Category: Cycling

This year has marked my first foray into ultra-racing. Going into the year I’d planned to focus on two main races, Race Across Oregon (as a two man team) and Furnace Creek 508 (solo). These races, in conjunction with various randonneuring brevets, the “Death Ride”, and a couple of 12 hour races; the Lewis and Clark Ultra and Ring of Fire, resulted in a great season of riding and racing.

The Furnace Creek 508 is known as “The Toughest 48 hours in Sport” and is the world’s premier ultra cycling race. This 508-mile bicycle race is revered the world over for its epic mountain climbs, stark desert scenery, desolate roads, and its reputation as one of the toughest but most gratifying endurance challenges available, bar none. The course has a total elevation gain of over 35,000′, crosses ten mountain passes, and stretches from Santa Clarita (just north of Los Angeles), across the Mojave Desert, through Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve, to the finish line at the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Palms, CA.

It more than lived up to its reputation as a tough, challenging event.

Prelude

The couple of days leading up to the race were a flurry of activity, configuring the support van, stocking up on supplies (ice, ice and yet more ice), practicing our handoffs, studying up on the rules, registering and passing bike and vehicle inspection and then hanging out with hundreds of like-minded souls at the final pre ride briefing  in the hotel ball room.  Before I knew it I was off to bed for an early night with the alarm set for 4:50am to give time for a big breakfast ahead of the 6:30am roll out.

The Race

Stage 1: Start to TS 1 (California City, 82 miles  – 11:43 am, 5:13 elapsed)

The buzz of 70 racers itching for the off in the hotel entrance  driveway was contagious as the excitement and anticipation built up ahead of the official start. There was time for photos with SIR friends and training partners and then I positioned myself near the front to give Susan and the kids the best chance of seeing me on the webcam as we rolled out for the neutral 4 mile start.  6:30am finally came and our police escort lead us out of town until we hit the bottom of the first climb up the canyon. This is were the racing officially starts and all the riders pretty quickly spread out as the road started to pitch up.

The temperatures were still cool and there were a lot of officials along this section to make sure that everyone was coming to a complete stop at all stop signs and spreading out as required. There is no drafting allowed during this race. The aches I’d been conscious of in my left IT band and achilles over the past couple weeks eased up now that I was moving in a steady rhythm and were not an issue at all for any part of the race.

24 miles in I turned left at the top of the canyon and saw all the support cars parked up ahead ready to commence leap frog support . A quick stop to remove my lights and seat bag and to grab a fresh water bottle and a sandwich and then it was off to start the rhythm of ongoing roadside handoffs for water and food as I tried to stay moving on the bike as much as possible and minimize any time off the bike.

This was a flatter stretch and Mike “Newfoundland” McHale caught me in due course on his TT bike and headed up the road. There were great long stretches of road with extended lines of sight as we entered the desert country side proper.

The Windmill climb (6 miles, 1000ft) came up and I reeled Mike in and passed him before the top. Then it was on to the first time station, feeling good and averaging 15.9 mph for this first section.

Stage 2: TS1 to TS 2 (Trona, 153 miles – 16:29, 9:59 elapsed)

It started to heat up and the wind picked up as we headed into the afternoon. I passed Mike’s crew setting up his TT bike again so knew I’d be seeing him shortly. At some point along this stretch Christian got Susan and the kids on the phone and I gave a shout out as I rolled by.

The Randsburg climb was a hot climb (7 miles, 1500 ft) in the peak of the afternoon heat and I ended up stopping for a couple minutes in the shade to try to cool down a bit. I saw a number of riders including John “GeoDuck” Pearch go by before heading off again.

Arrived at Trona, 153 miles in, and had a brief stop before heading out. My moving pace on the bike was still holding steady around 15.9mph though a few more breaks in the heat had lowered my overall average a little.

Stage 3: TS2 to TS3 (Furnace Creek, 252 miles – 00:38, 18:08 elapsed)

Climbed the Trona Bump (5 miles, 1000ft) and then dropped down into the Panamint Valley and rollers on chipseal for the next stretch before stopping to get lights on the bike for night riding. I didn’t really notice the road conditions; compared to northwest chipseal it wasn’t particularly bad.

I came up to John’s vehicle and exchanged a few words as I passed. My stomach was starting to go along this stretch and it was getting tougher to work out what to eat. I was also finding that I was having to stop in order to have my stomach allow me to eat food now that it was nighttime. This was somewhat frustrating as any time off the bike is time lost. The right turn at the end of the valley came up and we stopped again to talk with the officials here. They were reminding everyone that we could leapfrog support up Townes Pass if we wanted in order to minimize traffic impact.

