D
Duncan
Guest
Hello,
I'd written the following on a local list I'm on and thought I'd share it
here. I had my first crack at solo in an 8 hour enduro and it didn't quite
go to plan....
"
The day started quite well, beautiful weather and all the slick
production values we've come to expect from FGP events. I'd chosen to
ride the fixie as the field was quite small and I didn't want the
pressure of trying to be competitive. The first lap was pretty awkward
as I'd forgotten how much harder the fixie is to ride with such a small
gear (34:16). I did manage to avoid two Troy Bailey pile ups so that
was good.
The second lap was much nicer with an almost empty track and I'd found
my groove over the multitude of logs and such. Those on-one forks were
really pummeling my hands though as you can't relax much coming into
rutted corners with only a front brake and spinning pedals.
Turns out my hands weren't the only things getting pummeled. As I was
exiting one of the last berms on the commonwealth games course I suddenly
found
myself free falling towards the sharp rocky surface. I didn't have time
to roll and took the full force on my right elbow/forearm. It took all
of about half a second to figure what happened when I saw half a
handlebar lying next to me.
I was bleeding a lot so wanted to get back ASAP. Dirt Crit rider Garth
was a few minutes behind me and he insisted he help but he was now in
first place with Troy not far behind so I eventually convinced him to
keep going. I nearly crashed a second time riding a half handlebarred
bike back to transition, I think that would've made me cry.
St Johns did a great job cleaning me up but they needed to send me off
to get stitched up. Big thanks to Shane from BSC for driving me to
hospital, not too much of a wait and three stitches in the leg where the
bar cut me and 6 stitches to the arm. People were guessing 15 stitches
for the arm which it would've been if there was enough flesh left to stitch.
Once I got back to the event a few people had been trying to find me a
replacement handlebar to finish the race. Big thanks to Rich for
lending me a set of risers. I felt pretty good so I went back to the
stack site to finish that lap. Five hours and 14 minutes was pretty
slow but I did have a major detour.
Deciding to do another 20km lap was possibly one of the stupidest
decisions I've made in quite some time as only after a few kilometres I
was becoming painfully aware that the anaesthetic was wearing off and I
had a lot more injuries than I originally knew about. I now know what
it must feel like to operate a jackhammer with a badly bruised and
sprained left hand.
For the first time in an enduro I joined the queue to wait for the clock
to tick down before crossing the line.
"
I'd written the following on a local list I'm on and thought I'd share it
here. I had my first crack at solo in an 8 hour enduro and it didn't quite
go to plan....
"
The day started quite well, beautiful weather and all the slick
production values we've come to expect from FGP events. I'd chosen to
ride the fixie as the field was quite small and I didn't want the
pressure of trying to be competitive. The first lap was pretty awkward
as I'd forgotten how much harder the fixie is to ride with such a small
gear (34:16). I did manage to avoid two Troy Bailey pile ups so that
was good.
The second lap was much nicer with an almost empty track and I'd found
my groove over the multitude of logs and such. Those on-one forks were
really pummeling my hands though as you can't relax much coming into
rutted corners with only a front brake and spinning pedals.
Turns out my hands weren't the only things getting pummeled. As I was
exiting one of the last berms on the commonwealth games course I suddenly
found
myself free falling towards the sharp rocky surface. I didn't have time
to roll and took the full force on my right elbow/forearm. It took all
of about half a second to figure what happened when I saw half a
handlebar lying next to me.
I was bleeding a lot so wanted to get back ASAP. Dirt Crit rider Garth
was a few minutes behind me and he insisted he help but he was now in
first place with Troy not far behind so I eventually convinced him to
keep going. I nearly crashed a second time riding a half handlebarred
bike back to transition, I think that would've made me cry.
St Johns did a great job cleaning me up but they needed to send me off
to get stitched up. Big thanks to Shane from BSC for driving me to
hospital, not too much of a wait and three stitches in the leg where the
bar cut me and 6 stitches to the arm. People were guessing 15 stitches
for the arm which it would've been if there was enough flesh left to stitch.
Once I got back to the event a few people had been trying to find me a
replacement handlebar to finish the race. Big thanks to Rich for
lending me a set of risers. I felt pretty good so I went back to the
stack site to finish that lap. Five hours and 14 minutes was pretty
slow but I did have a major detour.
Deciding to do another 20km lap was possibly one of the stupidest
decisions I've made in quite some time as only after a few kilometres I
was becoming painfully aware that the anaesthetic was wearing off and I
had a lot more injuries than I originally knew about. I now know what
it must feel like to operate a jackhammer with a badly bruised and
sprained left hand.
For the first time in an enduro I joined the queue to wait for the clock
to tick down before crossing the line.
"
