Team Iron Horse Extreme

2 Butts’ HQ
Well, that’s the season over.

It’s been a bit quiet on here, of late, but we’ll get to that later.

The date was the 10th of October and it was the final time that the team would get together, officially, this year. Josh and I were racing solo 24 and were greatly looking forward to it.

Relentless 24 was on!!

This was Josh’ first ever solo attempt and I must admit to being worried about him, and what would happen to his future, if it went wrong for him. He’s slain a lot of demons this year. I knew he could do it, physically, but worried if he had had too many changes in his life this year for him to prepare properly for the mental torture that only a solo 24 can deliver.

We needn’t have worried.

I, on the other hand, had a bit of a mare for a short while. It became apparent that the team weren’t worried about my ability to finish and I’m glad about the fact that they had faith in me.

The venue was the Nevis Range Complex at the foot of Aonach Mor, and the World Cup Doonhill and XC tracks. There is some proper lumpy and gnarly stuff there, and it looks great. It’s just a pity that we couldn’t play on it.

Next time…

No Fuss Events had organised Relentless24 amongst their other classics like 10 Under The Ben, 10 More at Moray, and the ridiculous Ben Nevis Triathlon. My mrs wants to do that one, but I’ve banned her from it until her tendons catch up with her sports specific muscle gains from the increased running she’s doing these days.

So, Jo, Rich, Rob, Tim (Josh’ Dad), Zoe, Doug (from Nevis Cycles) and I pitched up and got everything ready. Clive couldn’t come due to prior arrangements, but he was in my head, shouting at me. I must ask him to stop.

The team, except Clive

Josh and I lined up at the front of the start and got ready for the onslaught to follow. We were counted down, very very slowly, by Frazer and eventually got into our 300m run to the bikes. We both had a good start, and got away without being held up anywhere.

The weather (from solo memory- so not the most dependable, by a long chalk) was sort of non-descript for the first few hours. It was chilly with a blank grey sky and a little bit of wind. It would have been nice if it had stayed like that but that doesn’t happen in the UK, especially when you are halfway up one of it’s biggest hills. I always remember the Grey Corries seemingly being the first to drop into good winter condition and the ice tools coming out there first.

After a few hours it started to get windy and rainy and the temperature seemed to drop like a stone. Then it got dark, colder, and windier for the rest of the night, with the addition of quite a bit of rain and some sleet thrown in for good measure. It was horrible, but that didn’t matter as it was the same for everybody.

Sheesh! It got cold and really quite muddy. I ran a crossmark front and a monorail rear which both behaved superbly and are my new favourite combo.

The race itself was incredibly well natured and run. Everybody was there for a good time and everyone was really polite. Most folk were Scottish, so what did you expect?

8hrs in (again from failing memory) and my stomach backed up.This is the point where my metabolism usually kicks in and I settle in for the long race. But I’m not used to this gastric distress anymore, as my nutrition hasn’t been a problem for a good while. There is a good reason for it, which I tried to force my way past and which meant I shouldn’t really be racing, but never mind. I had demons and back hugging monkeys to slay due to SITS this year. Nothing was going to stop me.

My pace slowed a bit but I kept going like a brave little soldier: My mum used to say that to me.

In hindsight, I had planned to lap at 1hr (or so) after a fast first lap to get out of the way of the crowds. I went a good bit quicker than that, and suffered the consequences later.

At one point in the race, I came in feeling resigned to the fact that I was going to slow down even further. Rob came around, and was all understanding about my plight. He’s been there a hundred times himself. He said to me, “Just walk it, mate. You’ll still be doing 4 miles and hour or so”.

He wound me up, and he knew it. He knows what he’s doing.

“Stuff that!” I thought. “I’ll ride my bike, that’s why I’m here.”

So I silently stood up whilst finishing my cuppasoup, which was helping my tummy a bit, and walked up the first climb. At the top, I got on and stayed on. My lap times stayed a little slower but a slow lap is better than no lap.

The feeling you get when you know you’ve overcome something quite so deeply sabotaging, as the misery when things are going wrong in a solo, is one of complete satisfaction allied to a certain relaxation. All the stressors, intrinsic to your present plight, seem to evaporate and leave you feeling stronger.

That was a bit of a mouthful: it’s empowering, that’s all!

This is what we aim for as 24hr riders- apart from the win, of course. I was a lucky boy, really!

Me looking sexy after the race. Hmm?

I was also lucky to have Jo and the team waiting each time I popped around. They cheered me up as I wasn’t very well.

