Pete Crawforth wins Singletrack Sleepless in the saddle 2012 24 hour solo.

After completing 21 hard laps around the very muddy catton park.

Well it’s been just over a week since sleepless in the saddle and today was the first time I went out on a proper bike ride since the event.  I can feel that my legs are feeling pretty strong and my mind and body is starting to feel like it wants to push some pedal around again.

I’m not going to lie or try and sugar coat it, my 2012 singletrack sleepless in the saddle race experience hurt, it hurt a lot.

I was pretty happy with my preparation since I had managed to put in more hours in the gym and on the bike than I have ever managed in any of the previous year’s. Good race performances at Erlestoke and Bontrager filled me with a lot of confidence and in the run up to the event I started to believe that I had enough in me to replicate last year’s performance.

This year’s course had the makings of being probably the best ever at Catton Park with the race organizers putting in a lot of work constructing two new wooded sections which added some good flowing singletrack. All of which were a very nice surprise to find when I completed a practice lap on the Friday afternoon.

We were all greeted to warm sun and a blue sky on the Saturday morning, which made all of the last minute preparations all the more easier. Time to eat, drink, check bikes over, eat, get a sports massage, eat a bit more and then line up on the start line ready for the 800m ‘fun run’ start.

To be fair the weather was lining itself up to be a pretty nice warm day though the commentator did keep warning us of what was to come and even went as far as saying ‘perhaps it would be an idea to start fast and bag a few quick dry laps’.

Anticipating a relatively fast start I didn’t want to be part of dictating the pace of the race. Therefore, my tactic was to just match the pace of the leading riders for the first half of the race ensuring I never lost more than 30 minutes on the leader.  I had hoped that this would allow me to stay out of the red and keep well stocked up on food and drink and from around 11 when its properly dark put in a series of fast laps… Nice plan I thought but when has anything ever gone to plan in race!

After a reasonable run and steady first lap the pace began to increase and after 3 hours racing I began to feel terrible.  Blurred vision, throbbing headache, shaking hands and almost feverish cold sweats. Pretty much the only part of me that was feeling all right was my legs. I began to have the defeatist thoughts justify why I should retire… “I’m ill… I don’t want to make myself ill.. if I stop now no one would say that I shouldn’t have stopped.. this isn’t fun.. I should stop..” but then all of the other thoughts began to shout louder.. “in a weeks time how pissed off will I be if I stop? Tour riders ride with broken collarbones, fevers and illnesses.. so can I.. Lets see how bad I can get..” All of these thoughts lasted for good few laps and without my knowing my support crew were having very similar thoughts.. “the next time round, if Pete’s looking worse or is not feeling better, we will pull him out of the race”

Fortunately when the sun started to dip and the temperature began to fall my head started to feel a lot clearer and a smile returned to my face, I wanted to race again.
“how far off first am I?”

Chris Edmondson was riding really well and over the first 6 hours had managed to edge out a considerable lead of 30+mins over the next group of 4-5 riders that I was part of.  Racing my own race, I was able to keep up a steady consistent lap times. My biggest worry though, was that I didn’t feel like I had anything extra, the illness throughout the day had put extra strain on my body and I could feel that I was missing that kick that I had hoped to use.  All I could do was maintain this pace and hope everyone else around me would begin to crack.

And then the Rain came!

This was my 7^th Sleepless in the saddle (5 racing as in pair, 2 solo) and the majority of those races had been wet ones. So when I saw the forecast that informed us of the certainty of another soggy race I was very well aware of what was to come.  Catton Park boasts a very special kind of peanut butter mud that can break even the strongest of minds. The slower you move through it the more gets deposited onto your frame filling the rear triangle and jamming your rear wheel, this can turn the lightest of race set ups into 30+kg lumps of mud.  My sympathy goes out to the folks who were riding low clearance full sussers and/or people with v-brakes without mud tyres…. It was grim. I would often turn the corner out of a section of singletrack to find a line of ‘racers’ by the side of the track all with a trusty stick that they found and they would be excavating their bike through the thick wattle and daub that was coating all the moving parts.  People say that it is only when the conditions get really bad does it really turn into a true test of endurance and that may well be true, but we all long for dry and dusty trails..

Riding through the thunder and lightning storms with torrential rain definitely offered a new challenge with the conditions quickly changing.  With super thin 1.5 inch mud tyres most sections remained just about rideable. The very slick surface layer of mud felt just like riding on black ice, which kept things entertaining when hitting the downhill sections at speed. When encountering traffic it was generally easier to get off and run, as long as you kept your wheels turning the mud wouldn’t jam up the frame.

