Through this rubbish summer that we have had I decided there are one or two challenges I want to do whilst I can, one of those was to do a 12 hour Solo race.

Now, having done D2D for the past 3 years as part of a team and knowing full well what the conditions can be like some might well say that this event isn’t the ideal choice for your first ever 12 hour solo.

Well, I took the gamble that the weather would at least be ok, surely it can’t be that bad 3 years in a row and as luck would have it it payed off. Antony, Mark and Matt had also all signed up to do it solo as well so 4 Cocks should make it quite fun.

Matt unfortunately wasn’t too well so didn’t make the trip and although Mark did come along, he too wasn’t feeling great so bailed out after 6 laps. That just left Antony (riding as Team Milo) and myself.

We had had a lot of rain leading up to this event and certainly the trails back here in Surrey were feeling the effects of it, the forecast for the period of the race thou was actually quite nice so even if the ground was soaked at least unlike last year you could hang around outside in the dry and that alone makes a big difference.

Well, we all travelled separately to Thetford and met up in the Solo camping area. Having had a chance to register and look around the main arena and the soloist’s tent we decided not to bother with a practice lap or with the soloist tent as there was very little distance between that and where we were parked up.

Instead we spent our time getting bikes, clothing and food ready. Come 7.45 we made our way to the starting line and were somewhere around halfway up the field, it was a clear night and cold but DRY. We had seen other riders in the afternoon returning from practice laps and they didn’t seem too muddy which was a blessing I can tell you.

At 8 sharp the race set off first doing the 1.5 mile lead out lap before recrossing the start line to start properly. It’s a bit odd being a soloist as you’re not racing flat out all the time and it is a little disconcerting to have so many other riders constantly passing you whilst you only occasionally pick the odd one off yourself.

It didn’t take long to settle into the race and the 1st lap was gone inside the hour, the conditions overall were good, I especially liked the 2nd half of the course after the only bomb whole, there was some really nice flowing singletrack in here although the bit where the ‘music’ was playing was rather muddy. There were also some fairly muddy sections in the 1st half of the lap but all was just about ride able and as the race went on it did dry out a bit.

Well, on entering the race I set myself the ambition of doing 10 laps (100 miles) and having completed lap 1 it looked like that may be achievable. My tactic would be to just ride pretty much non-stop and at a good steady pace, I had put some chocolate and sweets in my pockets and had one bottle of power drink on the bike. Having never raced like this before I wasn’t sure what to expect so learned as I went.

I knocked off the first 3 laps without stopping and told myself I want to get 5 done and then reward myself with a chance of clothes. This I pretty much did, stopping very briefly at the end of each lap on the side of the course to eat a chocolate bar and have some drink. At the end of lap 6 I headed back to the car to change clothes, get fresh food and drink and new light batteries ( I had carried spares with me). I stopped no more than 10 minutes and there was no sign of Antony or Mark so I assumed they were both still on the course.

Feeling refreshed I set off on lap 7, and having cooled down a little it felt so cold to start with and my fingers were going numb, still, it didn’t take that long to warm up again and wind my way around the course. Just before the bomb hole on Lap 7 Antony came past, he was on lap 8 – top rider coming past was the cheeky shout I heard, that was the 1st I’d seen of him or Mark since lap one.

Onward we went and at the end of my lap 8 and over 8 hours into the race I decided to pit again and get a warmer top to put on and check on food, drink and batteries. This time Mark arrived at the car whilst I was flaffing and announced he wasn’t feeling great, was struggling and was going to call it a day with 6 laps done.

Now changed into a warmer top I was off again on lap nine, there was still about 3 hours to go I think and although I was really getting tired now it looked like 10 laps was a real possibility. Lap nine came and went without incident and I went straight into lap 10, all be it slowing considerably now as tiredness really started to hit home.

Having said that, with about 2 hours of race time left as I was cycling along it got me thinking, if I could just do 11 laps that would be the longest I distance I had ever ridden in one go – back in 1995 I had done 106 miles in one day on my Lands End to John o Groats trip but that was all on tarmac. So, the seed was set to make this my longest ride ever and that did galvanise me a little too. As the end of lap 10 approached the sun was rising and daylight was starting to end the need for bike lights.

For the 10th time I rode through the start finish area and set off straight into lap 11. The course did seem quieter now and all the fast boys I just pulled over to let past so they could continue they races for honours, for me it was all about personal goals and finishing as high up the field as possible, top half would do me but the higher the better obviously.

Once again, almost in the same spot as before, Antony came past me, lap 13 is it Antony I said, no its 12. He had taken a small rest then nodded off for 30 minutes unplanned, which had messed up his timing a little, it meant he wasn’t back in time to start that all-important 13th lap. After a short chat whilst riding together Antony slowly pulled ahead to complete his 12 th and final lap. Shortly afterwards I came in to end up on a total of 11 laps and completely knackered but very chuffed.

Now all through the event none of us had any idea of our placings so it was a very pleasant surprise to go and check out the results. 147 soloists had registered but only 122 started. Off those 122 Mark came in 75th with his 6 laps where as Antony did fantastic to be 8th with his 12 laps and if it wasn’t for his little un planned knap may well have made the top 5. For me, well I am really chuffed to have finished 18th, well above what I had expected.

Would I do it again, well I’m not sure yet. I enjoyed it, it has achieved the goals I set out to do but I have to say it is just much more fun riding in a team. That’s not to say its not fun as a Soloist because it is and obviously has lots of challenges but , for me at least, you just can’t go out and attack the course like you can when doing a one lap blast every 3 hours or so in a team.

I must just mention what lights I was running. I had Ay  Ups on both my helmet and handlebars. I had one 6 hour battery for the bars and three 3 hour batteries for the helmet. I kept the helmet light on full for the entire time and thisjust about lasted the race and the handle bar one I used on the low setting which lasted to about lap 8 or or so. I did also have my two £30 cree lights but decided to keep them as reserve only using one of them for laps 9 and 10.

The Ay Ups big plus side is the battery life, long enough to see me through an event like this but the big down side is that they just aren't bright enough and I think that cost me time. The Cree light when I used it was fab, with hindsight I wish I'd made more use of them as I had a good 3 hours of battery life on full setting for them which I didn't utilise and they are much brghter than my ay-ups.

So, if I were to do it again I'd use my more powerful lights 1st to make sure I benefit from them and run the ay-ups as back up. What I will say is all the lights performed well, no dropped connections or loose batteries or anything like that and Simon's ay-ups that Mark was using were certainly brighter having been sent away for a £30 upgrade of the leds.

All in it was a great event - I may, or may not return for a 5th year in 2013.