Its midnight and I am sat in my tent, perusing some arty photos I’ve just taken of head torches flashing past and carefully stretching tired limbs (and we are not even half way through yet).
I went off second rider in our 4 man Cycle Shack team and put in a fairly solid lap without too much traffic, my second lap was really dusty and dry. Early on I took a fairly big fall after the front wheel washed out beneath me. At the time I had no idea what at happened but picked myself and my water bottle up off the floor and just got going again.
My bike needed a hoover rather than a wash after lap 2 with so much dust. However soon after I finished & got back to team HQ, the sky darken ominously, and then it chucked it down for about 20 minutes, leaving the course a mudbath. Riders were coming in covered in mud with stories of bikes with wheels that simply would not turn.
Luckily for me the course quickly dried and by the time of my third lap it was starting to get faster again. I saw the reason for my crash on lap 2, a root whitch must have been hidden in the dust. I caught it again but luckily this time recovered it. The forest sections required some light by now and the sun set beautifully as I came in to hand over.
The team is currently lying in 13th position and 3rd vets team, but the other Cycle Shack team is flying, leading vets and 5th overall in ‘enthusiast’. Now it is dark we are doubling up, so my next outing will be for two laps. Hopefully this means we’ll get chance to grab some sleep.
