I won (2)
In my last post I revealed that I graduated from a ‘middle of the pack’ rider to leading most of my competitors by entering ultra-endurance races. In this particular 24-hour MTB lap race, I ended up in first place, something I never imagined would happen.
The race was in Parys, a few hours South of Johannesburg. It’s not a massive race, but there is quite a crowd participating, with around 30 participants in the solo men’s category.
This kind of race normally starts with a so-called “le mans” start, a short run of a few hundred metres to get to your bike. I decided to take it easy on the run, as there are a lot of very fast riders that are competing in teams, and they can burn their matches in anything from one to just a few laps, after which other riders will take over. This means that you are often overtaken, but you can never know whether these people are competing in your solo category as well.
I felt well, I had ‘tapered’ properly, and felt eager to ride my bike again. The route was a little technical in places, close to the river, and the opposite side of the lap had quite an uphill with a bit of sand and rocks thrown in as well. The first few laps you hardly notice the uphills, but after a few hours they start to bite.
Neat features on the course were a metal bridge over a road, a ruin of a house where you had to go through and make sure your handle bar doesn’t touch the walls (difficult at 3:00 am!), and the run along the river with its ups and downs were great as well.
The race starts at noon. To facilitate time management, I normally break up the 24 hours in 3-hour blocks for eating something proper, and 6-hour blocks for stopping for a main meal and other big issues. For example, starting at 12:00, at 18:00 I eat a proper meal, a cold pasta in this case, put my light as it gets dark around that time, change my glasses, lube my chain, and check other issues on my bike. I find that by breaking a very long challenge into smaller bits, it all seems less of a challenge.
Anyway, back to the race; I was feeling well in the first hours of the race. As I normally start too fast, my support crew kept shouting every lap that I need to slow down. Yeah, yeah, I was saying, but deep down I know that is the right thing to do. I normally do not want to know my position during the first half of the race, as the race only starts at midnight really, when the ‘tough get going’, but I could sense that I was not doing badly. I had come across one or two guys that were probably solo and went a bit faster, but I thought they seemed to be going too fast to maintain that pace for 24 hours.
to be continued ....
Please check out my other posts on cycling
https://steemit.com/@ultrabiker
My bike, Salsa Cutthroat
https://steemit.com/cycling/@ultrabiker/my-bicycle-salsa-cutthroat-force-1
My competitors
https://steemit.com/cycling/@ultrabiker/my-competitors-are-the-greatest-athletes-on-earth
Fast after 50: book review
https://steemit.com/cycling/@ultrabiker/book-review-fast-after-50-how-to-race-strong-for-the-rest-of-your-life