Published: 20th February, 2012
Having sat out Newnham 60 due to illness it seemed like a long time since I'd stuck a race number on the bike and lined up on a start line. With the winter spent training for this years Euro Solo champs in April, Sundays Stinger at Newnham would be the first opportunity to see if all those long rides, training gatherings in the dark and less than thrilling turbo sessions had done any good.
But first the excuses. Thursday before the event my Number one bike decided it had had enough of running 2X9 and the big chainring decided now was the time to demonstrate it's unhappiness by continually throwing the chain off or jumping teeth, not great when you are doing a pyramid session. It didn't take a mechanical genius to work out something was worn but it did take the guys at Certini to inform me the big ring had more sharks teeth than Plymouth aquarium. With no hope of a replacement by the weekend I had to dust off the "spare bike" which had been doing sterling duties attached to the turbo trainer. So after a "short" 60 mile road ride (who needs to taper!) Saturday afternoon was spent working out which of the many worn Fast Track tyres had the most tread left and fitting them to the nearest compatible rear wheel, that and lowering the saddle and we were Good To Go!
Sunday dawn crisp and clear and unlike Team Morris, Team Smith's journey was a slightly shorter 20min trip over a different bridge back to a place I always enjoy visiting. Same car park same old faces, once signed on and with Jane deposited in Registration, I thought a leisurely sighting/shake down lap was appropriate.
For those that didn't attend but know Newnham well, a lot of the old favourites were there for the first run and ride laps; cottage return but this time up not down, bluebell wood backwards, the caldron the right way, some of the bomb holes all finished up with a fast descent down Clif Climb return.
The stinger run is not something you'd want to pre run so I'll leave a description of that to the end.
So 11 O'clock, Martyn and a quad but no bike, something was not quite right. Despite outward appearances I'm by no means a runner. The whistle went, the quad moved off and 100 plus runners followed. I spent most of the running leg visualising getting into transition, and getting on the bike, and 25 mins or so later I was in transition swapping footwear and jumping on the bike.
1 lap down and now 4 laps on the bike, much more comfortable territory although I'm sure there are many that would say I'm not much of a rider either. The majority of the laps passed without incident although I did make a bike and rider sized hole in the brambles after the bomb holes when, despite my best intentions, the bike decided to carry straight on rather than turn the corner.
About 2 hours in and I was back in transition, racking the bike and swapping SPDs for trainers, watching the Steve Ferguson run in to finish, git.
The stinger run included a trip up the now infamous Bear Pit from the last year's National Round and a trip across the mine shaft as well as a visit to innumerable river crossings and bogs so deep I expected to find Maddie H stuck waist deep in one. At the riders briefing we were warned by Jay to ensure all laces were done up tight and he wasn't joking, I think Luke Eggar finished the run minus both shoes, the bogs were definitely keen to keep shoes as souvenirs. After the combination of run and cycle the legs and lungs were beginning to complain and my mind was trying to recall the pencil map and over lay it with the route in front of me in a vain attempt to work out how much torture I would have to endure before the last dash to the finish along the fire road. It turned out that 20mins of off camber ducking, weaving, splashing, sloshing, scrambling, crawling, walking would be about right.
Never has a new mug and accompanying free coffee been so hard fought and so welcome.
Another fantastic day down Newnham Park, thanks in no small way to Martyn and his ever increasing band of worker bees. The Stinger, like the Newnham60, is an event with that special something that makes people come from far and wide for a dose of insanity.
Rob Smith
RNRMCA
Now on Twitter @xcwanabe. (I make no guarantee on either the fequency or quality of anything I may tweet in the future.)
new racer trying to fight his way through the masters pack.
Read More By RobThis blog post was written by a third party and their views do not necessarily reflect the views of XCRacer.com
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