Hats off to the race officials for taking the right move and cutting out the new section of singletrack, this allowed the lap times to remain reasonably consistent.

With the night drawing in, the intensity of the rain showers began to reduce and I might be wrong but I think the rain stopped completely at around 11.  Though with a cool night and with water still falling out of the trees the mud was here to stay.  No chance of a dry racing line forming!

1 o’clock was my toughest lap. I found myself pushing my bike through a particularly thick peanut butter section, my legs stopped and my eyes closed. Now I don’t know how long I was stationary for, probably only a second, but when I realized what I was doing I for some reason started shouting very loudly (With a few more swear words) ‘Don’t stop! Don’t you dare stop! Don’t stop! Don’t stop!’ so sorry to anybody who might have been near, I’m not crazy honest!

Pulling into the pits I started on the caffeine, ate some nice food and I was back awake.  A friend racing in the team category passed and shouted something along the lines of ‘catch me if you can!’  This was just what I needed.  Chasing him down and then following a steady paced wheel managed to rescue the lap and prevent it from turning into a 2+hour nightmare. From then on I started receiving news that I had taken first place, but when you still have 8+ hours left you know the racing isn’t over.

I felt strong, my legs weren’t fatiguing. I was eating well and keeping on top of my fluid intake. The bikes where performing brilliantly. Chainsuck was an issue for quite a few gears but if I kept off the shifters and concentrated on pedaling smoothly the bikes just kept on rolling.

Dawn broke with one of the best sunrises that I’ve ever seen at a race; this gave me a much-needed boost.  Throughout the night I had managed to get a 1lap lead over second place.  The weather had managed to hold off throughout the night and with the blue sky over head it was shaping up to be a pretty warm and sunny morning.  In the wooded sections the mud began to thicken up and became very sticky and slow but in some more open places a dryish line had begun to form.  With 3-4 hours to go it became a case of counting down the laps, I had got into a nice steady rhythm putting in consistent laps, I knew which sections were quicker to push and exactly which gear to be in on the climbs.

Starting my last lap felt amazing. I had done enough; it was just a case of completing, I was going to ‘enjoy’ this one! Taking it easy on the climbs, looking at the view, blasting the down hill sections, having a chat with other racers.

Completing the final lap was a relief, I had done it. My first solo 24 hour win. I feel it was fitting that it was at sleepless and it had been wet and horrible.

Writing this report a week later I can now say that I did enjoy it. It was extremely tough going at the start and I finished feeling totally wasted.  But that’s the point. We don’t do these things because they’re easy.

Safe to say though that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this win without the support from my pit crew, who have to go through as much of a test of endurance as I do.

As a team we’ve learnt a lot, with every race we’re working out new tricks with food and drink and pit tactics.

Many thanks to Pat and the rest of the race team for another high quality well organised race.

Thanks to all my friends and family for their words of encouragement and to the other racers for creating a friendly atmosphere.

A huge thank you to my very loyal support crew for their commitment, this win has been many year’s in the making.

Many thanks for the continued support from my sports and conditioning coach Tim at Kinetic three sixty his individual focused training programs have given me greater focus during training sessions and very importantly aloud me to train harder minimizing the risk of injury!

Also a shout out to The Bike tree a great friendly independent bike shop in Sheffield, it was a pleasure to represent you guys at another successful race!

I won’t be defending this win next year, time to give sleepless a rest for a little while, this will give me time to concentrate on a few other races in the calendar… I will be back though!

results can be found here…

Here’s the strava log for those who are that way inclined…
The first 18 hours before the Garmin died!

Bontrager Twentyfour12 2012 TORCHBEARER 12

Riders ; Pete Crawforth

The Bontrager 24 twelve had always been on my list of races to do and this year with a shift in dates making it earlier than normal it seemed almost rude not to make the trip down to Plymouth to check it out. In preparation for this year’s Sleepless in the Saddle the 12 hour option seemed perfect and since the ‘normal’ (midday start)) category had filled up early the torchbearer (midnight start) option took my fancy. I love riding in the dark, I enjoy staying up all night, this would be a good race!

I had decided when the entries went live that I wasn’t going to be doing Mountain Mayhem this year and when that weekend came around it was hit with some of the wettest weather ever. Most events that weekend had been cancelled but unsurprisingly Mayhem went ahead. At the time part of me felt a bit gutted that I had chosen not to go to the race but as the pictures were coming in over twitter I felt I had perhaps dodged a very muddy bullet!

