I had made my mind up in the weeks before that i wanted to do Ruthin's 100k merida again, after last years fast dusty course.
Shaun was going down to do it and so was damain so the plan was to meet them there at 8 am.
At 6.30 in the morning while i was still asleep my phone was ringing, i answered it to shaun asking if i was still going down, so replied yes why. He had wussed out because it had rained really hard all night and was still raining hard. Shaun went back to bed and i got ready and drove to Ruthin and met Damian.
The weather had improved all the drive down and it wasnt raining at all when i got there although i new the course was going to be a mud bath whatever now. It was a fairly big turn out and a few people had done the night race the night before, you could tell who they were as they were still covered in mud...
The event started with the massive climb out of Ruthin, i managed to place myself at the front and kept the leaders in view all the way to the top. After 10 miles or so the speed dropped off a bit and was finding myself riding at a good pace with 4 other riders. The climbs were slippy, muddy and i was struggling to get grip, there were a few climbs i had to push up because of this, i hate pushing my bike up hills! At the 20 mile mark there was a fast landrover track decent which i was flying down i went round a corner and both wheels washed out causing me to crash and slide across the floor at speed. I had hit my knee pretty bad and had to stop for 10 mins to sort myself out, i had numberous cuts and lump of flesh missing from my knee blood was pouring all down my leg.
I thought it was over i tried to ride my bike with just my right leg doing the work, after a mile or so my knee went numb and i was able to ride my bike again properly so decieded to carry on. I had 30 miles to ride back to the finish and managed to feel better and better as the ride went on, i caught a few riders back up i was originally riding with and managed to cross the line after 5 hours 15 mins of starting, 52miles with 7200 feet of climbing acording to my gps. I went straight to the car and drove straight home to sort my leg out, Hopefully i'll be back riding again this weekend when the cuts are fixed. Damain enjoyed the race finishing in 7 hours 20 having a couple of offs himself. Was an excellent event but was one of the harder merida's due to the course conditions.
