Torq 12 12

So it was that time of the year again, 12 hours of riding around Minley Manor woods for the Gorrick Torq 1212. The 8 mile course, a whole lot different from any of the years before was awaiting to be ridden by 500+ riders.

I was in a team of 3 ‘Bob and Beyond’ not the most inventive name I admit. Along with 17 year old Isaac and 17 year old Martin Turton all of us very capable Mtb’ers we new we were in with a decent chance of getting a good position. Not the one we did eventually come though. I was there on the Saturday helping my dad set up the 1stgearcycles trade stand and the rest of the 1^st gear teams pit area. IT WAS PISSING IT DOWN. This put me in a bit of a worried mood thinking that if the weather is like this tomorrow it will suck and be a complete wash out.

My dad woke me up at 6am on the Sunday morning ready to head down the event. Not entirely sure why when we only like 2 minutes down the road and the race doesn’t start until 12. Today though the sun was out and after checking the forecast for the rest of the day I knew the course was going to dry out, fast. Midday came and it was time for the race to get underway. With over 200 riders on the start line out lead out rider Isaac had finally managed to push his way to the front and get on the front line. The perfect place.

The race was now underway and after the first lap Isaac had put us into the lead, up there with the leaders of the ‘team 4’ event. After already having a gap of 3 minutes after just one lap we knew we could push on a bit and build more and try maintain it. Martin was out second for us and built even more of a gap. Then it was my turn. Martin handed over the baton and off I went on my first 8 mile lap of many. The course had already dried out a lot and was obviously very fast with lots of new sections I had never ridden before keeping me on my toes.  

Half way stage of the race came at 6pm. Having now completed 70miles and 9 laps we were still out infront with a large gap, or so we thought. We made the error of not checking out the standings as the race went on, so we thought we had lapped 2^nd place, but the previous 2^nd place were down in 3^rd now and 3^rd had moved up to 2^nd and were 20minutes behind us. This is when we started to panic so had to put the extra effort in for the last 6 hours to gain some time and try lap 2^nd. 10pm came and we had managed to build the gap to 40minutes of 2^nd and lapped 3^rd for the second time. We were flying and we knew it. On my 6^th and final 8mile lap we lapped 2^nd place finally and knew from there on we just had to finish and we had won.

Midnight came, the firework went off to confirm the end of the race and once Isaac was back in from his lap we could celebrate the victory. 12 hours of racing, 152 miles covered between us, it was safe to say we were all shattered. But we still had to wait up to 2am to collect our trouphy and stand on that top step of the podium.