12 hours is a long time to ride a bike. I'm sure others will have plenty of stories to tell below.

Thank you everyone for all the support throughout the day, the mental challenge was tough, and it was really great to see you guys cheering on every lap.

Special mention to the ladies team - back on the podium, but climbing right to the top this time - amazing achievement!

Sleep time now, if I can make it out of this chair again...

Great day, thanks everyone!

WOW
www.timelaps.co.uk/assets/uploads/EVENTR...inleyManor28/08/2011

Some amazing lap times in there, when my brain starts working again I'll do some stats

Amazing weekend, thanks so much to everyone for keeping me going with cups of tea and chat.

Well done everyone, especially the girls, you were flying!

Gotta have a song of the day of course, you've no idea how hilarious these lyrics are when you've been riding for 10 hours and are competely away with the fairies on Torq gels and red bull!

"Help me somebody help me
I wonder where I am
...
Seems like I've been here before
Seems like I've been here before"

Says it all really...

Well done every one who took part! And very well done the girls for winning!!!!
Sarah WOW!! 72 miles on a mountian bike, that is going to take me about 5 weeks to do with the Mods! Very well done! Jim

Like James and Sarah have said, thanks to everyone for the support and cheers, made my life a lot easier.

Said I would never do it again but have changed my mind

My GPS stats ...
http://connect.garmin.com/page/activity/activity.faces?activityId=110300017&actionMethod=page%2Factivity%2Factivity.xhtml%3AuserSwitcher.switchSystem&

A quick extract of MBRO35 from the results table.

A big effort from everyone that took part, especialy the solo's and those Crazy Ladies.

Click on the picture to zoom.

Well done everyone, so hard,don't know how u guys rode it solo,amazing. brilliant day. Great party too, nursing the mother of all hangovers!

dawnie wrote:


You? Loud? Well, I guess it was very foggy last night! With the rain, you were probably trying to keep the shipping from sailing up into the bottom of "Banksey"?

And James, can you get out of my armchair now please???

Sarah, Leaky, Jeroen, Steve amazing effort. James what were you thinking, solo single speed, utter madness.

Well done to you all.

TT



PS Did anyone hear how Billy Joe got on?

Really well done all, the missing link soloists are extraordinary on many different levels , well done and thank you Slam Dunc for sorting it all out for the team. Great day, great racing, great company . Until the next one

Lap time graphs, think I've got everyone...

Jeroen, your GPS stats are mental, you hardly stopped! 88 miles!

Well done Sarah, I've now edited the results table so you can actually read it! So many good times, especially those done in the rain and the dark.

Loads of highlights to the weekend. The last lap midnight gathering where we all got together to cheer each rider over the line was special and of course seeing the Crazy Ladies on the top step of the podium at the post race party. Unreal!

Thanks to those who came along to support and also to Gerry for stepping in to help Kaff and Emma.

Mad,mad,mad you mad soloists - how brilliant were you all

Everyone did so well and all the ladies were amazing - well done to everyone on that beautifully sunny bank holiday weekend

Great day - beautiful balmy English summer evenings, don't you just luv em

Thanks to Miles for sorting our team out, to Ron for lending me the canvas coffin, Simon for the lift, whoever donated the barbecue food & Matt for his dulcet tones drifting me quitely off to sleep

Well done to all the riders, especially the soloists but a special mention must go to our champions, Helen, Wendy, Sze & Fiona, brilliant

Photos here http://www.joolzedymond.com/joolzeD/TORQ1211.html

at your song of the day Sarah, on a related note I must remember to take the Cure's Disintegration of my ipod for the next race. Being forced to listen to Prayers for Rain wasn't particularly motivational!

Amazingly you can search by your race number!

A couple of me (because I can't remember anyone else's number!)
joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...Image=150434&q=2
joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...Image=150433&q=2

Jeroen, I had to take my mp3 player off random as it kept playing the Cure! Thankfully I had my trusty "turn it up" playlist to keep me going. I've been playing it my car this morning on the way to work. "Cracking up" by JAMC is never going to sound the same again - "Some say I am a freak, I a-a-am...".

