Day 7 - The end is Nigh

We woke up to grey skies and lots of people were hungover after the night stage frollicked into the early hours, I was glad I went to bed early.

Ryan looked a bit of a sorry state and Ginger James didnt appear til breakfast was nearly over and he looked like total shit!

As we were packing up our kit the rain started again, so waterproofs went on, changed my tyres back to something with more grip, but noone cared - today was the last day, we only had a short 62km left to do, including a 2km special stage right at the end.

We all went inside for the results of the special stage, it was impossible to tell how we'd all done, so I wasn't really expecting to come that high up the board, even though I'd put in a good performance on the climb. So when I got a 3rd again I was dead chuffed!




check out all that gurning!



After the prize giving, we were set off - slightly later than normal, into the pissing rain. This was the order of the day. It rained and rained, and rained some more. The ground turned shitty, mud clagging round the wheels, grit grinding in the brakes. Before we'd even done  5k, I was feeling weary, I had to take a gel. It helped, but it was such hard work, lots of bits were unpassable, someone hit the deck in front of me in the river - face first, she was OK. *snigger*

There were a few lovely stretches of singletrack, they were slippery but rideable, some of the double track wasn't, a couple of proper gnarly slippery descents that nearly had me careering into a tree. There was a superb singletrack just before the lunch stop - in Brechfa (spelling)  I think, it cut down the hillside over some boardwalks, over a river with plastic piping as an obstacle - I'd like to say I rode this but I ballsed up my speed and line and had to walk it, back through some woods and onto the midgefest that was lunch. Needless to say we didnt stop for long, getting eaten alive wasn't really anyone's idea of fun. The rain had nearly slowed to nothing now and the sun was threatening to poke it's head out.

The ladies on the feed station said it wasnt' far - a big push up (which she meant literally), one more big hill then 8k on the road. The big hill was crazy steep, even RAF legs didnt get much further than me, it was a steep wet, rocky quarry road which was pretty eroded, and went on for 15 minutes! calves burning and back on the bike, back on sludge, churning my poor bike through the muck, it felt like the wheels weren't turning.

Finally we hit road and I knew I could make it back, it was still hilly but it was easier than the mud churning. I stopped for a slash in a field had a stretch, i was feeling pretty wasted and still had to do the last time trial. It's only 2km it'll be fine.

I rode on back through  Builth Wells and up to the campsite through the finish line. Rob and Ryan were there waiting already showered, Ryan had trashed his lovely Yeti and wasn't very happy, Rob grabbed me a can of coke to knock back before the time trial, we could go when we liked, he suggested getting it out the way before I got cold so I got on with it. Rob said to use the porta loos at the bottom of the hill as a berm and not to brake - joker!

 The course was pretty much  a 1km climb and 1km descent, I'd made the assumption it was a fire road ascent, I was a bit wrong there! It wasn't massively technical, but I quickly regretted locking out my forks  and fumbled to release them to get up over the rocks and roots. The hill went up quite steeply, i didnt have much left, but I pushed on up, it twisted up into the woods and climbed a bit further before twisted back round onto some sweet natural singletrack, the rain hadnt made it too slippery as I bobbed in and out of the trees, down a couple of smooth drops and hard right turn, a weird left turn that looked like it wanted to go the other way through a gate, bit more rooty wood singletrack and into an open field descent which was taped off and zig-zagged down the hill. The rain had made the grass slippery so I was a bit reserved then thought fuck it, let it go! I careered down the hill and saw what Rob meant about the bogs, I wasnt gutsy enough not to brake before I made the 90 degree turn out the bottom of the hill but I tried to use the camber to throw the bike round. I straightened up and sprinted for the line. Wahoo! I'd finished, I hadn't died, my bike was still (just about) working, I hadnt dnf'd.

Hurrah! The End! :-)

Matt carr stuck his mic in my face, I can't remember what I said but his reply was "you can't swear!" oops

Dropped off my chip, got my finishers jersey and first things first... free beer! :-)

I was meant to drive back with Rob and Ryan but they wanted to get back and miss the presentation, I quite wanted to stick around as I suspected I might still be lying in 3rd overall, I hadnt thought I'd done the special stage quick enough but overall my penalties might be enough. So I arranged to get back with Ginge the next day which would mean a celebration tonight!

After a couple of beers, I got my stuff from Rob's van we said our goodbyes, snogs n hugs n that. Ryan's parting comment "you fuckin's stink!" charming. ;-)

Presentation was going to be about 4 so I had time to go and have a wash - I was filthy! and wsh my bike down (also filthy!)

The guys at The Big Adventure Store did a brilliant job servicing and fixing this when I got home!

There was free beer so I had a couple more beers whilst the presentation went on, the Male Solo had been exciting all week, with Matt Page and Ajay fighting it out daily, in the end Matt got 1st followed closely by Ajay and 3rd was a big surprise to everyone - a singlespeeder who rides flat pedals and is so humble and uncompetitive - he never realised how good he is, as he doesn't race! He even beat Matt on a couple of the special stages. Hats off!

Onto the Ladies Solo and the special stage of today, I again surprised myself by getting 3rd once more and overall for the week I also got 3rd place! I was very pleased to have podium'd at such a challenging event, and with some gore vouchers and a cash prize to spend (probably on beer) it was even better.

Podium girls

After the presentation we had some dinner - there were very few people left now, just the hardcore and the staff. At 7pm we'd arranged to walk into town for a pub crawl, after traipsing a couple of miles and getting chased by horses we settled in the pub.

I was pooped. I couldnt even muster the energy to have a proper conversation, I opted for an OJ and lemonade - what the fuck? Ok, just one rum.

I could barely keep my eyes open, and by 9 I was looking for excuses to go back to the campsite... it wasn't like I had anywhere to be.

Luckily I wasn't the only one to feel like this so a bunch of us walked back and were in our tents by 10.30 - rock n roll!!