Erlestoke 12

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BY: phil Morris

Published: 4th June, 2011

Erlestoke 12

I was going to have a weekend off from racing, but on the Wednesday I decided to enter Erlestoke 12. I was working the night before, but was just praying for a quite night with few call outs!

Just for good measure on the Thursday morning I felt a tickle in my chest and by the morning of the race it was a proper chesty cough.( the slightest tickle  and thanks to having whooping cough bad as a child it knocks the stuffing out of my chest)  Not very complimentary to racing!!

Going to work on the Friday night I had all fingers crossed for a calm night. However, we were pretty much out all night! Getting back to the station at half eight, after getting someone in for early cover. With it pouring down with rain in South Wales I was really contemplating not even bothering going.

But for some reason I don't seem to Gibb out very easily and headed off feeling pretty damm knackered. Just after crossing the bridge the rain stopped and things began to brighten up!

I arrived around 11, so I had an hour to sign on and get sorted. I was doing the 6 hour solo which started at 12 15.

I lined up in the second row and off the start got behind Luke Eggar and Jon Pybus. Luke was doing the pairs, with Jon in the solo with me.

The pace was good but not overkill. After a bit the 3 of us got a gap. I unfortunately slipped and lost some time in a section of single-track, so Luke and Jon gained a small gap on me. However, this gap was extended near the end of the lap due to some nice ivy getting caught up in my rear mech and cassette. This required me to get off and fix it so unfortunately I lost too much time and never got back to Jon and Luke. I managed to get going again before any other riders came past me, which I was pleased about.

I was now thinking this race is looking like a recipe for disaster and I was not even a lap into the six hour race!! Perhaps I should have stuck with my gut instinct and gone home straight from work!!

After about 4 laps I felt shattered and my chest was not allowing me to push hard at all  or get anywhere  near my normal race heart rate. But I kept chugging on, due to the fact that I don't like giving up and I was actually in  2nd place, believe it or not!!

On lap 8 I figured out that I had a maximum of 2 laps left, which is such a nice feeling. The end is in sight! On completing my 9th lap I stopped and asked how long was left. I was informed it was about 37 minutes.

By now my lungs were in pieces and I decided to call it a day. I was in 2nd place and Dave Hayward who came through in 3rd place went out for a final lap. It was just a matter of waiting now to see if he could get back before the 6hour cut off and push me into 3rd.

I went and got dresses and made my way back to the time laps screen. Dave had a storming last lap and made it back with 16seconds to spare!!! This was a great effort and to be honest I didn't think he would make it round, but fair play to him it was a well deserved 2nd place and you could say lesson learned I guess!!! (But I didn't have my supporting crew there to spur me on to do it!!!)

All in all how rough I felt, in addition to lack of sleep and a few early mishaps I manage to really enjoy the course but was glad to see the finish. Hopefully I will return next year to give it a proper go! Bad chest free and I will definitely be booking the night before off!!

Thanks to the organisers for a really good event that seemed to run very smoothly.

Phil Morris

As always thanks to my sponsors

XCracer.com
Gateway Cycles
Accelerade
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