Tim smith and Dave Grayson decided this year they would do the 12hr TT for the first time but hopefully not the last.

Me and my wife Fliss went to keep an eye on them and this is how we saw their day .

the 12hrs takes loads of stamina and strength, mainly mental strength to support the riders and the riders need a bit of the same .

great navigation skills are needed to be in the right place to look after your riders and Fliss took over the driving after I got us lost in the first ten minutes.

We had been on the roads since 4.00am to get to the race which started at 6.00am in near dark, with wet ,windy and cold weather . All the way there I thought it would be cancelled but organisers are tough people and not put off by miserable conditions, and have little sympathy for me having to be in and out a warm car all day.

First thing we did was to feed up on hot tea and a big bacon buttie at a café fliss found, her having supported 12hrs before knew we would need the fuel.

Better mention the riders, first a bit of background about them Tim smith, all season has suffered with a long term knee problem that had stopped him riding much over 25mile.

we thought he might be more suited to the 12hr,not quite who or why i thought this but he had started the race and I for one had faith in him finishing ,but probably with just one leg.

Well tim is a fast starter and is well known for breaking spokes, when he takes of like a track sprinter,he must of thought why change the way I ride and took off like he was riding a 10 not a 12hr and was soon the front man in the field ,from what we could see of him out of car with the window wipers going he looked good with just 11.5hrs to go.

Dave Grayson was the other rider out on the roads and anybody who knows Dave would bet their house on Dave finishing, he has stamina by the bucket load and loves riding his bike. Dave set of a bit steadier pace than Tim as he remembered that it was a 12hr not a 10miler.

Well it seemed a long while till the pubs opened clubman Ian hall had come to show his support and the pub was the ideal viewing place and to talk over rider tactics, I felt a lot better after a few pints because it wasn’t easy being stuck in the car with fliss.

The story is how I saw the day so if tim or dave don’t agree write there own. Well we where managing to keep them supplied with water and snacks, and my main worry was them getting a flat tyre and fliss was concerned about pneumonia as it kept raining but there was loads of wind to dry them out, well the whole day went with out any mechanical breakdowns which made my job easier.

Everybody knows during a 12hr riders are going to hit a bad spell and dave hit his at about 100miles,dave had been sent on a longer leg than some other riders and that’s why he hadn’t seen to many riders, we told him that all his pains were normal and to carry on as he was doing well and all he needed was a banana and he went from strength to strength after this to record a mileage of 215.47.

Tim had slowed a little after his rapid start but not much to record a mileage of 218.15

both riders never moaned about their bad spells as they knew they would get little sympathy from me , I will be honest about tim and was a little concerned if it was humanly possible for him to ride 12hrs on the 25mile runs he had trained ,but he did the club proud .

It was a pleasure to watch dave and tim suffering and I hope they will be back at it next year and maybe we can talk some others into riding.

I have yet to decide which is the worst riding again or supporting the riders again but fliss said she don’t need me in the car again.