Typically our very wet British summer continued and by the time the weekend of the race came round England had been hit by further rain storms which forced many other events to cancel at short notice. When I set off early Friday morning I optimistically kept thinking “this race is in the south….that’s closer to the equator.. its bound to have missed the worst of it!” Sure enough by the time I had arrived at Newham Park the locals began reassuring me that it had been ‘pretty much’ dry all week and that the course holds up ‘reasonably well to wet weather’… there was still hope!

After a very stormy night stopped me from getting much sleep through constantly thinking the tree that I had pitched under was going to fall on top of me. When I woke up I was greeted to a very wet morning. With my race starting at midnight I had a very relaxed day in store that pretty much went along the lines of… Eat, do a practice lap and get very muddy, have a shower, fit the mud tyres!, eat, watch the days tour stage, eat, get a sports massage, eat, do some more bike preparation, eat, get another sports massage, eat a little bit more, have a nap, jump on the turbo for a quick warm up, ride to the start line… Race
Midnight was getting closer and the torchbearers began to line themselves up under the starting arch. The usual 10 second warning was given, gps started, lights turned on… and go we were off. I knew my legs were feeling good, I wanted to do well in this race and leading from the front was my aim. As soon as we were let off I bolted, the only words I then heard behind me was a ‘oh bloody hell’ this was how I wanted to do it :-). The course left the main arena area and crossed a narrow bridge at that moment I noticed that my main light was off. Quickly turning it back on, it immediately turned off again, on off on off.. ARSE! I turn straight back around and head to the Exposure tent, the guys there obviously saw the urgency on my face and loaned me a replacement, thanks guys!
This wasn’t exactly in the game plan! But better it happen at the start than half way round! Making sure I didn’t miss any part of the track I made sure I restarted at the beginning of the course, at least now I knew that I had everyone to chase down!
The weather had been pretty much nonstop rain all day and it had taken its toll on the course. The race organisers had taken the right decision early on and closed off some of the worst section and opened up others, this maintained a really enjoyable course that I looked forward to starting every time. I think that was made all the more possible with the right tyres, I went with maxxis medusa which could cut through the very wet stuff and actually find some grip. Still riding determined to close down all the riders who I thought were ahead of me I managed to maintain a reasonably fast tempo up over my first 3 laps. I took a second to look at the timing tent at spotted that I had gained 1st. It turned out I had actually taken 1st by the end of my first lap. It was around the 3rd or 4th lap that my support crew had joined me after making the heroic trip down from Nottingham, this obviously gave me a massive boost and the pit stops became much more efficient. The weather made eating on the bike reasonably tricky since I never really fancied a mouth full of mud every time I went to grab something out of my jersey pockets. Each lap on the bike I managed to eat a mule bar, 4 shot blocks and in the pits I crammed down four or five mouth fulls of pasta which was washed down with a tasty gel.

For the first 6 hours I was running on auto pilot the bike was working reasonably well, a few gears would skip but the wheels kept on turning and the breaks where working nicely. During the night laps I rarely kept track of exactly where I was on the track so it always seemed a bit of a shock each time I found that I was on the last down hill, time was passing pretty quickly. When the sun came up I started to look up occasionally, it always surprised me when I saw that there was actually a nice view. But in keeping my head down I was able to maintain a nice and consistent lap time.
Always look forward to the sun rising as your body totally wakes up by this point and the sun was properly out for my 7th lap. However, the feeling of changing into a fresh pair of shorts and a new jersey was probably one of the best highlights of the race. When I hit the first big climb the camera man had his mini helicopter out which closely followed me up the first hill. Feeling obliged to look my best I put a little more extra effort in, hopefully he captured it. 😉

Funnily the last couple of laps where my hardest, I usually look forward to finishing really strong and normally speed up a little but after a lap of really painful stomach cramps and forgetting to have a gel my body was starting to feel the effort. Fortunately I managed to maintain my lap times and it was only when I was within the last 1 km of the last lap, did I realise that it was over and I started to smile again. Now I knew that I was ahead of the torchbearer race in the end I managed to lap second place 3 times, but a big target mine was to put in a competitive equivalent time that would have put me on the podium of the midday starters. By Keeping up a pace that felt comfortable throughout the whole race my time was equivalent to 3rd in the day time starters, which considering my race was almost like a time trial this fills me with a lot of confidence.

Crossing the finish line and hearing my name being called out as the winner was a great feeling and one that I’m hoping to replicate this year at Sleepless.

Many thanks firstly to my support crew for making the epic midnight journey down, the bike tree and to the race organisers for putting on a very enjoyable race which I plan to return to next year.

BUSC XC. Time to stand up and deliver. Show your colours and do your university proud.
BLACK AND GOLD! Ride Hard or Ride Home!

