Report
by:
Craig Bromley
Pictures by:
Rob Crayton
& Michelle Fountain
THE RRP
INTER-TEAM BATTLE GROUND
Tony on a big push
Well it soon comes around and
we find ourselves at Catton Park again to do some more endurance
training for the season ahead. The DH/Gravity boys have always
shied away from these endurance / 24hr events favouring the
more gravity or local events to train on. As Catton Park is
in the Midlands its ideal for the XC team based there to attend
and burn some unwanted calories.
This year the weather was fantastic,
too good in fact as dehydration would be something to be concerned
about. For 2011 we had Matt Greensill (former XC Midlands Champ)
racing in solo, and a couple of 2 pair teams of RRP riders battling
it out. From the pre-race banter it was clear that there was
absolutely no concern where us 4 in the 2 pairs category came
in the rest of the field, this was a purely an inter-team battle
for braggin rights and we all wanted it.
Team 1
Anthony Yeomans
Darren Corcoran
Team 2
Craig Bromley
Ben Colley
So the lines were drawn, whichever
team was fastest took the glory, the other 2 would hang their
heads in shame until they had the opportunity to return the
beating. We took our pit area slot and immediately Ben and I
realised how serious Tony and Daz were taking this, we were
sat on the grass in our allotted area and they had a seat, umbrella,
and turbo trainer along with a secret pad to right down their
strategy as the race unfolded....oh dear!
Daz Corcoran
So to start there is a half mile
Le Mans style run to split up the field with riders running
into their pit area to collect their bike to start the first
lap. As expected Matt came at the front of the field and rapidly
got going on his first lap, very impressive given the quality
of the field. Tony was next up about a minute later a few seconds
in front of Ben in my team. Tony looked pretty cool and in control
whereas Ben looked like he’d just ran away from a murder
scene, Ben jumped on his bike and started to chase after Tony
to keep our hopes alive.
Ben Colley
I sat down on the grass and wondered about all the variables.....
Will Ben’s youth and recent training pay off?
Will Tony’s secret training with weighted backpacks be
the deciding factor?
Will the huge road miles help or hinder my mtb skills, did the
physio on my paper mache knees do the trick?
Will Daz have another famous spate of mechanicals?
Will Matt die of dehydration?
Craig Bromley
The lap is about 5.5 miles and around 470 feet of climbing each
time, we were averaging between 10.5 to 11.2mph each lap so
28 minutes after the run Matt was passing the pits, he looked
way too quick given he’s doing the 6hrs solo but it was
impressive nonetheless. Around a minute later Tony entered the
field for the changeover with Daz, but no sign of Ben yet....big
gulp! About 2 minutes later Ben comes in for the changeover
and it’s time to try and hunt down Daz.
I shot off in pursuit with a big smile hoping this would turn
out to be the close battle we had been building it up to be,
the first lap is massively aerobic and my knees were savage
on the sprint out of the pits, thankfully this was never a factor,
the knee pain was quickly replaced with a different sort of
pain as the course through up lots of climbing straight off
the bat (your heart rate never seemed in control on the first
lap). I was bouncing off the rev limiter but managed to put
in what was the fastest lap of the team with 38m 35sec changing
over just behind Daz, the race was on! This was the theme for
the next 4-5 hours as we battled the tough conditions and heat,
Tony and Daz seemed to perform faultlessly and even changed
to a double lap strategy that did save time despite my doubts,
ultimately though me and Ben were never going to swop strategy
and stuck with one lap pushes.
Craig in pursuit
It was nail bitingly close and impossible to call, amazingly
at exactly the half way point I managed to catch and overtake
Daz inches from the line giving us our very first lead, unfortunately
that’s as close as we ever got as Ben had given it 100%
and was starting to fade whilst Daz and Tony were still going
strong. Both RRP teams were in 18th and 19th at this point so
we were doing quite well against the endurance specialists.
Tony stomping the climbs
As I sat in the pits I watched Matt passing on his 7th lap and
he was starting to look uncomfortable almost fighting the course,
I also passed Matt later on shortly after he’d lost control
and hit a tree and his head was down, the next lap I’d
heard he was off course dancing around with cramp probably due
to dehydration and the loss of salt from the heat. So for Matt
it was going south quick as he was having his own personal battle,
at one point he was circulating in 5th place but the crash and
cramp would eventually ruin his top 10 hopes.
Matt slowly dying in the heat
On the last changeover Tony came in as if he’d just sprinted
the last mile flat out, it looked like an impressive time, Daz
shot off not knowing how much of a gap he had over me and Ben,
I felt positive he would spend most of the lap looking more
behind than in front which made me chuckle, it’s a horrible
feeling being hunted down. It was all now down to Ben, if he
could get into the pits in the next minute and a half I would
have the chance of a massive last push to catch Daz, alas over
4.5 mins later Ben came in for the changoever looking destroyed
having giving 100% and I knew it was all over, Tony reminded
me I should still push to protect our team place and so I did
knowing the braggin rights were gone and I would have to put
up with Tony and Daz’s victory banter for days to come.
I pushed on at 95% and crossed the line remarkably happy despite
the pain of the event, and losing, in fact I could almost say
I enjoyed it.....a bit!
Daz smiling on the way
to team victory
Matt finally crossed the line looking destroyed after 11 solo
laps having fought off dehydration, cramps, and crashes to finish
a very credible 12th place, solo endurance races are ridiculously
hard and I have every respect for anyone who takes the solo
route. I know he wasn’t happy given where he was earlier
but still a great result.
All said and done all 5 RRP riders rode their arses off and
it made for a great day out, thanks to Pat for another great
event, and thanks to him upstairs for some awesome weather.
With the RRP Midlands XC Series, Sleepless in the Saddle, and
Mountain Mayhem 24hr events to come later in the year, there
would be plenty of time to even the score.
Howard Moore
Laptimes:
Pair Teams:
Craig..Tony..Daz....Ben
28:35 32:30 30:13 34:16
29:18 29:07 31:30 29:51
29:29 28:57 30:10 30:58
30:26 30:14 31:35 31:09
30:36 30:48 30:37 32:02
31:15 29:44 32:22 33:45
Matt Greensill (Solo)
34:47
33:16
31:05
30:37
28:57
31:41
35:07
41:07
39:22
36:07
38:41
Check out the race report from
our buddies at the Midlands XC Series HERE.
A big thanks to all the team sponsors for all their support.