Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda
Its been 4yrs since the last 24hrs of
N-duro, 2009 there was 6 females on the line, but really only two contenders,
while Jude did her best and finished
third, but back then Jude was far from where she is today, things that I considered simple were tripping Jude
up, she was far from cleaning the course.
On Saturday 6 ladies lined up and IMHO 2
maybe 3 in with a definite chance of the
win and any of the 6 had chance of a podium,
the men’s field was a bit unknown with only Thomas Lindup with any history I was aware of in 24hr racing, so it was
really his to lose.....Could the young Ryan
Hunt give him a hurry up ?
Back up a Week:-
Waiting for components to arrive so we
could build Jude’s race bike, it didn’t help ordering some wrong parts, Tuesday night Jude finally
got to do a carpark test on it, Wednesday
it got loaded into the van ready to leave Thursday Morning. The trip was pretty
uneventful, arriving at the forest to drying trails,
Jude took the race bike out for its first
off road ride, luckily for me it went ok. On Friday I woke early to see a red
sky dawning, not a good sign but I took advantage of it and headed down to the local Golf Course with my camera
and got (IMHO) some pretty cool pics
Later that morning we rode a full lap all
of the single track on the course with Jude happily riding the whole course,
this didn’t really take the pressure off me, I was churning inside, while Helen
and I have supported Jude before, we haven’t actually got it right and last
time I supported Jude alone, I also got
it wrong. I really didn’t want this one to go wrong at our end, Jude and I had redesigned the laptop
programme after its flaws of the previous version but it was still untested, but what Charlotte
had shown us at the Scott last year a paper backup worked well,
For Jude we need to make sure we are giving
the correct amount of food and fluids to keep her ticking correctly for the
whole 24hrs, when we get it right as at
the Scott Jude’s lap times are not much different at the end from the
start.......the pressure was on
We had put up our ezi-ups on Friday arvo so
we had a good spot in Solo alley. Friday night it rained and rained hard, by
the time we headed down to the venue Saturday morning the rain had stopped but
it was forecast to come back around Mid-night, just before noon the small field
lined up for the start. Jude was pleased with no le Mans start, the early laps
went ok for Jude, swapping places with Charlotte who was having a crack at
single speeding the 24hr.
Thomas was smashing out laps like any good
team rider, someone really needed to remind him he was a team of one! Erin
Greene was also setting a cracking pace
with Megan D doing her best to hang on.
Kim Hurst was sitting third riding what seemed to be her own race, not a
place we are used to seeing her, especially in the longer races she has done to
date, but then this was her first crack at a 24hr
We in the tent had our side under
control....or more so Helen did, we still had some hiccups with laptop
programme, but with Helen running the manual system and the lappy running a lot
better than it had in the past for me, we had a good grasp on Jude’s food
situ.
With it being an overcast day we put the
lights on early, also with the long laps we didn’t want Jude to get caught out
in the dark parts of the forest. Then at about 9pm the heavens opened, the next
lap Jude came in asked if it was ok to walk lots..... what could I say...what
she does out on the track is up to her....she came in the end of the next lap
for a battery change and some mash, a lot more upbeat as she had ridden
everything that had worried her the lap before, I also sent her out on her
spare bike as I had decided a bigger front tyre might help on the race bike
A lap later she came in and said it was
getting dangerous out there with branches & debris falling onto the trails,
she said she had crashed twice and her confidence was taking a hit and really
didn’t see the point of continuing, (bear in mind Jude hadn’t done a dry multi
lap (including about 9 x 4, 5, 6, 12, 24hr) event since 2010
At
this point about 1am I
agreed, I couldn’t see any point in
continuing to race in such atrocious weather after Jude had done how many
laps/hours knee deep in mud destroying gear, Not long after that Erin came in
also complaining about the debris and mini slips, Jen Reilly also pulled the
pin at about 1:30am
About 3am I had noticed Megan was taking a
really long stop and had trouble going out again, I guess the wheels had fallen
off her bid for the win, also both
Thomas’s bikes were parked up,
I guess it was taking its toll
I guess it was taking its toll
Figuring that when daylight arrived the
rain should have stopped and Jude could go out again. She was grabbing some kip
in the van, I woke her up just as it was dawning about 6am, telling her it was
time to get some food in as it had stopped raining,
Just as she was about to put her riding kit
on it chucked it down again well that put an end to that.
So I grabbed the bacon and eggs headed over
to the BBQ and cooked up some breakfast. I also txt’d Dean to find out if he
was bringing his bike down, the answer was yes. When he arrived I kitted up and
headed out with him to see how much damage the overnight rain had done?
But at the end of the first lap, the lack
of sleep and 14 hrs of standing showed in my calves as they tried to
cramp. A couple of magnesium tablets and
we were off or the second loop, although the track had stood up well to the
rain, we could see where at 1 in the morning and pouring with rain it would
have been very easy to put it on the ground, some of the downs had got very
rutted, corners at the bottoms had got poggy, some of the bigger roots had got
more exposed, and defiantly more debris laying on the trails
Over the next few days both Jude and I did
some soul searching and questioned what we had done? As I have said in the past
and will say it again, solo racing is team racing at its best, and at the end
of the day I blame myself for this result, while we learned a lot, and as Jude
said you can learn more from a failure the from a perfect result, I took the easy option, I didn’t read the
situation correctly, never even bothered to consider the options, letting Jude
stop at the time was easy........Sorry but in the days after it wasn’t. Jude
doesn’t put in hours of training ,spend large amounts of coin keeping her bikes
in top condition, we don’t travel to events early to dial the course’s, the
list goes on....Just to give up
At prize giving there were plenty of
prizes, even the support crews got
called up, I scored a free entry for
next year....we’re going to be back (in
summer I hope)
And there ain’t going to be any
"woulda-shoulda-coulda" only “Done!”
