RaceReport - Erik - Part 1
Friday evening, I shiver. Our train to the start was cancelled and my
well thought out plan to have a motivational speech in the train
disappeared as we squeezed in a cab to bring us to the start. In front
of me were 8 riders, their bikes ready, gps-device switched on, the leds
of the SPOT-trackers blinking regulary. I dropped my speech and stuck
to the bare minimum: safety, rules and goodluck! I took my bike and
asked Henry, our dedicated driver who brought the bikes to the start, to
count down.
21.15 and we were off. My back-muscles were in a cramp thanks to my nerves, my stomage was empty since I forgot dinner and I felt slightly sick from the taxi ride (my stomage and cars don't go very well together). The small group rapidly split up as even in the centre of Turnhout our strategies were different. As soon as I saw a quite spot I dismounted and ate a cliff bar while making a phone call to my gf. Five minutes of recuperation had me motivated again to get up to speed and see how far the others had gotten by then.
I rode to Scherpenheuvel without much issues, passing Hannes and Raf on the final approach. At the checkpoint we met again and saw jet-cyclists Stijn and Sven were already passing Diest while we were admiring the church and taking our validation-pictures. From here on I would ride the opposite route as all other riders. While choosing the checkpoints I had already noticed there were two possibilities and I was eager to test whether my sequence would make sense. I knew in advance that I did not have the legs to attack bullets Stijn and Sven who spent several days a week in the saddle of their racing bike and who consider every speed under 30 kph as walking speed. But Thomas and the two Wims were worthy opponents which I might defeat if my route was easier albeit longer.
So I turned to Leuven and made good speed. At Leuven I met Gert-Jan who was riding for fun as he needed to attent a funeral the next day. We had a chat and I stocked up on water. Then I turned south to Namur. Although much of the roads I choose were unlit, I made good speed and managed to eat on a regulary basis. I had a short stop not far from Namur and descended into the city in good mood. It was 2 am and the center struck me as beautiful and welcoming. At the central square I filled all waterbottles and my camelbag, enough water to cover the comming 10 hours.
Leaving Namur I chose the wrong side of the Maas and ended up riding on a hiking path on the right bank which was full of mud or gravel. It did not slow me down significantly but at the first opportunity I rode across the river and joined the Ravel-cycling path. It was a mix of good asphalt and cobble stones and I had to reduce my speed as the cobble stones made riding very uncomfortable.
Just outside Dinant I hit good asphalt and immediately picked up speed only to notice my rear wheel had developed a wobble on the cobblestones. I halted at a well lit place and inspected the wheel. The rim appeared to be well centered and all spokes were in one piece. The tire had good pressure so I started looking for a sheer in the casing. I couldn't see it but I soon felt the tire was wider in one place and the casing appeared to have been damaged close to the tirebead. I had a spare, so took no risks and replaced the tire and rode into Dinant. As I had already lost a fair amount of time I didn't enjoy the views for very long and climbed out of town, heading to Remouchamps, soon to discover I messed up while planning my route...
21.15 and we were off. My back-muscles were in a cramp thanks to my nerves, my stomage was empty since I forgot dinner and I felt slightly sick from the taxi ride (my stomage and cars don't go very well together). The small group rapidly split up as even in the centre of Turnhout our strategies were different. As soon as I saw a quite spot I dismounted and ate a cliff bar while making a phone call to my gf. Five minutes of recuperation had me motivated again to get up to speed and see how far the others had gotten by then.
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| At the memorial in front of the dome of Scherpenheuvel. 23.30 and feeling great. |
I rode to Scherpenheuvel without much issues, passing Hannes and Raf on the final approach. At the checkpoint we met again and saw jet-cyclists Stijn and Sven were already passing Diest while we were admiring the church and taking our validation-pictures. From here on I would ride the opposite route as all other riders. While choosing the checkpoints I had already noticed there were two possibilities and I was eager to test whether my sequence would make sense. I knew in advance that I did not have the legs to attack bullets Stijn and Sven who spent several days a week in the saddle of their racing bike and who consider every speed under 30 kph as walking speed. But Thomas and the two Wims were worthy opponents which I might defeat if my route was easier albeit longer.
