Tide to Tide

Tide to Tide is a 6 hour mountain bike race which takes part in Pembrey Country Park on the South Wales coast, the same venue as Battle on the Beach. It gets its name as the course runs along a beach for part of the way, in the time when the tide is at its lowest between high tides.

As I thoroughly enjoyed BotB, both for the race and the venue, and because I've never done an endurance race before I though that I'd give this race a go. Dani was also keen to race as well, she wanted to do well whereas I was just taking part for the experience.

As the race was on a Saturday we travelled down on the Friday in my new van, an ex-Scottish Gas VW Caddy (the Landy has now been sold). Unfortunately the Friday traffic, along with the sat-nav sending us on a silly route, made the journey last about 6 hours so we arrived after dark.

We took our Tentipi, which luckily is a doddle to erect, even in the dark and drizzle. The weekend started wet, and continued wet apart from a brief break before the race, so our camp was a bit damp. However, we have a meths heater to use in the Tipi so even though the weather was miserable we could at least stay warm under canvas whilst we listened to the rain and the sea roaring nearby.

Camp set up.

We woke on Saturday morning to mild drizzle. Which was far better than the heavy rain which we had overnight. The weather improved as the morning wore on, we ate porridge (the just-add-water stuff from Aldi, actually quite good), fed and walked the dogs, prepared bikes and sorted kit including our feed box, which would be left at the side of the course in a designated area, then recce'd the course.

Bike set up. Lights look good but were in fact a bit rubbish.

Pre-riding the course is very usefull, not only can we get a feel for the terrain we can also be prepared for any technical sections, repeatedly riding them if need be, but also look for any good overtaking spots and sections where we could take on food and water. The course was mostly through woodland, made up of dunes, with a short but firm section of beach riding. There was a techy bit near the start, an off-camber line around a stump followed by a steep drop-off, and a set of steps leading down to the beach, but aprt from those short sections the riding was mostly woodland singletrack with a short length of tarmac and grass at the start/pit area. And I should mention the exit from the beach, a short but steep push up soft sand that made the quads burn! Undulating is how I would describe the woodland singletrack, there were lots of short sharp climbs to keep the legs working, and the ground sandy in places and loamy in others.

Recce'ing.

At the start line I stayed close to the back. After a short briefing we were off, along, through a chicane, then into the woods. Lap one was just me finding my way, getting into a steady rhymn that I could keep up for 6 hours. Laps 2, 3 and 4 were pretty much the same, although  got slightly faster, then I stopped at the feed box to change my bottle and grab a bite to eat. Croissants and chocolate chip brioche, the former too chewy to eat quickly but the latter just right, and nice and tasty to boot. I stopped again after 7 laps to eat then again after 8 laps to fit my lights. These saw only little use until we were in darkness, to save battery life, at which point they decided to dim quite rapidly. Although we started in the dry, after about 2 hours the rain started, only light rain but enough to affect the trail, making the muddy parts rather slippery. On my last two laps the constant rain and hundreds of tyre tracks made the track very slippery, which  showed up one of the weaknesses of fat tyres, they just slide around on the surface of mud rather than cut in and find grip under the surface. On my very last lap I walked some sections due to the surface conditions and a lack of light. I lost a lot of time on those final laps pulling over to let other riders pass safely. Once across the finish line I could breath a sigh of relief, although I had enjoyed the experience the final stretch finished me off, if not physically then mentally.

Once I crossed the finish line I could look for Dani, who was by the Tipi, quickly put some dry(ish) clothes on, but not relax. The bikes needed to be put away in the van, the heater lit to warm the Tipi and dry us out, if only a little, and we needed to get to prizegiving as Dani had won the solo female veteran category. She also beat the all-female teams that had entered. So, once she had stood on the podium and had her photo taken we could eat. There were some excellent food stalls so we ate wood fired pizza and drank hot chocolate before retiring to bed, exhausted, a bit cold and damp but satisfied, already thinking ahead to next years race.

Once home the task of emptying the van and drying everything out could begin, with the Tipi hung over the banister, heating on and de-humidifier working overtime to dry it out. Once the van was emtied we could finally shower, drink tea, and start the mammoth task of washing everything, bikes, stoves and clothes. One thing that we both noticed is that we both felt to be in pretty good shape despite having ridden for 6 hours the day before. Even our bums felt ok, I had expected to have a sore posterior but no, we think that the undulating course which was us out of the saddle quite a bit saved our rears.

As I've stated before, we're both looking forward to next years event. This year for me at least, was more about the experience than trying to get a good result. I was aiming to complete at least 10 laps, preferably 12, so 11 is a good compromise. I've learn't a lot, and found some deficiencies with my kit, so hopefully with better lights and slightly different tactics I can do better next time.

Paul.