24 Hour Report 12 Hour Report |
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by Chris Martin |
 I first heard about the National '24 Hours' Championship in 1996 during my first season in the sport. By this time I had already reached the realistic, if slightly depressing conclusion that I would never set the world on fire on a bike. Lack of genetic talent can not be compensated for with all the wishful thinking that even I could muster. I had also realized that over short distance you need an ability to push yourself further into the pain barriers than I seemed willing or capable of. I sometimes felt like a bit of a fraud when looking at the intensity of effort that some of my training partners could and would go through. Now with hindsight I consider that just like the genetic gift of nature the ability to focus (get it all out as Peter Roberts used to say to me a lot) is not a talent that dreamers like myself have.
I have always had a penchant for endurance, so I decided in 1996 that 1999 and the National '24 Hours' on Sussex roads was the event for me, a challenge in planning, strategy and dreaming, as well as in training. During September, October and November 1998 I averaged less than 90 miles per month, I then rode the ESCA Reliability on 22nd November and completely blew at about 30 miles Peter Price kindly, slowly and patiently paced me back the final 28 miles. It was time to start training. I had about seven months to get my endurance up from less than 30 miles to over 400. Getting advice was easy, I had spoken to everybody I met who had an opinion (do 500 miles, no, 600 miles a week etc!). Like most things in my life I decided to go my own way, I don't seem to travel the same highways that most people traverse. I started riding on average three times a week, as the months went by I increased the length and speed of the rides but never the number per week. I kept detailed training records on my computer, which show a steady increase in distance, average speed and average pedal cadence. Thanks to the mild winter I was able to keep to my strategy throughout Dec, Jan & Feb. In March I started doing my usual early season races for fun and variety. I completed 12 events before the '24', 11 of them being course and event PB's, only on the ESCA 50 the week before the '24' did I fail to record a PB (I deliberately took it easy in the difficult conditions). I seemed to have my best form ever, felt good on the bike and was about as ready as I could imagine being going into the last week?
Tuesday night 10 p.m. my one and only night training ride on the race bike with lights etc. Both front lights failed before I got home after 40 miles, no fun going down hill thinking I know the road is there, but! Got home with cold feet and feeling damp thinking I didn't enjoy that at all. I had studied and ridden most of the course in the lead up. I knew that I could ride the entire course without a map or any marshals. I had used the long training rides to plan and consider ever aspect, including bike set up, tools, spares and clothing for every eventuality. Laurie Leaney built me a plastic bar to fit under my tri bars with my headlamps on; this was excellent and made the front of the bike look very bizarre, like some weird underwater craft out of a Jacques Cousteau film. Diet: Another area on which opinion seemed divided. Simple, constantly sip on my drinks bottle mounted on the front of the bike, (refilled on the go by my helpers) filed with Citrus flavored Hi-5. Carry and constantly (every half an hour) eat Power Bars and Bananas. Stop and take normal food if I feel like it. I knew this system worked from my '12 Hours' experience in 1996. Help: I needed experienced and reliable helpers, after some assorted personal traumas Mick Burgess came to my rescue and helped organize my support vehicles. Bob Comben would do the start and the first eight hours, Paul Gibbons would take over for the middle eight hours and Mick would see me through the final eight hours to the finish. I felt happy with this arrangement, as I knew they all had the necessary experience, allowing me to concentrate on the riding. Final Thoughts: I had covered just less than 4,500 miles training and racing between 7/12/98 and the morning of Saturday the 26th June. During this time I had been getting ongoing feed back about other riders and their training, I do not know Marina Bloom but various people kept telling me her training mileage (10,000 then 12,000 miles plus), it made me wonder was I really ready, my longest training ride had been only 125 miles in six and a half hours? Met Bob at the start loaded all my stuff into his car to discover that I had forgot my 24 bananas, panic! Mike Hayler (Event organizer) kindly gave me half a dozen to get me started. My own bananas arrived later with Paul thanks to some quick thinking at home from Ros. Hot and sunny, had photo taken with my teammates Peter Baker and Tony Gale. Great atmosphere at the start, loads of people clapping each rider as they started. The press with professional looking tape recorders were interviewing important riders like Andy Payne. Nobody wanted to interview me. 12:52 and off I go to cheers and applause, I felt great really positive and up for it. Two miles and some wit shouts 'dig in'; seven miles and a traction engine with large trailer decides to go for it at a roundabout in front of me, (they don't accelerate like Michael Schumacher) I also decide to go for it, made a few hand signs and just got through. This ended up being the only real traffic related incident that I had, apart from getting caught in some traffic jams stuck behind slower riders. The first six hours went really well (hot & sunny) with Bob passing me up drinks, power bars and bananas as I requested, only once in a hurry to get the lid off did he tip some of the bottle over me in the hand up. I remember thinking 'Christ I've got sticky old Hi-5 all over my new expensive shorts, I hope it doesn't stain'. Apart this one occasion the hand ups went very smoothly, Horry Hemsley (helping Tony) had had some large professional looking signs made for the Lewes riders to go in the
support cars, mine had 'LEWES W C C MARTN 52' on and every time I saw my vehicle go past it made me feel important, this helped contributed to my on ongoing effort at positive thought i.e. I've done an hour not I've got 23 hour to go etc. I successfully managed to avoid most negative thoughts, throughout the event people would clap and encourage you from the roadside, it really did help.