Townes Pass is a significant climb (13 miles, 3800 ft with grades of 12-15%) and I took it at a steady slow pace. I pulled in when I saw Mike’s vehicle about a third of the way up to check on him. Unfortunately his stomach had completely gone and he ended up needing to DNF.

I finally reached the top after various stops for rest and food breaks, donned my night helmet with head light and started on the descent. The head lamp made the dips that had been mentioned so much a non-issue and while I was somewhat cautious going down I was still able to maintain a decent clip. The temperature was in the 80s at the bottom in Death Valley as we rolled along to Furnace Creek and the midway point.

I sat down for a rest and called Susan to let her know the descent had gone fine. It’s not much fun for her to know I’m heading down mountain passes in the middle of the night when she’s back in Seattle. Thankfully the combination of Spot Tracker, Facebook updates and periodic phone connectivity meant much better communication during this race than in some all night rides I’ve been on.

So 18 hours in and half way done, a bit off target pace but, apart from my stomach, not feeling too beat up. To this point I’d been off the bike for about 1 ½ hours, most of that in Stage 3.

Stage 4: TS3 to TS4 (Shosh, 326 miles – 08:15, 25:45 elapsed)

This was a long slow stretch through the night. My energy levels were low as my stomach was not doing great. I had to convince myself that just throwing up and resetting probably wasn’t a good idea. I came upon Bob “Bushbaby” Brudvik along this stretch resting up in his vehicle after similar issues. I guess us Seattle riders had lost what heat acclimatization we had earlier in the summer and were getting hit hard.

We leapfrogged a bit along the valley as Bob would rest up, get back on his bike and then power past me only for me to catch up to him resting in his vehicle down the road.

Climbed out of the valley as day break was approaching, Jubilee Pass (5 miles, 1000ft) followed by Salsbury Pass (9.5 miles, 2300 ft) and a nice descent into Shosh.

I decided to try to force down a decent breakfast in the restaurant there and slowly ate a large omelet and some toast in an attempt to reset my stomach.   At this point I’d shifted mentally from racing to riding and wasn’t as concerned about longer rest stops. Having such a large time cushion to finish up the race meant that I knew that even suffering with digestion issues I should be able to easily finish well within the time limits.

In hind sight it would have been good to have some intermediate goals other than just finishing once my main time goal of 35-36 hours became unfeasible.

Stage 5: TS4 to TS5 (Baker, 382 miles – 13:22, 30:52 elapsed)

I rolled out slowly to digest my breakfast and gradually started feeling a bit better. My crew finished up their breakfast and then caught up to me about 6 miles along the road prior to the 4 mile climb up Ibex Pass. The short descent was then followed by a long 20 mile gradual uphill into Baker.

It was starting to get hot again and my crew was trying different things as they sensed a change in attitude.

Ice socks helped to manage my core temperature and I eventually reached Baker and another longish stop.

Stage 6: TS5 to TS6 (Kelso, 417 miles – 17:32, 35:02 elapsed)

There was an extended 20 mile climb straight out of the time station and my crew grabbed an ice-cream cone for me in Baker and then caught up along the road. It went down a treat! Then it was back into heat management mode, ice socks and short stops in the air conditioning to cool down. I caught up with Bob again on this stretch.

The road surface got progressively worse as I approached the top and then was bad all the way down the other side. I had to keep the speed down for the whole descent as I picked a safe line through the gravel and rocks. Another 40 minute or so stop at the bottom as we got ready for night riding again.

Stage 7: TS6 to TS7 (Amboy, 451 miles – 21:04, 38:34 elapsed)

The start was a steady climb up Granite Mountain as night came down (2000ft in 14 miles). I was in a steady rhythm and felt pretty good climbing without needing any real breaks. Once I summited there was a long fast descent for 17 miles into Amboy. Despite the fact that we were all watching out for a cattle guard mentioned in the route book it came up on us by surprise about 4 miles down and rattled some teeth.

We pulled over to swap out drivers and then carried on to Amboy. The Hawaiian theme at Amboy was pretty cool and I took 5 minutes with a towel over my head to close my eyes and reset my brain. My legs were vibrating away and after chatting with a couple other crews here we rolled out for the final stretch.

Stage 8: TS7 to TS8 (Finish, 508 miles – 02:58, 44:28 elapsed)

There was a bit of a downhill stretch and then a left turn onto Amboy road and after 5 miles the start of the climb up Sheep Hole Pass (10 miles, 1500 ft). I kept a steady pace with other riders periodically passing me.

