Loading ...We set off to plymouth with a solo and team of four for the inaugrial Nightrider 12.
The conditions were great for the riders and we had some brilliant sunshine on both sides of the event and through the dark hours a clear night with an orange three quarter moon. The test ride of the route the organisers had marked out was a great chance to see the actual conditions at
The opener of the course consisted of a wind through the race village then out across a field to a steady climb up into the forest on a wide jeep track. After completing the climb we had a switched back onto single track through the forest and back down into the valley. It ended with a quick hard left, dropping into a bomb hole before a tar climb back up the hillside. We then traversed through stretches of grass fields, forest tracks and single track finally passing through a paintball course to the peak of the track. The decent from this point was magic with fast single track opening into a forest track where you could open the breaks and whistle through the kms. This stretch was the faster part of the course and I recorded 60kms/hr. A drop off into woods and more single track brought us down to the clay pigeon shooting ground where we crossed through the river and back onto the home stretch. One final climb through the forest on the opposite side of the valley and out onto an open grass decent brought us back into the race village to complete the course. The tester lap was pretty quick and unless there was some serious misfortune it would be difficult to get a serious injury. With that comfort in mind I lined up at five minutes to eight for my first ever 12 hour night enduro. The first three quarters of the lap were in dusk conditions so it gave me a feel of what was to come later. Once the sun had vanished the course became a different animal, the climbs remained fair but constantly seeing the line in the single track was difficult. The organisers had cleared suspect trees from the course and painted the stumps yellow and had arrows to point out the line but it was difficult at times to know whether the line was to the right or left of a stump. I was caught out a couple of times with and had to take wide lines into fallen branches on the edge of the track.
The overall ride was great and for periods no one would be behind you or in front just leaving you to pass through the dark forest wilderness on your own. I was struck by the difference of this event to the South Downs Way enduro I did in September 06. The mass of single track meant you needed to constantly have your wits about you to swoop and swing your way through the trees and often ambiguous track. This was extra draining and I took longer breaks between loops. Peoples stats varied but the course was apparently 11kms long and had about 280m of ascent. This was an enjoyable virgin experience but I would certainly not travel Saturday and go out riding all night again, effectively meaning a full weekend of no sleep. The stamina and effort for this enduro was bigger than I anticipated.
When the bell rung to show the 24 hours were up I ranked 24th out of 40 solo riders. A modest result for my first night enduro. There were some super speedsters which I doubt I can ever match but it was a great event to be part of and another experience to remember. Course profile:http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=2609937 and Profile of the Course
As intrepid adventurers in the south west of England we setup a smart camp as our base. As the only solo rider and having encouraged a group of friends to put in a team it was a sure thing the base camp would be seeing quite a bit of action. Lead by the hardened adventurer of Paul he successfully built a gazebo and parked his
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