We thought we would try Dusk till Dawn this year!
Alan and Lynne Coldray took part in the 2007 Dusk till Dawn on the 6 October (8pm till 8am) finishing in 4th position in the mixed catagory.
They report...
We thought we would try Dusk till Dawn this year, as it’s the one we hadn’t done yet.
Pair with Mrs Coldray uummmm.... this could end in divorce we had said earlier.
We arrived there early at about 1.30pm to get the tent set up etc and pre ride the course.
The course was 11.5 miles long with only about 300 feet of climbing per lap with unrelenting forest furrows, roots, stones, some lovely bomb holes, and great single-track in the forest with great burms to fly around.
The race started at 8pm and we had decided for Lynne to do the first lap, as this is the most congested. Lynne did well on the first lap, there were quite a few crashes on the first lap but she steered clear of them to come in just after 9pm.
Then it was my turn, I had a good lap and then I realised that I should be riding my full suss bike and not a hard tail as I could feel every bump, root and swoopy dip as I went around. This was a good lap for me with not being overtaken. (Makes a change)
Then the hand over again. This time we were doing two laps each so we could get something to eat.
Lynne and I had a good two laps but the terrain was hurting a bit on the wrists and lower back.
Lynne was also on a hard tail.
Next it was going to be a single lap each, which went by all too quickly as I didn’t have time to each and all I could manage was fig rolls, jaffa cakes and coffee.
We were going to do 2 laps this time but as I was trying to eat something the walkie talky that we always carry just in case came into life It was Lynne saying that her new light battery she had just put in died and all she had was a helmet torch to ride with 3 miles left on the lap.
So I had to go out again and my legs were starting to cramp in places, but it didn’t come to much.
Lynne now was on her last lap going well when she caught one of the many appearing roots and fell on her left knee but was ok and got back on the bike and carried on and arrived back with adrenaline flowing.
My last lap as I knew I couldn’t get back before the 8 am deadline to get out for another lap. So I just did the best I could while trying to avoid the feeling of cramp waiting to get me at any moment.
This wasn’t a great lap as I kept getting held up in the places as people were hanging about so they didn’t have to go out again it was impossible to overtake without risking a fall.
We were glad it was near the finish as our bodies were aching all over.
As I came over the finish line the
timekeeper read out
“Alan Coldray for Team Mk finishes in...... (long
delay) ..... 4th place in the mixed”
that was a shock, as I didn’t have clue where we were in the race.
Later I found out that Lynne was watching the positions all the time and were 7th at one point.
All in all a great race to ride in, everyone was friendly.
Racing in a pairs is hard work with no rest and no time to eat.