A 6 mile descent followed the summit and then the long uphill run to the finish (20 miles, 1-2% grade). I was hallucinating a little along this stretch as I thought I saw a crew vehicle stopped up ahead with people standing out in the road. They never seemed to get any closer and I had to keep waiting for my brain to correctly interpret the light patterns that were confusing it. That, in conjunction with one stretch of semi trancing as I rode along, i.e. not really remembering the last stretch of road I’d just gone over, meant periodic stops for more caffeine were in order. Nothing dangerous and I’m used to the impact on my brain by the second night of no sleep so I soldiered on.

The long awaited left turn onto Utah Trail arrived and then we headed over to 29 Palms and the 3 mile stretch through town with a couple of final steep little bumps. We rolled into the finish at 02:58 for a final time of 44 hours and 28 minutes (18 hours for the first half and 26 ½ for the second half).

Bob had finished an hour and a half earlier but was still up to see us in which was great. Then it was time for the finish line photos, a shout out to Susan on the web cam and off to the hotel for 3 hours sleep before breakfast the next day.

Postscript

All the riders and their crew gathered for an outdoor breakfast the next morning and shared stories from the ride before we headed off on the 150 mile drive back to the start hotel to unload the support van.

Then it was simply a case of returning the rental van and hanging out in the airport bar waiting for our delayed flight to get us back to Seattle.

Final Thoughts

My crew was great! Words can’t express my thanks to Mark, Christian and Clint who were all willing to take the time to support me in this endeavor. I felt lucky to be able to share the experience with them.

Also, none of this would be possible at all without the support of Susan and my kids. I’ve skewed their perception of what a “normal” bike ride is for quite a while now.

The course was stunning, other racers and crew members were unfailingly friendly and encouraging, the officials kept everything running smoothly. All in all a fantastic experience and a race I would highly recommend.

While I have not been blogging as much since PBP I have still been riding. Here is a summary of some of my rides since August. All in all I rode over 7000 miles for the year, my biggest year to date.

Mountain Populaire 110k

Fresh from PBP my form was still good and I hammered through this hilly course in a little over 4 hours. By the end it was just myself, Robin and Bob off the front as other people who had been riding with us earlier on fell behind due to either fitness levels or mechanical issues.

Olympia 200k

This relatively flat course allowed for some nice tempo riding. I had no rain gear along so when the rain set in I carried on with Tyler to keep warm while the rest of the group stopped to don their gear. I thought they’d catch up to us relatively quickly but it was only about 40 miles later when we stopped at a control that we regrouped. I was debating going for a 7 ½ hour 200k but in the end decided to wait at the control and ride in with more people for a more social ride. In the end we came in just under 8 hours and were treated to some nice hot pizza at the finish.

R12

I’ve kept the R12 going with a number of solo and group permanent rides, many of them organized by Chris Heg. It’s promoting a higher level of fitness going into the start of 2012 so it’ll be interesting to see how I can build on that for the year ahead.

5000k

Going into December I realized that I was within shooting distance of the RUSA 5k award, for riding 5000k of brevets or permanents within the US. I needed around 420k and so lined up a solo 250k (Whidbey-Mambo) and signed up for the Solstice Ride on December 21^st.

Solstice Ride 200k

One of my more memorable rides though not one I would do again in similar conditions. This started at 7pm on the longest night of the year with predictions of freezing fog and low temperatures forecast. I was bundled up in 7 layers and felt like the Michelan man as we took off into the night. There were a number of top ultra racers along for the ride, Chris Ragsdale, Brian and Mick so the pace was a reasonable clip out of the gate. I was wondering if I’d overdressed as I was getting a bit hot but as the night progressed and the temperatures dropped it turned out to be about right.  The course was pretty flat with an out and back section which meant we ended up seeing all the riders coming up the Centennial Trail as we headed back. For the later half of the ride my legs started feeling a bit weary from my 250k a couple days previously and I dropped off the pace a little on the final climb back out of the valley. I was covered in ice and my rims froze up so that on the last steep descent I had to walk the bike as my brakes were no longer slowing me down. I finished in about 9 hours which was pretty good for the conditions so I was able to get some sleep before heading into work.

Average moving speed for the whole ride was 15.8 mph (> 30% faster than my moving pace in 2007 which was ~ 12mph). I recorded the ride as 4 different stages due to memory limitations on my Garmin 800.

