Brighton Big Dog

I have seldom felt so under prepared for a race.

The Brighton Big Dog is a massive event, with trade stands, DJ's and an impressive entry list. The aim is to complete as many laps of the 5.5 mile course as you can in 6 hours. The race started at noon on Saturday which is one of the reasons for my lack of preparation.

I had ridden more than I should during the week leading up to the event so my legs weren't fresh. Friday evening after work I really hadn't felt like prepping the bike so it had all come down to a bit of a race morning panic, getting everything together and packing the car. Brighton had been in the news on Thursday due to torrential rain and floods. This was followed by more rain on Friday, so semi slick tyres wouldn't have been my first choice, but there wasn't time now to switch.

Luckily summer returned for race day and the sun shone as the huge field of riders gathered for the start in Stanmer Park. From the gun we were straight into a long sapping climb up into the woods. Here the damp trails and trecherous slick roots made life challenging as we wove our way around the lap. The hills just kept coming, the last was a particular grind coming just a mile from the end when you didn't think anymore climbing possible!


I tried hard to not to push myself into the red early on, but still keep pace with those around me. In such a huge field or riders it was impossible to know what position I was in. Quite amazingly I stayed within sight of Paul Floodgate for the entire race. He had a slight edge on the climbs, but I was able to pull back the time lost on the descents, which were drying by lap 2 and grip levels were increasing steadily all day.  

The toughest moment of the day, came as I was riding out of the arena and the comentator annouced the 3 hour half way mark. I'd just completed my 5th lap and the realisaiton that there were at least 4 more to go was tough mentally to deal with. The idea of stepping off the bike and putting an end to the suffering kept flooding into my mind. My legs began to feel like somebody elses and I had to keep eating banana's and gulping water to ward off the first warning signs of cramp. Fatigue also lead to a couple of silly errors and a clunk on the head from a low branch was the final wake-up call that forced me to concentrate and refocus.

Getting to the end of that 6th lap really helped, the end seemed in sight and I could now count down the hills remaining. Paul had snuck ahead of me and although I pulled him back on the final lap he pipped me to the line by 30 seconds. The rider behind was only a minute back, amazingly close after 50 miles of arduous racing.  

I had been riding for 5 hours 40 minutes, with 2500m of vertical ascent! This was without doubt one of my toughest days in the saddle. I was totally stoked to finish 10th in such a strong field of riders, on a challenging course. The Stumpjumper worked flawlessly all day, which on the back of the South Downs Way is 150 miles and 15 hours of trouble free cycling with zero maintainance.