24hr virgin survivor

It has been a long way since 3 years ago when I put my bum on a saddle for the first time in my life…My dad would not believe it ! I finished my first 24hr solo race, just to finish something like that it is a reward on its own you learn so much about yourself that you can not imagine. We were 6 people who made the challenge to go and spend 24hr on the saddle. 6 crazy people and 10 amazing support people were side by side in two different worlds one, out on the track dancing between pine trees and the other one on the side of the track feeding, cleaning and managing some deep mental down. John, Damien, Chris, Gazza, Peter and myself were the one pushing and pulling on the pedals swinging between trees, pumping, avoiding, suffering. Swearing, drinking, stretching, we were the solo riders. Gavin, Louise, Peter, Christine, Dylan, Jay, Henry, Mitchell, Jason and Tom were the support crew, the deep soul of 24hr races. There was no way I would have managed to finish or do my fist 24hr solo without all of them, without my Gavin, no way. THANKS SO MUCH GUYS
At the start I had John’s voice in my head saying “race your own race” and it is what I did I set my pace and ride. The 5 girls in front of me were pushing the pace and I did not try to chase them, not once. I just wanted to stay as consistent as I could and for the longest that I could. I did not even know if I could finish a 24hr race so I ride and ride and ride. After 6hr some girls at the front dropped the leader group and I passed them, nothing came through my mind at all, then another girl dropped the two leaders and favourites women, the defending champion Katrin Van Der Spiegel and Jessica Douglas . The battle was on and hot between the two women and I was behind those two strong girls, me the baby enduro racer trying to survive.
During the night Katrin and then Jessica passed me like I was standing still, I was so impress by those girls, I felt like I was belonging to another world and that their world was a step above . During the race I changed my Yeti ASR for the Santa Cruz superlight lent by the most amazing supporting bike shop CBD, it was good to have two different bikes there. The Santa cruz was a magic carpet that took great care of me until the rain poured down and made the track slippery (I had Larsen on the front and rear that was not good at all) the bike did not hold on some part of the track at all! I was mean to do 3 laps on the superlight but after one I was back on the Yeti while the superlight had its front tyre changed for Kenda nevegal. The tyre problem was one of the 3 major problems I got on the track : one scary one was that twice my handle bars got supa loose on rocky section, Chris was behind me when it happened for the first time, I had a multi tool with me and tighten it up and then carry on but it happened again and the second time was supa scary I was going down the hill….the second problem was during the night when my head light died …..booooo it was so hard to ride just with my light on the handle bar as I could not see what was happening around the corner.
On Sunday morning I was feeling ok tired but ok my lower back was really painful Gav gave me 2 voltaren and 2 panadol during the race to decrease the pain as I was really really sore. I walked one part of the track to release the pressur in my lower back , it was good to walk pushing the bike up the hill then I heard a voice behind me it was Katrin who was hurting as much as me. We rode together gently and chatted away . We decided to stop just before the finish line at 10.40 am but my 3rd place was not safe so I needed to go back on the bike and secured my 3rd place. I left Katrin and carry on I did a supa hot lap (37min although the timing sheet does not show that as I was chatting was Gav trying to decide to go for another lap (I did not really want to go) on the side of the track) and then back off for the last one and rode with the sweeper hehe I was last on the course . I am really happy with my result, my feeling on the bike and with the fact that I was able to finish my FIRST 24hr race ever!
Congratulation to Jessica who raced amazingly she looked strong and determined it was just great to see that! She deserved it !
Congratulation to Katrin who raced competitively and you are such inspiring women!
I would like again to say thank you to everybody supporting the solo riders, thank you to CBD for supporting me, THANK you to my partner Gavin who was amazing and put extra mental power in me when around 2am in the morning I said that I could not do it anymore! THANKS !!!“solo 24hr” is more a “team 24hr” event as you are never ever alone !! I would like to thanks to all the people cheering on the side of the track it helps so much!!! the soft toy were also amazing thanks soft toys and thank to the random guy who was moving our blue snake it made me smile !!!! thanks thanks Thanks