The Finish
We were through the night time, the sun was coming up and, after my little battle in my head, I was feeling good, so to speak.
At 9am you are moved to what is called the finishers’ circuit. I came in for my last refill of supplies, eager to get on the road as quick as possible. It was 8:55 and I was just in time to plug on for one more lap of the early morning Quina Brook circuit before being sent up to the finishers’ circuit.
The ride to the finishing circuit is challenging enough on a normal day. It's surprisingly hilly, continually rolling up and down until you join the circuit. It’s especially tough after riding all night.
For me the finishers’ circuit was about gritting my teeth, digging deep and going all out. Time was limited. The faster I could go the more places I could make up. Leading up to the finishers’ circuit I was sitting around 12th place. As each lap ticked by and I kept trying to push a little more. Francis, Jimmi and Will were surprised by how I was flying past the start/finish line. Most other riders by this point were pretty broken but I know I'm good at emptying myself, so my plan was to do that for the remaining hours and deal with the consequences if they came.
On the circuit itself there are four commissaires based on the corners. As you pass the commissaires they record your number. Once your 24 hours has run out (which for me was 13:01) you ride onto the next commissaire and your end distance is taken from that point. After one of the commissaire points there is a climb followed by a very fast descent along an A-road until the next commissaire point. I got to the commissaire before the climb with 5 minutes to spare and basically knew I needed to be at the next one before 13:01. People at the side of the road know your time is running out so going up the climb I was greeted with cheers and people shouting 'SPRINT'. I got over the climb and down the descent with 1 minute to spare. There was no way to make it to the next point before 13:01 so that was that, my race was over. No finish line, no arms in the air, just exhaustion and relief as I cruised to the next commissaire and back to the clubhouse.
I was truly spent. It was about 30 degrees and suddenly, out of the wind, I could really feel the heat.
When I say I gave it my all, how can I explain that to you? I came in, had something to eat and drink and tried to chill out in the shade of the van. I was dizzy, dehydrated but relatively ok. I very much wanted to get back to London and most importantly sleep.
I needed to get changed into some normal clothes so I headed to the changing rooms where I took my kit off and promptly fainted, completely naked in the changing cubicle. About 15 minutes later I came round, dripping in sweat and needed to be escorted back to the support van. As I said, truly spent!
Watch the last part of Francis Cade's Video here: