Proflex 'wins', sets new course record at CLIC 24!

[ianc]

Just back from a superb weekend of riding in the Mendip hills south of Bristol UK. The bike event was a 24hr one but with a difference - because of arcane UK laws no racing is allowed on bridleways (tracks that were originally intended for horses hence the bridle bit). Instead this event is a charity event - no lap times are recorded, but the number of laps is, in order that people can be sponsored per lap completed. The charity it is in aid of is CLIC, supporting children with childhood cancer and leukemia and their families. Estimates from this years event reckon about £40,000 will be raised when all the money has come in, adding to the £77,000 from the previous 4 events.

Last year I entered in a team of four, raising over £1000 between us and having a superb weekend of riding and hanging out with friends. Originally the team was to have my friend Dave's girlfriend, a childhood Leukemia survivor, but she had to pull out because of work; Dave, me and two others managed to get the third most laps over the weekend. I was on a singlespeed as my proflex was out of action, and had to leave for 6 hours to attend a dinner dance with my girlfriend, quite a hectic weekend.

This year I decided to enter the event as a soloist - 24 hours of riding around the same course, more or less nonstop. I've done about 6 24hr team events now, but this was to be my first solo. Because of lecturing at the university I am a researcher at, I had little time to prepare and turned up at 11.30 for the 12 noon start on Saturday, still needing to change into my biking clothes and sort out a few issues (how to attach borrowed lighting systems to the bike, how to organise food and drink in the car I used as a pitstop to make it easier to find at 3am in the dark, is the rear hub on the proflex really loose?). I had a fully rigid singlespeed as my spare bike but wasn't keen on using it as a long two day ride a fortnight ago on it seemed to have resulted in a bad back. Ah well, no time to prepare meant less time to worry about the stupidity of riding solid for 24 hours! It was also raining when I turned up at the start but stopped just before the start...

...which I almost missed! Still in my tent swapping shorts (the first pair I pulled on had a hole in I'd forgotten about) when they were lining up the riders - being a soloist meant I was at the back so I fugured I had a few extra minutes past the 12 noon off. Then when I dashed to the line pulling on my gloves and helmet they'd closed it off with bariers once everyone was lined up; I had to throw tha bike and hurdle over a metal barrier! No time to think, I slotted in seamlessley with the last few soloists and we made our way out of the event field onto the first tarmac  section of the course.

From the loop through timing tent in the event field you turn right onto the road for 200 metres then left up a steep tarmac climb to some radio pylons. Veering left onto the first rocky singletrack, within minutes a few folks already had punctures. The first half of the course consists of open moorland singletrack contouring around the edges of the gently rolling Mendips; at this time of the year we twisted through bluebell patches, encountering stream crossings, 30mph descents, rocky twisty technical bits that seemed to be going almost all downhill, broken by a few short sharp climbs to regain some height. Eventually you reach the edge of a forest, contou around and dip into the edge of this (including some extremely rocky doubletrack) then hit the main climb of the day - starting on a losse rocky track and becoming a 2 mile or so gently fireroad that you can sit and spin and think happy thoughts on through the forest. At the top you turn right up a sharp loose and dusty/rocky climb before exiting the forest and hitting the open moorland again. Some bumpy but fun singletrack takes you to the fastest straightline descent on the course (more rocks, more punctures) before sweeping left and back onto tarmac for the last mile or so back to the campsite. Course conditions were superb - a few puddles from the morning rain but mostly dry, dusty and loamy undertyre. All of this made a 10 mile lap with about (can't find out how much climbing - a fair bit!) per lap.

Having done all this for a first lap time of about 55 mins I was back at the start loop, calling my number for the dedicated folks who sat and compiled the results - although they were working shifts, there had to be at least 2 of them for the full 24hrs too. Nearly everyon else peeled off and their teammate highfived them before blasting out for their first lap; usually that would be me too, but this time I stayed on the course and set off for my next lap, as I would each time around apart from the stops to take onboard more food or drink, to set up my lights, and to apply copious amounts of Assos chamois cream to my shorts and 'undercarriage'!

