Enduro events at Catton Park, organised by the same people as Mountain Mayhem are relaxed affairs and have a smaller maximum entry of approximately 450 riders. Just up the road from where I live, it was nice not to have too early a start on a race day, and, arriving on site, it was a case of just registering and sorting out.
The Wiggle 6 is a Parc Ferme event, meaning that each competitor or pair is given a pit in which to store their stash of food and spares, together with a nominated helper for the soloists if you have enough brownie points built up to get someone to sit in a folding chair for 6 hours…..
After some general chat and the obligatory Cycle Shack team photo we all lined up ready for the Le Mans style start, 800 metres of running to get into the pits to pick up bike and camel back.
I decided, being probably one of the stronger runners present, to go for it on the run and get a good position and avoid some of the potential single track traffic on the first lap.
Without over doing it I cruised into the pits in about 7th place but lost a fair few places in the transition as my “pit” was in the furthest corner.
Although I did not set an alarm on my HR monitor, I had decided to keep things under control by not letting it go over 170 on the first few laps, so as people flew past I kept it sensible. The tactic worked, though, as I hardly got held up at all on the first lap and it will be interesting to look at others split times when the results are available.
I carried 2 litres of ZipVit Sport on my back and a load of bars and stayed out for just over 3 hours before pitting for the first time. The course was mostly single track or hard packed grassy farm tracks with very little gravel road. The single tracks were tight, narrow and fun but some of the farm tracks were horrible, almost corrugated. One particular descent was awful, shaking the fillings out of your teeth, even on my last lap after thousands of wheel passes.
Cath and Holly appeared in time for my first pit, and together with my jam sandwiches made me feel quite chipper as I went back out, though soon I was suffering, particularly my bottom from the constant pounding of the hard rippled terrain. Two laps later I was in again for more food (creamed rice and pears this time) and a little stretch before going out for what I thought would be my final two laps. As 5 hours 30 ticked past and I thought I was out on my final lap I got a renewed lease of energy and my aching bones seemed not quite as bad. For the first time in many hours I felt like I was racing rather than suffering again and put the hammer down intending to finish a few minutes past the 6 hour hooter. Not keeping a careful enough eye on the clock and getting sucked along by a couple of riders trying for one more lap I stupidly crossed the finish line 9 seconds before the hooter went. Cursing I went out and struggled round another lap, but this time with no liquid left I slowly ran out of steam. The laps do tend to feel shorter towards the end of the race and my last lap was no exception. With the two climbs out of the way I was soon cascading down the final singletrack and on to the fast grass and in to the finish 6 hours 37 minutes after starting, and in 25th place (making one place on the last lap, so worth it after all!).
On the whole course I was punished on my race hard tail on the rippled hard mud tracks. My bum, back, feet, arms, everything just hurt, strangely my feet really hurting the most. Its the first time I have ever felt myself wanting for a full sus and 2.4 tyres.
Great event but perhaps I might give pairs a go next time
Wiggle 6 2011 results will be available on the Provelo website soon.