10 under the ben Fort william

Driving up through extremely hard rain shower with the wiper blades on as fast as possible wasnt really the weather me and damian were hoping for, we had faith that come saturday the sun would be out and all would be fine. We set up our tents inbetween showers next to the trail and set off to registration, free food and whisky tasting was also on the menu for competitors at the top station off the gondola which meant that was us sorted for the evening. It was blowing a gale outside and also snowing, i was wondering if i had enough warm riding kit with me to ride in winter conditions, i dont think anyone was expecting snow and hail a week before June but as they say this is scotland!

outside the bar

looking to fort william

Awaking the next morning after a few pints, one to many shots of whisky and a bowl of sweet chicken thia noodles i felt pretty dehydrated (i can however recommend Benromach origins batch no2 as a top notch whisky). Damian was up and dressed and i just lay in bed listening to rain hammer off the tent. Finally the rain stopped i got up, changed and got everything sorted for the race.
The start of the race at 9.30 came round quick and i found myself on the start line still dehydrated, the weather wasnt looking to bad as we set off, sure enough though after the first lap the heavens opened and the rain started, all i can say from this point on about the weather is it just got worse.
The course was amazing it had everything a course should have, fireroad climbs, nice fast singletrack, technical rocky decents, rooty sections, stream crossings, crazy out of control muddy parts, i enjoyed it. I was riding at a comfy pace through the race but come lap 8 the weather had got me down a bit, i was feeling strong but just couldnt ride fast i was cold and wet threw, the rain was coming down hard and i just wanted to give up and crawl into my tent, something stopped me from doing that and i plodded on. I didnt have a clue where i was in the race as both me and Damian were solo on our own. I finished my 11th and final lap at 9 hours 55mins i could of gone out and done another lap but i really couldnt face it.
Turns out i came 2nd, so i was over the moon with that and to make things better Damian got a 3rd place in his category, Another 2 podium places for team cooksons.
I had ridden 102 miles with over 11000 feet of climbing.

podium

Eatpe du dales

Met up with shaun and jason near Grassington for the start of the etape du dales sportive, 110 mile loop round the dales with plenty of hills involved. The plan was to ride round together and enjoy the ride hopefully still getting a reasonable time. We set off around 8.30ish into a headwind which was to stick in our faces for what seemed like the whole ride, add in 4 or 5 hours of rain and you've got a climb up to the Tan hill inn that you'll never forget. All was going well when we managed to lose Jason on a decent, he got a puncture and me and shaun being horrid people left him to defend for himself.
We carried on over a few more climbs, our legs were feeling it and we were both struggling,  up in the hills it was pretty grim with mist wind and rain trying to make the ride a misery, we were both prepared for the weather with our clothing so it didn't bother us to much.
There were 4 feed stations on the way round which were fully prepared with energy gels, food, water and sis energy drinks. We stopped at the last one so i could get a flapjack and pulled our selfs up the last climb. We had 30 minutes to do the last 10 miles if we were to get inside the 7 hour gold time limit. Out of nowhere i managed to get my second wind and managed to drag a group of us at over 25 mph for the whole 10 miles to the end, finishing under 7 hours at 6 hours 55.
Excellent route and would love to do it again in nicer conditions. Jason came in half an hour after us which was excellent considering he came 4th in a 24 hour race 7 days before.

Enduro 6

Arrived at Catton park saturday afternoon and set up in a cloudless sunny but very windy conditions, got the bbq on and ate as much meat as i could (not the best pre race food but it cant be beaten in the sun) followed by a couple of beers as we watched the night time trail start with the sun setting.

night time trial

looking over the arena

We finished the evening with a hot chocolate in the food tent and headed to bed at a reasonable 10.30pm. I had a good sleep and woke up at 8 am feeling nice and fresh. Cooked myself some porridge and got all my stuff together in my pit. The start of the race came quick and i was dreading the 800 meter run. i never run and cant stand running, I can cope with a 50 meter dash but 800 meters is just to much. Im pretty sure i came into my pits right at the back even though i started on the front line. The first lap was spent getting stuck behind people and sprinting as hard as i could on the open parts of the course (which there wasnt much of). I'd chosen to ride with bottles as i didnt want to haul a heavy camelbak round, i think this might of been a bad idea as there was much time on the course to drink out of a bottle and also you lost a minute each time you came into the pits to swap bottles. In the 6 hours i raced i only managed to have 4 bottles and i was really dehydrated at the end. The course was a bit short for my liking at just over 5 miles i would hate to do a 24 hour race round it.
I had caught Shaun up in the race and over took him but i didnt have a clue what place i was in, I thought i was in the top 5, it wasnt till the end after the finish i was told i had won. i never expected to and was well suprised and happy. Not only that but Shaun had came in a few mins behind me in 2nd. 2 Cookson boys on the podium at the same time.

podium