Now I've had time to think about the whole thing I'm so impressed by how well we all did. Lowest moment for me was actually the first and second lap when I felt completely knackered! Can't remember much at all about most of the race to be honest, just shows how successfully I'd zoned out. Best part by far was hearing the fireworks in the distance near the end of the last lap and cheering, then cycling in a grinning blur down to the finish. It was so exciting seeing all the floodlights, hearing everyone shouting, waving my arm in the air like a loon, then everyone coming up to say well done. Made it all worth while

I felt great until I got home and all the gels wore off... I think I'll be having a very quiet week now to try and recover - I hope the rest of you don't feel as rough as I do today!

You know what? I'm going to do it again next year

If you search for "TQ" in the photos you get a whole load of more general shots which are a good reminder of what the day was like
joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?q=t...;searchsubmit=Search

Good photos of you James, I'm not putting up any links of photos of me, I look goofy in all of them

Just found the Crazy Ladies on Podium.

joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...amp;viewImage=150244

Yes well done everyone, especially the solo riders. I would never have the mental strength to do that as I actually think you have to be slightly mental to do it!

Shame our team had to fold Maybe next year

superlight wrote:


Lap 5 was the worst for me when I realised that I wasn't even halfway yet. Towards the end it all went a bit strange, I had one or two favourite trees who I politely said good evening to every time cycled past. I also got paranoid that the organisers thought I was cheating and were sending out people to spy on me...

Apart from a dull ache in my legs, sore ankle, and a tweeky lower back the body feels ok.

Big White Marin wrote:


That's so funny

I kept thinking someone was following me as I could see a light behind me - took me ages to realize it was the lightstick tied to my rusksack! (Don't tell Kaff, she already thinks we're mentalists.)

Jeroen, I know my times make it seem I was stationary, but I was one of those trees!

joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...mp;zoom=yes&q=tq

I can't believe we didn't all pull a wheelie as we crossed the 'Trolls Bridge'.

joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...mp;zoom=yes&q=tq

Great effort James, only 11 hours to go !... ...!

Team MBRO35 Men of Steel :

Duncan joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...age=151050&q=549
Simon joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...age=151051&q=549
Omar joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...age=151048&q=549
Tommy joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...age=151049&q=549

Dark Knight joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...age=151052&q=549

Great effort guys. Proud to have been part of the team.

It's great to read of the MBR0 Afterglow!

Geri has brought to my attention that there are a few of you that don't yet feature in the photo line-up yet, so we got onto the job and found a few more that you may like to 'av a butchers at....(notice the translation?)

Search Joolze's Torq12 2011 gallery for numbers:-

TQ1_5369 (Geri thinks there is Corrin in the starting snake?)
5401 & 4671 (Miles & Sze looking "glam" at the transition pit).
4566 (the cream of the Biketrax team???!
5086 Just to remind you of just what an evening it turned out to be...... Clear, cool, and Bl__ding dank.

Top photo of Felons working on her 'look at my arse and not the trail' tactics. Maybe it was her that caused the first lap pile up although it did prove to be her 'undoing' later on in the lap.

joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...mage=151510&q=tq

wow
well done guys,
you all done superb,,

sounds like you had a blast,

shame there were already four of the old gits team otherwise i may have come in , lol
well done guys and girls

GB

Sze Sze joolzedymond.com/photocart/index.php?do=...amp;viewImage=151645

Excellent weekend

Has got to of been the best race I've been involved in yet!

Well done to all the solos. Done know hour you done it I had trouble with 4 laps, lol.

Off for more racing at the weekend if anyone's interested. Its the last round of the southern series at Pippingford on Sunday

Well done everyone, a real test of mental and physical endurance.

I have 6 windsurf races this weekend and i have realised i need to have much more focus and staying power so a learning curve for me.