Stage 1 (St. Quentin – Tinteniac, 224 miles) : 18.3 mph

Stage 2 ( Tinteniac – Brest, 159 miles) : 15.2 mph

Stage 3 (Brest – Fougeres, 190 miles) : 15.1 mph

Stage 4 (Fougeres – St. Quentin, 193 miles) : 14.8 mph

The first 224 miles was significantly faster due to a number of factors including flatter terrain, adrenaline common to the start of any ride, daylight and the opportunity to take advantage of the initial large group of riders in our wave.

My planning going into the ride had assumed a 17 mph average out to Brest and then 16 mph back. We did average 17 mph to Brest but then only 15 mph on the way back (i.e. 1 1/2 hours of potential sleep/rest/buffer). All in all not to far off the planned pace.

Total moving time on the bike was 48 hours 12 minutes (of our total elapsed time of 55 hours 45 minutes). That means that we spent 7 1/2 hours not moving forward 🙂  I would approximate this as 2 1/2 hours on road side stops (mechanicals, toilet stops, ditch naps, rain gear) and 5 hours at controls (roughly averaging 20 minutes per control).

The out leg to Brest took 26 hours and 45 minutes (22:43 riding and 4:02 off the bike). Returning took 29 hours (25:29 riding and 3:31 off the bike).

So what would it take to go even faster?

The main place we could have saved some time was by being even more efficient at the controls. The lead group while riding a bit faster on the road seem to save a lot of time by 1) having their support crew at every control, 2) sprinting once they get off their bikes to get their cards stamped while their support crews restock their bikes and then are straight back out again riding (I would guess 5-10 minutes max per control compared to our 15-45 minutes which adds up over the course of the ride), 3) stopping once a control en masse for a quick toilet break by the side of the road (if you need a Number 2 too bad), 4) not stopping if anyone has a mechanical (again too bad, good luck chasing to catch back on), 5) no ditch naps and 6) dropping anyone that can’t hold the pace as the ride progresses.

Some of these points you can’t do to much about if you are with a group that is going to stick together. The flip side to this is that by having a trained group riding together you can afford the inevitable extra mechanicals, toilet stops and ditch naps because you can be confident of making reliably good time on the road with just your group sticking together. If you were attempting this by yourself you would be reliant on the strength and ability of whatever group came along that you could ride with if anything caused you to drop from the lead group or soloing it out at a slower pace.

The 17th running of the Paris Brest Paris brevet was the culmination of an 8 month long training effort.  4 years on from my last attempt at this ride in 2007, when I DNF’d after 900k at Fougeres on the return leg, I had returned to take on this course again.

This time however rather than just attempting to finish the ride within the 90 hour time limit I was trying to finish it within the 56 hour 40 minutes required to join La Societe Charly Miller:

“One hundred years ago, Charly Miller of Chicago was the first American to ride Paris-Brest-Paris. In the second edition of PBP, in 1901, he finished an excellent fifth place in 56 hours, 40 minutes. This was an outstanding achievement for an unsupported rider, especially when one considers the poor roads and bicycles of that bygone era. Though many of his opponents at PBP had elaborate teams of pacers and helpers along the route, Miller persevered alone for three days and two nights, non-stop. While other racers with better support threw in the towel, Charly Miller had to use all his resolve to overcome a disheartening amount of punctures and a broken bicycle in order to finish. Yet, even on a hastily borrowed replacement bike obtained 350 kilometers from the end, the 26-year-old still set the fastest speed over the timed final kilometer to the finish line in Paris! Not surprisingly, his heroic performance at PBP was very much appreciated by the French cycle-racing fans of the day. Moreover, Miller’s hardy athleticism and never-say-die determination is still an excellent model for today’s randonneurs to emulate no matter what pace they choose to undertake PBP or any other long randonnée. It wouldn’t be until 1975 that another American finished PBP, and it took till 1979 for someone (the amazing Scott Dickson on his first PBP) to do it as swiftly as Charly Miller did.

To celebrate this cycling hero, a list of Americans who have equaled or surpassed Charly Miller’s time at Paris-Brest-Paris and the year(s) they did it is maintained here. It should be noted that the modern route used by the Audax Club Parisien since 1979 is definitely hillier than the one Miller rode along the N-12 in 1901. The new course, though entirely paved, also varies in length from year to year and is a little longer than the original 1196 kilometers of dirt and cobblestones that Miller cycled. On the other hand, today’s randonneurs have vastly improved sports training knowledge and nutrition, not to mention far better equipment, lighting, and clothing. Indeed, their lightweight multi-speed bikes weigh half of what Miller’s single-speed did, so any comparisons shouldn’t be taken too seriously–if at all. With several exceptions, the riders listed had personal support crews meeting them at the checkpoints, too. Nonetheless, anyone going under 56:40 at PBP richly deserves their membership in this esteemed fraternity of fast American randonneurs and randonneuses. Chapeau!”