I averaged 21mph for the first six hours, after one hour I was caught for eight minutes by Nick Gardiner he shot off down the road (he ended up fourth beating me by six miles). After two hours Simon Prior in aero hat and on his low pro came flying past me for nine minutes pushing some huge gear as he powered away. One and a half hours later I caught and twiddled my way back past Simon who was still pushing a huge gear, but with a cadence that looked like he was about to stall. Why do riders insist on pushing big gears at any cost, is it a macho thing? Mr. Prior was one of at least 23 riders who DNF. Marina Bloom was another DNF.
At about 90 miles I caught up with Tony Gale and had a chat, Peter Baker was just ahead and he wasn't feeling good. A nice touch was the three of us talking side by side for a couple of hundred yards before we went our separate ways. From the outset the three of us had planned to enter as a team to challenge for the team prize. Peter continued but was sick several times and eventually had to stop, I saw him on the evening circuit sitting besides Chris and Sandra Hill's car (his helpers), I knew by the ghostly look on his face that he shouldn't and couldn't go on. I know how I would have felt in his shoes; he will have been very disappointed. In retrospect it turned out that if Peter had finished we would have easily won the team prize, as he would only have had to complete 288 miles, that said he gave his all and life is full of ifs and onlys.
After about six hours I had caught and passed No. 50 Andy Cook (he finished 3rd seventeen miles ahead of me). His helpers seemed to pass me ever couple of miles, I saw more of them over a couple of hours than my own helpers all day, but I didn't mind, as each time I passed they clapped me and a pretty girl with them smiled at me, it all helps you know.
After about seven hours the temperature began to drop and I made my first stop, for leg warmers, clean socks, overshoes and rear lights. I had a five-minute sit down and ate a chicken roll and a fruit bun, the first break from Hi-5, Power Bar and Bananas. After this stop I never returned to my previous speed, in the heat I had not needed to stop for the call of nature, but from now on I would be plagued by the need to pee every 10 or 20 miles and each time I stopped I seemed to stand there for ages before I could go. On the finishing circuit I stopped every lap (11 miles) except the last one, on which I hung on for the finish! This was the only problem I had throughout the event and cost me any chance of a better result.
At nine and half hours I put my long sleeved vest and head lights on, the batteries lasted about two hours and I used the lights one at a time until they went out. Paul Gibbons (who had taken over from Bob) accompanied by his pretty young assistant (girlfriend) Iveta removed the expired light and re fitted it with new batteries in at the next pee stop. It started to rain during the night and I had to ride in my waterproof cape. I stopped at one of the feeding stops on the A22 for about five minutes and had a cup of soup and a slice of bread. Tony was there, he had been having problems keeping any food down and had just been sick all over his bike. Lucky Horry had helped clean him up and sent him on his way in fresh gloves, we set off together and had a brief chat in the darkness. Tony then dropped me and disappeared down the road out of sight, I started to wonder that if I bought up all my Power Bars and Bananas would I go faster. Unlike myself Tony is not a time trialist, he specializes in long distance Audax and Randonnées type events and is used to stopping to eat (much more civilized). I passed Tony a little later whilst he had stopped again, Horry seemed very keen to keep him on the bike and didn't appreciate his touring habits! The next time I saw Tony was on the finishing circuit just as he was finishing, (I had half an hour to go) Tony completed 399 miles and finished 15th overall. At 58 years old he also set a club record for vets standard, a great ride.
I turned my front lights off just after 4 am on my final leg (3rd) on the A22. I could see people again, at Golden Cross it was good to see all the Wanderers who gave me a big cheer (much appreciated). From then on it was a battle into the wind heading West again, the on off rain meant on off on off with the rain cape. With about six hours to go I had that unnerving feeling you can get in the car of falling asleep at the wheel. It's hard to imagine that you can fall asleep on the tri bars whilst pedaling, but I was! I stopped for five minutes for a cup of tea with caffeine (would I fail the drugs test?) and a jam roll. After this I was fine and ended up on the finishing circuit with about four hours to go. Going through Dial Post was great as there was a good crowd including a healthy contingent of Wanderers applauding and even shouting my name. Mick and Sylvia Burgess had turned up in the early hours to relieve Paul and Iveta, but they had decided to stay with me to the finish. So they all helped and encouraged me, even nagging me to speed up for the last few laps and to keep pushing right to the end. I finished, Mick loaded all my stuff into my car, and I had some tea and bread pudding courtesy of Sylvia and watched the awards ceremony with Tony. David Shepherd who had won the event, (as I had predicted) collapsed and was attended by an ambulance; exhaustion was their imaginative diagnosis. I suggested in my usual helpful way that he shouldn't have tried so hard.
I set out to average 18 mph (432 miles) and ended up with 438.173 miles and finished 5th, I was also the first vet home. My only negative thought is that as usual I didn't 'get it all out,' as apart from a very tender (enough said) groin I felt really good at the finish.
Looking back I loved every minute of the event, it was superbly organized with so many people making it the best cycling event by a country mile that I have ever been involved in. My helpers were brilliant and I would like to offer a big thanks to every one who turned up at the event in whatever capacity especially the Wanderers. It will be hard to go back to being a short distance Sussex journeyman.
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