See you soon-ish,

Emma

Wendy - picture 6!

www.flickr.com/photos/13780159@N04/sets/...0949/show/?no_back=1

Blimey Folks what a weekend just got back from intensive care having stopped at the foundry to melt my hardtail down into some useful paper weights. Well more useful than it was as a bike frame!

Well anyway Congratulations to the Crazy ladies in pulling off yet another victory but what happened in the female Solo's. Sarah has to be the only person on the planet more unlucky than me. She does 72 miles around the course from Hell in utterly hideous conditions & only comes 6th? Who the hell filled 1st to 5th places? Steve have you got 5 younger, fitter transvestite brothers who happened to enter the ladies singles?

As for the Old Gits What the £*^$ happened? It was all going so well. By the end of the 1st lap I thought we were looking really good. Dave despite my reservations about being the old bloke setting himself up for a mugging from all those young hooligans on the start line came past the finish line in a fantastic position. He was still on his bike instead of in a hearse! Miles our Ace card shot off in his usual enthusiastic manner setting high expectations, then it all went pear shaped. Miles in keeping with the team spirit had a sudden attack of Altziemers & forgot there was a corner at the bottom of a downhill & landed in a big heap. Fortuneately the Altziemers lasted the rest of the lap & Miles forgot how old & fragile he was & still set a great time. Pat, Dave & myself continued to do our best but come Miles 2nd lap the Rheumatiod Athritis kicked in & it was all over Red Rover.

Hope the damage wasn't too severe Miles & that you make a rapid recovery.

Neil, I was gobsmacked when the solo ladies stood on the podium and they looked so normal. I wasn't trying hard enough obviously. I actually would have been 30th in the solo male category and 25th in solo vet male which I'm very happy about, I did ok

I'm not seeing any photos of the old gits on here, here's what I can find:
Dave
Pat
Neil
Miles appears to have escaped the cameras, did he actually do a lap? I reckon he just hung around in the pits with our glamorous Crazy Ladies all day

I'm feeling left out of the photo call now, so here's one of me looking totally zoned out:
get a grip girl!

I just have to say that I'm chuffed to bits that you all seemed to "enjoy" the TORQ12 experience. This is only the forth event and it has grown in popularity since the first one I did in a team in 2008. The format works, even tho' there really could have been more toilets and showers...Blah blah moan....

What you have to take on board is that the Gorrick enduro racing has an annoying habit of attracting the really high achievers in XC racing. Look around and you will see hotshots everywhere! I was at a Gorrick Brass Monkey Enduro when Rebecca Romero rocked-up & raced. You know what? She only came third!

Joolze told me that the young woman that won the ladies that day was some serious mega-enduro international athlete.... Blah blah. "Gulp" I thought! No wonder she was strolling past all of us!

The point? Well, you never know who is about on these events, so never count yer chickens. Go and ride your best, support eachother, try not to give up and then, just maybe then, you'll be the best on the day. And that is special.

So what sticks out in your memory of the event. I recon the crashes and close escapes. That's why stuff like Jeroen's trees and Miles's excursions into undergrowth or Canals are just sooo funny. A good friend of mine didn't pre-ride Sponge Bob. Opted to hit the steep rooty climb out, failed at the top. Couldn't hold on and fell all the way down, with the bike landing on top of him. He's OK but you've got to laugh or you'd just give up! I bet there's loads more stories?

The really big one that I am desperately trying to figure out is one that Geri was telling me about. She was telling me that poor Emma got lost on her lap and popped out at the 1mile mark after 50minutes of racing??? Er??? We've got bags of sympathy, but where did you go???

Nice one ladies. Nice one Gentlemen. I look forward to catching up somewhere comfortable for a de-brief.

(Oh and one other thing. I was having a chat with our Gorrick organiser friends, and guess what? You MBro lot have been noticed!!!)

(Oh and one other thing. I was having a chat with our Gorrick organiser friends, and guess what? You have been noticed!!!)[/quote]

I would have been surprised if we hadn't been. Especially after the awards ceremony!

It was hard work drinking those beers and watching you lot fly by! Especially in the rain.

