This piece started whilst I was riding back through France, so apologies it’s taken so long!
The question is this; at what point did my chances, as they were, of a quick finish end?
Was it in France? Where I rode for 180 miles with a rear tyre at 70psi, wasting time trying to find shop that might be able to sell a new pump as my valve-core had snapped inside the pump head? The extra time and energy needed to ride that distance really drained me and I was already knackered on day 3!
Or was it before that? Where 3 punctures before Dover meant I missed my ferry and caught one that landed 4 hours after the leading riders? No, before that still.
Just look at the eventual winner Kristoff Alagaert, a man who likes to ride 1000km at the weekend. With 3 kids and a wife my weekend training was limited to the week before where I did about 800km over the 48 hours. I spent 30 minutes the Tuesday before the race down in London at Athlete Lab (very cool btw) trying to impress Shane Sutton, an exercise in futility if ever there was one. Perhaps an FTP test wasn’t ideal just days before the race was to start?
It's one thing to knock out a bunch of century rides with ease, but the Transcontinental is an altogether different beast. I’ve ridden big miles before, so had an idea of what was coming at me, but I think after the punctures the monkey on my back was in full voice, and upon arriving at CP1 I found that I was already about 18 hours behind the leaders – in a little over 36 hours. Couple the fitness with a level of mental deflation and it’s not an ideal mind-state for continental racing.
Alongside fitness, routing was key. Mine just wasn't good enough, with cobbled forest detours and aborted attempts at Swiss tunnels costing me many hours, not to mention having to carry my bike up hill sides and ride alongside train tracks. This is something that would certainly need more work for next year, ideally visiting and riding the terrain as much as possible in the build up. This adds to the cost of the event and at the time I was an unemployed student so this was bound to be a factor. Cost also came into play when I arrived in Switzerland. With the price of living being so expensive there, I was super cautious with my money, not wanting to spend over the odds on food. This thinking led me to bonk big-time, totally counter-productive as I then had to neck whatever food I could find in an attempt to get me kickstarted again.
Power, as in electricity, was a stumbling block. I’d seen the week before that my Powermonkey unit was not holding any charge, so I went out and got a VEHO Pebble USB charger (really handy piece of kit). Sadly a dodgy power cable meant the Garmin wasn’t able to be charged via the Exposure dynamo hub, this meant enforced stops to charge the unit – good for cake, not good for racing! This will be alleviated next time out with a Supernova ‘The Plug’ USB charger on the bike, but even this is not infallible as one of the women’s favourites found out to her cost on the first day, causing her to scratch from the race. Electrical supply can play an enormous role in a race like this, more so if social media and photography are important to you – as it was for me.
Weather was the last stumbling block. Whilst I was totally happy with the Assos clothing I had – it performed as well as could be expected (and expectations where high!) – I certainly hadn’t prepared for snow and ice on the Stelvio and consistent rain in France and Switzerland. Coupled with the extremes in Italy again knocked it out of me, riding with wet feet for 48 hours was not fun! I think as well I was a little too cautious, not wanting to take too many risks in crappy weather knowing that there’s family at home.
Did I ever really have a chance to be competitive? No, I don't think so. Did I set out to be? I'm not sure. I know I wanted to get under 10 days, but I was also really interested in writing and documenting the trip, and actually having some fun along the way. With hindsight I'm not sure the two are wholly compatible. Certainly without spot-on planning and routing they’re not.
What was I more interested in? Probably the adventure and documenting it for the race followers, hopefully inspiring some to give it a crack next year. The summer of 2013 saw me riding across Northern Europe, doing around 1000 miles in 3 days, but one of the things I learned during that adventure was that BIG miles involve just getting the head down and turning the pedals, there’s no time or possibility of enjoying the scenery or culture, so that was certainly on my mind as I headed towards the Transcontinental. I wanted to have memories that were fun rather than just spending time with my head down.
As far as kit was concerned, life was good, other than 9 punctures in total, nothing went awry here at all – I will detail what I took with me in a future post – especially for those who are anxious to get ready for next year’s race. Suffice to say, the Rapide RC4 was rock-solid comfy and Di2 was brilliant – I had total use of my hands upon my arrival, not something which all competitors can say!
So what changes for 2015, where I’ll be back with a vengeance
- Fitness. I need to be both lighter and stronger. I lost 6kg over the race, but I needed to start the race probably about 10kg lighter anyway. So more pastry-discipline is needed for sure over the winter months and spring training (a bad habit I’ve had since early morning paper-rounds back in the 80s)
- Route preparation. It needs to be better, this will probably involve going out and doing weekend recces in the springtime.