So I turned to Leuven and made good speed. At Leuven I met Gert-Jan who was riding for fun as he needed to attent a funeral the next day. We had a chat and I stocked up on water. Then I turned south to Namur. Although much of the roads I choose were unlit, I made good speed and managed to eat on a regulary basis. I had a short stop not far from Namur and descended into the city in good mood. It was 2 am and the center struck me as beautiful and welcoming. At the central square I filled all waterbottles and my camelbag, enough water to cover the comming 10 hours.
Leaving Namur I chose the wrong side of the Maas and ended up riding on a hiking path on the right bank which was full of mud or gravel. It did not slow me down significantly but at the first opportunity I rode across the river and joined the Ravel-cycling path. It was a mix of good asphalt and cobble stones and I had to reduce my speed as the cobble stones made riding very uncomfortable.
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| On the bridge in Dinant, just lost some time changing the tire, so no time to waste on nice posing. |
Just outside Dinant I hit good asphalt and immediately picked up speed only to notice my rear wheel had developed a wobble on the cobblestones. I halted at a well lit place and inspected the wheel. The rim appeared to be well centered and all spokes were in one piece. The tire had good pressure so I started looking for a sheer in the casing. I couldn't see it but I soon felt the tire was wider in one place and the casing appeared to have been damaged close to the tirebead. I had a spare, so took no risks and replaced the tire and rode into Dinant. As I had already lost a fair amount of time I didn't enjoy the views for very long and climbed out of town, heading to Remouchamps, soon to discover I messed up while planning my route...
Organising the event: the challenge
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| Checkpoint sequence that never made it. Would have been longer and bigger climbs. |
The basis of this event was very simple: several years ago I started reading blogs about long distance cycling and was amazed by the distances normal humans could apparantly cover in one day. Paris-Brest-Paris, Oslo-Trontheim and London-Edinburgh-London, it all sounded to crazy to be true. Then I discovered the Transcontinental Race, a race that apart from being extreme long distance, widened the concept of racing by allowing different routes and having very few other limitations. A few checkpoints between London and Istanbul was all the riders got, everything else was up to themselves.
Maybe the fact that the first editions were dominated by Kristof Allegaert a fellow Belgian, contributed to my appreciation of this event. But hey, I am definitly not a asphalt-eating machine like the TCR riders, so I limited myself to dotwatching.
I am not a sportsman. I run occasionaly and I ride my bike on a daily basis. I have several "projects" in life that I find to important to narrow my focus only on cycling. Yet I wondered whether those long distances would be achievable for my mediocre body. I'd had to device a test to find out...
Participants
I am no terminator. If I would decide to cycle 400k on my own, I'd probably stop at a hotel after 300k ,as by then my motivation would have dropped below zero. So I needed to consolidate my challenge by making it public, and what better way to do that then to motivate some friends to do the same? Contrary to what seems logical, it didn't take me very long to gather a small testing-cohort: 1 brothter in law, 2 colleages, 1 friend of one brother in law, two former boyscout-friends and one slightly accidental friend and I was off.Distance
First thing I needed was a plan: the idea was to have a time limit of 24 hours. So, what distance can an average cyclist cover in that time? I asked all the participants and most estimates were between 350 and 400kms so I aimed for something close to 400.A good guess apparently as all riders declared afterwards that it "was long enough", but was challenging. The fastest riders needed 19 hours while the slowest, me, needed the full 23:50 hours. With on average fast riders a distance of 450 k seems to be more appropriate. For slower riders 350-400 will do the trick. (on average the riders climbed only 2500 meters over that distance).
CP selection
The timing of the event was quite bad in terms of wheather potential, but I didn't want to wait, so bad weather it would be. I used more checkpoints then I originally wanted, because I was afraid a rider might take to many risks and take a dangerous route. So after some fidling around I chose five checkpoints that were chosen as such that the route options were limited to smaller roads and paths. In hindsight this may have been an overly cautious approach, as none of the riders demonstrated any suicidal tendency.Rules
Very easy this, I used the rules as written on the brevet card of the TCR, slightly adapted to Belgian legislation.So there was the challenge, now on to making it accessible for non-riders...
