Book of Chad

Both Lindsay and I have wanted to compete in the 12 Hours of Cumby race for a number of years. The first time we wanted to get into it we had a scheduling conflict and the next two times the race was the victim of the pandemic. This year we were supposed to be away so when we found out the dates we were a bit crushed. However, this time when life threw a wrench in our plans it actually made it possible to make it to the start line. Neither of us had been training specifically for this kind of event as it was not on the list of possibilities, so we decided to race it as a relay team of 2.

We had a very last minute strategy of do two laps each until that doesn’t work and then do something else. I was going to start and get two fast laps on the board to give Lindsay time to get a feel of the course on her first lap since neither of us had pre-ridden the course. One issue with my plan was I hadn’t told Lindsay I was planning to build her a buffer so she could do a sighting lap.

I went really hard on the first climb and led the field uphill gravel, into the single track and into the first downhill section. Only issue was I didn’t know the course either and with a max heart rate and narrowed vision I made a few mistakes. I let the small group that managed to follow me by at the next gravel section and the 5 of us went on for the rest of the lap. The next lap I kept the pace up and stayed in 5th position. When I came to the line and into the tag zone I called out to Lindsay to take it easy and learn the course.

Now my job was to rest get my new bottle on my bike and eat. I felt like I had just sat down when I saw Lindsay coming in to complete her first of two laps. She was really dirty… it almost looks like she had a crash… she calls out to me that I need to do a lap now and she will be ready for the next one.

So back on the bike I go and I speed off, it’s just one lap after all so I put in another quick one. Mid way through the lap I see Lindsay’s water bottle sitting at the side of a trail and I think to myself well I guess that’s the scene of the accident. When I come to the end of the lap ready to change Lindsay calls out sorry but you need to go one more. Off I go again still feeling like we are really needing hard fast laps to get ahead as early as possible. As I approached the place I saw her bottle I quickly pulled to the side and picked it up. When I neared the finish line Lindsay was on her bike and ready to go.

I was pretty spent and the organizer comes over and there is a problem with our number plates and they need to be changed. So I follow him across the venue and away from my tent. We take off my number plate and they can’t find the one I’m supposed to have. So I go back to my tent and sit down just to be called over again by Patrick the timer. I say listen guys I don’t want to be short with you but I need to eat and rest, you can take my bike you can do whatever you want to do but I need to sit down and eat. So I left them with my bike and turned around. Shortly after Patrick comes by to offer me cookies and explain what was going on, I apologize for being curt and that I just needed to eat and he reply’s yeah you look horrible.

Meanwhile Lindsay gets two good laps in she is really flying and not only are we laps ahead of our immediate competitors already, but we are in the top ten overall, even against teams of 4 men we are keeping up lap for lap. I realized that we had no way of communicating at this point as we only saw each other for a couple seconds when tagging out. So I decided to text her and when she came in I yelled read your texts. Off I went for another two fast laps and handed it back off to Lindsay. It worked she had read the texts and texted me back. “Do you want to switch to single laps? It is getting pretty hot.” I didn’t really think we needed to at that point, it was getting hot but our lap times were still good so I didn’t really want to change. Well my first of two was good, I had been doing sub 32 minute laps all day so far but my second was over 35 minutes. Yeah it was getting too hot to do double laps. Lindsay was off on her laps and as she came in from her first lap I called out to change and go single laps.

We did single laps for the rest of the event and immediately saw our lap times get better. We should have changed earlier for sure. As it neared the final hour my back had pretty much called it a day all of my laps were staying in the 32 minute zone until my final lap, well at the time I didn’t know it would be my final lap. My back was so bad that I put in a 38 minute lap Lindsay put in a 36 minute lap after that and with just under 30 minutes left in the race there was no chance of getting another lap done before the cutoff.

Lindsay came in and I broke the news there was no time to get in another lap. Finally as we packed up and looked at the live timing we were able to communicate in person and reflect on our day. We had completed 20 laps, won our division by 5 laps and came in 12th overall. Lindsay had a pretty bad crash on lap one and was bleeding through gauze pads. I had an off bike moment mid way through where another rider who wasn’t in the race and I collided at a trail intersection. But most importantly we had finished our first 12 hours of Cumby.

Race: 12 Hours of Cumby (only my stats)
Distance: 100 km
Time: 5:59:42
Avg Speed: 16.8 kph
Avg Power: 181 W
Normalized Power: 219 W
Elevation Gain: 1982 m
Place: 1st team of 2 co-ed