For the first time BUSC XC was run as a separate event on a different weekend and at a different location to the BUSC Downhill champs. The new format will have suited most of the XC monkeys taking part with the short 4.8Km circuit at Birchall Golf course offering long sustained climbs and tight and twisty singletrack.
All thoughts were on this year’s race being a complete wash out, a week of high winds and rain leading up to it made it seem certain. Though a change in the forecast proved correct and Sunday was treated with some much needed sunshine. Unfortunately though the damage was done and the track water logged; the climbs, singletrack, descents, everything. But there was still hope, it became quickly apparent when doing the sighting laps Birchall has good fun mud! Non of that peanut butter sticky crap anywhere, good times!
Riding in the championship category for the mighty University of Sheffield was Lucy Harris, Robin Groves, Ross Phelps and myself. The race start was at 13:00 with sign on starting at 9. Arriving in good time we all managed to sign on and fit in a few practice laps before the start of the sport race. As with all BUSC events the atmosphere was relaxed, though as the hour approached the Turbo trainers or in Robin’s case his set of rollers were brought out and everyone’s warm up routine started. Realising that it usually takes the best part of 3 hours to get my legs feeling steady I decided to start my warm up very early.

(Click pictures to make them bigger!)

and the prize for the loudest turbo goes to Robin!

UoSCC don’t mess around

Max effort

OK? good? lets go win

All good things start with a good lunch

As we lined up and got ready for the start we were called forward to our grid position. The guy in the straw hat sombrero was sent to the back. We got the call saying we would start anytime in the next 15 seconds, 2 seconds later the gun went off and the fight for the first corner was on.

Focused on the prize

waiting to be gridded

The first climb blew the field apart with the top guys taking advantage of the clear track. Elbows were out round the first couple of tight corners which lead onto the long waterlogged heartbreak hill climb, here I found maintaining a high cadence was key picking a gear and sticking with it till the end. Once the climb levelled off the wet off-camber rooty singletrack was our next treat this lead onto what I thought was the most annoying section of swamp. Still on a slight climb, it was always possible to ride through it reasonably quickly but only if your line was right and you could maintain your momentum. If however, you slipped, hit a root wrong or were caught behind another rider you would start pin-balling between the trees. The water leap required a well-timed dismount and remount just to look pro for the bunch of loud spectators who offered much needed encouragement to all the passing riders. From here it always felt as if the course was downhill all the way with the best techy singletrack sections made all the more fun in the slippy conditions. The last steep drop attracted the most supporters who were all hoping to catch a good fall, I’m pleased to say I was able to offer them one of my best on my third lap.

ready for the climb?

Loving the singletrack

After what felt like a reasonably steady first lap making sure I didn’t go into the red to early my second lap felt awful. Slow through the swamp and with silly mistakes which got worse and worse causing me to wrap my bar end around a tree and take a tumble. The riders that I was closing down on disappeared off out of sight and a few had caught me up and passed me, not happy. When I started my second lap I looked behind to see Ross making some gains, he was obviously riding well. In races like these which break apart so quickly, I always find it difficult to ride with that little bit extra pace. I kept picking riders up ahead to close down as quickly as I could, though at this point we had begun to start lapping some riders so judging the pace of the race was tricky. By the end of the race the conditions were starting to improve in parts but in others like the climb and the swamp they were still energy sapping. Each lap I feel I easily lost 2 minutes a lap over the top guys who would have been flying through these sections which over a 5 lap race is a considerable margin.

Hitting the descent

weight back no messing

Allez Allez

cant wait here long..

Robin putting in a passing move

Loving it

Lucy gave Sheffield University something to really shout about with a closely fought out 4th place putting in consistent laps on the demanding course. I finished 12th with Ross and Robin finishing 20th and 27th respectively. Which out of a starting field of just under 100 riders can be seen as is a solid performance from all.

*** 6th overall team. 7 busc points in the bag, nice!***

does almost look like a I can do a wheelie!

job done

‘do you remember that wet bit?’

always good to beat Cambridge

Even nicer to beat Hallam…. again

This will be my last ever BUSC event and it was a pleasure to represent the mighty BLACK and GOLD

log from my garmin.. forgot to press the lap button each time

Wow what a race! SPAM Biking Erlestoke Twelve we salute you. 

Riders
Pete Crawforth
Andy Douglas

We had been looking forward to this race pretty much since last year’s race finished. Erlestoke offers such a great racing venue with sharp punchy climbs which are duly rewarded with nicely flowing singletrack descents. Even when the racing got really tough, I still couldn’t wait to get back out to try and get the next lap nailed just a bit quicker.

