Dakar Rally 24

 Hi folks  

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to update you all but now I have some stories to tell!  

After the disaster of the last outing (blowing up tyres on the A3! see the previous post below) I thought I was going to lose out on riding in May but luckily there was a convenient race on the following week – Sunday the 24th with Chiltern Hills Enduro Club (CHEC) at Tunbridge,  Kent. It was an eventful day – crashes, tactics, racing Dakar and my best race result result so far!  

Jumping Jago- getting the (hefty) weight back over the larger jumps!

 Toby very kindly picked me up bright and early Sunday morning and after loading up his truck with the bikes we made our way down to Kent in nice sunny weather having arranged to meet The Desert Rose crew (Patsy, Zippy and Vince) at the course. We arrived at the course to find that it was the same place that Toby, Patsy and Zippy had been practising at the week before (but in reverse). After catching up with Patsy, Zippy and Vince we got down to registering and sorting the bikes and kitted up ready for the 10am off. 

Instead of a single 3hour race CHEC events are 2 hours long then break for an hour before the final 2 hours. This is good and bad! They say it decreases accidents due to fatigue in the last hour, gives everyone time for lunch and then 2 hours more riding. Which is good as you get more riding in, but bad as you have to race longer! (And as I found out that’s not easy after an hours break). You are also penalised if you come in later than the 2hours each race (so you have to make a call whether to go for that last lap!) 

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Jago keeping it low

Rather than the fun but frantic mass starts, we were called to the starting line in groups of 10, in order of registration number, which meant that Patsy and Zippy were off a few minutes in front of me (and I turn a few minutes in front of Toby) so unfortunately we wouldn’t get to race each other directly (well not until I tried to stay with Zippy for half a lap when he passed me near the end of both the first and second races! The course is  described on the CHEC site as a novice friendly, easy going course which was accurate as none of it was too challenging. It was a mixture of open fields and several woodland sections with a couple of boggy, rutted and muddy sections in the woods, interspearsed with tight single track and some very dusty open trails. One of which was so dusty and loose that it was similar to a desert conditions making passing very difficult. Desert training in Kent! (all we need is a few camels!) 

Getting past these guys (and the quads) was a challenge! They kicked up a lot of dust on the fast tracks and are pretty wide through the trees!

I had a good first race apart from the third lap by choosing one rut in a muddy wooded section that immediately gulped down the front wheel up to the forks and threw me off! I tried pushing , heaving and revving the bike through the rut with no luck. The rut was a glue pit that would not let go of the bike! Panting like some weekend-warrior-dad-of-three and going red enough to attract the attention of a kindly marshall who helped me heave it out, I lost quite a few minutes on the lap. Otherwise I was going well, passing a lot of people and getting fairly consistent lap times around 15minutes. Unfortunately getting stuck stopped me from doing 8 laps as I finshed my 7th with about only 4 minutes left so it wasn’t worth trying for another. 

Dusty Riders Right Hand Turn - Not the dustiest of places but shows how dry it was!

The hour break was spent resting, refueling and trying to eat something (an unusal job for me as I didn’t really have any appetite, but know I needed to). |Then we were back out for punishment/fun! Now familiar with the course Race 2 was more about endurance. After an hour I began to cramp up badly – getting dangerously cramped hands (trigger thumb preventing me holding the bars and sometimes cramped fingers refusing to brake or pull the clutch is not what you want whilst approaching a 90 degree right hand bend after a flat out straight!) Trying to drink often from my camelback I was getting excruciating pains in my legs that wasn’t just cramp but actually a stinging pain (I presume similar to hitting ‘the wall’ of lactic acid overload or something similar in a Marathon?) My trainer Tim has given me some advice and stretches etc that I will post up on the fitness page soon. 

But Race 2 went well with good consistent lap times of mostly under 15minutes (apart from the slow 4th lap!) and a flying last lap of 10minutes helped make it  8 laps. I thought it had gone well becaue I only saw a few people pass me (including Zippy again- grrr ;-) but I was surprised how well as it meant - leading to a very pleasing SECOND PLACE RESULT! ! !!!   (Second in Clubman Class out of 65 and 6th Overall out of 140 riders is my best result to date!   ) It seems it as a good race for all as Zippy came 2nd overall (and 2nd in the Expert Class) and Toby was also in the top 20 Clubman. Patsy may have come first in the ladies (hooraa!) due to being the only entrant! (Aha) but unfortuately her thirsty two stroke run out of petrol in the first race costing her lots of penalty point placing her 105th overall (aaah!) All the stats and lap times are here if anyone wants them (or for proof! )

Toby getting air

 So  look out for the next installement shortly as the following week I took Lucy and the kids to Wheeldon Farm in Devon for some family motor bike training, some one to one tuition on their indoor motocross track and hit the Devon (green) lanes!  

As ever feel free to comment with any advice, feedback questions or suggestions! (on biking, dakar or the blog instalements!) 

Cheers – Jago 

Jago 'pin-ing it' to second place!