I’d decided to attempt this following a successful Spring brevet series when I ended up being able to maintain the pace during the SIR 300k of the sub group within SIR that had been training to attempt “Charly Miller” for the past couple of years. A 25 hour 600K further cemented the possibility that this was a realistic target. I rode a strong 1200k in Colorado in July and then went into taper mode leading up to PBP itself, focussing primarily on shorter high intensity rides.

Susan and the kids stayed in Seattle this time around and supported from afar via Skype and online tracking of my arrival at controls. This had the benefit of allowing me to be well rested leading into the event as I was able to sleep when I was tired and dealing with jet lag.

The plan was for 7 of us (Robin, Greg, Bob, Alex, Bill, Ben and myself) to ride together during the ride, supported at roughly every other control by Amy and Trudy. The couple of days leading up to the ride were occupied by a couple of training rides along the first 20 miles of the route, buying supplies for the support car and last minute tweaks to the bike to make sure it was all set up correctly. The afternoon before our start time I went out to the start to see the 80 and 90 hour group starts and then went back to the hotel for a nights sleep before getting up at 3:30 am in preparation for a 5 am morning start time in the 84 hour group. This morning start worked well for a number of reasons, firstly I got a bonus nights sleep before heading out and secondly it meant we didn’t need to wait for hours in 80+ degree sun before an evening start time as the previous days groups had to do.

The start (4 am, -1 hour to the start)

Jan, Michael and Ian were going to hang with our group for as long as they could to get some time in the bank.

There was a great buzz at the stadium as we waited to head off. At around 4:45am they let us through the control and stamped our cards. We set up near the back of the first wave and at 5 am rolled out with around 500 other people in our wave (the other 84 hour starters would go out in waves space 15-30 minutes apart). Unfortunately Ian just missed getting into our wave and so wasn’t able to ride with us at all on this ride.

1st Leg (St. Quentin – Mortagne-au-Perche, 87 miles)

It was still dark as we rolled out and we stuck to our planned formation, Robin and Alex in front followed by myself and Bob, Bill and Ben and then Greg in the rear keeping an eye that we were all together.  Jan and Michael were hanging on the back. Our main goal at this stage was to take advantage of the draft from all the other people in the wave and make sure we all stuck together and didn’t have any silly accidents in the first crowded portion of the ride before things would naturally spread out. We quickly found ourselves moving up towards the front of the wave and settled in near the front. As daylight struck and we moved out into the rolling hills of the countryside things had spread out enough for us to start into our rotating pacelines. We soon had a good few people hanging on behind us as we rolled along and we periodically waved some of them up to the front to do some work while we took a break. Near the end of this leg my chain dropped and wouldn’t spin back on so we had to stop briefly as I put it back on. We soon caught up to the people who had passed us and carried on.

We reached Mortagne in good time and had our first rendezvous with Amy and Trudy. This was not a timed control stop on the way out to Brest so we simply refilled our water and moved on.

 2nd Leg (Mortagne-au-Perche – Villaines, 50 miles)

We made good time on this leg as well despite a few mechanical problems, my seat needed to be adjusted as it started to tip up and my light rotated around into my rear wheel and needed to be tightened. These were minor problems and quick to resolve but it was still a pain to need to stop to fix them. The few cobble stone sections had obviously loosened things up a bit on the bike. On the plus side a squeak that I had been trying to diagnose for the couple days leading up to the ride vanished as soon as we had our first bit of rain. Ben also had the first, and only, puncture of the group on this stretch. It was a good opportunity to get a bit of food in and adjust layers while he fixed it.

We got into Villaines in 7:41 hours for 222km, a good time that put us about 2 hours in the bank for our target pace. We used up a bit of this time working on Greg’s chain as it had a dodgy link which we swapped out for a master link. Unfortunately there was some confusion over wether it was a 9 or 10 speed chain and the wrong size master link was put on initially and had to be forced off. It was raining at this stage and we were glad once we got moving again.

 3rd Leg (Villaines – Fougeres, 55 miles)

This was a pretty uneventful leg, riding in the rain for the most part though not that heavy. We did end up latching on to a fast group for the last stretch despite previous discussions to ride at our own pace. I think this hurt us a little later in the ride but it’s tough not to take advantage of a chance to go faster when it comes up. We ended up reaching Fougeres in 11 hours and 20 minutes for 311k which gave us about 2 1/2 hours in the bank

4th Leg (Fougeres – Tinteniac, 33 miles)

A short stretch which went by quickly enough with a quick stop at Tinteniac.

