Marin Dusk till Dawn - Sept 05
Quick Snippets
There's a good full race report on XC racer.com
12 mins lost to mechanicals..bugger. heres an XL sheet sowing our lap 3 demise effect HERE
More photos here from Extremes, LesSome good start arena ones.
Loads more here but takes some wading. mphotography.co.uk/
Check out pic 61 for Lloyd and pic 260 for Ed
Full Results at Timelaps
There's Adi feeling the back pain. And anothershowing those tyre lights work after all mate.
Cats were there too CATS rider
The boys hit Thetford for one of the seasons must do races, lots of night racing on Thetfords finest singletrack. Lloyd and Jack, Nige and Ed went for it in Pairs while Adi and Tom took on the daunting solo for the full 12 hours.
A rolling start (yippee no running) got the event underway and even at the start of the first hill the field split was apparent. The lightning fast Germans and the top teams entered the woods already 15 secs up on all the rest.
Paul Ashby/ API racing did his best to hold the UK flag flying but they just blew him away on the straights.
In pairs Supernova led by over 1 minute on lap 1 alone, Paragon followed then Lloyd in 3rd. JP took over and was joined by TF tuned rider on a 2 lap stint, riding together they were both blitzed by Ellsworth who powered past to settle into 3rd. Nige and Ed were flying in 8th on their singlespeeds and loving it despite being fully rigid too (Luddites)
Lap 3 and disaster for Team Plumz 1. Lloyds tyre blew off the rim and the darkness and a stuck tubeless valve meant putting a tube in was a painfully slow affair. jack in the pits could only wait as Ed came back first passing on the bad news. they were going well and along with our mates Cyclesense battled for 5th place now.
JP finally got away in 13th, 10 minutes lost on one lap. Even gaining one 1 minute a lap now would be a killer, and take all night, so the team mood got a bit more chilled out at this point.
Some Cracks appear in the Plumz team camp, Adi stopped smiling about 5am.
Laps 9 and 10 proved pivotal though.
Ed had a major moment, Plumz had really annoyed the luck gods this weekend. combine a rear puncture, the dark, a broken pump and lost wheel-nuts (oops) and you get a 1hr15 lap and a very cold Nige in the pits which broke team moral. The beers came out early as the boys said sod it.
Jack passed friend Rich from Cyclesense to boost morale, a fast lad who got bitten by Thetfords unrelenting nature. So 7th it was now, perhaps a podium was on after all!
lap 11 and Lloyd again pulled out a stormer, 40:20 was almost 2 mins faster than all the other front runners. Ummm hang on yes even the Germans who did a 45:41, they were cracking at last.
Unknown to us it was unbelievably close out there, that lap time catapulted us into 4th shame we never had a clue at the time. In fact that was the only black mark against the whole event, every one was racing blind with no updates at all after 6 laps gone. Turns out Norwood paragon were only 3 mins ahead in 3rd then too.
Off went Jack again for another steady anchor lap, then lap 13 it all hit the fan again.........but not for us this time. The leaders quit, they just stopped after some crashes and the pace caused them to self destruct. While Norwood Paragon snapped a seatpost and put in a long lap.
Ellsworth took over the lead, and Plumz were 2nd....blimy. Just over 8 mins down on them and we didn't even know, we set off again flat out, still chasing that podium spot for all we were worth not knowing that we were taking some pretty unnecessary risks.
This had the effect of pulling back the lead, again how much more could we have found if we had known that the prize was so huge right now?
As daylight broke lap 16 started, we grabbed a minute back. Lap 17 and another 1 min30. At this time we found out the true score and Lloyd waved me off and went for it with another lap our 18th, to double up in one last fling.
A relieved Ellsworth held on by 3mins and 5 secs to claim a deserved victory and we were all grins with our second place, one step higher up than 2004. You can't really say what might have been, others had their share of misfortune too. How you deal with it, and the art of pacing yourself is what this Endurance lark is all about.
Wooly hats much needed, top step is the only one left now.
The Freeborn/Ellsworth guys, XC on bouncy bikes we approve of.
Well done to Adi for finally making the podium at this 12 hours after 4 years of effort.
16 laps is pretty dam impressive, but the machine that is Richard Wood blew them all away again.
Tom, well for the first time we saw the big guy quit, I blame those singlespeed slackers, they are a bad influence. he drove here straight from work and was knackered before he even started.
Again Full Results can be found at Timelaps
Hi all, OK big thanks to all the riders, saying thanks to us and offering help at events is always really really appreciated.
To the rider that brought me a beer after I'd set the marquee up that was just what was needed. We finally got packed up at 8pm so for us its been four solid days on the go.
I thought the atmosphere was good and most people managed to deal with the problem of the arena and camping that we had to use.
The sponsors did a great job, Matt from TORQ kept everyone fueled, Tyrone was spannering, Lumicycle kept you all charged up and sponsored the tower lights / generator and Marin also lent out bikes and sponsored the event, as for Singletrack well Chipps was on good form managing to race and help out.
Mark from Embee sorted all the arena lighting and the start gantry as a favour and made the arena look brilliant.
Camping: In regards to camping we resubmmited 4 courses before we were given our event permission by the forestry. We had to cut a lot of bracken to make an arena. The area we had to use wasn't our first choice but rather the only choice given to us and meant the difference between having an event or posting your cheques back. We were hoping to get a proper arena sorted.
The Course: Paul H, Frank and I spent a weekend on a sit on mower cutting the bracken and grass on the fireroads / arena. There was probably two weeks worth of strimming to make sure you had a clear course. Then finally Paul H and I spent 12hrs in the rain putting the course up. So I'm glad you liked it!
When I first rode it I was convinced we'd never get it cleared in time. Personally I think the Brandons side has the best singletrack in the forest. Hopefully the FC will make some effort to help us.
The Germans: The German team, drove a 1000km from Germany and they left very very early on Saturday morning. They spoke little English and were really keen for the win. They may have looked serious but they were actually nice guys. For them to be sent to another country to race by their sponsor must have put them under a bit of pressure. That and they beat Titus so I can now give Paul H some gip :)
My team: Yes I raced this year! My team is a little ragged and needs some fine tuning. However to actually ride at one of our events meant I could relax and enjoy it that bit more. So well done my team and well done to those that realised I was on the course and said hello.
Casualties: You'll be please to know the suspected broken collar bone and the guy with the collapsed lung were all dealt with by Alan the ambulance man. Just proves that they really earn their money.
Finally, thanks for not littering the course and putting your rubbish in bags / skips. Little things like that go a long way and make our clear up that bit easier.
Paul - Thetford MTB Racing
Check out the Thetford winter series for more of the same, well without the dark.