Twelve Hours of Cumberland

[iross]

Just a small TS showing at this one, but at least one of us did an AWESOME job.

The format is: as many laps of a ca. 8.5 km course through the woods above Cumberland in 12 hours as possible, either in teams of four or two (one rider out at a time) or solo. The course was pretty technical, with a lot of short steep climbs, a lot of roots, some fast swoopy downhills and a baking hot portion through a clearcut up on top of the hills. The trails around Cumberland are great, and the course was just about perfect for an event of this sort. Fast people were pulling off 36 minute laps near the beginning. The fastest I managed was about 44m45s, though I might have shaved a few seconds off that if I hadn't crashed head first into the bushes.

Anyway, first the small fry. Me and Rita decided to race with a team of four at the last minute (4:45 on Friday evening!) so drove up on Friday, camped at the lake, then made our way to the start early Saturday morning to meet our teammates (Dee Stevens and Alex Hui). We were more of a social team than a racing team, so didn't have any big expectations from the day. We ended up doing 13 laps in total, which is not so bad - we had someone out on the course the whole time, and the rest of us laid around in the shade in the park where the race was being run from, chilling out, enjoying the free drinks and fruit and barbecue, talking with other riders, and sheltering from the hot sun. It was a good day!

But now for the big fish! Glenowyn rode solo, and racked up 12 laps to come in first place in the women's solo event (for the 3rd time!). At the end of her penultimate lap, she was lying on the floor as we fed her watermelon, looking not so good, but when she heard that she'd only (only!) done 11 laps, she jumped right back on her bike and cranked another one out.

These long mountain bike races are pretty demanding, both physically (you're constantly changing your pace of work between climbs, descents and technical sections, you're often anaerobic, and you need to concentrate really hard to stay on your bike) and psychologically (another friend of ours just didn't have it in him on Saturday, and more or less bailed after only a few laps).

Being on a team makes these things a whole lot easier. At one point, I did 2 laps back to back, and I felt like I'd been kicked by a donkey when I stopped. Doing 12 in a row is pretty unimaginable. Glen is tough.

The men's winner, Andrew Brown, did 17 laps, and the second place man, with 16 laps, was Jamie Cameron, who some of you may know.

Oh, and what did Glen win? You must all be dying to know what amazing prize you get for such a hard race! She got... a mug.

[Roland]

Nice work.

That sounds like pretty much the dumbest event ever, I'll have to do it next year.

[Lister Farrar]

Nice work.

That sounds like pretty much the dumbest event ever, I'll have to do it next year.

I thought you said you were done with epic events?

Way to go Glen, Ian and Rita. The lying around in a park eating bit sounded good. Can I sign up for just that?

[Rita]

Lister, you could be the first 4-member family team next year. There were a father & daughter and a mother & daughter team this year, both won their respective categories.