Dales Divide 23: my first time racing as a pair
The Dales Divide is a 600km MTB race that has quickly become the go-to season opener for UK bikepackers. This year, nearly 200 riders answered the call to push themselves to the limit, making it the largest gathering of its kind in UK history.
Last year's race was particularly memorable for me, as I not only brought home the win but also set a new FKT. It was an opportunity to put my gear and a new bike to the test for the upcoming HT550, but it came with a price: intense fatigue. So this year, I managed to convince my partner, Megan, to take on the event as a pair. It would be her first ultra, and while she is fast and trains hard, it would bring many new challenges.
The night before the race, we stayed in Arnside, and the weather was on our side, providing us with glorious sunshine on race day. The start was steady, and we took it easy until the first hike-a-bike section. After that, we encountered some bogs before returning to smooth gravel under the famous Ribblehead viaduct.
We quickly settled into a rhythm, and I took on the role of "gate bitch," making sure the chain was tight and our progress steady. The first 150km of the course had the most elevation, but we managed to power through it with ease. As evening approached, we prepared for the night ahead, donning our warmest layers and devouring a pizza in Boroughbridge.
The section from Boroughbridge to York was flat and fast, and we sped through the city centre, taking in the sights and sounds of the bustling nightlife. It felt like an alien world, having only been out for 15 hours or so. We planned to ride for another hour or so and then make camp. So we bivvied down just after 1 am in a damp cow field. I took the opportunity to test some sleeping gear for the HT550. But as the temperature dropped, I found myself shivering and unable to sleep that well so had to put on some of the spare warm kit.
The 4 am alarm was a rude awakening, but we got going again and soon fell back into our familiar tempo through Driffield and over the Wolds. The coldest time of day, from 6-8 am, was upon us, so we tried to keep up the pace. We arrived in Scarborough at around 10 am, refuelled with a bacon sandwich, and continued on our way to the North York Moors.
The next 100km or so were a challenging slog, with steep, technical sections and plenty of bog-pushing. But catching sight of other racers gave us a much-needed morale boost. We stopped in Northallerton, deciding to push through the night on the second night. We got a kebab, went to the loo, and stocked up on snacks at the Tesco's before heading back into the Yorkshire Dales.
By 1 am, we were feeling the effects of sleep deprivation, so we set our sights on the Bothy just before Askrigg. We arrived to find a warm, dry place to rest for a few hours. Another 3-hour nap gave us the strength to tackle the final push. The grassy field section before Askrigg was a tough climb, but we made it just as the sun was rising. As we ascended the famous Cam High Road, the excitement of finishing the race began to set in. We pedalled on, switching to our granny gears and chatting away, enjoying the stunning views of the surrounding landscape. Surprisingly, the climb felt much easier than we anticipated, and we were left wondering if our lively conversation had served as a welcome distraction. After a final climb up past Newby Head, we were rewarded with a thrilling descent before the remaining hours of flat farmland and gates.
After 52 hours of intense cycling, we finally reached the finish line, surpassing our initial expectations. Throughout the race, Meg and I had a great time together, with very few low moments or disagreements. As we reflect on our experience, people are already asking what's next for us as a pair. While we haven't made any concrete plans, we are excited to see where our next adventure will take us.
Tour des Tajines: A bikepacking route in the Moroccan Atlas
Earlier this week I got back from a week long winter escape from the cold and ice here in the UK to the warmer climes of northern Africa. Megan, Edward and I had a fantastic time and I have had a lot of interest from people wanting top know our route so instead of giving you a blow by blow account of our holiday I thought that I would write it up more as a route guide.
I did quite a lot of research in the build up to the trip and struggled to find a route that suited what we were looking for. I wanted it to be doable in a week including travel, a good mix of surfaces but next to no hike-a-bike (apparently not everyone in our party enjoys this), doable on a gravel bike, and finally see some nice places. So after plenty of research I put something together on Komoot.
This is what I came up with:
This is the route that we ended up riding, with the odd bit of tidying up. Its worth noting that there is lots of new infrastructure being built including some roads which don’t exist on OSM so if you are downloading it via Komoot make sure you select the “stick to original route” option.
This route has been fully recce’d and rides well on both gravel and mtbs. There are however a couple of off road alternatives that are not recced, these were left out on the original scouting mission for a variety of reasons but mostly to save time. They would cut out some of the longer paved climbing sections. I have added these all into a second route but as I haven’t ridden these sections I can’t confirm their rideability.
If anyone is able to get out there and ride these sections then I will update everything accordingly.
Overview of the route.
The route starts in Marrakesh, after taking in the sights, smells and sounds of the souk it exits the town via a reasonably busy road with a bike lane. Before too long it turns into a quiet road for the next 30km or so. The main focus at this point is to “get to the mountains” you will see them rise higher and higher as you approach the foothills. At the 35km mark your tyres touch gravel for the first time as you follow a valley up into the hills. Its undulating but there are a few steep pinches that may require a push for 10m or so. The route continues like this as you gradually gain altitude and follow the valley south. There is plenty of opportunity for resupply but Arba Tighedouine is the first sizeable town and likely the only place to find accommodation in the local area. stock up well because its probably the only place to get food for the next 3-4 hours.
From here the first major climb begins, we took the road pass which is 10km at 8%; a beautiful climb with plenty of camping spots. Alternatively, there is a gravel track that runs vaguely parallel which looks like it would be nice. They both come out into a village at the around 1800m, from here we had to follow our noses a little bit until we cam to the pass. Crossing the pass was a proper “wow” moment, we were met by a wide open valley filled with lush green vegetation clinging onto the orange rock.
The descent is fun and fast, a rough gravel track with a few rocks to avoid but a proper hoot. The surfaces will gradually improve and eventually become paved as you descent into the Ourika valley. Here you will find plenty of opportunities for resupply and accommodation before the big push up to the high point of the route.
The road up to Oukaimeden is long but not terribly steep 37km at 5% sounds tough but its gentle enough that you can tap away at it and settle into a rhythm. It did drag a little and we spotted a gravel track on the other side of the valley that would make the first half a little more enjoyable. (this is found on the alt route). On the way up there is plenty of resupply but camping options are limited until your reach the last 10km or so.
Enjoy a well earned Tajine at 2700m before crossing the other side and finding the gravel track off the other side. The descent is long and twisty and extra care is needed on a gravel bike but still plenty rideable enough. The paths marked on the map bare little resemblance to reality so there was the odd nav error. If you follow gpx track you should be fine though. Half way down there were some serious roads being built which might mean that in future it will be much faster.
As soon as you reach the valley floor you are straight back into climbing mode as you begin another long climb, this time up to 2400m. This climb is steeper than the previous one but the views are even more spectacular as you are greeted with your first sight of the Toubkal range. We mostly followed the road round to the Tamatert pass but we spotted a wonderful gravel track that snaked like spaghetti down from the pass that would cut out a lot of up and down as well as overall distance.
After you reach the pass you have the option to follow either the Road or trail down to Imlil they criss cross each other so there is plenty of opportunity to bail out if desired. It was raining and beginning to get dark so we took the road down into Imlil. Imlil is a bit of a hub for climbing and trekking in the Atlas, here is probably your only opportunity to get any outdoor specific equipment that you may need. Plenty of great accommodation, we stayed at “Riad Atlas Toubkal” at it was fantastic. Imlil was also the first time we saw any other tourists since we left Marrakech.
The next pass is one of the highlights of the trip, a gravel track that goes up and over the valley with stunning views of snowcapped peaks and expansive landscapes that show little sign of human impact. There is chance of resupply here so make sure that you pack snacks, Equally the descent is just as fun as it is cut into a very steep valley wall but is plenty wide enough (4-5m) so not to feel too scary.
Once you reach the valley floor and follow the road you get the sense that you are now leaving the Atlas as you fly down the hills with Toubkal behind you. A mix of fast road and gravel takes you to Oued Nfiss resevoir where you can refuel and stock up. From here we tried to take a gravel track up and over the next and final large hill but were greeted by a locked gate. We made the call to take the road round via Asni which meant 40km or so of road. Upon my return I spotted an alternative way over that could work well. This is one bit that it would be great if someone recce’d.
After the town of Ouazguita you start to get the feeling that you are well and truly in the desert now, the tracks are amazing and landscape more rolling. One notable section is the section past Lalla Takahoust reservoir, the trails are designed for quadbikes/buggies/motorcross so are very twisty and turny, great fun on an mtb but Edward was having to nurse his gravel bike around. It also goes through several river beds so maybe best avoided in heavy rain. once you have Reached Lalla Takahoust you are on the final stretch, a mixture of road and gravel takes you back north and into the city. Our route ended up with 20km on a main road, it did have a bike lane and I was comfortable but I have also planned an alternative way into town.
Once you arrive Marrakesh treat yourself to the fanciest tajine you can find and savour the experiance that you have had.
Top tips for the route
Resupply is plentiful so no need to carry a huge amount of food or water with you. Its mostly in the form of local shops or markets, also restaurants and cafes are relatively cheap.
Wild camping spots are plentiful but its sometimes are to find a flat spot especially for a tent.
MTB or Gravel bike would be fine but make sure that you have at least 40mm tyres. I used my steel Mason RAW with a 120mm fork and a dropper post which was fab.
Don’t be intimidated by the long climbs, they are all relatively steady and you can settle into a rhythm.
Hotels are cheap especially and many can be booked in advance in booking.com
Very few people outside of the tourist hotspots speak English but most speak French however the more rural you get the less French is spoken.
It can be very warm in the day but sub-zero at hight so pack up warm.
Take your time to explore, there are a few options to cut out sections later in the route (e.g Imlil to Asni) if you are running low on time. We took 5 days to do the full route.
We were originally fairly concerned about wearing tight fitting clothing but after a day or so Meg was just in normal bibs and jersey an no-one seemed to mind or give her any hassle.
If you are planning on riding the route do let me know and if you need any extra information dont be afraid to reach out.
European divide preamble: What am I getting myself in for?
When I stumbled across The European Divide trail on instagram three years ago I was blown away by the ambition of the project that Andy had embarked on. At that time the route was still in its formative stages. Over the course of the next year or so I was occasionally treated to a glimpse of some forest double track or a twisting alpine meadow. The excitement only grew and when the full route was finally released last year it jumped straight onto the top of my list.
After staring yearnfully at the Komoot files for the route it seemed clear that Andy had created something special and immensely valuable to the community. It seemed like it was Europe's answer to the GDMR. The route covers 7600km from Kirkenes in north Norway to Cabo San Vincente in Portugal, crossing 8 countries in the process. From what I can tell it covers every type of terrain with about 2/3rds of it off road. Naturally, I started thinking “Just how fast could it be done” This idea wormed its way deeper and deeper into my head until I eventually decided that I would give it a crack and committed to it last October.
My logic on setting a goal time was questionable. In reality I knew that I had a window of around 40 days between finishing teaching for the summer and my brother getting married. With some time on either side I set myself 35 days as the goal. I figured that its about 1.7 times the length of the Tour Divide so 2.5 times the FKT wouldn't be an unreasonable goal. Only time will tell if I am overestimating my ability but that’s part of the magic of trying something new.
As the months passed and I got closer to the date of departure, my prep ramped up considerably. I was feeling fairly fit but after a rough HT550 I took a few weeks off the bike and focussed on the mental prep, hoping that I would ride into fitness once I started. So I started trawling through the route on Komoot and marked down key resupply locations and big climbs. If anything this will function as a way of setting micro-goals. Just focussing on arriving at the next town is much easier than constantly reminding myself that I have another month of hard riding.
The beauty of self sufficient bikepacking is that you leave with your bike and bags loaded up and have everything you need to reach your destination barring some resupply along the way. Naturally, that leads to a lot of planning needed to make sure that your bike and kit is up to scratch. The video below outlines some of my key choices.
