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Picture taken by Joolze Dymond!

Enduro 6 2008 Well having never entered Enduro 6, I thought I might as well give it a go as I wasn’t racing else where and I was off on leave. Although I was familiar with the trails at Catton Park as I competed in the wettest race ever (SITS 2006!!!) This was the longest race I’ve done solo for quite sometime, so before starting I was a little apprehensive of my endurance abilities!! Especially, bearing in the predicted forecast for Sunday, and my memories of a wet Catton Park back in 2006!  Just for good measure to have a full weekend of racing, I decided to have a stab at the night time trial as well. Early Saturday we set off and about 4 hours later, having taken a few too many wrong turnings and exits we arrived at Catton Park. We set up camp and I headed out for a practice lap at 7. The time trial started at 8.30ish, when it was getting a little darker. The course was a mixture of open fields, a couple of short sharp climbs and a lot of technical singletrack through the woods. (And lots and lots of wild blue bells!!)      After my warm up I waited in the holding area to be called up to the starting line. I was fourth off and riders were set off at 30 second intervals. A minute in front of me was George Budd, who I knew would be setting a good pace. My start time arrived and I took off as quick as I could, however not fast enough for my other half who said I looked to have had a bad start. After a couple of km I managed to catch a couple of riders, but there was no sign of the bright salsa kit (George Budd). The found it difficult to get into a good rhythm in the first section of the course but in the second section I felt I was going a little better. I continued the lap with no mechanicals, but had no idea of my position!! However, Donna and Hali-Rae my pit crew expressed that it was a close call between me and George. I watched the next few riders home and it seemed like I had gained on the guys behind. As it was getting on we headed to the camper for some post race food and bed as did everyone else. There was no presentation that evening, but the results came over the loudspeaker about 15 minutes after the last rider was home. And it turned out that I had won, but only by 4 seconds. So a very close race between myself and George. I went out like a light, once my head hit the pillow, but we were woken by the toilet sludger at 6 am!!! Not such a good idea after all!!(Being handy to the toilets)On the pre entry list I was the only elite rider, however when my pit crew went and had a final look at my competition, there was a few surprise competitors who had entered so my hope of  being on the podium was a little less achievable!!! (Nick Craig, Robin Seymour and Stu Bowers) Oh well never mind I’ll battle it out for fourth I thought!!After some brekkie I headed off to set up the pit area for my crew, as they had to stay in there for 6 hours!!! Ten soon arrived and race started with a half mile run, which I was dreading as I haven’t done any running for donkey’s and thought it would be just my luck to sprain or twist something! However, I fortunately got round about 20^th and headed off on my bike. I had decided at the start that I was going to try and go with the lead group and stay with them for as long as I could. I got into a group with the 3 guys mentioned above and a couple of riders competing in the pair’s competition. The first lap was at a good pace but I was fairly comfortable, so I decided to continue with the group. On lap 2 we started to hit some traffic, but it didn’t slow things down much at all. The next 2 laps continued this way and at the end of lap 4 Nick, Robin AND Stu went into the pits but I had half a bottle so I decided to stay out for one more lap, which looking back was a bad idea as I lost the rhythm. But I suppose I can say I took the lead for half a lap!!! The guys caught me up at the end of the lap and I think i was their bate as Robin upped the pace, Nick went with him and this put a gap to Stu and then a gap to me.I went into the pits at the end of lap 6 for some re-fuelling. On going back out I’d lost touch with the others but I managed to catch up with Stu. He then pitted at the end of that lap so I went on into 3^rd, but with a good gap to the leaders. At this point I only had one gear. Lap 8 was fairly un-eventful, but lap 9 I had some stomach troubles and had to have a Paula Radcliffe moment (Thank you to the lady who let me jump the queue!!) This cost me as when I left the pit 4^th had caught up and gone past. I quickly jumped on my bike and chased 4^th  down (Iain Payne) I managed to regain 3^rd position and with a hard effort over the next 2 laps I managed to gain a comfortable lead over 4^th. The end of lap 11 I had 5minutes left to the 6 hour mark so I had to go out again, for one more lap. But Donna informed me that Iain hadn’t completed the lap before 6 hours so I knew I could take the final lap leisurely, as long as I completed it!! So in the end I finished up3rd, which was a really pleasing result for me. Despite the last couple of laps nearly killing me. Haven’t been on my bike for 6 hours for a very long time, so you could say it was a bit of a shock to the system!!! A big, big thank you to my pit crew who braved it in the pits for 6 hours (Donna and Hali-Rae). Also a big thank you to the weather for staying fine for the race (good prediction Joolze!) And thankfully we had packed up just in time, before the torrential thunder storm, which prevented the podium presentation from being outside!!!  Again many thanks to my sponsors XCracer.com/29ers, Gary Fisher 29er Superfly for eating up those miles. Phil MorrisRiding for XCracer.com/29ers.