- Mental toughness. It wasn’t there after the first day. This needs to be worked on, I also need a clearer definition of what my goals are.
- Luck. I need some better luck – sadly can’t guarantee that!
All in all, I’m happily disappointed with my race. I could have done better, no doubt about it, but the delays and setbacks I had placed me in Verona when someone else needed help, so whilst it meant I didn’t get to finish I got to help someone else instead. Memories made, example set for children, adventure had, and I got to ride 2500km on my bike 🙂
Entries open for 2015 at the end of October!
4 thoughts on “Transcontinental Race: the post mortem”
R.E.S.E.P.C.T. It was tough.
R.E.S.E.P.C.T. It was tough. Competing in it makes you a winner.
I had similar issues with
I had similar issues with regards to route planning and failed miserably on equipment selection / luck, killing my garmin just after Paris and melting my carbon rims in Greece!
Disappointed i didn’t reach Istanbul by bike I’ve already started planning for next year!
If you are heading out for any recces in the spring and would like some company please give me a shout, once the route is announced i think visiting the more questionable areas would save a good deal of time and stress!
An amazing effort to even
An amazing effort to even compete in such a race. I dream idly of competing one year in the future.
I haven’t and I wouldn’t put
I haven’t and I wouldn’t put too much effort into just one thing. Better keep an eye onto all details. Imho doing 800k as 2×400 doesn’t help that much on the TCR. Try to get a feeling where your sustainable daily avg could be. I had a feeling that it could be somewhere at 360/day. Why? I did a lot 200…250s and a few 360 up to 400 in the months April to July. When you prepare it is not nec. to imitate race conditions, better train how you manage to refuel while cycling, what works best for you etc.. How quick can you get onto the bike again and how much time for stops you waste in just doing nothing. It’s not a difference if you do 25kph or 24kph, it’s the time for the breaks you require.
As well – equipment. The less you have to struggle with your bike, clothes, sleeping gear the better. 10mins faster out of the bag and stuffed into the bike makes another hour easily. Confidence in that you can fix literally everything in the middle of nowhere is also a huge advantage. So spare spokes might be a good idea even when you did not had a broken one since ages. Can you access each screw on your bike with the tool(s) you carry? Are there unnecessary bits and tools? Get rid of them. Don’t get any complex stuff on the last minute. Minor things? There are no minor things. Do you need a towel? Really, what for? If you have done two or three rides with sleeping somewhere in between you might change your opinion on that. Is a bulky sun protection cream with SPF 30 really a good choice? Or the small tiny SPF 50 you get in the travelers size? So wander through all the single pieces and you will find out which you really like because you know they work. If you ride enough to say that about each piece – you’re ready to start. I’d say.
Electricity. I’ve seen and heard a lot of trouble with that. Don’t start with a brand new setup. Make sure it has shown that it works. That it works when you need it. So ride with it at night a few times. Ride in rain, ride in heat. The Supernova plus is useless when your device always turns off while you ride below the minimum required charging speed. So get a device that has internal buffer batteries. Or get one with standard AA. If you can check out some diy options and solder it yourself, make the plugs and cable connections on your own. Yes it takes time to compare cable type and insulation materials but at the end you know each detail. And you should be able to fix whatever might break by then. Smartphone? Just consumes too much to be the right thing on such a ride. Take if you really can navigate with it in case your GPS fails. Otherwise take some robust shit. Bar type phone which battery lasts for 2 weeks.
And route planning. Nothing is more worth in the end than sitting at the desk for weeks. Every evening. Fine tuning. I could have done a few things better on that, oh yesss. It would have saved me from doing 5500 meter climbing in a single day. Make use of several map sources, two screens are welcome. Check holiday times for the countries you cross to avoid heavy traffic in some places. Check for truck traffic and bicycle restrictions. Use streetview or picture databeses for pics of the road conditions. Check annually wind data like wind roses from meteo services. Compare alternatives. Yep, it consumes time. But nothing is a s much fun once you ride there and you recall certain stretches from your planning. It gives you confidence. And there will be moment you need it more than good legs.
And – don’t be afraid. If you do a bit commuting (30k/day is enough) over the winter as well, you can easily join with 6000…7000km training. And you can get all your gear and bike sorted out after new years. At least I did. So don’t panic, but once you decide to join – focus! It’s hell a lot of fun!
rider #50