Not as huge a plumz entry as last year but our new endurance junkies the Brown and Pilch households teamed up in a 2 man 2 women mixed team. RESULTS A tough course apparently and a great 7th place from the team with 10 laps, Pilch has the lowdown:
So we plumped for the mixed team of 4 at 24 – 12, Mr & Mrs brown and myself & Vin, accompanied by Mark as pit crew, catering, bar manager and general all round top bloke. The last hour or so of the drive down it lashed it down stair rod stylee, then promptly stopped just as we got there, so we got to set up camp in the dry, bonus. At the this point we looked at everyone coming back from their practice laps covered in shit and decided to get our practice lap done in the morning….
Race day dawned the sun’s out and we’re all fettling but the course doesn’t look like its getting any dryer so…. no practice lap, how hard can it be?
The answer to that was…. VERY hard, if you were at 24-12 last year, it was a good course, it had a couple of tech bits, but no big deal really, this was a different animal, whilst they retained a fair amount of last years course there was a lot of technical stuff added in, made even trickier by the downpour before the race started.
Brownie lead the charge for Numplumz mixed, within a couple of minutes the race wound up the long grassy ‘cliff climb’ out of the arena – a real test on legs & lungs for cold bodies after changeover each time. Me next, a bit of foreboding after a a quick couple of words from Brownie… something about a few bits that can ‘take you by surprise’ and I thought I heard ‘character building’ mentioned too…
I felt good after the initial climb and bearing Mr Brown’s sage words in mind, progressed purposefully, trying not to go steaming off in my usual headless chicken mode, surprisingly I was passing quite a few riders on my way, I felt comfortable and the big wheels with nobby nics on were finding the grip to keep me upright, my lap passed without incident and I passed the baton to Vin at changeover.
Vin didn’t fare so well, within minutes she was off the bike getting a nasty deep gash to her knee in the process, but despite that, she gamely jumped back on and finished her lap in a respectable time, however a trip to A&E and 5 stitches after meant the end of her race.
Lou out next…not surprisingly a little worried by now, but we cheered her off as she sped up the initial climb, she came back in at the end of the lap after riding round with no spills full of confidence and ready for the next round.
The race progressed this way with the course drying out more and more, Vin reappeared from A&E, gutted she couldn’t do her laps, but by now she could hardly bend her knee, so our pit crew (Mark!) took her number for 1 lap and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Lou had a much better 2nd lap and was by now enjoying a practically dry course, riding much more confidently.
By the time darkness fell there was a lot of moisture in the air once again and things started to get quite treacherous, you could tell this by increase in ambulance activity, it went from 2 an hour to 3 or 4 😉
Brownie came in just after 10pm after a nasty off which had agrivated a previous injury, so I went out for my last lap, it was definately more sketchy, a trip through the tape into a bush at one point and a little sit down in front of one guy I passed… who then passed me and did exactly the same thing in front of me 5 minutes later – how we laughed!
When I got back in I was greeted by the team it was 11 pm Lou handed me a beer – the bar was clearly open… time to get the barbie on, crack the beers and do the race post mortem.
A great weekend, we came 7th on a really tough course, (lot more climbing than last year too), usual crap showers and as Vin said I think they could afford to spend a few quid on a resident medic, rather than just St Johns Ambulance (who do a great job, but really, that course warranted much better medical support) to care for some of the relatively minor cuts rather than send everyone off to A&E.
Part time plumz man Rich Holmes wins the 24Hr solo event, RESULT; a brilliant 23 laps – its been coming.
Numplumz 