The bike:
Frame: Mason InSearchOf size L
Wheels: HUNT Search Dynamo 29
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra/XT di2 mix 36t chainring, 11-46 cassette
Bars: Ritchey venturemax carbon 46cm
Saddle: Specialized Phenom mimic
Tyres: Vittoria Mezcal 29x2.6
Bags: Straighcut Designs
Profile designs aerobars
Toolkit:
Muc-off hydrodynamic lube
Small square of microfibre towel
2X inner tubes
Patch kit
Stans dart tool + plugs
Sewing kit
Super glue
Fibrefix spare spoke
Mini pliers
Topeak multitool
60ml Stans race sealant
Spare brake pads
Spare mech hanger
Mattress patch kit
Cuben fibre tape
Mini pump.
Spare tubeless valve
Clothing:
Dhb aeron ultra jersey
Dhb aeron ulrea shorts
Dhb polartech sleeveless baselayer
Dhb aeron arm warmers
Dhb rain defence leg warmers
Dhb equinox softshell
Dhb trail waterproof jacket
Dhb aeron mitts
Dhb aeron polartech gloves
Dhb packable gilet
Dhb buff
Dhb aeron run tights
Dhb merino socks
Hunt cycling cap
Arcteryx Cerium LT down jacket
Rab merino cap
Oakley Flightjacket with photochromic lenses
Kask protone helmet.
Quoc gran tourer II shoes
Sleeping:
Outdoor research Helium bivvy
Sea to Summit Spark SP1 sleeping bag
Rab silk liner
Thermarest neoair Uberlight
Sea to summit Aeros pillow
Electricals:
Garmin inreach mini 2
2X Garmin edge 530
iPhone 10 pro
2X Anker 20000mAh battery pack
Sinewave reactor usb charger
Exposure Revo front light
Exposure TraceR rear light
Assorted cables
Di2 Charger
Gopro + batteries and SD cards
Petzl tikka core + spare batteries
Misc:
BRS stove with 600ml pot
Mosquito spray
Suncream
Toothbrush + paste
Ibuprofen
6X firepot dehydrated meals
16X Rawvelo bars
Sea to Summit packable rucksack
Titanium long handled spoon
Passport
Bank Cards
Cash
Some of this gear probably isn't going to make it all the way to Portugal, The plan is to send a package back home with some of the extra warm kit but i think that ill play it by ear.
You can follow along the follow my challenge page by going onto the event tracking tab of the site or using this URL
https://angus-young.co.uk/event-tracking
Any questions stick them below, I can’t promise that I’ll get round to answering the em for a while as I’m currently sat in a Finnish airport so apologies if there are even more typos than usual!
Legs, Lungs and Lack of sleep: My experiences on the HT550
The Highland Trail 550 is often described as the jewel in the crown of British bikepacking and it was one of the first races to truly capture my imagination. In 2018 some friends and I tried to tour the middle loop, vastly underestimating the severity of the terrain we got as far as Poolewe before throwing in the towel. But since that rainy week in August I was determined that I would race the route. It took four years before I could make it to the startline in Tyndrum. When I finally did arrive many faces both familiar and new but all friendly welcomed me with open arms.
The journey to the start had had its ups and downs, training this year had been inconsistent with illness and injury. I finally hit some flow post Dales Divide with a five week block of 15-20 hour weeks, hitting some power PB’s to boot. Yet two weeks before the start I started to feel super burned out. Whether it was overtraining, work stress, lack of proper recovery from DD, long covid, illness or most likely a combination of factors. I simply had no energy, both in training and daily life often struggling to stay awake during the day. I made the call to reassess my goals and take two weeks completely off the bike and arrive at the start well rested, even if not in 100% shape.
Not an ideal taper
From a kit and equipment point of view I felt as if I was well prepared. I was once again on my Mason RAW that had taken me to victory on the DD and the setup was near identical. I had made the addition of a hydration pack and some extra warm layers from dhb but other than that it was unchanged.
The rest helped a little but when the day came to travel up I was not feeling ready to go extended periods without sleeping and push my body to the limit. I told myself that my goal was clear: to finish. Anything else was a bonus however I find it hard not to get carried away and really stretch myself so If I were being truly honest it was “to finish but as fast as possible”
I slept like a log the night before and made my way to the unofficial race HQ of the Real Food Cafe for one last hearty meal before starting. Before long, we were sent on our way by some kind words from Annie and Liam, last year's winners. It’s easy to get sucked into the pace at the start and that's exactly what I did. I rode the first hour or so chatting with Simon who had come over to race from France. I noticed that he was carrying very little kit and not wearing socks. When he mentioned that he didn’t have a bivvy or tent with him I was shocked and had half a mind to tell him to go back and get one. I resisted the urge and told myself that he was an adult and can look after himself. All this chatting and we look down at our Garmins and realise that we have been cycling off route for the last 3km so double back and chase back on.
I feel like a prize idiot for going so far wrong early at the start and costing myself about 20 mins. I chase back to the front and slowly overtake people feeling the need to justify myself as to why I was behind them . Looking back at the Strava this section was my only KOM of the route. Whilst passing a group of riders on the road I pull up alongside Rich Rothwell and just about exchange a nod before BAM! I’m on the deck, I had clipped his handlebars, It was my fault I knew it. I got up quickly and went over to Rich, he didn’t look good, clutching his side and looking a bit dazed. I stayed with him for a few minutes without really knowing what to do other than making sure that he wouldn't come into any more danger. He sends me on my way and I feel a sinking feeling that I have just ruined this guy's race through carelessness. I found out later that he had scratched from the race. With all of the adrenaline I hadn’t really realised that I had actually cut up my knee and the right side of my body pretty badly.
My hand was also aching and I was struggling to hold the bars. Was this race over? I decided to press on and see how it went. So I pedalled on for the next 20 mins or so. It soon becomes apparent that my shifting is a little clunky and as soon as I move into the granny gear to go up a hill the chain drops. This means one thing: a bent hanger. Luckily I brought a spare so I get to work and after 20 mins replace it and get going again. By this point my head is full of demons. Nothing was going smoothly, I had already lost an hour and we were only 30km in, my body was already broken but worse I had caused another rider's race to end. I remind myself that I am in a lucky position to even be there and press on through the negative thoughts.
My haul of snacks from FA
With my mind wandering I neglect the beauty of the landscape but the Ben Alder singletrack climb and descent snap me out of it and I genuinely start to appreciate my position. As I crest the bealach I'm greeted by Annie who tells me that I'm only 10 mins off the lead. All of a sudden I'm back and have the urge to push myself once more. I've ridden this next bit a few times and before I know it I'm cresting the Corrieyairack pass and rolling into Fort Augustus for my first resupply. I grab a basket and stock up as I know that its around 24 hours until I reach Drumbeg. I’m joined by Simon and Jean and we exchange pleasantries before heading off together Simon drifts away up the steep gravel climb to Loch na Stack but I find him there struggling through the boulder field. There is a faint line that is rideable if you are lucky and I stick to it and just about manage to clean the section with only a couple of 5m pushes. That was the last I saw of SImon as I decided to put the power down a little and establish a gap.
I love this next section as it's on the GBDURO route so I know it well. The Path of a Thousand Puddles lived up to its name and I cruised past Orrin dam before having to turn my lights on for the road section to Contin. One of my highlights of the night was coming down Allerdale and seeing a huge deer hit a 5m road gap ight in front of my face. For the first time in weeks I'm feeling good so I made the decision to press on through the night and make it to the Oykel bridge just after sunrise.
The relative warmth of the Drumbeg stores greenhouse
The next highlight of the route was Bealach Horn, the most Northerly point of the route. There was some savage hike-a-bike through a peat bog to make it up there and I underestimated it for sure. However I made it over without too much drama and rolled down to Achfary, the end of the first GPS section about an hour up on record pace. Knowing that I hadn’t slept whereas Neil had I didn’t think much of it. It was never a target of mine but I had used the splits as a guide to approximate leg times. This moment was significant as we had been experiencing a headwind for the whole northward journey and I was looking for some assistance on the way back south. From here I was expecting a nice easy road section to drumbeg stores yet I was disappointed by how hilly the road turned out to be. It was here that I started to notice that my cough was starting to get worse. Nonetheless, I arrived at Drumbeg stores and was greeted by the owners who filled me with hot tea and loaded my pockets with enough food to get me to Poolewe.
The next few hours I spent gearing myself up for the Ledmore traverse, a Hike-a-bike section that would complete the Northern loop. Soon Suilven looms and the traverse starts, the first few km are rideable in sections but soon it turns into a slog. That sort of terrain where you can ride 10m sections but you are probably better off just going on foot and keep moving forward. Progress is slow and isn’t helped by the rain which has been on and off for the past 24 hours now. When I arrive at the junction I see that I have lost about an hour over to Neil’s time in just this short section. A sign that either Im really tiring or the conditions were starting to take their toll, I had no idea as I didnt feel too bad. The answer soon came as the darkness fell and I began to see things, my mind was all over the place. The section to Ullapool should be fairly straightforward but my mind was ruined. I wasn’t feeling sleepy but I had lost my grip on reality. I didnt really know why I was cycling and felt like I had multiple voices in my head each with its own personality, it was pretty freaky. I had never felt like this before, especially after only one night without sleep. Nonetheless I was still pedalling and wasn’t too tired and made it to Ullapool where I found shelter from the rain under a bridge and set up my bivvy for a night's sleep.
My broken spot tracker
The alarm was set for 2 hours but after 45 mins I woke myself up coughing and realised that my mat had a puncture so figured that it would be best just to get going again. The next section was the infamous crossing of Fisherfield, one of the most remote sections of the route. To warm up we had the Coffin Road a 9km stretch that on a fast day takes 1.5 hours but as I was crossing it in the dark and the ground was wet too me over three, things were starting to fall apart now, my front tyre lost traction in the muddy descent and I went over, covering myself in mud and snapping my Garmin mount. It took me a few minutes to get my spare one out and in doing so noticed that my tracker was busted, not sure when it happened but looking later I think it must have hit a rock or something during the hike-a-bike.
The crossing of Fisherfield itself was relatively straightforward, it was much more boggy than last time I rode it and the river crossing was up to my chest in places. I kept moving and made my way down to Poolewe via the long flowy singletrack descent. Here I refuelled and made use of the public facilities. From here I was into the unknown. The Tollie path was up ahead, I had heard that it wasn’t the best but it was by far the part of the route that I disliked the most, there were moments of joy in the odd slabby descent but mostly it was pushing your bike through a river bed, all in all I would say that it was less than fun. Eventually, however I made i to the road and into Kinlochlewe where I grabbed a quick drink and then pressed on up towards Torridon.
Now my mind was sharp and legs were good so I put some pressure on the pedals all the way up to the highpoint just off Torridon. The climb was sublime, it was flowy with the odd technical section but mostly rideable. Upon cresting the pass I was rewarded by one of the best descents that Scotland has to offer, the slabs seemed to give unlimited traction and I was having a blast. There were of course the odd section that I had to push down but I’d love to be back with a bike that's a little bit more set up for the steep chutes.
