The context
For those that don’t know me very well, there’s not much more to say other than I just like riding bikes. For the last couple of years I’ve been enjoying setting myself some longer distance challenges and a target this year was to enter a 24-hour time trial. There’s only been one on the calendar the last couple of years run by Mersey Roads cycling club, so it also acted as the national 24 hour championship for 2018. It really is a niche event – on the one hand you have your dedicated time trialists looking for the longest event on the calendar, and on the other you have your randonneurs/audaxers looking to ride a little bit quicker than usual. The longest time trial I had ridden before this was 10 miles, but I’ve ridden plenty of audaxs, so that put me firmly in the latter camp.
I usually write about events chronologically based on where I went, but as this was essentially just me riding in circles for a long time I’ve wirrten some thoughts under a few different subjects.
The distance
First off, the important numbers. I didn’t want to set myself any real targets before the ride to keep any pressure off of myself. I’d be lying if said I hadn’t given it any thought – I knew I should be able to ride 350 miles and I’d be very happy with that. 600km was the next milestone (I’ve done a 600km event in 24 hours of moving time) but with stopping time included it seemed like a big ask. This helped me conclude that stopping time was going to be more important than average speed and a few days before I decided to aim for 1 hour of non-moving time. So each stop became one of necessity – to fill up bottles, pick up food or empty my bladder. I did occasionally allow myself 1 or 2 minutes to sit down after filling bottles etc. but always kept an eye on the clock. That discipline helped me finish with 410 miles (660km) and less than 1 hour off the bike, far more than I imagined I’d achieve. There were a lot of riders who passed me at various points but I finished above them, which I can only put down to them taking much longer breaks than me. My official average speed was just over 17 miles an hour, my average moving speed was 17.8.
The course/weather
Roadworks meant they had to cut out one of the planned loops. Apparently this was a quicker part of the course but I didn’t find out until after! That meant most of the route was split between two loops, a 23 mile out and back on a rolling A-road, then a 12 mile loop round quieter country lane roads which in places was quite twisty and technical for a time trial course (and quite fun!). We then moved on to a 9 mile finishing circuit for the last few hours near the HQ on the edge of Wrexham which had a dreadful surface in places. The weather was pretty kind with no rain, good temperatures through the night and a wind that felt stronger than it actually was.
The support
I officially rode the event unsupported, giving the marshalls a bag jammed full of food and spare clothing that would be positioned on the course for me to access when needed. In reality though, I had so much support from the side of the road. Prees Heath roundabout was the starting point for the two main loops, and this had a carnival-like atmosphere each time I passed through with gazebos, tents and camper vans all lining the way. That meant people cheered for most riders that came through, some even looked out for numbers and cheered by name which offered a massive boost every time I passed by. Then dotted along the course elsewhere were different support crews, a number of whom donned fancy dress. I wondered for a long time what the relevance was of Buzz Lightyear holding a sign saying E=MC2 at 1am.
The people
There were all sorts of familiar faces at the event, but a couple stood out. I saw Michael Broadwith a few times out on the road (unfortunately always passing me) and as a testament to the man, he never once failed to say hello or give words of encouragement as he passed. At one of my stops during the night I met Steve Abraham who was manning the tent for unsupported riders bags. I took a lot of encouragement from his comments, saying I looked smooth and consistent each time I passed. Jasmijn Muller, last years first woman and top 3 overall, was also riding but things didn’t go her way this year. Almost all of the other riders would give encouragement when passing, a nice reminder it wasn’t just me out there suffering.
The nutrition plan
On longer rides I tend to ride for a few hours, stop at a café/shop to eat a lot and then carry on riding. With that comes lots of ups and downs in energy levels so I changed tactics for this. One evening I finding myself reading up on the rate of carbohydrate absorption and then looked at how much food that actually was – surprisingly less than I realised! The key seemed to be a small but continuous intake so I decided to use energy/electrolyte powder in my drinks rather than just water, and for food relied on a combination of gels (isotonic so I didn’t have to drink lots of water with them), bananas and trek bars – pretty straight forward for any vegan. I consumed liquids to taste and tried to eat something (a gel, banana or half a bar) once an hour. By luck more than anything I obviously got this just right as not once did I feel a bonk coming on, feel sick or dehydrated. This is the first time I’ve ever given much thought about ride nutrition and, while it’s not going to change what I do most of the time (I don’t really want to rely on gels and energy drinks), eating a little but regularly obviously makes a big difference on longer rides.
The mind
Mentally it was tough, certainly one of the hardest things I’ve done. I essentially watched a clock tick down for a whole day, getting excited each time it got to 17 past the hour (my start time) as that meant it was one less hour to go. I think my nutrition plan really helped me as I’ll often stop on longer rides when I feel low on energy, but that wasn’t really ever an issue on this ride. I’m also very surprised I didn’t feel sleepy during the night, which I put down to always maintaining some kind of effort whereas on other night rides the pace has been gentler. A couple of caffeine gels helped too…
The body
My biggest concern before the ride was how my back/neck would hold up. I was riding a road bike with clip on TT bars and aimed to just keep moving my position, coming back to the thought that I was better off staying on the bike than making myself uncomfortable for the sake of a small amount of speed and wanting to stop for longer. For a few hours in the middle of the ride my neck was quite sore, but it got a lot better towards the end. Other pains included knees (only when stopped though, so that had an easy solution) and feet when I hit the rough surface of the finishing circuit. This was the only time I actually took a couple of minutes off the bike and did nothing specific as my feet felt like they were on fire all over! I realised I just had to ride through it, and by that point everything hurt to some extent but I knew I was near the end.
My reflections
The atmosphere at Prees Heath during the night was the best bit and it’s well worth going one day just to be part of that. While being supported may have potentially allowed me more riding time, I struggle to see how my nutrition could have worked out any better even with someone passing me bottles at the side of the road as the micro-breaks probably helped me. So I look back with nothing but a real sense of achievement and genuinely proud of the distance I managed, with 100% effort put in. I ended up finishing something like 20th out of a start sheet of 85, with 7 not starting and 14 not finishing. Will I ride it again? Maybe, but I won’t be making that decision any time soon. I think this will take more recovery than anything else I’ve done so I’ll let that time pass first. As I said at the start I just enjoy riding a bike and that always has to be the most important thing, not how far you ride or how fast you go even if it can be fun to set yourself a challenge from time to time. If anyone is looking for an easy way to get in to a national championships then sign up as its rarely oversubscribed, but just don’t expect the ride itself to be easy…
