2011 TEAM NEWS THURSDAY, JANUARY 20

First things first, Happy New Year! It's been very quiet on here for a few months since the end of the 2010 season but behind the scenes it has been very busy indeed.

The Bike Mechanic racing team is to be re-branded for the 2011 season, and along with an exciting sponsorship and support agreement with Loco MTB Suspension Servicing and Tuning, will be reborn as Loco BM Racing.

A huge thanks goes to Simon, owner of Loco, for the time and support he's giving the team. Simon comes from an engineering background and has worked in the industry for over 10 years. During this time he's spent several years as a Fox Racing Shocks technician and has a wide knowledge and experience of other major brands. Loco Tuning is based in New Tredegar, Gwent, South Wales, and comes highly recommended.

The Bike Mechanic will continue as normal, but I felt, with the continuing success of the team at events in 2009 and 2010, it was a good opportunity to set the team up as a separate entity, whilst keeping a close link with The Bike Mechanic.

The team also has support from Clee Cycles and their KCNC range of products, Harris Active Sports for our sports nutrition needs, as well as training plan support from Chris Eatough, professional mountain biker and 6-time 24-hour Solo World Champion.

Joining us for 2011 is Dave Buchanan, bringing with him his rugged good looks, humour and valued friendship. He's also pretty good on a bike too. On March the 22nd 2009, Dave became the pioneering rider of the first offroad Welsh Coast 2 Coast ride (WC2C). A fully unsupported winter ride that took 22hrs 24min and 49secs.

This wasn't enough for Dave so for 2011 he plans to attempt "The Hobbits' Tale", a massive and scary undertaking which should be the longest ever non-stop offroad ride. The Guinness World Record™ will be for "The greatest distance covered on a mountain bike in 48hours." The official guidelines are based on flat distance and ignores height gain. It's also suggested that it be done on an athletics track.

So...

...This will be a solo ride (supported by his friends, sponsors and believers) through Wales' toughest singletrack and climbs. The data collected indicates that it is a 630Km, 22300m ascent, and it *should* take 48-52 hours.

Also joining us will be Jonny Williams, from Beyond925 fame, already half a member from previous years, and Scott's partner in a few pairs events last year, but now has officially joined us.

2011 should be a very exciting year for us and we are already entered into a number of events, some as early as February.

This will probably be the last team entry here, and further team news will be posted up on the Loco BM Racing website at www.bm-racing.co.uk once it is up and running.

MACMILLAN AFAN MONSTER 100KM TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

I've been away working for a few days so haven't had a chance to post the outcome of this. Well, I won it with the fastest time of 6 hours 8 minutes, which was quite unexpected, but I am very happy about it. Not sure whether I should use the word "win" as it was all for charity, but it felt like a race, and I rode it as if it was a race, and I crossed the line first so, yeah, I "won" it.

The organisers, mostly from Rush Cycles promised a monster challenge and it was the hardest 100km I've ridden so hats off to them for delivering what they promised. On top of that, they couldn't have asked for a nicer autumn day, with stunning clear views of the whole of the Brecon Beacons in the distance.

The ride started at The Bryn Bettws Lodge and I rode the first 40 to 50km with Dave and it was a pretty sociable affair, happily chatting away on the flats and climbs and it seemed to be going well for us both. I'd leave Dave on the longer climbs while he'd catch me up on the downs (the boy's too fast on them sometimes. I think it's his shoes, or glasses, or gloves, or something), but overall we were riding together.

The route took us up the first of many climbs for a bit of a warm up, before looping back onto the Wall descent, past start at the Bryn Betws Lodges and down the final Wall descent before crossing over the valley to the Afan Argoed visitor centre and a nasty technical climb out onto the moor towards Cymer. I'm not fond of hike-a-bike action and prefer the challenge of impossibly steep climbs. I rode most of this section apart from a couple of stretches, while most pushed, so although it probably wasn't the best thing to do during the first 10km of a 100km ride, I had some satisfaction out of it and it got me properly warmed up and settled for the remaining 90km.

The next challenge was the long climb out of Blaengwynfi, making me shudder with the memories of the last time I was on this fireroad when I got my work (Forestry Commission) van stuck on a site visit, with no mobile phone signal, 5pm on a Friday night with darkness fast approaching....It's scary out there! Anyway, I digress. It was a long climb. At the top we were rewarded with some Skyline singletrack.