The climb up to Torridon
An audax Hotel
Torridon completed, I set my sights on making it to Dornie where I would get a couple of hours' kip. The road was smooth and I make good time through Strathcarron and up the hill, I was greeted by a nasty surprise that was Glen Ling. I was expecting a nice gravel track but instead only found a horrible overgrown boggy singletrack that at night I had to walk most of it. It's times like this that knowing the course would have really helped with my mental state as once again the voices in my head were back. It was odd as i didnt feel as if I was drifting off to sleep rather I was just insane. Additionally my lungs were so filled with gunk that I was struggling to maintain any sort of steady breathing. I do make it to Dornie eventually but must have lost a significant amount of time on what should have been an easy section. At Dornie I find a bus stop and get into my bivvy bag. I set my alarm for two hours but once again I woke up coughing after 90 mins. I pack my bags and start the push over towards Glen Affrick. This was one part of the route which I underestimated, whether it was due to my growing illness or just lack of energy but the hike-a-bike took a couple of hours longer than I had initially expected. On the way up I saw a set of Maxxis tyre tracks and assumed that Huw had passed me in the night. He too had no tracker so I wasn’t that surprised especially as all of my energy was gone. He must have been flying as I didnt even see his lights on the way up. He clearly had paced this way better than me. When I reached the bothy at the summit I saw that Lars’s bike was propped up against the side and he came out for a 5 min chat. He told me that he had got there three hours earlier, I spotted that he was running Maxxis as well and he didn’t see Huw pass. This made me think that I was in the lead again and gave me some good motivation so I enjoyed the descent through Glen Affrick even if the going was slower than what I would have hoped for.
The next two climbs before FA went quick and I was in a good mental state when I hit the Spar for a second time. Andy and Tay were staking out the shop hoping to get a glimpse of what was going on at the front. It was good to see them and with my pockets loaded with scotch pies and sandwiches I leave for Fort William. A few Km down the great Glen way I meet Pete who is recording an audio log of the race, he rides with me for 10 mins or so and we talk through what’s going through my mind. As far as sustainable and non-intrusive documenting goes it was up there with the best. After leaving Pete, I checked my phone for the first time in a while and saw that Huw had in fact passed through FA about an hour before me. I was a little bit taken aback by this. It made sense when I thought it through and just goes to show how much people go to respect the unsupported nature of the rides that they didn’t tell me. I love it.
Im now feeling motivated to push, so I stamp on the pedals to squeeze out some power. This was an unwise decision as over the next couple of hours my lungs fell apart. When I arrived in Fort William I was coughing more than not and unable to inhale deeply. Certainly suboptimal cycling performance. I take shelter from the rain under a bridge and think through my options and figured that I had best carry on.
I don’t really remember much from the section along the West Highland Way past the initial gravel climb. My mental state was in bits and I was struggling to get enough oxygen to hold a high enough tempo to clear any of the rocky sections which meant that I did a lot of walking. When I arrived at Kinlochleven I was a mess and found refuge in the Trailracers Inn. I order a meal (or three) and call up 111 as I'm starting to worry about my long term health. When describing the symptoms they say that it is very clearly Bronchitis and there is nothing I can do but rest. It's around 1900 now and I sit in the pub and contemplate my options. I'm so close to pulling the pin. On one hand I feel that I have had enough excuses and it's sensible, no one would argue but on the other, was I just being wet? I also had in the back of my mind that with no SPOT tracker I had no safety net and in the rain and cold didn’t want to be the mug who called out MRT. I have big plans for the summer and didn’t want to derail them so eventually, I decided to compromise. After a great degree of looking I found a B&B for the night. The plan was to get a full night’s sleep and then roll into Tyndrum at a relaxed pace to claim the finish.
My bloody top tube bag
So thats what happened, I slept for 12 hours or so and woke up at 8am to find the sheets covered in blood, whilst spooky at first it became clear that I had just had a colossal nose bleed and slept right through it. The rest had worked its magic and my lungs seemed to have been able to mostly clear themselves. The coughing was still there but less frequent and there was less gunk coming out. I leave the B&B around 10 and start the climb up to the Devils staircase, stopping periodically to try and stem the bleeding of my nose which had ruptured once again. It just seemed to keep on fishing blood so eventually I gave up and just got on with things. The final 40km or so pass quickly, its amazing how a full night's sleep can make everything better. There is one final sting in the tail but soon its over and I arrive in Tyndrum. I look later and my final time is 4 days 6 hours 13 mins.
A broken man
At the time I didn’t really feel much of a sense of accomplishment. I wasn't convinced that I had achieved much by completing that last leg. My race ended in Kinlochleven and I was still down and kicking myself that I effectively pulled the plug there. I sat in the real food cafe for the rest of the afternoon and chatted with the rest of the riders as they came in and out. Huw had finished super fast and his time was only an hour off the FKT and in conditions that Alan had described as the worst he had ever seen, it's a ride he should be proud of. I clearly have a lot to learn from him. He tells me that in the days that come I will be glad that I finished and he was of course right. I'm glad that I got to the end. A finish of the HT550 is nothing to be sniffed at.
One thing is for sure now: I can’t wait till next year.
Dales Divide 22
What is the Dales Divide?
For the past couple of years I have been watching the Dales Divide grow from a small event with only a few entries to one of the most exciting races in the UK. The 605km route starts in Arneside just south of the Lakes and follows a mixture of gravel tracks, singletrack and roads to make its way to Scarborough and back via the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors. The 2021 edition was a cracker to dotwatch and James Craven took a decent chunk of time off the record.
My main goal for the weekend was to test out both my legs as well as some kit before the HT550 in 6 weeks time. I told myself that the result didn't really matter as long as I put together a clean race. Nonetheless, as the day grew closer the inevitable nerves grew and I found myself packing and repacking for the umpteenth time. It was due to be the first time that I was going to race on the Mason RAW and I was finetuning things. I had some new bags from Straightcut which fitted the bike like a dream and I began to pack them with all the usual stuff. See kitgrid below for a full breakdown. Whilst I wasn't planning on sleeping I still packed my OMM sleepsuit and bivvy. I also went fairly conservatively on tools and repairs, batteries and warm kit. The clothing I chose was all from dhb and pretty much the same as I used for GBDURO21 with key items being the Aeron Ultra jersey and shorts which are both super comfortable and have a million pockets to stow snacks. One new thing for me was that I was trialling using a bladder to store all of my water in the frame I had a 3L Camelback which I normally put around 2L of fluid in.
How the race happened
I managed to blag a last minute lift from Steve and Angela, the 5 hour journey passed in a flash of bike chat and I arrived at the pub where I was staying in good time. The inevitable nerves picked up again and I only really got about 3 hours sleep before it was time to make my way over to the start.
The atmosphere was buzzing and after a few choice words from some inspiring people we were off. I remember previous winner Alex Pilkington telling us to leave the racing till Scarborough. With this in my mind I set off at a reasonable tempo, settled into a pack and then slowly let the lead drift away. The first 50km or so were hilly but the terrain was fast and on the first extended climb of the day I caught sight of Chris up the hill and Harry not too far behind him. Before long, I passed Harry nursing his gravel bike through the babies heads and exchanged a few pleasantries. That was the last I saw of anyone for about 15 hours. After descending down to Ribblesdale and under the viaduct we quickly climbed again and I kept pressure on the pedals. I knew this part of the route better than the rest of it and I had a smile on my face as I remembered all of the good times from previous rides.
I kept tapping away until I made it to York 220km into the rote at around 1930. Here, I stopped for a quick meal deal and resupply of fluids. I remember being incredibly frustrated as I waited for what felt like an age for someone to approve the age restricted red bull from the auto checkout. Eventually I have to go find someone. When you are in full race mode these things can get to you when in reality when I look at my gps data I was only stopped for 7 mins.
From York darkness started to hit and the next section of the course was fairly flat and relatively uninteresting so I put some music on and settled into a rhythm and before I knew it I was through Driffield and approaching Scarborough. I look back and see a front light in the distance, I know it must be Harry and sure enough he approaches, his Aerohead and aero socks must have been working on the fast roads. We only ride together for a minute or two before he turns off to find a 24hr petrol station. I press on to Scarborough. Just on the outskirts I notice that my rear tyre is a bit bouncy and in need of some air, I must have been rolling on 10psi for some time as it had mostly been road for the past few hours and I can't think what I would have punctured on.
I had ensured that I had enough food when I left York to last at least 15-16 hours, this meant that I could forgo the kebab shops and petrol stations of Scarborough and pass straight through. This must have been when I passed Chris but I didn’t see him. Feeling strong and relatively awake I left town just before 0200 which meant that I was around 90 mins up on James’s time from last year. Thinking back to what Alex said, now was the time to start racing so I start to turn the screw a little bit and keep my heart rate up as I climbed onto the North York Moors.
This excitement only lasted a few hours and by 0500 I was feeling low, the mist was in and visibility was around 30m and there was a strong cross headwind that didn’t seem to let up. The paths were mostly very smooth but there was the odd section of bog. I quite like these parts and always seem to find that I make time on them. I checked the tracker for the first time since leaving Scarborough and saw the pursuivants were only 10 mins back or so. This gives me a boost of motivation and I once again wind it up.
Some of the riding across the Moors was the highlight of the route for me; miles of flowing technical single track separated by punchy climbs really let the RAW shine and I found myself more than once grinning ear to ear and pushing it on the descents. I had planned to stop at Northallerton 460km in but after making good time I still had plenty of food and water so I decided that I would push on another 25km or so to Catterick.
The Co-op at Catterick was good to me and I came out with three meal deals, some wine gums and a pack of pork pies. Eating on the move I began the steady climb up into the Dales. The visibility had improved and the sun was out. As a result of which, the landscape here felt much larger, the climbs were less punchy and longer than the rest of the route and I was able to turn up the pace by another notch, conscious that Chris was only half an hour behind or so. Before long I descended into Askrigg and then began the long climb up the Cam High Road, a dead straight roman road that gains 400m of elevation over 10km. Whilst on paper it doesn’t sound too hard however there were some serious ramps and the loose rocks made it challenging at times. From the summit I knew that I had one more serious climb before “it was all downhill”. It was one that I had done three times before as It was on the GBDURO route as well. One last push and I was at the summit. From here I knew that it was my race to lose so I kept it easy and tried to ride conservatively.
Long story short the last 50km were not all downhill there were a few nasty pinches in there but I made good time and rolled onto the pier at Arneside at 1943 to give me a total time of 35 hours and 43 minutes taking just over 4 hours off James’s time. The finish was as ever an anticlimax, with no one there waiting for me I sat on a bench and started to let everything sink in. Just over an hour later Chris arrived. We shared stories for a bit before heading our separate ways in search of food and a bed.
The subsequent day was spent sitting in the sun on the pier whilst eating ice cream and welcoming the riders in as they arrived. I had one more day of recovery before I was then back in the classroom teaching.
A couple of reflections:
The control and comfort of an MTB is well worth the reduced rolling speed on a course like this. The dropper also makes it fun.
In future I would pack a little lighter, I didn’t need any sleeping kit and could have got away with less clothing, battery packs and food but it was good prep for HT550
I had mixed feelings about the bladder in the framepack, It was convenient and had a good capacity but it was hard to regulate how much I had drunk. Never knowing if that sip is going to be your last can be quite mentally taxing. I might try something else for HT550.
Don’t put cans of RedBull in your frame bag as they will explode everywhere.
Minimising stopped time by carrying 12 hours of food is more than manageable.
Not setting off super fast can be an effective strategy to win the race.
Final thoughts:
I just want to thank all of the people who put in the hours for free to make the Dales Divide happen, it truly is a special bike race and I would recommend the route to anyone. Looking forward things are looking positive for HT550 in five weeks time. If you have any questions about the race, route or my setup put them in the comments below.
GBDURO21: Reflecting on what could have been
At around 3am I rolled into John O’ Groats, and touched the signpost that marks the end of the GBDURO route. Instead of the joyful moment that I had visualized countless times in my head over the last two years I felt a flurry of mixed emotions. Despite the fact that I had completed the distance in over two hours less than record time I knew that it would not stand as the last 230km were covered on a borrowed bike. I had spent the last two hours with this in the back of my mind and had just about come to terms with it. For me there is no better vehicle for aiding reflection than riding my (or anyone else's) bike. Over these two hours I had covered a spectrum of emotions from rage to a deep rooted sadness. This processing time eventually led me to the realisation of what had happened and that I was not going to let the past few hours define my ride.
