A few of us pre-rode the course in the afternoon, the ground was firm but had clearly soaked up a lot of water in the previous few days and it wasn't going to take much for it to fall apart. The pre-ride went well, I had opted to go single-speed (34:16) and with it I was comfortably able to ride all the course including the bomb-holes.
This was the 1st time I'd started a D2D, always leaving it to a team-mate in the past.
My opening lap went well, while there were some queues in the single-track and at the bomb-holes they weren't too big. The rain had started and was only light but the course was starting to get sludgy although at this point it wasn't too bad.
When Chris came in from his first lap he said it was starting to get very messy out so I abandoned my plan to do 2 laps on the trot and decided to stick to 1 for my second outing. Sure enough, the ground was a mess but I was able to find grip on most of the trails. One of the reasons I'd opted for the single-speed was that in 2008 my bike suffered badly from chain-suck and poor shifting so I just wanted to take that out of the equation and I think it was definitely the right thing to do. I passed numerous people who appeared to be suffering from gear issues.
Unfortunately I fell into the Elveden Pit (nothing damaged despite the crunch/snap sound I heard - presumably a root of the tree I hit) which shook my confidence for the other pits, as such I opted for climbing/sliding into and out of the others.
The section after the beast involved a gentle-ish climb up a fire-road then further climbing into the single-track. Here I started to wish I'd opted for an easier gear ratio, but non-the-less I managed to ride it all, despite the pain
I reached the change-over absolutely sodden and blathered with mud. I got cleaned up and into some fresh riding gear, fully intending to go back out. However while at the tent my enthusiasm disappeared. By the time Chris got back we were half-way through the night, the rain hadn't shown signs of letting up, the ground was even more churned up and reports were coming in of people having to walk most of the course. My fall in the pit made me concerned that I'd do myself an injury, my bike sounded like it was wearing away and I wasn't enjoying it. I know that that's a long list of whiny excuses, but ultimately if you're not enjoying something it's pointless to carry on. I checked whether my team-mate felt the same, he did, so we agreed to call it a night.
Around 6am it had been dry for 2 or 3 hours, I'd had a bit of shut eye, 2 of the worst bomb-holes had been closed and I started toying with going out again, but ultimately I opted to stay clean, dry and warm. I now wish I'd forced myself to do that lap but it's not the end of the world.
TROG Yorkshire Faction (team no 275) ended up 53rd of 74.
Ho hum...
