24hrs on and I'm missing it already , I still have a large pile of muddy stuff to deal with :roll:
My lap consisted of an early am start on Sunday, I was constantly assessing the weather situation during the night but wind and rain seemed to stop around 5 am, I dragged my sorry carcass out of the sleeping bag at 05:30 and proceeded to eat cerial bar, banana and haribo's washed down with some energy drink whilst a few racing tweaks were made to the Rat Bike for its outing. I had opted for a pair 1.3 schwable tyres which I pumped to 60psi, these were a gamble that I felt I had nothing to loose with
these proved to be amazing and I was very pleased with the way they rode.
I left the main arena at 06:30 and returned at 08:28 , at halfway point I stopped at turtle bridge to remove my jacket as I was cooking inside it, GT Steve came to the rescue and was my coat bitch
with this the Turtles then offered me a mohito , beer, cider and chocolates, I turned them down as the family had run down to the heckle tent to cheer me on
I then put my muddy crunchy gears into middle / middle and powered up the bridge onto the second half of the course, The 1.3's were going well and I found that puddles and flowing gloop were my friends, I got the the monument and my bike was starting to feel wrong, the BB was making some knocks, and the whole drive train sounded like a blender :roll: I thought what the heck and carried on to cut my way through the souffle . I came to the final decent into the camping area which was better that last years filling shaker, it was soft and I could choose my own lines, I passed many submerged wolf guards at this point, soon I could see clear track in front and again lay my life in the width of the 1.3's towards the Binman corner at RB HQ, in a heathy style I heckled at the RBers and to see my wife and 2 boys shocked that I was here already and going fast, this one I had to make count and proceeded to power brought the gloop and reminisce of last nights weiners , the shouting had started and I had locked on to a target in front of DAJ's village and promptly took him on straight and passed him under the bridge
, with this I finally made it through the arena on the never ending soggy shredded wheat and chocolate milkshake combo to hand the baton to Fest for his lap
The Rat bike was excellent and I am honoured yet again at the comments it got. After the lap I joined the long que for the jet wash (3 stations out of a possible 6) and in front of me was TGR with what can only be described as a canal find bike that resembled an orange clockwork somewhere, The Rat bike looked just like the others and was unidentifiable , the guys behind in the que were fans of the old bikes and were asking questions, one asked what Kona is that ?, I replied and he wanted to know what colour
when I told him he didn't believe me but soon did when I started with the jetwash
Great Heckles new were on tap, the best were
go on bin man, you've got a bogey on your lip and
come on the full face
Here are some of the pictures from my phone and camera
A note to any123 I didn't have red insulation tape !
Health and safe-tea ?
Dock n glory Jackanory
Boots outlet village
Light weight
Itchy plums
Midnight antics
Extra terrestrial
DJ Makster
Eyeing up sausage ?
Dock n crocks
Booooom
Wiggle Monkeeeys the lot of you
You Dirty Rat
Racing Mud Fest
One thing I just remembered was Cannondale Kings long shorts or short longs with wellie boots , someone must have a picture
Thanks again to all
,the GM household had a great time and will be back next year
Cheers
James