My goal going into this year’s GBDURO was simple: to win the event. I arrived at the start line knowing that I was on the best form of my life having recently won the PanCelticRace and setting power PBs almost weekly. As a result of my involvement in the organisation of the race I was privy to knowing who my main competition were likely to be which helped calm my nerves a little. Having said that I cannot recall a build up to an event where I have ever felt so much pressure. This was twofold as I wanted the event to run smoothly without a hitch but also I felt an extraordinary pressure to perform. Most likely this was put upon myself but one can’t underestimate the role that social media and those around you contribute to this. The constant encouragement and positive feedback only worsens this as it leads to the fear of disappointing not just yourself but others.
Before I knew it, I was standing in front of 45 unsuspecting riders, some of them already friends, others were soon to be and yet more I wish that I was able to spend more time to get to know. The brief was short and soon the race started. Stage one was 638km and finished in mid Wales. I had a clear plan when it came to stopping and pacing, go out hard to build a gap then then keep the tempo up to maintain it by only stopping when absolutely necessary. I had earmarked two locations to resupply. One after 200km at Greater Torrington and the other in Usk around 450km in. I stuck to this plan by the letter and arrived at the CP in just under 36 hours with less than 20mins stopped time. This was over four hours quicker than two years ago despite the added 90 mins or so of riding due to the route changes. What this meant was that I had a nine hour lead over my closest competitor so I only needed to ride defensively to take home the victory.
The checkpoint was a delight with Daf and Gail providing for my every need and as more and more riders arrived the buzz increased and the stories were flowing. This is the essence of GBDURO and what makes the event unique. There is little I like more that sitting down with people and having a good natter and as there is nothing else to do it allows you to really explore some important topics from the climate emergency to inclusivity in the sport. 36 hours passed in the blink of an eye and we were soon off again on leg two; In my mind the hardest of the four.
Once more I kept the tempo up and the pressure on the pedals tapping away up the steep climbs of north Wales and along the flats of Cheshire. A quick resupply in Manchester at 10pm and I pressed on into the night as the rain closed in. What came next was perhaps the moment that defined my ride whilst climbing up to Rooley Moor in the pouring rain in the middle of the night I checked the time and realised that I was around 20 mins up on Lachlan’s split from two years prior. The motivation that this gave me was phenomenal, suddenly I was wide awake and my legs were filled with energy. With the rain coming in and the most technical part of the course ahead I felt a huge amount of encouragement and the power of all of those hours of training kicking in. “Now we are talking. this is where I make my mark on the race” I was truly on top of the world this was only bolstered by the appearance of some 3am Dotwatchers in the arse-end of nowhere on the Pennine Bridleway.
This sense of power stayed with me for the remainder of the ride. Surprisingly I felt nothing as I passed the spot where it all fell apart for me last year. Perhaps a sign that I had finally conquered those demons and come to terms with the failure of last year. I kept pressing on and arrived at the checkpoint 45mins faster than the previous record. Between the chatting and drinking (thanks Magic Rock), I had time to collect my thoughts. I was 2hrs40mins down overall and I knew that Lachlan needed a sleep on the next stage. All of a sudden my goal had evolved from winning to setting the record; I knew it would be tough but also there was a chance that it was achievable. I set out the following day with some splits that I wanted to hit saved on my phone as well as a key resupply station.
I pushed hard over Kielder Forest and across the border into Scotland wanting to make the Falkirk wheel before the tunnel closed at 8pm. I got there with time to spare so ploughed through Stirling and hit the Co-op in Bridge of Allan for the supermarket sweep making sure that I had enough calories to see me through to the end of the stage. The rain was relentless and the visibility poor which was such a shame as this was one of the most stunning parts of the route and a shame that I had to pass through it all at night. Despite the odd dark moment I found myself at the foot of the infamous Corrieyairack Pass when the sun did come up. Low gearing meant that this time the whole pass was rideable and it was a joy to roll down the otherside compared to two years ago when I walked for three hours. When I eventually rolled into FA I was a shell of a person but I had taken over five hours of the previous record and set me in good stead for the overall. At the checkpoint we were greeted with stovies, oatcakes, irn-bru, Tennents and single malt whiskey; a more Scottish welcome I could not have asked for. I had almost 48 hours now to rest up and recover and prepare for the final push to JOG. With a few friendly faces arriving to help pass the time my recovery went perfectly and I woke early on the morning of the final stage pumped to ride my bike but with that all too familiar sense of pressure and nervousness looming over me.
Once again I had prepared splits so I knew If I was on pace or not. Overall I had two and a half hours to lose if necessary. For once the sun was finally out I was able to enjoy the best that Scotland has to offer. I was having one of the best days on the bike that I can remember, flying across the country and hitting all necessary splits. A 5 min stop at the iconic Contin Stores was my final resupply for the remaining 300km. All was going to plan and when I arrived at Croick I was already an hour up on Lach. Not long after this however the worst happened. A mechanical which I couldn't repair myself. The freehub was not working, the cranks could spin both ways and there was little I could do. All I could to at this stage was to push and scoot my way along until I found some civilization.
After about an hour of pushing I see a rider approaching me. A holiday maker in the area who was out on his bike. He knew of the race but was planning on riding anyway so he stopped to ask if I am ok. I explain that my bike is buggered and he very kindly offered to lend me his to get to the finish. We rolled down to his car at the Oykel bridge where the Media crew were coincidentally waiting for me. I swap over the vast majority of my kit to the borrowed bike and head on my way. Counting myself lucky that I happened upon such a wonderful stranger who was willing to help me out. At no point in this process did I think that I was doing anything wrong as I was accepting help from the kindness of strangers. If he were not there I would have tried a little more to fix the hub (In reality the issue was more than likely fixable) or knocked on some doors for help, perhaps calling a “local” bikeshop (around 50km) to see if they could send something in a taxi. However, I saw a quick and easy fix and went for it.
The next 200km passed in the blink of an eye, I was pressing on and still determined to set the record. I had seen that the swap was noted by the commissars on an instagram story and seemingly allowed. I pushed through the cold night rationing out my final chunk of marzipan to get me to the finish. It was around 1am when I found out that I had been disqualified. Cue the rush of emotions and sense of powerlessness explained before. I won’t go into too much detail about the reasons behind the decision other than that I can now see the point that was being made. Honestly, I can think of 101 reasons why I can stand by what I did but when it boils down to it I probably would have made the same call if I had been on the other end of the process. I would now argue that as the sport grows these races can never be truly self-supported. A cheer from the side of the road from a local fan can offer support to someone when they are down or a text from a loved one can likewise motivate you. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I should have slowed down to think about the situation.
I would be lying if I were to say that I was not devastated by the news. This goal had been the focus of my training for the past couple of years and it was seemingly taken away from me. I can however draw a great deal of happiness from how I rode the race. In the past I have all too easily been drawn up in the outcome of events that I neglect the importance of the process. I am a much faster, more experienced racer than I was two years ago and I will continue to race to the best of my ability. It must also be said that I was overwhelmed by the people out on the route. Thank you to everyone who came out to “support” the event and I hope that this incident won't discourage anyone from coming out or helping anyone in need. At the end of the day I had an amazing 11 days riding across stunning countryside with the best people. I am determined to not let the final 10 hours define the two year long process of getting to the finish.
Also a huge thanks to all who helped make the race happen especially Ed and Miles at the Racing Collective but also all of those who helped at the checkpoints Daf, Gail, Ceri, James, Stu, Lewis, Lily, Nick and the rest. Also thanks to Niall and Tedde for the timing and Chris for the commentary that kept everyone going. I also wouldn’t be in the place place where I am today without the support of my friends and sponsors at Mason, HUNT, dhb and Rawvelo as well as my coach Brad. Thanks for their continued support. One final thanks goes to Megan for putting up with me through my training day in day out :)
People keep on asking me what is next. Regardless of the outcome of the event I had always planned to spend the winter focussing on my running specifically targeting the Marathon distance with a goal of hitting the elusive sub 2:20. Its going to be tough but I think that it will be a solid goal. I will continue to train on the bike as well and have several races planned for the 2022 summer season.
Thanks to Machiek Tommycheck @oxfordatelier for the beautiful imagery
PanCeltic
Over the recent years I have become increasingly drawn to the UK. We have so much to offer on this little island that I am only beginning to scratch the surface of it. From the Jurassic Coast to the Highlands of Scotland adventures can be found without having to travel too far. The same can be said for awesome events. Whilst there is still a pull for me to jet off to far flung parts of the world like I have done previously, the environmental activist part of me knows that it isn't sustainable and also there is no need when we can put on such killer races in the UK.
The PanCeltic race had been on my radar since following ity two years ago. It had a strong sense of identity which focused on retaining and celebrating the individual aspects of each of the five celtic nations. This, combined with the sense of community and shared experience was what attracted me to the event. On top of all of this was a breathtaking, in more ways than one, route that showed off some of the best british roads. When I saw this I was sold and my application was sent in for a place.
Preparation for the race revolved around the usual trio: physical fitness, dialled in equipment choice and mental readiness. On the fitness front I was coming off some great form from the Three Peaks record so I knew that I was in good shape. As this was my first road ultra there was a fait amount of new kit to test. The Mason Definition was set up in a very similar manner to the Three Peaks but with the off position tweak. I made an instagram video showing my kit breakdown which can be found below.
The final piece of the puzzle was getting my brain in gear. I hadn't had too much time to recover since the Three Peaks so I still felt very tired to the extent that I was nodding off whilst during the day etc. This isn't what you want when going into an event that relies on your ability to cope with sleep deprivation. This combined with a mild cold that I had picked up towards the end of a very busy terms teaching meant that I knew that I wasn't arriving at the start line of the best form of my life. This was a bit of a mental itch that I had in the week before that I couldn't really find a satisfying solution to. I tried tactics such as going through the route file and making notes of shop times/ key moments etc but this didn't really seem to work. I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well in these events and with the win a clear focus here I couldn't help but convince myself that I was setting myself up for failure. These are demons that many of us face whatever our target in cycling or normal life. For me, I just have to keep on falling back on the idea that I am well prepared for this and that at the end of the day (as it says in the race manual) “it is only a bike ride”.
The final week of term drew to a close and soon Meg was driving me down to the start just beyond Plymouth. After dropping our kit off at an AirBnb (one final luxury) we rode over to the sign-on at Maker Hights. It had that usual pre race mix of nerves and excitement that we all develop that love/hate relationship with. A few familiar faces calmed the nerves a bit but I was all but relaxed. The evening's entertainment saw a local band play whilst we sat around the campfire and exchanged stories.
Overnight the heavens opened and they didn’t seem to show any signs of stopping. I spent the final hour or so pre-race holed up inside trying to stay dry for as long as possible. Before long, however, the inevitable happened and we were called to the start where we waited anxiously, in the pouring rain, for race director Matt to wave us off. One rousing speech later and we were off. I slowly picked my way through that pack and moved to the front. I had a very clear goal which was to settle into a steady rhythm but maybe a notch higher that wise. The plan was to snap any elastic to second over the first couple of days and then try to hold the gap.
For the first 60km or so I kept the front of the race in sight, occasionally taking the lead. However 300Km flew by without any hitch, I was bang on my target average speed of 25Kph. I was just about keeping in my target average power range of around 200W but due to the relentless short steep climbs my normalized was way up on where it should have been at 246W for the 12 hours. (This gives a variability index of 1.23 i.e. very high). Now I’m not an absolute slave to the power meter but I do find it useful to help temper my efforts and keep tabs on how things are going. All in all however I felt like I was riding within myself and happily kept on trucking round Lands End through the night and towards CP1 at Boscastle for the early morning. This was the first time I checked the tracker and saw thatI had a small lead on my competitors so I only stopped for a water refill and disappointing brioche before heading off. My next target was the town of Holsworthy, around 75km down the road, where I knew that there would be a CoOp that would be open when I arrived. I like to have these minor attack points during races as they can help to pass the time quicker and also prevent myself from stopping too much. There I had my longest stop yet of about 20 mins where I smashed some yoghurt, chocolate milk and a bacon sandwich and loaded my pockets up with food for the day ahead.