5th Leg (Tinteniac – Loudeac, 53 miles)

On this stretch we rode into a very heavy rainstorm. As the skies started to open up an industrial shed appeared on the side of the road so we made a bee line for it and huddled out of the rain as we put our rain gear on. This was Colorado strength afternoon rain which hammered down on the steel roof of the shed impressively. While we waited for it to ease up the lead group, who had started the previous afternoon, went past on their return from Brest. Chris Ragsdale was right up there at the front which was great to see.

As the rain eased up a little we headed back out, aware that we were on the clock and that we’d ridden in plenty of rainstorms in the past in Seattle. We saw a chase group about 15 minutes behind the lead group and then a handful of individual riders as we rode along.

It was on this stretch that we came across the scene of a recent accident. We were waved to slow down as we approached a large truck on the other side of the road (in the passing lane) and were told that a very bad accident had occurred as we were waved through. A glimpse of a body shape under the front wheels of the truck was enough to give the impression that a rider had been struck and was unlikely to have survived. We rode on in a somber mood as emergency response vehicles passed us racing to the scene. (We discovered after the ride that indeed an american rider had been killed here).

We arrived in Loudeac at 22:39 at night and met Amy and Trudy in the cafeteria for some hot food. They had purchased soup for us as we had requested so we could get some real food in ahead of our night of riding ahead. We were catching up to the 90 hour riders at this point so it was great to be spared using up time lining up to get food. We still ended up having a relatively long stop here.

6th Leg (Loudeac – Carhaix, 47 miles)

There was a bit more climbing on this leg and we started debating whether to get a little rest in Carhaix before heading on to Brest as we would not have any option to change clothes and rest in Brest if people were tired there. Amy and Trudy were going to stay at Carhaix and get some sleep while we did the out and back. In the end we decided to carry on without any break which was just as well as we would have probably stiffened up if we had paused here.

7th Leg (Carhaix – Brest, 58 miles)

About an hour after leaving Carhaix, around 4am, Robin was feeling very sleepy so we pulled over so he could have a 10 minute ditch nap. Everyone lay down on the pavement on a side road, spread out rear lights to warn people we were on the road,  and closed our eyes for a brief break. I’m not sure how helpful this was but the alarm soon went off and we got back on our bikes.

I had got some mud in my cleat so wasn’t able to clip in immediately.  By the time I was clipped in the others had headed up the road. As I was catching up a rider coming towards me drifted onto my side of the road, blinding me with their light and then hit my left shoulder and hand hard. I managed not to go down. My suspicion is they had nodded off as this would have been an 80 hour rider well into their 2nd night of riding. I looked back and checked they had stayed upright and then rode on to catch up with my group who were waiting up the road. This reinforced the importance of sticking together in our roll outs as a group in formation would be safer in this kind of situation.

We climbed over Roc Trevezel in heavy mist/fog and descended into Brest in low visibility conditions. Once we hit the control everyone kind of scattered so Bob and I headed to the canteen to get some food as had been previously discussed. We had a quick bite to eat and headed back to the bikes. Tempers were getting a bit strained as pre agreed plans were getting changed and then not clearly communicated to the whole group. Communication within the group was starting to break down as the strain of a hard effort and lack of sleep started to take its toll. By this stage we only had about an hour in the bank (which would remain the case for pretty much the rest of the ride) and were no longer looking at the likelihood of getting any sleep stop. This strain escalated as we left the control into shouting on the streets outside the control. A recurring issue with our coordination was our departures from controls with staggered roll outs and then needing to wait for people down the road unsure of what was keeping them and how long it would be. On their side they would sometimes not be aware that everyone had left. It started to work a bit better once we agreed on times for each control and then let people do whatever they wanted within that time frame and tried to roll out more as a unit.

8th Leg (Brest – Carhaix, 53 miles)

We had a steady extended climb out of Brest and Alex did a good job of repeatedly reminding the group not to go too hard on the climb. We still probably went a bit hard but conserved enough energy so that people heading the other direction would later say they were wondering if we were hurting. In fact throughout the whole ride we tried to conserve energy on the extended climbs so we could push on the rollers and flatter stretches.

It was during this stretch that we saw many fellow SIR 90 hour riders heading down the hill towards Brest, following their sleep break the previous night.