In true British fashion the weather leading up to the race had been all over the place. The previous Saturday had been absolutely freezing and I had begun to fear a wet race was in order. However, the temperature began to steadily rise and we were treated with one of the hottest days of the year with hot headwinds, blistering sun and dusty trails, nice.

The track followed pretty much the same route as it did last year with a few well thought out alterations which created a very fast and flowing course. We managed to get in a sighting lap the night before and this fuelled our enthusiasm for what was in store.

Our initial plan was to ride the whole race doing two laps stints, this worked pretty well for us last year but this time round race day was a lot hotter and the temperature was going to keep rising. So we decided not to come up with a solid race plan and to pretty much see how we felt the moment the race started.

Andy used his rapid off the mark skills to get us a great position the moment the race started with a quick lap around the camp site before hitting the track proper. As usual it began with a fast and flowing downhill into the first section of trees which had a couple of sections which required some care to ensure any valuable speed wasn’t lost. After a small new field section, which rode faster than initially expected on the practice run, we hit the second singletrack section which was being run in reverse from the year previous, again a faster improvement. Then came the tough field climb which lead onto the heartbreak road climb though light was always at the top since it always seemed that from here it was pretty much downhill all the way. With some of the tightest racing singletrack a lot of time could be lost/gained by hitting the right line and maintaining momentum. This half of the track always made the big smile on my face even cheesier

So by the time Andy completed our second lap and had passed on the baton to me, he had managed to get us ahead of the whole field which was a great feeling but I could feel the riders from Lumicycle and cycleshack powering down. I managed to hold them off for the first of my two laps but half way round my second I had begun to start feeling the heat and after emptying my bottles, drinking became the only thing on my mind. When we transferred Andy shouted exactly what I wanted to hear “single laps from now on!” Since this was the first real heat of the year both of our bodies weren’t particularly acclimatised, riding the single laps allowed us to cool our core temperature consume a bottle or two of fluids and whatever food we could stomach. After five laps we were holding a close third spot and the pace wasn’t showing any sign of slowing. I suffered a couple of unfortunate crashes which put a bit of distance between us and second but Andy did what he does best and managed to close it again to less than 30 seconds. Then I was hit with a bizarre mechanical which resulted in my chainstay protector being bent, this in turn jammed my cranks solid. I had to turn back into the pits and stop. As I started to assess the damage, a stranger pushed me out of the way picked up my bike and put it on his maintenance stand. He pulled the cranks off and managed to rip the rest protector plate off, quickly reattached the cranks and send me off on my way. All in all I lost just over 5 minutes but as far as I’m concerned that guy saved our race.. So whoever you were THANK YOU!

From this point my race began to get a lot better my legs loosening up and the heat cooled down. After a bowl of pasta I went out for two laps which allowed Andy to recover and for him to then power through two laps of his own. From this point we felt we could start making some gains and went back to finish on single laps. We were back up to full speed and feeling happy. Putting in the overtaking move which put us into second felt great. It was a shame that first place had managed to pull out a lead which at this point, incidents aside, couldn’t be closed. Their lead had begun to fall from the max of twelve minutes to the finishing gap of just over eight minutes.

In the end we managed to finish with just over a minute to spare.m and a whole lap over 3rd place. This put us second in our category and forth overall in the whole race, all finishing on the same number of laps.

A big congratulations needs to be sent out to everyone who took part, the weather definitely played its part.

As part of our group of riders taking part we also enjoyed great success in the team of 4 6 hour male and female pair Rebecca bright and Lucy Harris both winning their respective categories. 12 hour rookie competitors Tom and Andy ‘Yorkshire Gold’ put in a solid performance finishing 11^th in the pairs event.

A big thanks to the PedalPursuits support crew which managed to make it for the final part of the race their enthusiasm and regimental order managed to lift all of our spirits.

Thanks to SPAM Biking, CHARGE, Red Bull, the marshals and the owners of the land for facilitating one of the best races of the year. Hope to see you all again next year!

…insert your brand here… with consistent results like these PedalPursuits is in search of sponsors.We can offer positive exposure at events like these across the UK.

Contact
[email protected]

The sun was out for a change at today’s middle in Pickering. It led to a false sense of security with bone dry roads and forest tracks, turning into the wettest of forest bog you could imagine!
The route generally consisted of hammering along fire-roads then deciding the best way into controls to avoid too much bog snorkelling.

Before the event I did the school boy error of a new chain on an old cassette so kept to my biggest 2 rings most of the way round to avoid skipping gears. Makes for a high cadence! I also had an awesome over the handle bars- one of those where you can’t quite believe you’re not injured! A few difficult route choices had to be made and i think may have cost a couple of minutes.

All in all I was pleased the bike held up enough to actually race and pleased with a good result.
Results