Day 2 was speedy, with a nice tailwind I quickly made my way through the twisty Devon lanes and through Glastonbury for a quick lunch. From here I was on home turf and I had great fun blasting through Gillingham and over towards Salisbury. Where Meg had popped out of work to give me a wave as I passed through Wilton. From here I headed north and was pleasantly surprised by the technical nature of the gravel sector that had been put in to avoid the A-road up to Stonehenge. I was just starting to rain again and I was thanking the cycling Gods that I was going through it in the relative dry and that my 28mm tyres managed to stay inflated (tubeless for the win). Coming past Stonehenge I was greeted by a series of Dotwachers who had come out to cheer me on. This is always a real boost for me and I'm not sure how I would cope without it, by this point I must have seen around 50 people out cheering me on throughout the south-west. Breathtaking.
Heading back west it wasn't too long before the long dark set in and I fell into the monotony of rain and twisty lanes, I had no real concept of where I was and just trucked on following the little purple line on the map. By midnight I was soaked through and would have welcomed a B&B or similar but nothing materialized and I found myself riding down Cheddar Gorge at around 1 when I spotted a cave that would make a warm dry place to rest up for a couple of hours. The alarm was set for two and a half hours and I settled down into my bivvy and easily driften off. When I arose the sun was coming up and I was energized, through the Mendips progress was slow but I eventually made it through Bristol and onto the bridge into Wales.
Two large breakfast baps in Chepstow later and I was ready to start my day. The goal was Pembrokeshire but between that I had miles of bike paths and also some tasty climbs in the Valleys. The miles ticked by, now I knew that I had a strong lead of around 6 hours over my competitors. By the time I got onto the climb out of Pontypridd I was starting to tire a little. My Garmin flashes up that it needs charging, no problem I got the battery pack out. Its flat, again this wasn't a problem as I had a spare. A bit of faffing getting it out and when I check it is also flat. How could this have happened? I hadn't used it yet. Oh well no issue. I made the call to descent back down into Pontypridd where I found a cafe, ordered some food and planned to stay there for a couple of hours whilst things charged up. Maybe get some kip. It was only when I plugged my battery in that I saw that it had full charge. I must have checked the flat one twice…. Still I had my food and a 20 min nap whilst I let things charge anyway. I was soon back on my way but this whole episode must have lost me an hour and a half or so. Not ideal and it messed with me mentally. The following 50km or so was hilly and I kept stopping to change kit, refuel and check the route. I was cycling well, just being very inefficient. One last climb up over the Bwlch and then a long headwind descent in the storm which brought back memories of GBDURO last year due to the cold. From Port Talbot to Swansea it was a classic combination of bike paths and A roads. Pretty quick going but I was glad when it ended. At around 5pm I dined under the golden arches and managed to find a booking at the Travelodge in Pembroke this was around 170km down the road so I knew that it would be a long night to get there.
The Pembrokeshire roads were beautiful as ever however the constant headwind and rain was starting to drag a little so I retreated into myself a little and settled into a steady rhythm. My phone charger brooke as well so another hour was wasted trying to find another. I knew the roads down past Tenby from Ironman Wales which I raced in 2017 and the infamous climb on Saundersfoot stuck well in my memory. A few long hours of zombie mode and I arrived at the travelodge just before 2am. This was the first time that I had stopped at a hotel during a race and it was well received to be sure. Devices went straight on charge, I hopped in the shower and then gave my clothing a wash in the sink before rolling it up in a towel for a quick dry. I set my alarm for three hours.
When I woke up and looked at the time It was 0700 I had overslept by about 90 mins. This was frustrating as whilst it probably was needed I have never slept through my alarm and It could have gone a lot worse. I was out and riding within 10 mins and my legs felt fantastic. The quality sleep seemed to have done its trick and I was back to firing on all cylinders. Being cautious not to overextend myself I made my way to checkpoint 2 at Celtic Camping 1220km into the race. Here I caught up with the media crew for the first time in a couple of days and smashed some bagels, porridge and rice pudding. Before quickly making use of the facilities and heading off. I knew I had a big day ahead of me and I could afford to have another off day like day three.
It was a relief to turn east as I now had the wind at my back, this was the part of the course which surprised me most with its beauty. I didn't really know the lay of the land here and there were some awesome climbs which kept me motivated. These were intermittent with the tight twisty singletrack lanes with grass in the middle that we had become so accustomed to by now. Closing in on the evening I was acutely aware that the roads were suddenly getting very quiet. Then it came to me it was Thursday evening which meant that it was the Euro’s football semi-final. This afforded me the highlight of the race which was crossing the Rhayader mountain road down to the Elan valley at sunset without seeing a single car. This is almost unheard of for “Wales’s top driving road”. More than once I had to just stop and take in the beauty of the place. What's more, with the right tunes in my ear I won't be afraid to admit that I had a tear in my eye. I was on top of the world doing the thing that I love.
Once the sun dropped I kept on trucking until I found a slightly disappointing bivvy spot but you can't have everything. Two and a half hours of sleep later I got up and felt refreshed. I was acutely aware that in a couple of hours I was due to climb the infamous Bwlch-y-Groes AKA Hellfire pass. I had ridden this climb a couple of times in GBDURO so knew what I was in for. The real sting was that this was the start of a 95km loop via Welshpool that had us finishing by coming back up the other side of the Bwlch. In my mind I wanted to make sure that I was off this loop before second place had started it. To this end I pushed hard to the base of the climb then up and over to the other-side. The loop was on fast roads out to Welshpool but on the way back we were back on short sharp punchy lanes which slowed progress. Back past the lake and up the Bwlch for the second time I had it in my mind that that was essentially the last long climb.
My route checking could have been better as I soon found myself going up and over more climbs, this time a tiny mountain road with multiple gates known as the Ranges. What a stunner of a road! Leaving Snowdonia I was finally on the flat and into Porthmadog. Here I checked the tracker and saw that I had about an 8 hour lead. This meant that all I had to do was not have any catastrophic mistakes and it would be in the bag. I found a curry house around 1700 and much to the surprise of the waiter demolished my veggie biryani, tahka dahl, saag paneer, two pilau rice and two garlic naan. This took about an hour but I had time and was feeling confident.
The next section down to the Llyn peninsula was calm. There was a steady headwind but I just put on a podcast or two and settled into it. It was just about sunset when I got down to the headland. I count myself very lucky that I was gifted sunsets at iconic points of the route: Land’s End, Stonehenge, Pembrokeshire coast and the Elan Valley. This just topped it off. Turning north-east I was once again boosted by the wind and I made good progress with no need to rush. I just kept tapping away until I spotted a bus shelter around midnight 30km from Anglesea.
From here it was a case of just plodding on and making sure that I didnt do anything silly that would jeopardise the victory. Anglesea seemed to take an age and by this point I was too focused to really appreciate the scenery. To say my undercarriage was tender would be the understatement of the century yet there was little I could do about this. Eventually, I was back over the Menai bridge and on dry land. This meant around 40km or so to go these flew by and soon the final climb was ticked off and I descended into Conwy. All that was left now as a lap of the Great Orme. I savoured every moment of this. Its that curious combination of wanting to reach the end but not wanting the ride to be over.
I rolled across the line at around 2pm on Friday. 5 days 3 hours after the race start. The reception was fantastic and I was greeted by Toby with a chilled beer. Before long I fell asleep on the sofa only waking briefly to welcome in Chris and Paul who crossed the line in joint second place. What a display of sportsmanship!
The next few days were spent sleeping, eating and welcoming riders in as they crossed the line. It has been about a week now since I finished and have had a bit of time to reflect. This process is ongoing and some of the lessons learned may not appear until further down the line. Aside from the obvious things like putting my equipment through a proper test perhaps the biggest lesson learned was due to a mistake. After sleeping through my alarm at the hotel I felt so refreshed and my legs felt strong for the rest of the day. I now think that it was probably faster in the long run. I know from the past that two hours is enough for me to not feel too sleepy however going forward I think that more sleep may be the way to go for resting up the legs. At least the option is there.
Racing the PanCeltic was such a joy, the route took me through some incredible, unexpected locations. The people, however, are what made the event for me. From the incredible race organisers putting in thier time to pull of the race seemingly without a hitch to the loyal dotwatchers who were forever surprising me making me question why on earth they would be standing by some dodgy cycle path in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. Most of all, perhaps, it was my fellow competitors who inspired me, my race what as smooth as anyone could hope for but some of the other riders suffereds enormous setbacks but found the resilience to keep trucking on through the adversity. That is what the PanCeltic Clan is all about and what will be at the forefront of my mind going forward.
Three Peaks by bike: how it played out
During the depths of a winter of lockdown whilst struggling for motivation for training, with no immediate competitions in sight, I knew that I had to set myself a goal to stay driven through the early mornings and dark evenings. The thing is that whilst I do genuinely enjoy the intrinsic nature of riding my bike and getting out running, I find it hard to stay driven without a specific goal in mind. Over the last couple of years I have found a huge amount of pleasure in planning key events throughout the year and working with my coach to build a season around them.
Many hours of trying to find an event that would fit my criteria came up short until I heard about some people completing the iconic National Three Peaks by bike. Climbing the tallest mountains in Wales, England and Scotland and riding between them. A total of around 42km running and 670km on the road. Some googling revealed that the current record was held by Ross Malpass and was 37hour 33mins. A super fast time and one that would prove hard to beat. So there it was, I had found myself a goal.
The months building up to the event were fruitful and you can read all about my planning and training here.
Summer half term was soon upon me and my first opportunity to test my ultra legs all year had come. The first part of the week was spent dialling in a final few pieces of gear before meeting at the Mason barn on Thursday morning to travel up. The support crew consisted of Ollie the Brand Manager at Hunt, Mr Breakawaydigital himself, Dan and also John who we found at Swindon train station. The trip up to Snowdonia was longer than expected and it was past 11 by the time that I put my head to the pillow for the next six hours.
The plan was to start around 0700 which hopefully would give me enough time to finish Scafell by the night whilst also getting adequate sleep the night before. We pulled into the carpark at Pen-y-Pass and were greeted by Dave, my local support runner who had only been roped into this two days prior. After exchanging pleasantries, it was clear that the local running community had come up trumps and I couldn’t have asked for a better support runner.
Final kit check completed and we were off at 0658. I knew the PyG track well but following Dave’s heels made a massive difference, as not having to think about line choice takes away that mental stress. Working at a good pace but not taking any chances we were up to the summit in about 45 mins, a quick pic later and we were on our way back down. We reached the bottom at 0821 - a good 30 mins or so up on record pace. What a start!
Now came the bike, the section that I was most confident with. The first 50km or so out of Wales were gently rolling downhill and a bit of a cross/tail wind from the North-West helped chivvy things along a bit. Before too long I was into England and started to head north. The plan was that the van would be following me for the majority of the route and I would just call them up whenever to resupply on food/drink. However, due to the horrendous traffic going across the Wirral and through Preston to Lancaster there were not able to keep up and I was at times left for up to two hours without resupply. Not ideal as I was hoping to be consuming a Rawvelo gel, Bar and bottle of drink as well as some other snack at least every hour. It could have been worse yet it is certainly frustrating when you are trying to ride quickly but having to sit in traffic jams. It did, however eventually clear roads opened up and I settled back into a nice steady rhythm.