We pushed a bit on the downhill stretch and arrived at Carhaix at 11:38am to connect back up with Amy and Trudy. Most of the team took this opportunity to change their gear but I decided to wait. This was a small mistake as the next stretch wasn’t very comfortable in my shorts (I guess 700k was the limit for the same pair of wet shorts).

9th Leg (Carhaix – Loudeac, 49 miles)

I’ve no particular strong memories of this stretch. There was a fair bit of climbing and my shorts didn’t feel to comfortable but it still went quickly enough.

It was along here that we started talking more about the pace needed to complete the ride in target time. I was looking at it as just 5 more 5 hour 100ks which seemed very doable. I was feeling good and the only real wild card was how my body would react to a second night of no sleep.

We reached Loudeac and met up with our support team again for a quick restock.

10th Leg (Loudeac – Tinteniac, 53 miles)

As we left Loudeac there was another breakdown in our departure, strong emotions and a temporary fragmenting of our group. I started to assess what would need to be done if our group broke up at this stage. I was feeling pretty good and confident that I would be able to finish as planned whatever happened but was pleased when we came back together to carry on as a group.

We hit a secret control on this stretch and I had the opportunity to give one of my SIR pins to a girl about Ashley’s age who was helping out at the control. I’d been sorry that one of the necessities of going for a fast time on this ride was forgoing stopping at any of the stands that supporters and well wishers set up along the route to provide riders with water, coffee and food. It was nice to see the delight on her face as she followed me to my bike for a souvenir which I dug out of my top tube bag (after a bit of hunting).

A quick 10 minute stop at Tinteniac and we were on the road again.

11th Leg (Tinteniac – Fougeres, 33 miles)

An uneventful leg with us reaching Fougeres at 22:08, just under an hour ahead of our must leave time for the control. This was the site of my DNF from the 2007 ride and it was a great feeling to be arriving here roughly 24 hours faster than in 2007 and feeling good (rather than nauseous, cold, wet, chronically sleep deprived and unable to hold my head up due to Shermer’s neck).

12th Leg (Fougeres – Villaines, 55 miles)

We left Fougeres with another person roped in to help with the rotation. Bob, Alex, Ben and myself were positioned at the back while Robin, Greg, Bill and this rider rotated at the front. I was feeling good and didn’t really see the point of bringing in a stranger and trying to train them at night rather than just doing our own ride and bided my time at the back with Bob while we waited to see how it would play out.

The new rider’s knee started acting up at our pace and they had to drop out after a bit. Alex replaced him but then Greg and him had to drop out of the rotation as fatigue started to take it’s toll. Bob and I moved in and we made good time over the ensuing steep “rollers”. I was feeling progressively stronger as the ride continued and was surprised that sleep didn’t seem to be an issue.

Unfortunately Alex fell off the pace during this stretch. This was a real shame as he had done a great job throughout the ride, both taking extended turns at the front and being the voice of reason on ensuring we didn’t go to hard up the many hills on the route.

When we reached Villaines Ben felt he wasn’t able to keep going without a longer break for some food and rest so opted to stay at the control while we headed out. I suggested he take a half hour or so to see if he could get some warm food in and then see if he could still finish in the target time as it was still possible with the buffer we had if he could recover a bit.

13th Leg (Villaines – Mortagne, 50 miles)

The five of us who were remaining then headed out. Robin, Bill and I got a good rotation going at the front and another rider ended up joining in.  Greg was having significant sleep issues along this stretch and was having a tough time staying awake and holding a steady line. We slowed quite a bit for a while debating what to do and then opted for a 5 minute ditch nap to see if that would help. I wasn’t feeling tired and seemed to be in steady state so didn’t want to risk my body deciding to shut down if I closed my eyes. Thus I kept an eye on the time as the others lay down and then let everyone know when the 5 minutes was up.

We got rolling again and Greg wanted to join the rotation. I didn’t feel he was holding a steady enough line to be safe so dropped back while he was in it. That didn’t last too long and then he dropped back to the rear of the group again. It started to get light as we approached Mortagne and everyone who had been feeling sleepy noticeably improved. It’s amazing what the arrival of daylight will do to revive the human body. We arrived at 6:23 and had a quick stop.

14th Leg (Mortagne – Dreux, 47 miles)

This was a great stretch. It started with some steady climbing in the woods and ended with some nice fast pacelines for the last 20 miles or so. We had been catching various 80 hour starters as we’d been going along who were strong riders who had opted to get some sleep along the way. One guy got on the front and got the pace up to 24 mph for an extended period. Robin and I were feeling good so we kept it going once they peeled off. This ended up being our 2nd fastest leg of the ride.

