Bristol Oktoberfest

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BY: Richard Jones

Published: 21st October, 2012

Last weekend I returned to the same venue as summers Bristol BikeFest for 8 hours of racing in Oktoberfest. This time the XCRacer 4 man team was unable to reform so it was the turn of a pairs double with my girlfriend Hollie. 

This was to be the first time we had ever tried to race a team event as a pair, in the past we had been put of with the thought of hours of disagreements and the unnecessary pressure that it would put on each other. The build up to the race was anything but perfect, as mentioned in last weekends Dusk Til' Dawn blog Hollie had come down with a terrible cold, this was then exacerbated by the cold nights racing and developed into a terrible chest infection. Doctor's instructions were to rest up but this is Oktoberfest and the only chance to race for the prize winnings of free beer! 

It was decided that we would carry on however I would take on more of the riding and ride for 3 laps to every one of Hollies. This gave Hollie enough of a chance to rest after each lap and not put her chest under to much strain. 

After a cold nights camping the time quickly came around for the dreadful le monde style start. I had learnt from Bristol Bikesfest that there was a huge advantage to be made if you placed your bike as close to the run as possible, thus for minimizing the amount you had to run. 

This tactic payed off and after a short sprint (or waddle in my case! Cyclists are not runners) and I was away and up into the starting group. To this day I am still unsure to the reason why but the first lap was painfully slow, I struggled through the slippy wet singletrack and couldn't seem to find a comfortable pace. Riders after riders were shouting from behind asking to pass, although I had no real concerns about this, as I knew I had a long days riding ahead of me. I was pleased to find that by my second lap I had managed to find my mojo and riding a lot better. 

The first 3 laps passed with little happening. I had know idea of what position I was in but just tried to ensure I was putting out consistent lap times. Every lap the course was becoming dryer and dryer and becoming more fun to ride. The Ashton Court trails are quickly becoming one of my favorite UK destinations for racing. The fast hard pack weatherproof course really allows you to enjoy every minute of racing. 

A chest infection is never the best way to approach a race but when these things happen you just have to do the best you can. My first lap was meant to be nice and chilled just to get a feel of the course and also see how my chest would hold up, however anybody that knows me well knows that as soon as I'm on course my race head switches on. At the end of my first lap I knew I had pushed too hard, as breathing was painful and noisy! It panicked both rich and my dad who was waiting for me by the timing tent. Hardly surprising that I was in pain after recording a 33-minute lap. A cuppa soon had me feeling like myself again in no time.

Hollie handed back over to me and didn't seem to be happy, we only had a few seconds to exchange words but I could see that from just those words the lap hadn't gone well and she was in a large amount of discomfort. I shouted for her to decide what to do for her next laps and shout the plan to me when I come through for the next lap. The whole of this lap I was then contemplating what the following hours' would bring, should we pull? Should I finish riding on my own? Or would Hollie head back out for some? 

As I passed through for my second lap Hollie said she was keen to carry on with the plan in hand and that we had a 20 minutes lead, this was good news however I was concerned for hollies health. 3 laps quickly passed and before I knew it I had passed over to Hollie again who looked a lot happier and keen to get back onto the course. 

After being told by both rich and my dad to take it easy with no excuses, that's exactly what I done. This time round things weren't so painful and I found myself really enjoying the flowing course. The course was drying out a treat and the single track was becoming faster.  Handing over to rich I told him to only do a double as I wanted to get a couple more laps in as my chest was starting to feel a lot more comfortable.

 Hollie handed back over to me and I was a little surprised to be greeted with a grin this time. She seemed a lot happier and told me only to do a double, as she was feeling better. This was great news and I was now really looking forward to the coming hours. The course was now almost totally dry and it was clear that everybody else out on course was having a fantastic time. After just over an hour I handed back over to Hollie again. 

The course was near enough bone dry by the time it came to me riding again and I was riding everything a lot faster and with a lot less effort which was all good fun! However after a season mechanical free, I hit a problem! On a fast fun decent 1/3^rd of the way round I managed to split my rear tyre with no hope of fixing it! So it was a long and painful run back to the change over. Thankfully we only lost around 20 minutes to the chasers behind. 

So after the disaster situation of Hollies lap I thought that we had either been overtaken of where very close to being put back to second. From the moment I got onto the bike I was pushing full gas but the past 4.5 hours had done some damaged. I was pushing as much as I could for the first quarter but didn't seem to be getting to far, I was then pleased to be caught by my Coach Lloyd who was racing hard in the pairs afternoon 4 hours race for KCNC/Clee Cycles. As soon as he shot past me on the first climb I stuck to his wheel. He forced me to push harder and harder and we cut through the traffic on course with great ease. Through onto my second lap and Lloyd had passed over to his teammate. At this point the days weather had now changed and rain began to fall. 

The course was becoming slippy again and lap times where slowing. I was over the moon to see Hollie half way out on the lap who gave the fantastic news that we were over a lap up on 2^nd place. At this point I sat up and began to rest for the following lap and a half. 

I come over the line just 15 minutes before the cut of time so there was no chance of another lap. I was pleased to be finished as I had been riding for just short of 6 hours. Hollie met me on the line with a Hot Cuppa and we both were pleased to be finished clear in the lead. 

We had managed to finish out first pair's event with out any fallouts or arguments. We had successfully dealt with a mechanical out on the course and managed to keep our cool. Hollie was disappointed that she couldn't share more of the riding but this couldn't be helped. 

 

Although we entered as a pair its safe to say if you have read this far my effort was severely lacking but not out of my own choice. A fantastic effort was made by rich to ensure I got in the riding I wanted but also made sure I didn't get any worse so a BIG thanks to rich for that! The victory was down to him! 

Hollie Bettles. 

Richard Jones - Team XCRacer 

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