that and see how it was going before trying to add another 10W, etc. I found out afterwards there were lots of course changes made due to last minute road works. This was fine for me, since I had no idea how to navigate the course anyway – as I managed to prove by following a rider the wrong way (left instead of over some large orbital thing) and missing an entire section of the course. This was confirmed when the very distinctive low-cadence rider 55 went past me.. for the second time. I was not a happy chappy – to screw up the course so early really pissed me off.
Onto the Camber circuit, heading towards the coast (I’d ridden here before on an LFGSS Camber Sands ride!) and man was that wind buffeting me around with the 404 on the front! My upbringing was flat, windy roads around Sunraysia so I hoped, sadistically, it would make everyone else miserable and slow down while I got low, hung on and held my pace. I noticed what looked like a broken seat-mount bottle cage after turning away from the coast road – just after hitting a large pothole – so I could make a good guess as to why it detached!
The team were up at the top of the Camber circuit so I stopped for a leak and a massive rant about getting lost. With that off my chest and my Speedfil topped up I carried on for another lap. My glutes (butt muscles), which never really give me any grief were in a world of pain – yet it had only been 2-3 hours of cycling – something was wrong. I thought my saddle might have moved or maybe I had changed my position on the bike too much due to the high wind.
On the next loop I stopped again and downed an Ibuprofen and maybe a Paracetamol with a can of V I think (the early start made me quite drowsy early on). It felt like I’d pulled a muscle on both sides of my butt cheeks. I was trying to massage them but until the drugs kicked in I was grimacing with the pain. The team thought I was talking about saddle sores or something and they were puzzled as to how I could ride a 24hr and be sore after only 2-3 hours! No, my muscles were sore not my undercarriage!
I think there were about five laps of the Camber circuit. I was stopped at traffic lights on one of these but generally felt I was doing ok, especially since the glute pain had died down.
Eventually, Scherrit let me know we were transferring and so it was a right turn heading north along a large road for a while and then up a kind of off-ramp thing and back around heading south and onto the Ivychurch circuit, I think.
Probably around here is when it started to rain (Mal says it was later). The roads became quite slippery but nothing too treacherous and I had to lose the clear glasses to see properly. Apparently I had been sounding and looking pretty miserable (no way, me?) so I got quite a nice surprise to see Mal jumping up and down like a mental with the Aussie flag draped over her shoulders. It gave me a real boost, I had a quick moment thinking about Cadel’s fantastic Tour win for Australia and my mood lifted substantially.. until I arrived at a T-junction that was devoid of marshalls or signs. “Ahh crap!!!”. I decided to take the natural road progression, right. After a few kilometres I called my team – “where the &%&$ am I? Where the ^”%$ am I supposed to be?!” hoping they’d be able to see my GPS position on the map. Unfortunately they couldn’t work out where I was so I took the time to have another ‘natural break’ and continued..
At New Romney, coming across another junction devoid of race marshalls or signs I knew I’d made the wrong choice and so turned around. Chris had made the same mistake but I was too far behind to catch him up and tell him. Finally I made it to a sign that said Newchurch, the village Mal had told me to head for. This little debacle had cost me probably half an hour, maybe 16k/10 miles. I was ^?$”ing furious. I think when I finally got to my team I stopped and had another colourful rant before taking on more supplies and continuing. Argh, time trialling sucks some times!
Once I’d got everything off my chest Mal says I did 4 solid laps, fast, focused and without any stupid stops. I think the smaller circuit helped here as you get to chase down riders more frequently and even a little comment here and there between riders helps take your mind of the effort. Apparently Mal was thinking about handing me up a pint, as they were parked up outside The Bell Inn. I’m glad it wasn’t offered to me otherwise I might have just stopped at the pub – Go and V would have to do. The marshals arrived at the pub and directed us right, away from it, bound for the finishing circuit.
Apparently the finishing circuit was changed – again I have no idea I just rode where they pointed me. There were maybe 4 hours to go and each lap of the circuit was taking around 30 minutes to complete. Mal and Scherrit were parked atop a short rise, still armed with the Aussie flag. The sun had come out now. I remember trying to signal that I wanted sunglasses before I got to the team, riding no hands up the hill with my fingers around my eyes to indicate glasses – Mal already had them out so it was a wasted gesture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take the glasses and the bottle+gel so I ended up running low on fuel that lap and was desperate for a refill the next time around, caning the gel immediately and the whole Powerbar shortly after.
Really moving now, knowing the end was near. I knew I’d lost mileage with the detours but thought I might be able to scrape over the 400k mark if I smashed myself. Mal says she watched me just ride past 4 or 5 people going up the hill. I wasn’t controlling my power output now but riding more like it was a 25 and not the end of a 12hr. I really wanted to hurt myself in the closing stages of this race – it feels good. I remember one of the faster guys (maybe VE Elan) went past me and got maybe 500m down the road before I decided I’d chase him down. It’d turned into commuter racing, ie. using every rider as a target before moving onto the next one. I went past the team once more and then hunted down the final time keeper. I wasn’t sure of the time so I kept riding briefly until Mal and Scherrit passed in the car and told me I could stop.
The Powertap had stopped recording with 30min to go (stupid ^$?$^$% piece of $%^$&) even though it’s supposed to do 15 hours in 1 second mode so the final push failed to record. Luckily the on-screen speedo keeps running so Scherrit took down the finishing values: 415k, 11hr 44min, 236Wavg, 33.4kph avg. So, unofficially I’d beaten 400k/250mi but of course due to getting lost this was brought back down to 240mi/386k. Officially, 5th place, unofficially it would have been my first TT podium finish as I’d come in at least 3rd, possibly 2nd place.
In many ways this was a harder event than the 24 hour. The pace was higher, the weather was much worse, lack of hills actually meant being stuck in the one position for longer, I’d not trained as much, my muscles didn’t work properly, the 4am start made me noticeably tired and got lost, twice. But after all that it was still great fun to do and once again proved that I am sick in the head for actually enjoying this stuff 🙂
Picture > 1000 words, no?
www.kca12hour.org.uk – Provisional Results
www.mapmyride.com – Brenzett – Camber Circuit and IvyChurch
Megan Marshall’s event photos from www.rywheelers.org
Well done hippy,
A great ride.I had a similar experience to you,went off course (lost 7 miles),a balsted puncture that refused to be fixed which cost me 30 mins or so.
I was after club’s senior record which meant I would have to ride 225,my Garmin at the end said 223,without the stops etc I would have done 23).Like you I had mixed feelings,pleased with my ride but so cross with going off course.
Do you want to hire your helpers out,absolute nutters but brilliant.I would even consider becoming an aussie for a day!
Hope you have better luck next year,