Erlestoke Twelve 2012

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BY: Louise Robinson

Published: 28th May, 2012

Well that was probably about as much fun as it is possible to have in a field, surrounded by men in lycra, with your clothes on!

What can I say?  Fabulous company, fabulous course and fabulous weather.
This was my first time at Erlestoke Twelve and I had managed to rope in three friends from my bike club to make up a ladies team. While none of the other girls are complete strangers to racing, two have previously done only the occasional fun XC race, it was with some trepidation that they agreed to this, one cold night in the pub a couple of months ago. We all turned up (with kids in tow) to camp on Friday night and selected ourselves a nice little central pitch (although the whole event is pretty small so you are never going to be more than a stone's throw from the heart of things).

 

The Tunnel Hill Troll Ladies, from left - Chrissy Read, Louise Robinson, Jo Holtom and Suzie Duncan…The Pink Ladies

We rode a practice lap on Friday night, and along with a few other racers we chatted to, were fairly disappointed with the course. A lot of the single track seemed very "au naturalle" and there was a long field/tarmac road climb in the middle which did seem very tedious. But what we didn't know was how the course was going to "mature" during the race.

 

The start of the 12 hour race - only two weeks ago I was shivering on the start line!

Start time was 12 noon and by then it was 28oC. In an attempt to ensure I was well hydrated I had drunk so much water I was really beginning to regret the bib shorts (ladies, bib shorts, portaloos…..you get the picture!). I got a good start, rode well within myself and managed a very respectable first lap finishing a minute or so ahead of XCracer's Oliver Herdsman (he was riding 6 hour solo but who's splitting hairs!).
My second lap was fairly uneventful, although hot.

 

Enjoying the single-track

 By lap 3 it was cooling off and the course had transformed itself into an XC playground. What had started out as random turnings across slightly flattened undergrowth became a fast racing line around tight twisty single track. This lap coincided almost exactly with the start of 6pm-12pm race and consequently I was quickly overtaken by another XCracer Matt Lewis, followed shortly by a club mate of mine Dave Brothers, both racing in the solo men's race. I was really enjoying the ride, darting round the single track in the cool evening air and put in my fastest lap time of the race.

 

Start of the 6pm-12pm race -a smaller field and still gloriously sunny

 

Lap 4 started at just past 9pm in that really awkward light when it's too dark not to need lights but when you do use lights they never seem as good as when it is pitch black. The event sponsors, Four4th Lights, were lending demo lights for the night so my ladies team made the most of the opportunity and all got kitted out with the new Four4th Holy Moses on the bars and Exodus helmet lights. With a combined total of 3700 lumens on full power is wasn't really surprising that the dark didn't seem that dark in Erlestoke.

Holy Moses with a necessary adjustment to the number board - possibly the largest number boards in the world!

One slight downer was the timing.  There was no way of seeing the timing results during the race, so you had no way of knowing where you were and how far behind/ in front your competition was - yes I know we didn't have any competition but everyone else did! Also one of my friends ended up entered in the wrong category, he raced 6 hours from 6pm but was listed in the 12 hour race with a first lap time of 6hours 40 minutes and another two friends who raced in a pair did not even get listed in the results. If results had been displayed during the race these little issues could have been sorted out. But hohum nobody is perfect, and the arrangements the organisers made with the weather gods made up for it.

The event - small yet perfectly formed

 

Final result, we won! And technically came last as well. A bit disappointing to be the only ladies team entered. This really is a good event for ladies to enter. It is fairly low key, very compact (no 5 minute ride to the event centre), the finish before 12 hour format means there really are less than 3 hours of dark riding and the course is lots of fun. So what are you waiting for ladies - get your mates together in the pub and get planning for next year!

And just to mention, the spot prize from Four4th lights has not yet been claimed so if you were there make sure you check the gallery section of the Four4th website to see if you are the lucky winner of a Genesis bar light.

Louise Robinson

XCracer

Four4th Lights