The pacing plan was to just stay relaxed and not go much over 300w over any sustained climbs, mostly sticking around 250W. By now the North-Westerly was against me which wasn’t to the plan but there wasn't much I could do about it but tuck in and try to keep moving. Seven hours in and the Lake District was in sight. Things started to get a little more rolling with a few longer climbs, but I enjoyed the fact that I was now riding in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, as opposed to slogging it down some anonymous A road in Lancashire.
I arrived at the Langdale at the foot of Scafell pike 8 hours 50 mins later with only about 20 mins stop time including all the traffic which equated to an average speed of just shy of 33km/h with stoppage time. Seeing as I was riding well within myself it felt like pretty good going. For this next section I had John as my guide who had been spending a large amount of time in the area prepping for his Bob Graham round attempt in two weeks time.
I changed into my running kit and slowly started the plod up Rossett Ghyll. Whilst not the fastest way up to the summit it cut out about 20km of distance from the ride as Ollie and Dan were able to transfer the bike round to Seathwaite where we would come down to. This traverse probably saved a little less than half an hour. On the runs I was using HR for pacing hoping to keep it in the region of 130-140bpm, as speed is almost pointless when heading up a 30% scree slope. On the powerhiking sections I relied heavily on my poles using my background as a cross country skier to my advantage and limiting the load on my quads and knees. Scafell was far the most wild of the three peaks , and the fact that it was late Friday evening meant we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves. Clear blue skies and a cooling breeze boosted morale and I summitted in just under two hours.
Not wanting to take any risks I gingerly followed John down to Seathwaite where the team greeted us with a bowl of pasta and some fresh coffee. The run had taken 2 hour 54 mins which meant that I had built up a lead of three and a half hours so all I needed to do now was not fall off a cliff. With this in mind I took a few extra minutes at transition and made sure that I was properly settled before heading off. This was probably the point in the effort that I felt the lowest in terms of energy levels so the 30 min break served me well and I was more than ready to start the night section.
As soon as I swung my leg over the bike I felt fantastic; somehow managing to distance myself mentally from the fact that I still had 380km of riding to go. The tunes were in and the legs were turning. The easy miles didn't last long and before too long the sun was down and my grand fuelling plan was coming unstuck. In training I had only replicated this sheer volume of carbs for up to 12 hours and surprisingly enough it wasn't too much after that when it started to go wrong. My stomach was starting to play games with me. My appetite had all but gone and anytime I tried to get anything down my neck I would start to wretch and felt like I was going to be sick. I called Ollie up beside me and asked him to brew me up a dehydrated meal hoping that some solids would settle things down. 20 mins later I found them in a layby at the side of the road and I stopped for some spicy pork noodles. I was only able to get about a third of them down but they managed to do the trick. However, I was conscious that I was only 70km in and I had already had a stop longer than any on the previous leg so it was time to buckle down and get through the night.
Night riding is a curious thing, you just settle into a monotony somewhere between complete exhaustion and mild discomfort. All I really remember was the horrible road surface and long draggy climbs in southern Scotland, especially up to the Clyde wind farm. For a couple of hours Ollie got on his bike and rode at an appropriate distance behind or next to me to give me a bit of extra motivation. Your mind plays tricks on you and you start to convince yourself that as you are up on record pace you should take it back a notch or just stop for a quick breather when in reality your body is trying to find any excuse to stop. I did however manage to push through without stopping for any longer than the odd couple of minutes through till dawn by which point I was rolling into Glasgow and entering the Highlands. Perhaps it was the short night and adrenaline or maybe the fact that I had been abstaining from caffeine for a few weeks to make those ProPlus count but I didn't feel sleepy even once during the night. Crossing the Clyde was a big milestone in my head and I knew that I only had about 180km left and they were on nice roads that I knew.
Loch Lomond was beautiful as ever and I managed to piss off most of the drivers as they tried to overtake me on the A82. I was beginning to count down the remaining mileage now ticking each Km down in my mind. They were passing surprisingly quickly until I got to about 70 to go around Crianlarich where the road points upwards towards Rannoch Moor. The speed started to drop a little and I was feeling the effects of being on the movefor over 24 hours now. This as well as the fact that the crew had stopped from a fry-up and the Green Welly stop in Tyndrum meant that progress was slow -but I kept moving. They caught up with me just as I had crested the climb past the Bridge of Orchy by which point my stomach was ready to go and I devoured a baguette. After ticking off the final few meters of ascent I flew down Glencoe towards Fort William and was only left with a 30km rolling road which felt like it took an eternity eventually arriving at the Glen Nevis visitor center car park and the biking aspect of the trip was done. The second leg had taken me 14 hours 15 mins of which just over an hour of which was stopped time.
It was around 1130 which meant that I had around 9 hours to summit Ben Nevis and still beat the time. With this in the back of my mind I felt it was tricky to motivate myself to stand up and get going but eventually I was off with the tallest mountain in the UK ahead of me, Ben Nevis. Unfortunately I was solo by this point which meant that I had to spend the majority of my time politely asking people to pass on their left etc. My pace was higher than expected and I was able to run the less steep sections and then use what little upper body strength I had to go heavy on the poles for the steep bits. Once I passed the Zig-Zags there was a good covering of slushy snow which made for slow progress but I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the summit in just shy of 1 hour 50. I was up there longer than necessary as I needed to stop to take a video and put on a windshell for the way down. The descent began and all I needed to do was to get back in one piece. Rather foolishly this was when I decided that It would be fun to push it on the descent and take a few risks. Predictably, I fell over and reopened a wound from racing a few weeks back; I count myself lucky that it wasn't any worse. Nonetheless I carried on and reached the carpark at 1508 which gave me a finishing time of 32 hour 10 mins. Couldn't have asked for better.
The afternoon and evening were spent “rehydrating” in Fort William before a long drive back on Sunday ready for a day of teaching Monday. Now, the dust has settled and I have had a little time to reflect, the enormity of the process has finally sunk in. This whole process was an exercise in trying to find a goal to motivate myself through life and training during one of the most difficult winters known. It certainly achieved that. In training I have been hitting power PB’s all year and I have rediscovered my love for running including running a 2:28 marathon. Sure, there are ways that the record could be cut down further (and I would encourage anyone to give it a crack) but that wasn't the main objective here. It's about the process leading to a personal goal and that process was a resounding success.
The final thing to add is that as this was my first fully supported event it hadn’t fully registered with me the enormity of what would be required of the supporters. Thanks especially to Ollie and Dan for going the whole way, Dave and John for flawlessly supporting me on the hills and last but not least to the half a dozen or so Dotwatchers who came out to cheer me on from the side of the road. You know who you are, thank you!
Images by Dan King @breakawaydigital
Three peaks by bike: Prep and kit check
The Three Peaks challenge is an iconic event in the UK, people try to climb the tallest mountain in each of Wales, England and Scotland in as little time as possible, usually under 24 hours driving to the base of each mountain. It was during lockdown 2.0 when I was looking for a goal to set myself so that I could remain motivated through the winter months. Some digging revealed that there was a long history of tackling the three peaks by bike and the current record was held by Ross Malpass. his 2017 attempt was completed in a time of 37hours 33mins. You can read about his efforts here.
By now the route was fairly standardised and would cover a total of around 680km on the road bike and 40km or so “running” up the hills. The only major alteration is that I will be traversing Scafell starting in Langdale and heading down to Seathwaite. This will cut out about 20km of riding which is not to be sniffed at. All of the routes can be found on my strava page here. The event is fully supported so I will have the luxury of a crew following me in the Hunt van and a support runner up the mountains.
Having had a clear idea of what was required of me I had a solid six months to prepare myself, one of my primary targets was to build my running fitness back up to where it was when I was racing triathlon. A spring marathon seemed like a good idea as a mid-way point and gauge of form so I booked myself into the Dorney marathon. The build up to this was solid and structured and whilst I was running a good amount the majority of my work was still on the bike. Running a 2:28 confirmed that I was in the best running form of my life.
Since Dorney I have been focussing getting time in the saddle and vertical meters gained running. Early starts and late evenings allowed me to stick to around 15 hours a week or so training which I was pleased with. I even managed to sneak a few days up in snowdonia to recce and get some photos up Snowdon. Two weeks ago I raced the TrailX off road Duathlon which entailed a 10km trail run, 21km XC MTB and 7km trail run to finish. Unfortunately I came off the bike overtaking someone and ended up in A&E to get 11 stitches in my knee and arm. maybe not the wisest move. Nonetheless, I won the event and felt fast. The downside was that I had to take a complete week off to let everything heal. Whilst this could have been worse I didn’t exactly come at the right time. Either way, I am fully recovered now and ready to go.
The Three peaks will be my first event to be fully supported so preparing my kit was different to normal and I have been able to pack everything that I could possibly need rather than the bare minimum.
Arguably the most important kit is the bike and I will be using a Mason Definition with Ultegra Di2 fitted out with Hunt Limitless 48 wheelset.. My front end is from Deda, most notably, I’ll be using Deda’s new Jet One Clip on aerobars which are both super fast and comfy. Full spec list below.
Fingers crossed the weather will be on my side and I will be able to wear the DHB Aeron skinsuit but if the weather turns or during the night Ill have plenty of spare DHB kit to keep me warm and dry. Out on the run I have packed a couple of pairs of shoes so I can switch it up if needed as well as poles to reduce the impact on my legs and allow me to use my upper body to help.
Nutrition is probably the other main concern, an event of this length is just on the limit of what I can do off mostly simple sugars so I will be mixing it up the plan is to consume 80-90 grams of carbohydrates an hour which will consist of a gel, a bar and bottle of drink mix all from my nutrition sponsor Rawvelo as well as one other thing, be that a sandwich, some crisps or if i’m lucky some marzipan. This is what I have been practicing and my stomach can take it no bother. I also have some freezedried meals from Firepot that might be needed to get me through the night. Like with all of my kit I have done my best to keep it super organised so that it makes finding things in a hurry as as quick as possible.
The other key item is my Spot tracker, needed both to validate the record but also so that people can follow me. You can find the tracking page in the “Event tracking” tab at the top or by using this URL.
https://angus-young.co.uk/event-tracking
Feel free to share it with anyone who may be interested and if I pass by you a wave and a cheer would be greatly appreciated :)
Full klit list:
The bike:
Frame: Mason Definition 56cm lens blue.
Groupset: Shimano Ultegra di2 with 52/36 chainrings 11/32 cassette
Wheels: Hunt Limitless 48 with Ceramicspeed bearings
Tyres: Continental GP5000TL 28mm set up tubeless with Stans Race sealant.
Brakes: Shimano Ultegra hydraulic calipers with 160/140mm Dura ace rotors
Cockpit: Deda zero100 100mm stem, Deda zero100 42cm Bars, Deda Jet One Clip on aerobars.
Pedals: Favero Assioma Duo powermeter.
Saddle: Dash Strike
Seatpost: Mason Penta
Lights: Daytime Exposure Trace/TraceR, Night Exposure Sixpack, Toro, Diablo
Clothing from DHB
Aeron LAB Skinsuit
Aeron LAB shoes
Rain Defence jersey
Assorted baselayers x6
Aeron LAB All winter softshell jersey
Aeron LAB Equinox jersey
Aeron insulated gillet
Tempo FLT waterproof jacket
Aeron mitts, with Elastic interface padding :)
Polartech winter gloves x2
Arm and leg warmers
Buff
Polartech winter cap
Winter bib tights
Aeron Ultra jersey
Aeron Ultra bib shorts
A load of socks
Garmin 530
Garmin HRM-Pro heartrate strap
Kask protone helmet
Julbo Ultimate reactive sunglasses
The Run
Shoes: Salomon Speedcross 5/ On Running Cloudventure peak
LEKI carbon microtrail poles.
