Too fat to be a cyclist. Too skinny to be a weightlifter.

[Big Good Wolf]

I'm on the official British Cycling video for SITS, very briefly at about 4:55.
Stuffing my face with licorice as I cross the line to start my last lap at 23:48.

[soniczip]

nice so the race was both relay and single at the same time!? that's why i saw quite non fit cyclists and some which were way too fast for a 24h

[Big Good Wolf]

Yes, there's several categories all in the same race, solos, pairs and teams.
There's various levels of competitiveness as well.
Compare the guys in the blue shirts handing over in the transition area, where they fumble around with the wrist band, then the second rider makes a half hearted attempt at jogging out on to the track before slowly pedalling away, with the guy who comes in at 23:59:27, skids to a halt, hands over to his team mate, who then sprints out for a final lap.

The rules are that you have to finish the lap you're on at 24:00. Technically, finishing before then is a DNF. A lot of riders hang around on their last lap to avoid having to go out again. You can see them all trying to cross the line at 24:00:01.

[Big Good Wolf]

Four hour trailquest around Suckley, Worcrestershire.

The Suckley hills are a sort of Northern extension of the Malvern Hills. Bad news for me, I'm not a hill climber, I tend to do better on the flatter, faster courses.
I got lost after only the third control point. The tracks on the ground didn't seem to match those on the map and I came out on to a road, not really knowing which road it was, so I turned left hoping to find a land mark.
2km later, at the bottom of a steep hill, I got to a junction with a signpost and realised I had missed a turning for a bridleway and would have to go back up the hill on another lane and come in from the other end.
Less than an hour in and I had already resigned myself to a low placed finish. I decided to treat the rest of the event as a training ride and just attack every hill as some much needed practice.

I made reasonable progress from then on, until what should have been my third from last CP, where again, I completely lost the track I should have been on, did a big loop round the outside of a field looking for the correct exit, gave up and rode back the way I came in. 30 points missed and 10 minutes wasted.

I got back in 4:10 for 15 penalty points, having ridden 60km.

Looking at the provisional results, I was amazed to find that, having made two fairly big mistakes on a course that didn't suit me, I was 4th overall.

My route.

[soniczip]

this means you could've gone for at least the podium with no mistakes! well done anyway

[Big Good Wolf]

Thanks, we don't do podiums, we just pin everyone's score sheet up on a string in the hall. I could have had mine one place further to the left.
One of the things I like about trailquests is sitting around with the other riders afterwards discussing routes. It's a bit like 24 hour racing where it's not the fastest rider who wins, it's the one who stops least. With trailquesting, it's the one who gets lost least.

In other news, I've been taking photos on my commute again.
Is it ethical to sneak round the back of the safari park to look at the heffalumps without paying to get in ?

[bob_summers]

The tracks on the ground didn't seem to match those on the map

The OS are generally infallible but I've found a few errors when sabbing. Of course when you say the map's wrong, people always gonna blame the mapreader!

Grand result though, I guess riding around for 24hrs is gonna make most things seem easier!

[downhillingdemon]

I loves the hefalumps!

[Big Good Wolf]

There's more.



That's as close as I could get.
I wondered if I commuted that way every night when there's no one around I could befriend them and get them to come over to the fence.

I guess riding around for 24hrs is gonna make most things seem easier

Yeah, four hours is a long event for most people. It's a Two Waterbottle ride for me.

The results are up now.
I was 3rd.

[downhillingdemon]

I want to ride that path so I can see the hefalumps!!!!!

[IronGirl]

We do a Multi-Terrain race in the spring that goes past there. Never seen an elephant, but Mr I swears he saw a lion one year. Makes me want to go very quick to get past!

[Big Good Wolf]

According to their website, they've got lions, although I haven't seen them.
Hopefully they've got a bit more than a single layer of 2" weld mesh keeping them in.

[IronGirl]

According to their website, they've got lions, although I haven't seen them.
Hopefully they've got a bit more than a single layer of 2" weld mesh keeping them in.

You would hope so wouldn't you. When we went to Gambia we visited a "zoo" where they had a Lion fenced in with chicken wire. A couple of local kids were poking bits of straw at it.

[Big Good Wolf]

Three hour trailquest around Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire.

No major mistakes this time, apart from getting back too early.
I went for a CP down a hill through some woods with about 45 minutes to go.
It turned out to be a lot steeper than I expected, so once I'd got there, instead of turning round and pushing back up through the woods, I carried on down to the road at the bottom and rode back up the long way round.
Thinking I was going to run out of time, I headed more or less directly back with only two slight detours to pick up another couple of CPs.
I got back 6 minutes early and realised I could have gone for a slightly longer detour and got another 15 points, probably with no time penalty.

48km in 2:54
5th overall.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/115326090

http://www.aecmilitant.co.uk/mapping/os ... istory.gpx

[Big Good Wolf]

You know that feeling when you go hammering in to a corner and you realise at the last second that you're going too fast and this is going to hurt, then, somehow, you come out the other side wondering how you got away with ?
And you know that feeling when you're riding up a hill and you put in one final effort before the summit, only to find it carries on up even further and you've got to keep going ?
And you know that feeling when you've been stuffing your face with food and drink and it feels like if you have one more mouthful, the whole lots going to come back up ?
Well, I rode like that for 8 hours yesterday and finished 2nd/9 single speed, 12th/100 overall.
6 minutes down on 1st, 1 lap up on 3rd
http://www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/upload ... 2F2011#8hr Singlespeed Male

Full report & pictures to follow.