Numplumz and sore Nips get 6th place
Runner Carl Hulston - roosted that first lap to set us on our way.
Postman Nige Scott - our 4am expert.
Gregg Payne - Flying on Zaskar, marquee provider extraoirdinare
Lindsay Clarke - you just stop her doing those night laps.
And Jack Peterson - Captain Caffine the last lap flyer.
Thanks to Mr bicyclerepair man Steve Clarke who never needed those red-hot spanners
Thanks also to the Mitchells, Bob and Joan for the coffee and egg sandwiches
For a Full list of teams who entered this year check out Singletrackworld
Rich joined Cats for the day and found their training methods Interesting.....he looked good in the morning....NOT
thats real training
We took on the might of The GB performance plan team, Marin UK, Scott UK, Cycling weekly, Kona extreme, and Marie Curie amongst others in the 100 team strong mixed event catagory at this years RedBull 24 Hr race, who mentioned fun.
The team pulled off great all-round performance to grab 6th place on the last lap after riding flat out for the 24 hrs.
Carl got them off to a great start,at 2pm Saturday, taking the Le-mans start run of 1 mile in his stride, he then handed over to Jack, after the first 10 mile lap, with the team amongst the front runners, thankfully clear of all the traffic behind, as 450 teams and 80 solos battled round the tight bits of the course.
Once the faster teams had got through the race settled down to a three way battle between Numplumz, Kona Extreme, who had last years solo winner Ben Bardsley/ Orange in their ranks and Ride-on cycles A team, for 6/7/8 place. As night dropped the team was in 8th place as the Kona team started to stretch a gap, the team knuckled down to reliable changeovers and consistent night laps from all ,with only one broken spoke to trouble them, to consolidate their position.
As Dawn broke, with Kona now 15 mins ahead, the combination of a storming 42 minute lap by Jack and rideon's lady rider being on track, meant suddenly they were in 7th place, 5 minutes clear of Ride-on. They didnt take it lying down though and the race was on, both teams then put in a huge effort, even though they had been racing for 18 plus hours, both knowing that one mistake could ruin all the hard work so far.
Both Gregg and Lindsay put in their fastest laps, after a long night,when the chipps were down. As Nige handed over to Carl, into the 23rd hour, with enough time for 2 more laps from the team, we suddenly noticed Kona handing over 2 1/2 minutes ahead. In the battle to keep infront of the still closing Ride-on, now only 2 mins behind, we had closed them down without realising.
Carl, tired, having already riden 6 laps, and having trouble eating, pulled out another fantastic lap and took 1 minute out of the Kona rider, handing over to Jack for the Final lap. " Giving it every thing, the lap seemed to flow and I raced past so much Traffic, who must have though I was mad at this stage of the race. About halfway I could see the distinctive Blue shirt of my prey across an open lake section, this gave me hope and I buried myself up the final climb and caught him with about 2 miles to go. Getting a good gap on the descent meant he couldn't draft me, and in the end we had grabbed a great 6th place by only 10 seconds. 32 laps 320 miles of racing completed in 24hr:15:05."
The GB team warming up for the comonwealth games cleaned up with 34 laps 6 mins clear of Scott UK .
Congratulations to the Kettering teams for good finishes, and you cyclescense lot better lay off the pop next time, hey.
Also cheers dave for a great laugh on the last lap !!!
Poor Old postie Nige rode with this dog induced injury. Top man.
