ed me up a bit.
The start of the ride was fine for us, having started near the front of the pack - we never encountered any of the apparent bottlenecks further down the field. I started off riding with Andrew but Carl and Steve disappeared, it seems they were on a mission!
After about an hour and a half I wanted to call it quits as I felt so tired through lack of sleep but then I would hit some amazing singletrack and that would perk me up,
商务休闲皮鞋, time after time. I just kept plodding away. Hobo, Steve and Carl had gone, no sight of them for sometime,
Jeep 休闲鞋, so I was thinking that they must be way in front of me until I reached the second feed station and all three were sat there. I had a bit of a rest and watched them set off again. ""Bugger,
哥伦比亚户外鞋,"" I thought, ""I'll never catch them at this rate.""
Then again I caught up with Andrew in some forest singletrack,
骆驼休闲鞋, managed to get past him and caught up with Carl and passed him too, so I made it up the legendary Minch Moor climb before the two of them which pleased me greatly. I had a bit of a rest and took in the magnificent views. They both set off before me again, even though I was up there first, so I set out again after the Hobo crew.
The descent off Minch Moor was truly amazing but just one of some fantastic downhill sections throughout the day. The rest of the race is a bit of blur of climbs and endless singletrack. I passed Carl at some point but didn't see him, I then passed Hobo again out on some moorland - you couldn't miss him with his BM jersey. I then managed to pull out what I thought was a considerable lead on the two of them in our private little race. But little did I know that Hobo had me in his sights all the time. With about 5km to go after the amazing final descent I took a corner a little slowly having got cramp in my fingers and he snuck by on the inside. My cramping fingers went well with the cramp in my legs which I had been suffering from on and off for the last 20km,
男式皮鞋, so when Hobo went past I thought it was Game Over. But I kept on his tail as we really picked up the pace for the last 2km or so.
I got my head down and spun my legs like crazy and managed to sneak past Hobo at quite a pace with about 400 meters to go. Much, much to his disgust, judging by his comments at the time... About twenty metres from the line cramp set in to my thighs like never before,
男士休闲皮鞋, truly agonising and I just hoped I had enough momentum to get me over the line as my legs would simply not move round anymore - thankfully I made it across the line about a second ahead of Hobo.
I still can't believe that after such a distance we could have finished that close, this did much for our spirits though and we were both highly entertained by such a thrilling finish. Steve had finished four or five minutes ahead of us two and then Carl came in about ten minutes later!
The atmosphere was fantastic and a perfect way to end an amazing days riding. I'll definitely be back again next year but staying in a B&B to get a good night's sleep. Then none of them will be able to keep up with me...