Sarah, you've fully sussed me, all I did was ride through the start and then hide in the woods for 45 minutes before creeping out onto the downhill back into the Arena.

As far as I can see, Wendy, Myself and Emma have somehow managed to totally elude the Joolz Dymond lens brigade. As it happens, Wendy and I are quite ok with it as it would have caused untold problems with our sponsors.

Neil, top commentary, I think you summed it up nicely.

My plan was to go as fast as possible for the first lap knowing that after that my beer fuelled reserves would be on the wane for the rest of the race. Trying to overtake 4 riders on the same downhill was obviously a 'misjudgement' but after following them through half a mile of singletrack the race mode red mist had descended and hitting the corner carrying too much speed my front wheel washed out and that was that. I was more annoyed that I never managed to get back on the bike before two of them passed me again, especially when round two more corners was a big uphill fire road that they all caned me on!

I'm very confused about my second lap which I'm still convinced was quicker than my first and ended up recorded at 9 minutes(?) slower. Like you say, mentally challenged! Shame about the wrist, I would have liked to be able to do at least one lap under lights but it was a great effort by you Pat and Dave to see us home while I got on the beer and fired up the BBQ.

Next year we'll all know the score and it'll be very different.

I eluded the camera because I was lost in action! I knew as soon as I'd jumped the same jump for the 3rd time on my 2nd lap that all was not well and seeing all the tents come visible as I came out the woods was not a happy sight! I recall not feeling very well on my second lap and was preoccupied with this and not fully focused on the route.

Anyway ... there's always next year, when I will know what to expect can prepare a bit better!

and before I forget, many thanks Leaky for the pre-race advice, tips and strategies

It's amazing how a few days down the line and only good memories remain. Any thoughts of cold wet slip-sliding though brown porridge are replaced by a lovely sense of well being and euphoria.

I'm proud of my Biketrax team and their reluctant racers efforts. Our final position in the rankings is neither here nor there. We had fun trying to hold our positon and I enjoyed the threat of a rival Larkfield team. More to the point is the age old saying of "it's not all about winning it's about about taking part".

Have to say, in usual good form the mbro35 riders showed great spirit. 5 teams is amazing, everyone deserves a pat on the back for every individual effort. Hopefully that pat on the back comes as a shared feeling of euphoria after the race and for as long as the memories continue.

Solo riders I salute you! I have never understood the desire to do it, but to see the look on your faces and your obvious sense of achievement I have to say, now I get it.

If anyones tempted the next team/solo 12 hour enduro is closer than you may already know:

www.thetfordmtbracing.com/d2d.htm

I like this quote from the D2D site.

" Dusk til Dawn (D2D) is looming. Pre-race anticipation levels are amazing. The race is both great fun and the most miserable time you've ever had on a bike!"
~ Team Muddy Moles ~

Backsey wrote:


Backsey, you nearly brought a tear to my eye.

uggski wrote:


Anyone?

I would but I don't have any lights!



Pfffffff!

Mr Incredulous wrote:


I'm kind of tempted actually, maybe...



(what am I doing? I'm going to get some lunch and give myself a good talking to about entering races that nearly kill you )

Basking in the afterglow of TORQ and amazingly I have forgotten the fact that I fell off five times and exposed myself to a dirty old man who thereafter told me he was happy to follow me as his "pacer".

My crazy lady co-horts were simply supperb and a shinning example of determination, team work, strength and balls. I think mbr035 practically took over the event - how good is that!

Total respect and admiration for soloists - James, Sarah, Jeroem, Steve and leaky. I can't imagine how exhilarating but horrifically tortuous the ride must have been.

Most hilarious moment was Madge and her toilet issue...I'll leave that one for Madge to tell you on Saturday.

Lets do it again in October ....?! x

"Basking in the afterglow of TORQ and amazingly I have forgotten the fact that I fell off five times and exposed myself to a dirty old man who thereafter told me he was happy to follow me as his "pacer". "

Ronnie's a nightmare isn't he. I'll bring the cattle prod next time to stop him harassing the female competitors.

uggski wrote: