In his final race of the 2008 season, mountain biker Matthew Page from Llandovery recently made the journey to Thetford Forest, East Anglia in an attempt to defend his ‘Dusk ‘til Dawn’ title.

The event, which is held entirely at night, is the premier 12-hour endurance race in the UK. With dry weather in the weeks preceding, the 12 -miles course was dry and very fast, but with heavy rain forecast overnight riders were left guessing what the course might deliver.

Starting strongly Page got into the pack of lead riders immediately attempting to push the pace, distancing most other riders. Half way through the first lap disaster struck when grit from wet ground went into Matthew’s eye “It was quite painful but the main problem was that it started to affect my vision. I put up with it until the end of the lap, but had to stop then to try and remove it,” said Page.

Having lost four minutes removing the grit Page had to work extremely hard to get back in touch with the leading group of riders, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process. By this point it had started raining heavily and the course was becoming muddier each lap.

“The pace was relentless from the very start, having caught back up with the others we were lapping at an incredible speed; I didn’t think I would be able to keep it up for much longer,” he said. With worsening conditions, bike changes were necessary most laps to ensure all brakes and gears were working correctly. Page’s pit crew, consisting of partner Nia and mechanic Ben from Wiggle.co.uk were working overtime to keep him in the race.

At the seven-hour point, suffering from tiredness and low energy, Page slowed slightly and lost touch with the leader.

“I had to dig really deep and find some energy; I managed to stay in touch with the 2nd placed rider but thought the race was lost. At the end of the lap I took lots of food on board, hoping it would keep me going.”

With renewed vigour Page picked up the pace and once again caught up with the leader, dragging another rider with him. Now once again three riders were all together all battling for the win. With just two laps remaining, having completed over ten hours, Page made the decisive attack which distanced him from the two riders behind.

“I have no idea where I got the energy from, but I knew I had to make a move if I wanted to win the race.

“The last two laps were really tough, I was running on empty but somehow I was able keep pushing hard.”

Winning ‘Dusk ‘til Dawn’ tops a fantastic season for Matthew, who has also won other prestigious races including the 24hr solo ‘Sleepless in the Saddle’ in August and 12hr solo ‘Twentyfour12’ in July. He is now already preparing for 2009, which he hopes will be even more successful.