DHB ultra hydration pack with Salomon soft flasks
Clothing from DHB
Aeron Run Leggings x2
Aeron liner shorts x3
Aeron ultra tshirt
Aero long sleeve tshirt
Aeron tshirt
Aeron run socks
Run cap
buff
Run fleece
Mountain hardware waterproof (heavy but you never know)
Emergency blanket, small first aid kit etc
Lube
Garmin Fenix 5 plus watch
Nutrition:
Rawvelo Bars assorted flavours x40
Rawvelo gels assorted x60
Rawvelo drink mix 4 packs
Marzipan
Firepot meals x4
250g Columbian Coffee beans + grinder/clever dripper
Chocolate bars assorted
Crisps assorted
Wraps,
Bannanas, apples
Coke
winegums, jelly babies, m&ms etc
Misc
Spot tracker
Jerry can
Gopro
first aid kit
walkie talkies
large thermos
pump
dryrobe
all the chargers and batteries
bike maintenance kit
What have I missed off?
The Dorney Marathon: How I ran 2:28 off 75km a week
With one of my main targets for 2021 being to break the record riding and running the national Three Peaks, I wanted to set myself a running-focussed goal to act as a stepping stone in the lead up to the record attempt in June. Discussing plans with Coach Brad in January, we decided that a marathon would work well. This would give me about 10 weeks of training, just enough time to build up from the 30km a week or so that I had been running previously. Not having raced a marathon since I was 18, I was confident that I would be able to better my time of 3:23. However, I didn’t have a clear goal other than to get a time that would give me a ‘good-for-age’ entry to any events I might want to enter in the future.
A few key stats in the 10 weeks prior to the race:
Mean weekly training time: 14.5 hours
Mean weekly TSS: 717
Mean weekly run distance: 74km
Mean weekly run time: 6 hours
Mean running pace 4:55 min/km
Peak weekly run distance 89km
Longest training run 45km
Mean weekly bike time: 8.5 hours
Number of days completely off: 0
One of the highlights here is that most of my time was still spent on the bike, and that the vast majority of miles were run at a very steady pace. A typical week for me would include 3/4 1 hour easy runs, 1/2 short running sets, such as fartlek or pyramids, and then either a long slow run or some long marathon pace work. This was on top of the bike training. As I had been out of the running game for a while, most of my training was based on feel and time rather than distance. The odd exceptions were the marathon pace intervals where I was trying to hit time-specific targets. Generally this works well for multisport athletes.
To cut a long story short: I got quite fast, quite quickly. I’m sure that all the riding over the last couple of years must have helped; that and losing the 5kg that I had put on since eating my sorrows away post-GBDURO with marzipan. The week before the race, I had a call with Coach Brad and we decided that we would target a sub 2:30, something that only two months ago seemed worlds away. The training runs evidenced the possibility of achieving this, yet I still had no idea how it would play out once I got going. One significant distraction was that Meg and I had just bought our first house on Monday and we were still trying to work out where everything was from the move. Luckily I had put my race kit aside so I knew where to find it. I went for the DHB Aeron short sleeve run top and Aeron run 5” liner shorts, which were essential as thigh chafing has always been a problem for me and so a liner is a must. I also got myself a pair of ridiculous Nike Alphalfy Next% shoes second hand from Ebay. These were obscenely fast, although they did give me blisters, but on balance it was worth it.
The night before race day we loaded up on pasta and Rawvelo drink mix to pre-hydrate and were in bed by 9. I slept surprisingly well and was up at 5 getting my first coffee in for three weeks (all about those marginal gains). Not long later we were at Dorney lake and pinning our numbers on. A pre-race poo, a handful of ProPlus and a Blueberry and Hibiscus Rawvelo gel later and we were off. It was a rolling start and I wasn't anywhere near the front so spent the first few km gradually passing people. It was a typical windy day at the lake so I did my best to settle into a bit of a pack, but after 15km or so it broke apart and I was on my lonesome. I let the leader take a 30s gap on me and held it there. Still feeling really strong, the HM was split in 72:45 and the pace was held comfortably upon starting the 4th and final lap. At this point, however, I started to up the pace by a couple of seconds per km and try to claw the leader back in; succeeding in slowly winding him back and reducing the gap to around 20s with around 7 km to go. It was at this point that things started to get progressively harder at an alarming rate. I struggled to hold the pace and, with 5km to go, I entered limp mode; stomach cramps started yet I was confident that if I kept going I would hit the target. 3km from the finish I was passed by two runners who flew past and I was only able to hold onto them for 10s or so before my legs gave out. I stuck at it and mustered a tiny bit of energy for the finish but I was truly empty. Collapsing on the ground at the finish line and endured 5 mins in a shivering state in the medic’s tent… Some things never change.
The point at which it started hurting…
My immediate thought following the race was how short it felt; I’m used to racing for multiple days at a time so a few hours passed in the blink of an eye. Other than that, reflections were mixed: I had hit a good time that I had no right not to be over the moon with, but I was still a little bit annoyed by what felt like a monumental drop off over the last 5km. I was kicking myself for not taking a third gel when entering the last lap; I had carried it with me but just didn't fancy it as there was only 35mins or so left. It didn’t take long, however, for these feelings to subside and the proper joy to set in. Closer inspection of my data file showed that the bonk wasn’t as bad as I had thought and that I “only” dropped 20-30s per km and lost myself around 2 mins overall. One discrepancy which got to me was the fact that my Garmin measured the distance 350m long. As the course was certified it was more likely to be an issue on my end, but that was over a minute that my pacing was off by, so I was glad that I had a bit of a buffer. Is this a normal thing?
These last few days I have been thinking a lot about what's next for me. I have really enjoyed my running over the last few month, both in the variety it brings to my training and the events themselves. My goals for 2021 remain unchanged: the Three Peaks record and then GBDURO. I will also try to include some other races here and there and may get back into some ultra running. The question that still remains is how fast could I go in a marathon with some more time allocated for specific training? Who’s to say, only time may tell.
Winter Bikepacking in the UK: Whats the best approach?
One of the welcome perks of teaching six days a week is that it means that when it comes to the end of term I’m given enough time off to both get away on my bike and recover and prepare for the term ahead. Term is stressful and with the exception of snatching a saturday evening bivvy I hadn't been out “bikepacking” since September and the itch was developing. Whilst planning how best to spend my time two distinct options seemed to appear: option 1 was to pick a challenging route designed for summer riding, make it harder by loading the bikes up with enough food and kit to be self-sufficient for a long weekend and spending 12 hours plus riding each day., Option 2 was the less extreme option which would involve smooth gravel tracks, hotel rooms, cafes and four or five hours a day of riding.
It didn’t take much thought before the decision was made to go for both options on consecutive weekends and before too long routes were chosen one being an off road coast to coast following the Tim Woodcock route and the other being a loop around the Isle of Purbeck.
Whilst I have done LEJOG twice I have never ridden across the UK and when I came across the Tim Woodcock route last year It was placed firmly on my to do list. The route is around 350km and around three quarters of it by distance is off road. Starting at St. Bees, the route would take us across the Lake District, over the Dales and then finally through the North Yorkshire Moors to finish at Robin Hoods Bay. The added benefit of this was that it meant that we stayed in Tier 2 Covid restrictions where outdoor exercise with someone from another household was permitted. This meant that I would be allowed to share the ride with someone, that being Machiek, a strong road rider new to the bikepacking game.
The week before we left, there was a decent amount of snow over large parts of the route and whilst this didn’t prove to be an issue it meant that, not wanting a repeat of August's antics, we packed on the cautious side of things. My setup wasn’t too dissimilar to my GBDURO rig, based on my Mason InSearchOf but with less food and more much warm kit that GBDURO, we weren't looking to break any records so there were a few luxuries such as an enormous thermos for mid day coffee stops, tents for recovery and cameras to document the trip. As the days were so short an essential part of the setup was the dynamo light system linked to the same Hunt X MASON Search Dynamo wheelset that I used in August the only difference being that they were now shod in enormous 29x2.6 inch Vittoria Mezcals. Food wise, I learned a lot being self-sufficient and went with a very similar strategy of Firepot freeze dried meals, Rawvelo bars and oats but this time with a little less marzipan.
Day 1 was on paper the toughest day and with a later than intended start we were soon heading East. The route lulls you into a false sense of security with a few rolling hills and smooth gravel access roads. The first couple of hours passed quickly until we came to our first proper hurdle: Black Sail Pass. What started out as a lovely lakeside ride gradually evolved through all stages of off-road riding that we have in the UK until we ended up carrying our bikes on our backs through the mist and the rain up the side of the mountain. The way down to Wasdale wasn't much better which always gets to me mentally as you feel that you should have this big reward for the hike up yet it's just more work carrying your bike down the hill.
By the time we had crossed the next pass it was 1800 we had been “riding” for 8 hours and only covered 60km or so dreaming of the 15kph club. It was at this point that we decided to take the easy option and take the road up over Hardknott and Wrynose passes instead of the Hike-a-bike round this side heavy rain and temperatures hovering around freezing did not inspire us to head up into the unknown again. I can't imagine that that road has ever been the easy option with 35% gradients but with the low gearing on the ISO it was all just about rideable although I was having to hold 450watts just to keep upright on the steeper sections. We rejoined the route and then rolled down near Ambleside where we spent the night having only covered 75km over 10 hours of moving time.
We woke up next morning, maybe a little later than ideal, set off and before long the rugged Lake District scenery was swapped for the less wild Yorkshire Dales, the first portion of the day was fairly straightforward with a few tough climbs and techy off road sections, the pace was slow but steady and we were stopping often to take photos or to brew up. The real killer came just after it turned dark climbing up out of Kirky Stephen a 500m climb that took us three hours of wrestling our bikes through bogs, over rivers and up steep banks. In summer during the day it probably wouldn't prove to be much of an issue but its a whole different ball game in the winter when no path is visible and you are doing your best to stick to a gpx track that seemingly takes you through a river bed. Nonetheless this was perhaps the highlight of my trip, not quite sure why but it was exactly what I was hoping for. Not to mention that upon cresting the climb we were surprised to find a pub at the top in what seemed to us to be the middle of nowhere. It turns out that the Tan Hill Inn is Britain's highest pub and we thought that it would be rude not to enjoy a substantial meal and a pint of the local bitter. (sat at proximal tables of course).
Rolling down from the top into the Swale valley was a pleasant experience and the Swale Trail proved to be exactly what we needed, a decent gravel road that gradually made its way down the valley. We pitched up at around 2300 having covered around 80km not too far from Reeth knowing that we had a long day ahead of us if we wanted to make it to the finish at a sensible time.
The wheels were turning before first light and we had the easiest section of the whole route ahead of us and we had ticked off 100km by lunch more than we had done on either of the previous days. Despite this there were still some tough sections ahead and at our current speed we wouldn't be finished until midnight so we made the call to reroute once more and cut out some of the gnarlier sections through the North Yorkshire Moors and stick to the roads. A shame but I can't imagine that we would have seen much of the landscape in the dark and torrential rain. Besides, I now have another excuse to visit the area again and explore the trails properly so no bad thing. After one last bonk that only Jelly babies could sort we arrived at our destination in time to wet our tyres in the sea and check into a room in the Victorian seaside town of Scarborough before getting a good night sleep and making our way back home the next day.
All in all a cracking trip but not easy and it took me a good couple of days to recover. Whilst doing so I spend the time planning the route and sorting out the logistics for my second weekend away. This time it would be local, Megan and I planned to drive about 30 mins south from our home in Dorset to the Jurrassic coast and explore the tracks and trails that we had there over two days.
We packed up our bikes this time with substantially less gear as we had booked a hotel and planned to stop at cafes and pubs along the way. I once again took the ISO and Megan was on a hardtail MTB. The route was simple and we only planned to cover 40km or so each day meaning that we would have plenty of time to stop, chill and also not worry about making it to the hotel before too late. After parking the car just outside of Wareham and following the national cycle route 2 round Poole Harbour I was relieved that there are at least some gravel tracks local to me that stay gravel even through the winter. However this feeling didn’t last long as when we turned west and started to climb I was once again on foot pushing my bike up the difference being that now it was only for ten minutes not three hours.