Dave and I at this point were both convinced we had punctures, but it was the slightly damp sandy ground that was making things somewhat draggy. That is until Dave did actually pick up a tear in his back tyre. Running a tubeless there was no way it was going to seal, even after repeated attempts of stopping, pumping it up and riding on. The inevitable eventually happened and Dave had to stop to put a tube in. I didn't know this at the time as I'd headed down the last descent of Skyline, on a roll, as I was really enjoying the ride. At the checkpoint I hung around for Dave but there was no sign of him. With the clock ticking I headed off convinced he'd eventually catch up with me. But unfortunately the rest of the route was a pretty lonely affair. I'd been told I was the first to have passed through although I had no idea at that point I would actually be the fastest through as well (it was a staggered start between 7.30 and 9ish, so I assumed there'd be quicker guys coming up behind me).

Onwards and upwards I went, out from Abercregan onto the climb that crosses Whites Level and eventually reaching the 75km/100km cut off. There was no way I was going for the shorter option so rode on to get treated to some excellent descents on the 100km loop. But as they say, what goes down, must come back up, and up it went, up, and up and a bit more up. I cursed after passing the marshall point for the second time only to be told I was 60% up the climb, after I'd been climbing for what seemed like an age. I cursed. Twice.

The final few kilometres were a bit of a blur as I felt like I was just surviving, although according to my GPS and stats from it, I kept up the same pace I'd been doing throughout the race, if not a bit faster. I didn't feel like it, and by the time I was climbing back to the Bryn Bettws Lodge and the finish line I was hanging off the bike. But funnily enough after I got off and had the chicken sandwich I was looking forward to for hours (half of which Hamish the Hound stole) I felt fine.

We were treated to some excellent trails both known and unknown to me, joined together with some brutal climbs, that really did make this event a monster. I hope it stays a regular fixture in the MTBing calendar and it is also for a very good cause (Macmillan Cancer Care and Support Charity).

DUSKY VALLEYS 12 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6

Mark and I scooped the win at the Dusky Valleys 12 hour race last weekend, held at Bryn Bach Park, Tredegar. Not only winning the Men's 12-hour pairs category, but the overall win as well, with 33 laps.

This was the event's first year so we had no knowledge of what the course would be like. The event didn't disappoint and the course included some great climbing sections and some fast natural and man-made singletrack descents to make the climbing worthwhile. The course was very fast and short, so Mark and I were lapping in just over 20 minutes. We decided to stick to a one lap strategy which seems to work for us, even though it meant very short stops, just enough time to get back to camp, oil chain, eat and drink something before lining up to go out again.

Having been training for 24-hour soloing this year, and still recovering from my 24-hour solo at the Twentyfour12 and also recovering from a chest and ear infection just 2 weeks before the event, I didn't hold much expectation from the event but after the first couple of hours I found myself at the front, leading the race, having started out at a very fast pace (for me). I wasn't sure whether I could keep the same pace going but found myself lapping consistently in 20 - 22 minutes and I didn't seem to be tiring. Mark was also in high spirits and lapping in similarly fast times so we just kept going, and got into the "rhythm" of racing as a pair.

Within a couple of hours we realised we had a race on against the team from M&D Cycles in Abergavenny. They were on a one lap on one lap off strategy like us, and after a while they were taking the lead during one lap, only to be overtaken by us on the next. The gap between us stayed at 30 seconds for the first few hours, but the pressure and distance seemed to start taking its toll on them and our lead got progressively larger to about 5 minutes. At this point, I had a quick word with Mark at the changeover to keep our pace up, not do anything silly, and to quote "Show no mercy!". Five minutes was a good gap, but anything could happen to take that away and deny us the lead.

As the race progressed and got to the early hours, the prospect of actually winning the race started to become reality and I couldn't get that thought out of my head, which was risky as there was plenty of time for things to go wrong. As daylight came and with just an hour to go we were in to our final 3 laps. I'd worked out I'd have the final lap, so as I sat in the tent preparing myself for the final lap, having a cup of tea, watching the clock, I heard what I thought was my name being shouted across the campsite. "Can't be" I thought and continued to sip my drink. I heard the same again, and again, and it suddenly dawned on me, like a slap in the face that it was Mark back at the changeover waiting for me to take over for the final lap. I had completely misjudged the time that he'd be returning by about 5 minutes, which was our lead on 2nd place. I sprinted over to the changeover, throwing off jackets and other bits of clothing, shouted a rushed apology to Mark as I disappeared down the course, cursing at my stupidity at putting our lead in jeopardy!

