The best of times and the worst of times

It had been raining for weeks. Then a window of better weather appeared which coincided with the Dales Divide over the Easter period. I had been training with Niel Copeland as my coach (5* recommendation) and had even deferred some important surgery I need so I could participate.

I had booked the Old Fighting Cocks for Thursday night and found Nicky Shaw was staying there. She is one of the best ultra riders in the country yet incredibly nice when you get to meet her as I did last year. I have been tracking her adventures ever since and we had dinner together and shared stories of what has been and what is to come. Perfect prep the night before a race.

Morning broke and the forecast held good

This year, Chris Ellison, the organiser had arranged car parking about 5km away so I had to drive the car up there and ride back with Nicky (who was obviously riding very steadily for her….). Obligatory photos outside the pub and on the pier at Arnside, a quick coffee and then we were off.

The route start on tarmac gives you your first ‘hit’ of hills early on. There are some tricky technical bridleway descents as well. I did this race on my Cannondale Topstone last year. The difference riding my full suss Scott Spark made was wonderful. As was the weather all day.

What was noticeable was just how soft it was under tyre. The bogs were much boggier than last year and as the day progressed and fatigue set in so did the bog snorkelling. This was not helped by the fact I was finding it hard to unclip my left foot. After I finished I discovered the cleat had slipped and was abutting the tread which meant it would jam in the pedal. It would have taken me 5min to sort this out if I had just stopped and checked it. A big lesson I learned from this event was that I must be prepared to take time out to solve problems – it is not faffing. In the long term it would have saved time.

Despite that issue I was riding well and then a rattle started. I had bought a Tailfin Aeropack for the event and had been out testing it on road, single tack, the Peaks and it had performed extremely well. Unfortunately two screws that hold the clamp to the supporting struts had fallen out on one side. I bodged a repair with cable ties and gaffer tape. Again, it crossed my mind but was not translated into action, I should have checked the screws on the other side. Yep. You guessed it. They fell out the next day.

I was eating Veloforte bars, Snickers, Liquorice Allsorts and my own Digestive biscuit/Dairylea triangle ‘sandwiches’. There are not many places to get resupply en route to Boroughbridge. A Cafe just before Chris’s farm sums it up. Niel and I had gone over the time I spent stopped last year and I was determined to keep moving so just got some water at the cafe and a bit of cake and coffee at Chris’s. Push on. Literally.

There were several sections of ‘hike a bike’. Not just uphill but also on the boggier sections. I have learned not to worry about that. Just keep moving forward. Every hike a bike section ends and there is invariably a downhill section to catch time up on. That was the advantage of the full suss as well. I had some really fun time on descents I had to pick my way down the year before.

There was also an encouraging road sign 🙂

The day had been gloriously warm but as the sun set it got colder and colder. I passed my previous year’s bivvy spot around the same time as I got there the year before but had no intention of stopping. In fact, I was surprised how good it felt riding into the night even though I had side planted into a freezing slurry of mud and cack around 11pm. I eventually made a tactical decision to stop at 2am in the morning (by which time I had dried out as well). I calculated I would ride better the next day if I had some sleep. I climbed into my bivvy bag, sleeping bag, liner, air mattress and was asleep in minutes.

Day 2

I woke around 4.30am shivering. Apparently it was around -3c. It was light enough to get up. Note: I will be discreet but if you eat Veloforte bars full of dates and wholesome stuff plus liquorice all day you will have no trouble with constipation – rather the opposite. Enough said?

I got going and as I was just outside Boroughbride got to a Morrisons (the detour into the fuel station is even routed on the GPX file!). I walked in to see a man sorting morning papers.

“Can I get a coffee?” “We open at 6.” I looked at my watch. it was 5.56am.

“Can I wash my hands?” He looked at me and with some alacrity said “Yes, of course.”

When I saw my face in the mirror I realised the mud caked visage that he saw must have influenced his decision!

Coffee and a large egg mayo roll restored energy levels and I set off towards York and then Scarborough. By this time the screws on the other strut had fallen out as well so I was bodging both sides with gaffer tape and had run out of cable ties.

This section of the route is pretty flat until just before the sea. En route I stopped in a town when I spotted a hardware store to get some more cable ties. You may well ask the question, ‘Why didn’t you buy some screws?”. My only excuse is ‘brain fog’ and lack of experience. As I said earlier, if I had taken just 10m to stop, reflect and plan I could have solved the problem that was ultimately my demise.

I had refuelled in York and munched the miles to Scarborough. Having been there the year before I wasn’t going to repeat the time I wasted sitting down for a fish and chip meal. I just grabbed a portion of chips to go and then stocked up at one of the supermarkets on the way out of town.

The town was heaving with tourists and it was a relief to get onto the long railway track path out to the north and then swing west into the woods and moors. There is a point at which you have to cross a 2km or so bog which I found utterly unridable. I also got confused and thought the route crossed a river. Once on the other side (feet soaking wet) I realised I need to make it back again. So now I had soaking feet, it was dark and getting cold.

Yet, bizarrely, I was thoroughly enjoying myself. I had kept going. I had tackled some pretty tough conditions and I was way ahead of where I had divvied the second night last year. This was fun.

I was, however, getting pretty tired. After a couple of swerves to avoid crashing after I lost concentration I thought it best to stop and get some sleep.

This time I put on everything I had including my overtrousers, slid into the bivvy and was out cold for 4 hours.

Day 3 – thing fall apart.

When I woke I peered out from the bivvy bag to see a freezing mist across the dell I was perched above. Having ‘overslept’ (it was about 5am) I packed up and set off. One of the good things about relentlessly focusing on moving was overtaking other riders who were just emerging from their bivvies. The next section had some challenging boggy, slippery tacks through woods and then clattering stone steps down the side of a hill.

My repairs came apart 4 times in the first hour. I was making very slow progress. the final straw came when I fashioned another repair and wheeled the bike of the kerb. As the rear wheel dropped the ties and gaffer tape all snapped – before I had even started riding. At this point I broke and decided to scratch. Fatigue, frustration and not pressing the pause button all contributed.

I phoned a taxi company in Whitby who were more than helpful. they researched all my options but all the rail services had ‘bus replacement’ services so ultimately I had a taxi all the way back to the car.

Packing everything up I was next to Tom, who had also scratched. His rear mech had exploded. He had rebuilt it but run into problems. He had also ridden into a puddle in one of the bogs which was far deeper than expected. His front wheel was submerged well above the axle and he had been catapulted over the handlebars. He then had difficulty extracting the bike!

Tom did give me the quote of this event: “If you knew what was going to happen, it wouldn’t be an adventure.”

So it ended.

My thanks to Niel Copeland for his coaching and support and friends who sent me encouraging WhatsApp’s. Nicky Shaw who was such fun to have dinner with and Chris Ellison and colleagues who organise this fabulous event. I’ll be back.