ECCA 12hour

I'm wondering what to call this one :

- How to spend a nice day mullering yourself ?
- How to ride 8 hours after deciding you don't want to ride anymore ?
- 101 ways of motivating yourself to keep going ?

I began the day with high hopes, I was going to have a good ride, I was aiming for 240 miles, I was going to enjoy the variety on the course, and then I was going to visit 'The Colonel' on the way home for celebratory fried chicken' - what could go wrong ?

6.05am was my start time, 200m from the HQ, which is good, cos no warm up is required for a 12 in any case. Queue up, see no 64 is not there, joke with the time keepers that I got a late start penalty from the same scenario last week - they say they won't do that, but let's see eh ? 6.05 tick by and I'm off, heading for the A11 dual carriageway used for the ECCA 100 that I rode last year. Brilliant start, holding a good speed and well above the 20mph I'd need at the end for 240 miles. Wrong turn up a slip road, no bother, get of and scamper down and embankment, back on the bike, not real time lost, crack on. Overcast and windless, I could really determine wether I had a backwind or not, I was enjoying these first miles. Up to Red Lodge, turn, back down to Four Went Ways. Some bloke was supporting his wife and although you were only supposed to pass your rider once in 10 miles, this bloke was doing layby to layby, in some cases a mile apart - I don't know why it irritated me, but it did !  On my way back to FWW, I saw Richie Bideau for the first time, absolutely steaming East toward Red Lodge - the fastest I've ever seen a rider - a true time trialling monster !!

Back up to Red Lodge again, and back down to FWW for the last time. Sounds bad, but I was chasing a lady at this point, and I was riding just a notch above where I should have done. Circle FWW and back up to Six Mile Bottom for the first of the loops of c.12 miles. Bad news, puncture, or so I thought, it actually looked like the valve had made its way loose, so I CO2'd that bad boy and that seemed to do the trick. Back on, into Six Mile Bottom, saw Heidi for the first time, so stopped for some food to take on, a wee, and most importantly, lashing of nut cream !!

This section B loop was a bastard, a 12 mile loop of minimal joy, that climbed out of SMB, and didn't really give anything back ! I was scheduled to do six laps of this soul-less route, but after just three, the timekeepers directed me off and I could have whooped for joy - this section had made me so miserable !

Stopped on the DC, ring Heidi to let her know I had gone to section C, and get back on with it, the speed of the DC perking me up a bit. Finally, I got to the second loop of the day and what I call section C - what a difference, I loved this part of the course, it was great, and i could have ridden it for the last 6 hours easy ! In reality, I did 5 loops and whooped for joy when I just made cut off to start the last lap. I was holding an average speed of 20.5 mph when I finished the circuit and was knocking on the door of 200 miles when I exited and went to find the finishing circuit. I was in a lot of pain by now, everything hurt, and I was motivating myself by breaking the ride down into 30 minute sections.

The finishing circuit then, grovel city ! The old A11 was just a horrid grovel for half a mile uphill, a fast but short section of the DC, lots of ups and down through to Little Chesterford and back, and then a faster A505 out and back section with another grovel toward the end. It was a sadists way of saying 'tough enough to do a 12 ? Have a bit of this !!

I saw Heidi at 207ish miles, and my Garmin died on me at this point and I rode blind for the last couple of hours. This actually took some pressure off, and I began to feel good again ! I saw the battle between Richie Bideau and Adam Topham unfold, and Topham would claw back a deficit, to take the win by 4 miles overall. I was honoured to see this !

For me, a made my way round the circuit twice more, and got back to Heidi with 25 mins to go. I desperately wanted to get to the timekeeper station on the A505 to finish, but got there too early, and then timekeeper 0 told me two minutes left. In a final kick in the balls, I had to race my way up that old A11 climb to my finish !

Back at HQ, so happy to be finished, felt wobbly, threw up for the first time after an event, I had left nothing in the tank.  240.4 miles completed according to the estimated finishing board and my last 12 hour for a while.