Tell us about your cycle today part III

Missed out on a number of sportives over the weekend (Evil 200, Gorey 9 Stones, McNally Swords Cycling Club Annual Sportive) as I did the Mondello 24 hour race. I'm not a racer and wouldn't consider myself to have race pace at all but ever since I was a kid watching Le Mans, I had wanted to do one. I used to marshal in Mondello and marshalled at the Citroen 2CV 24 hour race (which was actually brilliant!).

Our club (Lucan) enrolled two four-member teams: you can enter teams of eight, four, two or do it solo (either for six hours or all 24 hours).

Solo (24 hr) = 36 riders
Solo (6 hr) = 8 riders
2 member = 4 teams
4 member = 45 teams
8 member = 18 teams

Arrived down around 09:30 on Saturday and loaded my stuff into our pit garage which was shared with riders from Castleknock, Galway and beyond. There was some collection of bikes there from high end expensive yokes to basic alu bikes to recumbents and tandems to a wooden bike which I saw on track but didn't get a proper look at).

At about 10:30 the track opened and I went out and did five practice laps (I didn't bother going to the three information & rehearsal evenings Mondello organised as I know the circuit layout fairly well - just point the bike in the right direction and pedal). It was very hot though so I'd need to make sure I'm drinking enough throughout the day!

At 12 noon, the event started in Le Mans style - someone on one side of the circuit holding the bike and the rider on the other side. Riders must run across the circuit (clip clop clip clop), get on the bike, clip in and head off without crashing into the hundred or so other riders heading off.

Our two teams had agreed to stick together for the first while and help each other along (despite it being a race). We would each do six laps before coming back into the pits. Each teams "active" rider had to wear a wrist band which could only be given to the next rider after the "active" rider had one foot on the ground and the Mondello staff were monitoring this (apparently you'd get a couple of warnings before getting a time penalty).

I was the second rider in my team to go out and it was brilliant. The atmosphere, the weather, the thrill. According to Strava, I had a 35.1 km/h average for the six 3.45Km laps which I was delighted with.

There was a great atmosphere around the pits - it was a strange combination of seriousness and carnival.

As the evening progressed, I found myself getting more and more tired due to a combination of the riding, standing around (stupidly in my cycling shoes) - doing six laps doesn't give a huge amount of downtime so you're somewhat on edge. What made it worse was the internet there was dire, really really dire. The lap times were available through the Pop Up Races website but it might take five minutes to load a page by which time the information is out of date. I eventually switched the phone to 3G and this made it a little better so that I was able to track the scores of the two Dublin GAA matches.

By 10pm solid front and rear lights were mandatory. This is when we switched from six laps to doing 90 minute stints (which was about 14 laps). I was out from 11:30 to 01:00. I enjoyed this but I did find myself getting tired and distracted by my bike computer which led me to taking corners wide rather than following the racing line.

When I came in after my 90 minutes , I got a quick bite from the canteen and slept on the passenger seat of my car until four am. I was due out again at 04:40 where we were now doing 40 minute stints and would continue this until the end. These forty minute stints were giving us about six laps. Worried it might be an omen but getting ready to head out at 04:40, my glasses snapped in half as I was putting them on so the rest of the race would be eyes into the wind - not to worry. What was a positive was that our two teams were no longer working together but had become competitive.

What I had noticed was that other riders were fond of staying on my wheel but were reluctant to share the workload but I guess it was a race rather than a sportive. Still, rule #67!

What was surprising was that on my 04:40 stint, I was lapped by a fella who was absolutely flying - he passed me on lap two and six (I think). Not sure what kind of team he was from as his number wasn't visible but after almost fifteen hours, how can someone still have the energy to still have that kind of pace? (and that isn't meant to sound begrudging)

On my last stint (10:00 to 10:40) I could feel myself really tired and the SW wind had become fairly strong which made the grind even harder, especially on the incline out of Tarzan (the double right hander). However, a lad from Orwell who had caught up with me offered me his wheel on my third lap and we shared the workload which until my sixth lap where I was due to go in. Coincidentally the Orwell lad was going in at that point but as I had almost five minutes spare, I stayed out and did a seventh lap. A third rider who had, a short while earlier joined myself and Orwell, shared the load with me on this last lap. When I got back to the pits, I made a point of going over to the Orwell garage to say thanks to him.
I also met @nilhg from here who was helping one of the solo riders.

By the end of the 24 hours, I was absolutely tired but I had a brilliant time. I will definitely do this again and I'd encourage you to consider it next year!

My total race laps = 58
Fastest lap = 05:36
Average lap = 06:12
Total time = 6:00:23
Total distance (excluding practice laps) = 194km

Most importantly, my team beat our other team by three laps.

While I'm proud of my virginity popping race, I can't believe the endurance of the solo riders. The lead somehow managed to complete 229 laps (794.63 km)