On that final lap I kept looking over my shoulder for any signs of the M&D Cycles team as I knew that our lead was less than what it should have been from my timing mistake, but once I reached the top of the climb I knew I could finish off the race and cross the line to win the race. The feeling I had going through the last sections of singletrack was amazing, and I crossed the line elated, having won my first mountain biking race.

It was the first time Mark and I had raced as a pair since the Bontrager Twentyfour12 in July 2009 when we came 2nd. And bringing home a win at the weekend confirms that the combination still works as well as ever, which is good, considering we'll be racing together for 7 days in Canada in July 2011!

As well as our win though, there was also a fantastic first prize spot for Zoe in the women's 12-hour solo, Zoe's first night 12-hour race, and a 3rd place for Scott and Johnny in the Beyond Bike Mechanics team in the men's pairs.

As is often the case in events we were treated to some luxury and pampering from our good friends Dave and Jo "Blanche", making good use of their caravan and awning and drinking their tea and biscuits. Huge thanks as ever goes to them! And well done for getting the win in the mixed pairs category.

BONTRAGER TWENTYFOUR12 2010 TUESDAY, JULY 27

Now that I've had a few days to recover and get myself sorted from coming home from the Bontrager Twentyfour12 2010 I thought I should write up how I got on, after going on about it for some time now.

This was my first 24-hour solo event, and I surpassed all my expectations and finished in 4th place. I missed out on a podium, but I can't have everything and I'm not disappointed! Congratulations too to everyone else who was competing....

24-hour Men's Solo
Mark : 17 laps : 13th
Kieran : 16 laps : 16th
Al : 16 laps : 17th
Rich : 23 laps : 3rd

12-hour Men's Solo
Jon : 12 laps : 14th

12-hour Women's Solo
Anne : 10 laps : 4th
Zoe : 9 laps : 5th

12-hour Men's Pairs
Scott & Johnny : 16 laps : 10th

Full results and times are on Timelaps.

Louisa and I travelled down to Newnham Park in Plymouth on Thursday to make sure we had a nice camping spot along the track and also to leave ourselves enough time to settle in and relax before Saturday without the added stress of potential traffic jams on the M5 on a Friday. There were a number of us racing, and we managed to camp together making it a great spot for support and the usual trackside heckling.

I felt much more relaxed than I thought I would be until it hit me on Saturday morning and realising what I was about to attempt. Even then I couldn't quite get my head around the fact that I'd be riding, hopefully, non stop for 24 hours. I kept telling myself that I'd worked hard to train and prepare for this event and that I needed to be confident that my training would pay off.

The weather forecast wasn't great for the weekend but Saturday ended up quite pleasant and the course was reasonably dry. As midday approached, we lined up for the start, finding a nice position not too far from the front so that the first lap didn't end up being a stop start affair due to the bottlenecks. Having only raced a 24-hour event in a team and a pair, I found it quite alien not to go off as fast and as hard as I could from the start, and even more weird having Mark (the usual "other half", that sounds wrong, err, team mate?) on the course at the same time as me!

I felt great from the start and was lapping in around 50 minutes for the first 10 laps. Having no experience of 24-hour solo racing, I didn't have a race plan as such as I don't think I would have been able to handle things if that plan broke down and I'd have to adjust to another strategy during the race. I decided to keep going as long as I could and keep to my drinking and eating plan (which I did plan well beforehand).

As darkness fell, so did the rain unfortunately, and conditions deteriorated in an alarmingly short space of time. The course went from fairly dry and fast, to wet, slippery gloop. Worse still my race bike, a Cannondale Rush, which I'd done 90% of my off-road training on, proved to be useless once the conditions started to get sticky, and I was forced to ride my spare bike, a Genesis Altitude, which turned out to be far better in the mud but wasn't quite set up the way I'd have wanted it do be. That said, I had to get my bike cleaned after every other lap which was very frustrating as it forced me to stop, when all I wanted to do was to keep going. Those extra few minutes of stopping may have done me some good giving me that little bit more time to recover after each lap, who knows.

As the night wore on I still felt ok physically, keeping up a steady pace, but my mind started to wander and was tempting me to want to stop and sleep. Luckily I'd been told this would happen and I just needed to fight through the feeling, so I was kind of prepared for it. The course emptied considerably during the night and as the conditions deteriorated I found myself riding long sections of the course on my own. I was determined not to be one of the ones to stop and go to bed, and managed to shut my mind off to the fact that it was my bedtime and the course was a muddy bog.

Another person who seemed to have the same thinking as me was Rich Holmes, riding for Cyclesense and a mate of mine, and we rode long sections together throughout the night. I knew Rich was a couple of laps ahead of me at the time, although I don't think either of us knew what position we were in. Even though he was ahead he gave me that little bit extra to keep going. Hopefully I helped him out by doing the same. One thing I have learnt though is never to try working out how many hours of darkness that was left after 14 hours of riding. Neither one of us got to the right answer, as it was still pitch black at the time we thought dawn should be. Very confusing.

Day broke just after 5am and it was a very welcome sight, as I'd been told once daylight came, I would have ridden through the hardest part of the race. That said, I still had 7 hours to go, so I plodded on. Before starting the race I'd asked Lou not to let me know my position, because if I found I was trailing at the back I'd get demoralised and if I was up near the front I'd push myself too hard too early to stay up there and burn up before the end. At around 6am (possibly, it could have been 10am) I wanted to know where I stood and to find out I was in 4th, just a lap behind Rich in 3rd was a huge boost. I was a lap in front of 5th so by mid morning I knew I was relatively safe, but I kept going and my lap times started getting steadily quicker towards the end.

With half an hour to go before 12, Rich called it a day as his 3rd place was safe, as was my 4th, but by then I'd made it my mission to complete the race with the same number of laps as him. I don't know why. So as I came around to Team HQ on my 22nd lap to a huge round of applause from everyone, I was then met with some confused faces when I asked Lou to pass me a fresh bottle and gels and I carried on going for another lap. Even more confused I think was the commentator at the finish line when I crossed the finish line at 11:45 and kept on going, when I could have just stopped and settled with 22 laps. I was given a huge cheer from the crowd that had gathered to watch the first finishers, and that was enough to get me going for one final lap.

The last lap was great, it had dried up considerably and the course was pretty fast once again. I gave my usual last-lap "thanks" to all the marshals and encouragement to the riders left on the course on their last lap. The feeling I had when I came back in to the event arena was phenomenal, not something I was prepared for. It was a mixture of relief, achievement, tiredness, a proper rollercoaster of emotions.

Lou was the first person I managed to focus on properly after I crossed the line and I gave her a big, tired and very muddy hug. I couldn't have done the race without her as she is such a massive support, along with the other WAGs (Wives and Girlfriends to those who don't know!) who were supporting us all. She's also been very patient and supportive over the last few months whilst I've been training for this, for which I appreciate.

I've just realised this entry is quite a long one, for which I apologise, but it was a long race! Now that I've got a 24-hour solo out of my system as it were, which was why I did it in the first place, looking back I really enjoyed it, and there wasn't one moment in the 24 hours where I wanted to quit, I'm now thinking not "if" I'll do another one, but "when" and "where".

One last thing.... huge thanks to Dave Buchanan and Jo ("Mrs" Dave Buchanan) for all their advice and encouragement before the race, and for the lights loan, and to Matt Page (Wiggle) for his advice on all sorts of things to do with 24-hour racing. It's really appreciated.

Some things that I found invaluable for my 24-hour solo effort....

* A good pair of racing socks, courtesy of our fashion guru, Scott
* 1 pot of Chamois cream
* 1 pot of Anti Monkey-Butt Powder and plenty of applications
* 6am pot of rice pudding

BC BIKE RACE 2011 TUESDAY, JULY 27

The Bike Mechanic Team are going international in June 2011 as Mark and myself have entered the Team of Two Category in the BC Bike Race 2011, a multi-stage mountain bike race from Vancouver to Whistler.

The race is split into 7 stages over 7 days, starting in North Vancouver before heading on to Nanaimo, Cumberland, Powell River, Earls Cove, Langdale, Squamish, and finishing off in the mecca of mountain biking, Whistler. Racing as a pair, Mark and I will have to race together and finish within 2 minutes of each other at the end of each stage.

We've been promised the best singletrack trails in British Columbia, along with spectacular scenery, and the menu choices for breakfast and dinner each day sounds amazing.

But for now it's back to Twentyfour12 training....

DUST, GLORIOUS DUST TUESDAY, JULY 27

I'm not even half way through washing the dust off everything I had with me this weekend at the Original Source Mountain Mayhem but I thought I would type some words to let everyone know how we got on. The Bike Mechanics had a great race this year, finishing in 26th with 24 laps, out of 200+ teams, our best result yet.

During our practice lap on Friday afternoon the heavens opened and I can't say I was that eager to get going on the Saturday. The course designers had been busy this year adding new sections and bringing in some old ones. Being so fresh, these sections had no chance of holding up in wet weather with thousands of riders cycling over them, and I thought if it was going to be wet, this year would be tough.

However, the forecast looked promising so we crossed fingers and hoped it would dry out and stay dry for the weekend, and thankfully it did. We stuck to our usual strategy of Mark doing the run and me going out second, followed by Jon then Andrew. Mark had a good run, starting at the front of the pack, even though he tripped and fell on the start line (I just wish I'd had a video camera), and he finished with a quick first lap.

It all went pretty smoothly for us all, no mechanicals or any major dramas, and we kept putting in consistent laps throughout the day. The course this year ended up being fantastic. Some of the new twisting sections through the woods were great and made the course far more interesting than previous years. This year also saw the return of the "land rover climb", a long, grassy track, which last appeared in my very first Mountain Mayhem, and my first 24-hour event in 2004. Back then all I remember of it was slipping, sliding and dragging my bike up a long hill of greasy mud, thinking "what the hell am I doing here?" but this weekend it was dry and dusty, and all part of the fun.

Being a normal training week for me (i.e. not a race week), I already had over 280km of riding that I'd done during the week in my legs before the start of the race, and I wondered how I'd cope with racing. I'd made sure I only did endurance rides during the week and kept the higher intensity training for the weekend. Luckily it paid off and I felt strong on all 7 of my laps.

This coming week is a rest week for me, with just some easy rides to do, for which I'm grateful for, as I feel like I need a rest. Then I'll be going in to my final 4 weeks of training for the Twentyfour12. I could only admire and respect the guys that were soloing this weekend, and many of them riding more laps than some of the teams. I just hope that I'll be one of them crossing the finishing line in a few weeks' time.

BRISTOL BIKEFEST 2010 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9

The team were out in force at the Bristol Bikefest last weekend with Jon and myself entered in the men's 12-hour pairs, Andrew and Mark in the men's 12-hour pairs singlespeed, and Scott and Zoe racing in the mixed 12-hour pairs.

First off, a huge congratulations to Mark and Andrew for finishing on the podium again in 3rd place with 24 laps! Apparently, the course didn't really suit singlespeeding this year (so I'm told), what with the relatively short sharp climbs and long pedally sections. On top of that the ground was hard and unforgiving with roots and rocks and allsorts. They both did it with rigid forks as well as only one gear. I prefer gears and suspension myself, far more sensible.

They beat us in 2009 by 10 minutes, but thankfully Jon and I were a lap up on them this year with 25 laps. Heh heh heh, sorry, had to get that in somewhere, not that there's any competitiveness within the team, honest.

Scott and Zoe came in 7th in their category with 22 laps, and Jon and myself finished 11th in our category with 25 laps.

This year was a tough event, a shorter but much faster course than the previous year and in hot, dry and dusty conditions. Jon and I put in a good effort to stay in the top 10 pairs from the start and we were doing really well and looking comfortable until I came back from one of my laps about 4 hours in to find Jon was missing!

Unfortunately he'd punctured and had problems with his brake pistons so while they frantically tried repairing it all at Team HQ, I had to go out for what I thought would be a few laps on my own. Luckily I only had to do an extra lap before Jon was up and running (or rather, riding) again, but we'd lost a fair bit of time, in what was already a very close contest for top 10.

Annoyingly on my next lap I punctured twice, so it lost us even more time. However, we battled on and fought our way back to 11th, and we finished just 20 seconds behind 10th.

There was a great turnout of friends this year racing in the solo, pairs and team categories, so there was a great atmosphere all around the course and plenty of people to talk to and encourage. On top of that the weather was great, which made the event one to remember.

As I've mentioned many times before, this was another "training ride" for me, albeit a rather intense one, and another opportunity to tweak my bike setup, drinks, nutrition etc in preparation for my 24-hour solo attempt at the Bontrager Twentyfour12 in July. Overall I was happy with everything. I seemed to be drinking enough fluid and getting enough energy gels and solids down me between laps, with very little ill effects.

I was even happy for the whole event, something which doesn't always happen. I had a surprised comment from Jo, Mrs Dave Buchanan, when I went to say hello between one of my laps, "What's wrong with you? You're happy!". Thanks Jo. And thanks for the mouthful of peanuts I had off you, I was still chewing them half way around that lap. Kept the cramp off though. But seriously, we're always grateful for the support and encouragement you give us at the events, top stuff.

Look out for us at the Original Source Mountain Mayhem at Eastnor Castle where we'll be racing in the Men's 24-hour Team category.

7.5 WEEKS TO GO TUESDAY, JUNE 1

The last 4 weeks seem to have flown by and preparations for the Twentyfour12 24-hour solo seems to have turned into an obsession. That's all I seem to think about these days although I try not to!

I've enjoyed following the first month of my three month training plan from Chris Eatough and I've managed to stick to it pretty rigidly so far. My time on the bike has increased and the various exercises I do during the week, although painful sometimes, seem to be paying off.

I raced at the Margam Big Welsh Weekend on the 30th May and entered the full 75km Marathon. It was meant to be a training ride for me under "race" conditions just to see how things were progressing and what needed working on still. I was very pleased with my 4 hours and 4 minutes and 20th spot amongst a field of very fast XC racers. Full results are available on Timelaps.

Zoe also raced the full 75km Marathon and a massive congratulations for getting onto the podium in 3rd place in the women's category.



The next month on the calendar looks interesting, even more hours riding (about 56 hours) and also the Bristol Bikefest this weekend and OS Mountain Mayhem on the 19th June.

Good luck to Mark and Andrew who will hopefully be out defending their crown in the 12-hour Men's Singlespeed category at the Bristol Bikefest, Zoe and Scott in the 12-hour mixed category and myself and Jon will be riding in the 12-hour Men's category.

A GOOD START MONDAY, MAY 24

I was hoping for a decent time for the Howies Dyfi Enduro this year and to at least get in to the top 50 riders like last year, but I wasn't expecting to come in 31st overall, 23rd in category, out of around 700 riders. Well done also to Jon, who finished within 4 hours, and also Scott and Zoe for finishing well (their first Dyfi attempt).

I had planned to use this year's Dyfi as a start to my last 3 months of training for the Twentyfour12 in July, and to highlight any part of my riding that I needed to work on, but as I started the first climb I felt strong and reached the top within minutes of the first wave of riders, so I decided to go for it and try to keep my place.

For me it was a fairly uneventful race until the end, no spills, punctures or mishaps, unlike many other riders who fell victim to the exposed rocky shale descents that defines the Dyfi Enduro course. I kept a steady pace but pushed hard on the climbs and took it easy on the descents, a strategy which seems to work for me.

There were a few changes to the course from previous years, with an added steep climb and an even steeper descent which made the ride more interesting. With 10km to go, and within the top 30, nearing the top of the bonus climb for the first 200 riders, I started to suffer with cramp and I had to ease off on the climb and spin. I managed to keep going but unfortunately got overtaken by a couple of guys so I dropped out of the top 30. Still, I had more than surpassed my expectations and was pleased to finish the last descent and the race in 31st in a time of 3 hours 24 minutes.

TWELVE WEEK COUNTDOWN SATURDAY, MAY 1

Today marks the start of the 12-week countdown to my first 24-hour solo attempt at the Bontrager Twentyfour12 in July and what better way to start it is with the Howies Dyfi Enduro tomorrow. It also marks the day when I'll be starting my new 12 week training plan for my solo attempt at the Twentyfour12. Not that I've not been training for the last few months!

Looking at the plan I can see that there are a few savage rides and weeks ahead of me, all geared towards improving my endurance and all aspects of my riding, and maybe near the top of the list, to condition me to get used to being sat in the saddle for so long! I'm under no delusion that anything I do will make it easier, but I hope that the preparation will at least give me a chance to see it through to the end and complete the race.

So, off I go to get my kit ready for an early start tomorrow, and what I hope will be a good start to my racing season.