The guys thought that I only had to do one lap more so I set off and was quite quickly caught by Josh (ex-wash) who I couldn’t catch, obviously. So he finished the lap with me, until we got to a lone figure stood in mud at the bottom of the windy and open downhill. It was Rob, and he shouted out, “You have to do another lap, sorry, Dave Powell is catching up.”

Dammit.

So I stood up and peddled a bit harder. I forgot my discomfort and just kept going as quickly as I could. It wasn’t very quick though. My 21st lap was finished with me wretching and coughing my empty guts up, but I managed to smile for the camera!!

I smiled shortly after the finish, honest

Josh won the senior solo and I was second. It’s one of my worst performances but has more plusses to be gained from experiencing my mental strength at it’s most potent (and most needed). I’m quite happy.

Josh still had the energy to act like a monkey!

I’m still not sure that I should have been there, though.

That is real pain etched on my face. Rob MADE me bend my legs!

There may have been monkeys on the podium background, but there were none on my back.

Thanks for following this year. It’s time to start the preparation for next years’ BIG ride: once my doctor starts talking to me again.

Relentless 24 hour, what can I say? Totally blown away would be a good description; wouldn’t tell you what happened but would aptly describe the way I felt as I lay me head down to sleep in a hotel on the M6 sometime that evening after the race!

To my mind several things happened this past weekend: Josh took a massive leap forward, Dave took on an impossible situation and made it look easy, I found what could possibly be one of my favourite places on the whole planet, and we had a cracking good time along the way.

My weekend started on the Friday as Zoe and myself hooked up with Mark, from Reset Films, for a day roaming the countryside to check-out various sections of The West Highland Way which is to be the venue for 7ds4 in the early part of my 2010 season. The whole place looks stunning and I wanted to just climb on my bike and start with the out-and-back there and then! I can’t wait to do the ride next season and I’m really looking forward to getting back up there in November to ride some sections and hopefully do a bit of filming at the same time. Mark is a great guy and we enjoyed rolling from point to point and looking at the trail and other highlights along the way - a distillery and salmon leaping up a waterfall amongst the highlights. The day went too fast but Mark told us he was going to come up to join us at Relentless which made the whole weekend even better.

The next day we were up bright and breezy to meet the boys and set everything up for their race. Dave was looking for his first podium and Josh was set for his 24 hour debut. It’s been a long time coming but the anticipation was worth it, more of that in a bit. Rich was also on-hand to help with pit duties but managed to get an hour out on the trail as part of his first week back into training. He looked awesome in his Masters 24 Hour World Champions jersey which made me very proud of his efforts this season. Been moving his way up the ranks steadily but set all his eggs in the Worlds basket this season and reeped the reward.

The boys both knew what they had to do and looked very calm before the start. Ready for business in the mountains - good work lads! Everyone looked rock-solid and with Jo there to back Dave and Tim to support his son Josh I felt a bit redundant. Mark soon put an end to that when he turned up, wired me for sound and gave me the second camera to gather pit footage of the boys in action, nice one.

Dave had a plan, Josh had a plan, we all knew what we needed to do. The hooter sounded and the race was on; both our boys got away cleanly and came round lap one in the top 6 perfectly placed. I watched each soloist as they passed each lap and predicted when they would fall off the pace. Shame Ladbrooks weren’t on-hand to take my bets as I would have made enough to cover next seasons budget!

Both the boys rode perfect races. Josh looked like a Pro and you could have thought he’d been doing this all his life not that this was his first solo 24. I was very impressed and can say without a doubt that it was the best debut 24 solo I have ever had the priviledge to be a witness to. Dave wasn’t happy afterwards, feeling that it was his worst ever performance, but I think he is, as many of us are, way too hard on himself. I don’t think I would have finished if I’d had to overcome his woes leading into this race. The guy is as hard as they come.

Zoe was in charge of nutrition. I don’t think any other person has had such an impact on the performance of our team, awesome. Jo and Tim worked tirelessly (and took quite a bit of stick - Jo more that Tim - from their athletes) and made a massive impression on the outcome of the race. Rich and Mark both helped a lot more than they needed too and also managed to keep me out of trouble and in the mix. All-round a great team.

The final result was Josh 1st and Dave 2nd in the Senior mens solo, you couldn’t ask for much more could you? An absolutely amazing weekend, with a great bunch of people and set amongst one of the most beautiful places in the country. I’ll be back next year without a doubt.