It was a perfect night, dry and not too cold - plenty of dust but you can't have everything. The course was a great improvement from last year being pretty much in reverse, no hills that I can remember.
We were both well rested from the Mary Towneley challenge three weeks before which turned out to be a beautiful day on the Rossendale Moors, with plenty of climbing in the legs. Even though I felt pretty slow on the day I seemed to ride the 47 mile loop in good time. This circular route forms part of the PB (not the Pig Brother Way) - the Pennine Bridleway that is, that starts in Cromford. There was 2000m of climbing and some fantastic views, definitely doing this next year.
Anyway, the D2D - we were both rested and fuelled up with a nice new Gazebo that survived the early wind (jokes about Bison's backside edited out.). At 19:50 we got to the start line and feeling pretty good I was fuelled up on super new crack-caffeine gels that I had been testing of the last year with scientists monitoring their performance and things were looking good. (That's a complete lie I'd not had one before.)
We were off; an initial mile to spread everyone out, Bison and I made our way to the first third of the pack and were riding with plenty to spare - about 12 av/s for the first couple of laps. There was a new Dry Pit-Stop for soloists with lighting which was fantastic as you could pull in and see all your food and tools. Also Heather Smalley and Andrea Moo were there looking after us and making tea between laps.
My three laps went without incident but I'd got a fantastic new creak on the bottom bracket of the bike - I decided to pull in on the third lap and perform a full clinical service on my BB - realising this would never work I got back on the bike for a forth. I'd not seen Bison yet although he thought he was in front of me - he has been known to be confused about such things.
My fourth was a dire turning point, still feeling full of energy my stomach started to hurt and I gave up on my well tested energy gels for two laps where I rode with the science of no food to see if I would recover - and I did - for the 5 & 6 lap I felt great without food but what could I eat now? My planning was so good I had plenty of backup food. Not.
The 7th lap was rubbish, I slowed right down due to science and Bison came passed me calling me a C*** and shouting - "Bananas, you need Bananas!" So I pulled back into the pit in the hope of one solitary Banana but the greedy swine had eaten them all. So I jibbed at that point feeling miserable. And to top it off I checked out placings, thinking we were about 60th - when in fact we were around 23/24th at that point.
Bison went on to complete the full 12hrs and finished 24th overall solo - a great effort, with me sulking in about 50 something place. Bison 113 miles, Rone 73 miles.
Thanks to Moo and Smalley for support.
We were both well rested from the Mary Towneley challenge three weeks before which turned out to be a beautiful day on the Rossendale Moors, with plenty of climbing in the legs. Even though I felt pretty slow on the day I seemed to ride the 47 mile loop in good time. This circular route forms part of the PB (not the Pig Brother Way) - the Pennine Bridleway that is, that starts in Cromford. There was 2000m of climbing and some fantastic views, definitely doing this next year.
Anyway, the D2D - we were both rested and fuelled up with a nice new Gazebo that survived the early wind (jokes about Bison's backside edited out.). At 19:50 we got to the start line and feeling pretty good I was fuelled up on super new crack-caffeine gels that I had been testing of the last year with scientists monitoring their performance and things were looking good. (That's a complete lie I'd not had one before.)
We were off; an initial mile to spread everyone out, Bison and I made our way to the first third of the pack and were riding with plenty to spare - about 12 av/s for the first couple of laps. There was a new Dry Pit-Stop for soloists with lighting which was fantastic as you could pull in and see all your food and tools. Also Heather Smalley and Andrea Moo were there looking after us and making tea between laps.
My three laps went without incident but I'd got a fantastic new creak on the bottom bracket of the bike - I decided to pull in on the third lap and perform a full clinical service on my BB - realising this would never work I got back on the bike for a forth. I'd not seen Bison yet although he thought he was in front of me - he has been known to be confused about such things.
My fourth was a dire turning point, still feeling full of energy my stomach started to hurt and I gave up on my well tested energy gels for two laps where I rode with the science of no food to see if I would recover - and I did - for the 5 & 6 lap I felt great without food but what could I eat now? My planning was so good I had plenty of backup food. Not.
The 7th lap was rubbish, I slowed right down due to science and Bison came passed me calling me a C*** and shouting - "Bananas, you need Bananas!" So I pulled back into the pit in the hope of one solitary Banana but the greedy swine had eaten them all. So I jibbed at that point feeling miserable. And to top it off I checked out placings, thinking we were about 60th - when in fact we were around 23/24th at that point.
Bison went on to complete the full 12hrs and finished 24th overall solo - a great effort, with me sulking in about 50 something place. Bison 113 miles, Rone 73 miles.
Thanks to Moo and Smalley for support.