We met Amy and Trudy once more at Dreux and basically knew that we had the ride in the bag bar some catastrophic failure. We also got the good news that Ben had recovered and was only about 30 minutes behind us at the last control having had the good luck to latch on to a couple of strong riders who towed him a good stretch of the way into Mortagne. I even had a chance to talk briefly with Susan as she called at this control as I waited for the others to be ready to go on. We rolled out at around 9:45 with around 4 hours to cover 40 miles.

15th Leg (Dreux – St. Quentin, 40 miles)

I was itching to hammer in the final leg but most people in the group were starting to hurt and the pace felt slow as we went along. Bill was slowing down, Robin’s knee was hurting and Bob’s neck had succumbed to Shermer’s neck so he was having a tough time holding it up.

We picked it up a bit as we got into the last 20 miles and then hit the stop and go traffic lights for the last stretch into town.

We finally finished as a group at 12:45, 55 hours and 45 minutes after we had started (and 55 minutes under our Charly Miller target time)!

Ben (below) came in around 10 minutes after us to join the celebration.

There weren’t to many people at the finish at this time compared to the crowds the next day to cheer in the bulk of the riders. Amy and Trudy, Chris and Ken were along (Chris having  finished about 24 hours previously) so we had a chance to take it easy and then start replenishing our calories at the nearby food tent.

The only thing left to do was to get back on the bike to ride back to the Campanile. It was amazing how my whole body had started to stiffen up once we stopped. It was just as well we hadn’t had any extended rest stops during the ride as it would have taken quite a while to loosen up and get going again if we had.

14 hours of sleep later I headed back to the finish the next day and had the fun of cheering in the bulk of the 90 hour riders.

Final Thoughts

I was really pleased with how this 1200k went. I didn’t know how my body would deal with the second half of the ride at this pace, particularly the second night, but found that I kept feeling stronger as the ride went on. The morning start definitely helped having more sleep in the bank before the start of the ride. I only used a small amount of caffeine in gel blocks and the occasional half can of Coke and that seemed to be sufficient (combined with chewing gum thanks to a tip from Amy). I never felt even remotely as tired as I had done in 2007 or on the Cascade 1200 in 2010.

The team was not always in perfect harmony, particularly in the second half of the ride, but emotions can understandably get pretty raw under the pressure that everyone was under doing this ride. At the end of the day 6 of the 7 people in the original group completed the ride under the target time. Alex didn’t quite make it but still had a great ride. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work and organization, particularly by Robin who had led training sessions over multiple years leading up to this ride.

Amy and Trudy provided great support along the course and it made a huge difference to have them there to help us at selected controls. They were always ready to help out anyway they could and to send us on our way with encouraging words.

I feel lucky to have had the chance to ride with such a great group of people in the pursuit of this goal. Thanks Robin, Bob, Alex, Greg, Bill and Ben!

Track the frame number : 8261 (James McKee)

Contrôle	Heure	Cumul		Intermédiaire
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES	22-08 04:59	0h00	0 km/h	0h00	0.1 km/h
VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL	22-08 12:41	7h41	28.7 km/h	7h41	28.7 km/h
FOUGERES	22-08 16:20	11h20	27.3 km/h	3h38	24.4 km/h
TINTENIAC	22-08 18:47	13h48	26.4 km/h	2h27	22 km/h
LOUDEAC	22-08 22:39	17h39	25.4 km/h	3h51	22 km/h
CARHAIX-PLOUGUER	23-08 02:58	21h58	23.9 km/h	4h19	17.6 km/h
BREST	23-08 07:44	26h45	23.1 km/h	4h46	19.5 km/h
CARHAIX-PLOUGUER	23-08 11:38	30h39	22.9 km/h	3h54	21.8 km/h
LOUDEAC	23-08 15:34	34h34	22.6 km/h	3h55	20.2 km/h
TINTENIAC	23-08 19:35	38h35	22.5 km/h	4h01	21.2 km/h
FOUGERES	23-08 22:08	41h08	22.4 km/h	2h33	21.2 km/h
VILLAINES-LA-JUHEL	24-08 02:27	45h27	22.2 km/h	4h18	20.4 km/h
MORTAGNE-AU-PERCHE	24-08 06:23	49h23	22.1 km/h	3h56	20.6 km/h
DREUX	24-08 09:27	52h28	22.2 km/h	3h04	24.4 km/h
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES	24-08 12:45	55h45	22.1 km/h	3h17	19.7 km/h
Kilomètres parcourus: 1230