Weather to start was OK, a bit cloudy and very windy in some parts of the course, but better than the rain that lasted until 5 mins before the off. Over the course of the 24 hours it became less cloudy; the night was marked by a full moon bright enough to ride the easier parts of the course without lights, and Sunday morning started with an incredible sunrise complete with mist over the hills, becoming sunny and warm for the time of year until the finish at 12 noon.

Part two follows...

[ianc]

Part two - it was too long for one message!

...Anyway - enough of the extremely long intro/ramble - how did it go? Thanks to the stupendous efforts of my parttime pit crew (my girlfriend Laura who I couldn't have managed packing up after the event without; and friends Mel and 'Shaggy' John - John stayed up to 4am to organise my tired brain into eating and sorting lights through the night) I did better at my first 24 than I could ever imagine! Throughout the 24 hours there were about 4/5 updates on the number of laps for teams and soloists. At the first of these there were two of us on 5 laps ahead of the other soloists on 4 or less - I was very happy with such a good start but worried I'd set off too fast - this was what I did at the only 12hr solo event I've entered before. I think as night started there were two of us on 9 laps, then 3 on 11 - partly due to when the results were posted, partly due to a very slow (35 mins plus) stop to refuel and sort lights out before dusk - I had to arrange 3 sets of lights and batteries onto the bike, untape some wires from Johns lights to allow everything to reach then tape them again, sort the problem of fitting a battery and my foodbag onto the same bit of the top tube (one above one below). Beyond this I'm not vertain there were many updates - just before John went to bed he mentioned there were 2 (or 3) of us on the same lap but I don't remember if this was from the 11pm results or later. Anyway, with about 6 hours to go I determined to push as hard as I could in order to make another 6 laps. At this point I was averaging about 1 hour/lap but with at least one pitstop required and the cutoff being 12 noon - if you cross the line at 12.01 on sunday your last lap doesn't count as at least one person found out to their cost) - it was very touch and go if I would make another 6. With the rising sun I was able to descend faster but also felt mentally better (between caffeine hits - I was liable to start dozing on the fireroad climb if I didn't take 2 ProPlus pills every 2 hours or so at the end). In the end I reeled off the last 6 laps like clockwork, finishing at just after 11.35 am. Then the wait for the final results...

As it wasn't a race, the lap counts were read out in 'no particular order'; it just so happend that the top three soloists and teams by chance were in accordance with how many laps were completed ;-) Anyway, the most team laps was 31 (I think). I knew that I had done 23 laps, and could have made the 24 if my light pitstop went faster. The first of the 3 soloists announced was on 21 laps. The second (I held my breath) was announced as having completed...






...22! My name was read out with 23 laps, the most this year by a soloist and setting a new course record! I was lying in the tent at this stage, but a few mates could see me and pointed my way as the crowd clapped. I was exhausted but felt very proud to have been a part of such an event.

Bike stuff - bike was my trusty 957, with fox forks, duo chainset (29/42), Mythos XC tyres, carbon low risers and barends, WTB saddle, eggbeaters, King headset and hubs. Almost unbeleivably, the only thing that needed doing the whole event was one puncture (going to0 fast down the last descent in the dark and hit a rock I didn't see with the front wheel) and two chain oilings (VooDew lube is very good in dusty conditions). The front mech rubbed the chain in a number of gear combinations - I didn't have time to sort it before or during the event - but everything else was perfect. The forx seemed to get a bit stiffer during the 24 hours; this could have been as it got colder, or because my arms got weaker, or may have been a figment of my imagination!

Anyway, if you made it this far, well done - almost as marathon a report as the event!

Ian

www.Clic24.org.uk

[ianc]

Ooops, bit of that came out wrong - meant to say there were 58 soloists but they only read out the 3 with the most laps!

[shovelon]

Great Job Ian!!!!!!!!

Proflex rules. So do you. That's a testament to the brand and the owners who ride them, a winning combination if I ever saw one.

Congratulations, and hats off to you for promoting the charity.

Terry

[orange]

great effort. May even give it a go myself... then again.. I like my sleep!