Up from the ridge at Brenscombe Hill we had 360 degree views over Poole harbour to Bournemouth, South to the Isle of Wight, North to the 11th Century ruins of Corfe Castle as well as all the way out along the Jurassic coast. A smooth descent led us down into the village of Corfe Castle where we enjoyed a Sausage Roll and a hot drink from the local bakery for lunch. Our Hotel was only 3km away as the crow flies but our route took us on a 20km detour west along the Purbeck Way then cutting down to the coast where we enjoyed a magical sunset before checking into our room just as it got dark. A warm shower and a change of clothes later and we were in the hotel restaurant enjoying local food and wine.
Day 2 followed the Coastal path and the Priests way east towards Swannage and then a steep hike-a-bike up to see Old Harry's Rocks a must do if you are in the area. The sun was out and we had the wind at our backs a perfect December day. We carried along the coastal path towards Studland and then back along the tracks by Poole Harbour to the car in time for a late lunch and the drive back home.
Now whilst there were certainly a few tough sections we were never having to push the pace or put our heads down and just get through it. I came away from the trip more rested than going in certainly has its appeal and can’t be said for the previous one.
Upon reflection It is clear that both trips had their positives; one was able to push me physically whilst the other provided an opportunity for me to slow down and take stock of the landscape a little more. There was one key learning point that I will take forward with me and encourage anyone else to consider when planning future trips in winter: Bikepacking in winter is SLOW often traveling at half of the speed as in the summer so plan accordingly If you are hoping to cover large amounts of distance expect big days in the saddle with about half of your riding time at night and don't bite off more than you can chew. For more relaxed trips, to keep the route fairly flexible, we included a couple of extra loops that we could have cut out if time was running short or the pace was even slower than expected. Also It goes for summer events too but don't worry about distance, time on the bike is a much more important quantity in my experience.
So there you have it two contrasting weekends and approaches to bikepacking in winter, both styles that I will go for again. Given the choice what would you go for?
Thanks to Machiek @tommy.check for letting me use his photos from the C2C :)
GBDURO20-Post ride Thoughts
images by @breakawaydigital
As I’m writing this I’m currently sat in a cafe in Fort Augustus in the Scottish Highlands about 1600km through the GBDivide route that GBDURO follows. Its now almost two days since I scratched from the event and my brain has only really been working for half of that. So I thought that I would get some of my initial post event thoughts down on "paper" Whilst I haven't fully had time to digest everything yet my head is full of emotions so recording them now cant be a bad thing.
GBDURO was always a huge target for me, it's probably the closest thing as to what I would describe as my home race. Additionally, the fact that this year I had invested a huge amount of my time behind the scenes helping organising the event with The Racing Collective only further cemented it as my main goal for the season.
The weeks of preparation were certainly worth it and when I lined up on the start line I felt as prepared as I could ever be. Bike setup was perfect, nutrition spot on and I wouldn't have changed much about my equipment.
Although there were only 15 starters there were some big names on the list including fellow MASON teammates Josh Ibbet and Jason Black as well as ex-pro rider and mountain man Svein Tuft. I wasn't too concerned by this by now and knew that I just had to ride my own race and stick to plan. That being to ride hard and stop infrequently, that’s how it worked for the first few hundred Km. I reached Bristol about 24 hours into the race having been stationary for less than an hour. I loaded up of overnight oats at the Clifton Suspension Bridge and headed on my way into Wales.
The first part of the Welsh leg was as tough as I remember yet it was eased a little this year by seeing a few familiar faces on the route cheering me on from a sociable distance. I was aware that I had a lead due to being the only rider to go through the first night, but I wasn’t checking the tracker more than once a day so had no idea how long it was so pushed on regardless. There were some predictably tricky sections in Wales namely the Windy Gap as well as some steep road climbs such as Bwlch y Groes. Yet, it was the some of the more unassuming parts which got me such as the endless miles of forestry tracks through mid Wales or the gravel climb just after Bala. Whilst there were some lows, mainly spirits were high and I was feeling strong, and well rested on the 2 hours of sleep that I treated myself to on night two.
After what seemed like much longer than 36 hours I was out of Wales and heading towards Manchester. My intention was to ride until around 2am get a couple more hours sleep and then get to Manchester before rush hour in the morning. I wasn't feeling overly sleepy but my legs were certainly feeling it as I was struggling to generate enough heat to stay warm on the flatlands of Cheshire so When I spotted a decent bivvy spot half an hour early it was a no brainer.
Two and a half hours of sleep I felt like a new man and was smashing the miles out to Manchester where at least 5 dotwatchers greeted me on the way in. It was quite surreal riding through a large city like that but without stopping. Last year I had been building cravings and shopping lists in my mind that I would be able to fulfil when I arrived yet there was none of that this year, maybe due to the fact that I knew that I wasn't able to resupply I knew I had to be happy with my meal plans so never gave myself that option. It was strangely liberating for sure.
I checked the tracker and saw that I had a four to five hour lead to Josh who was about the same distance to Jason. This was pretty tight for my liking especially as Josh would have slept about 6 hours more than me at this point so I pushed on hard through the Pennines, maybe it was due to the tailwind or just the mood I was in but there were not quite as bad as I remember which I think lulled me into a false sense on security when it came to the Yorkshire Dales.
Nearing the end of day four now I was pleased that I was holding my lead and the strong cross-tailwind I saw as an asset. Crossing the Dales was tough but only really got serious climbing up out of the Ribble valley over the top where the wind which has now so severe that it was hard to stay on the bike without being blown off or even hold gates open. Still no biggie. The problem came when it started raining, this was just when I was starting to drop down a 20km steady road descent. Soon after I was soaked through and due to the wind,
speed and being so exhausted that I couldn’t even get my HR above 100 meant that i was getting very cold very quickly, to add to things the sun was setting and the rain, lightning and wind wasn’t easing up as I had hoped it would when i dropped down.
When I started shivering uncontrollably on the bike it became clear that I had to find some shelter and get warm and dry then take things from there. A bridge proved to be the only option for me due to almost everything else being excluded in the rules but as we were able to go under the bridge whilst riding then surely it must be OK to stop there.
The level of cold that i was was indescribable, I was shaking uncontrollably and the it was aching right down to the core,.I knew that this wasn’t safe at all so, priorities quickly changed from trying to win the race to staying safe so I whipped of all of my wet kit, put on my dry fleece and got in my sleeping bag. I knew that getting some hot food in would be key so the jetboil was fired up and meals re-hydrated these were stuffed inside my sleeping bag with me for me to cuddle all night as I fell asleep soon after without getting the chance to eat them.
The night was long and cold and I drifted in and out of things before properly waking up at 5am, a full seven hours after I had bedded down. Checking the tracker I saw that my lead on Josh was almost gone just like that.
Dragging myself out of the relative warmth of the sleeping bag and putting the wet kit on again was mentally excruciating but I had convinced myself that I managed to get out there and cycling again then all would be well, I had slept for 7 hours after all so I should have been fresh right? It really didnt take long for me to realise that this wasn’t the case, my legs were not working and after about an hour of riding i found myself in another shivery heap being sick at the side of the road.
The time once again came to bivvy down, try to recover and reassess. I slept in someones drive for the whole morning and let Josh ride right past me, this didn’t even bother me at this point as I was feeling so down. After a good sleep I lay in my bivvy for two hours fighting the internal conflict: on one hand I had been working so hard towards this event for what felt like a whole year and wanted to finish so badly, not winning was now inconsequential to me but proving the naysayers wrong was important. Yet I had to balance this with the fact that I was clearly hypothermic last night and that I was "lucky" that if things were to have gone downhill further then I could have bailed into a pub/house/bnb/hospital fairly easily whereas ahead there was no easy escape and that Mountain Rescue would be needed to get me out of a potentially life threatening situation.
The biggest demon that was plaguing me however was the unknowing whether I was just convincing myself that it was unsafe so that I could take the easy way out. My sleep and warmth deprives brain was going through this over and over again yet seemingly making no progress.
A decision was finally made that I would make a move so warm dry kit off and cold wet clothes back on. Time to get the wheels rolling again. The hope was that life would spring back into my legs once they were turning. Almost predictably however this was not the case and after 10 mins of riding at 10kph on the flat with an HR below 100 but perceived effort maxed out i was on the floor again.
It was now clear that my body was just not able to recover from the deep set cold when it was already wrecked from the days preceding it. This is when the decision was made to scratch and I emailed myself to make it final. Luckily, there were a couple of dotwatchers nearby who kindly offered to put me up for the night and expedite my recovery, i’m sure that I wouldn't be quite so comfortable now if it were not for them.
So as I am sat here at the side of the road waiting to cheer Josh as he comes past I think about what I have learned from the event and what I cant take forward with me. Whilst it is still early days and i’m sure that many things will become clearer there are a few points that have already been revealed.
Firstly, self-sufficiency is possible, yes I did pull out when if I had been able to get into a hotel/pub then I may not have but I confident that people will finish and maybe I could have packed smarter with more warm kit or a tent. Nevertheless, I was never hungry or craving food that I didn’t have acess to, with the exception to the last night I wasn’t even tempted to seek refuge in a building or find a bed for the night and the fully loaded bike was really no issue, sure you climbed slower but it still handled perfectly.
Secondly, If you want to win races like these you really do need to push yourself physically and mentally and that does involve taking risks. One could argue that I went out too hard and that If I had been less exhausted then the cold wouldn’t have got to me so much. You would probably be right but I don’t think that I would have had a chance of winning should I have ridden like that. It wasn’t quite an all or nothing mentality I would have loves to have finished even if I had been off the pace for the win but at the time and even now attempting that seemed impossible and irresponsible.
And finally, I was overwhelmed by the moral support that I was given along the way dozens of people came out to cheer me on and all remained socially distant and responsible thank you to everyone it was a real emotional boost anytime I saw anyone.
When thinking about the event and whether I think that it was all worth it and if I had any regret the honest answer is that whilst I do have a deep feeling of disappointment and unfufillment currently, I still got to race my bike over 1000km across my home turf and push my body to its absolute limit. Hopefully this may be one event that I can look back on without a pair of rose tinted glasses so that when I think about events in the future I can fully appreciate one more of the many possible outcomes that can realised during an ultra event.
Onward and upwards, there will always be more races!!
GBDURO20 Preamble
Originally published on the Mason Cycles blog
As I'm writing this we are currently 5 days out from the start of GBDURO20, an ultracycling event which crosses the UK from Land’s End to John O’Groats following a mixture of paved roads, gravel tracks and single track. In a “normal” year the event takes place over four timed stages each around 500km with the rider with the lowest cumulative time over each stage “winning”. However in the light of COVID-19 the decision was made to change the event from a self supported ride to a self-sufficient ride. In a nutshell this means that the riders cannot use any services, accept help or go into any shops along the way. There will be no contact with anyone along the route. The sting in the tail for this is that all of the riders need to take all of their food and supplies needed for the duration of the event only being able to fill up on water from streams and outside taps. As a result of these changes It has taken me months to hone in on and decide the optimal setup for my bike even now there are some tweaks to be made. Here I will outline my options and reasons behind the decisions that I have made.
My primary decision to make was which frame I would use, being in the lucky position that I am, I had the choice of either using the Bokeh or the InSearchOf. Last year I used a Bokeh and it was the perfect tool for the job and in any other year I would use it again due to the fact that it's a little lighter, more nimble as well as rolls faster on the road. The reason that I finally went for the InSearchOf was due to the extra load carrying ability given by the extra bottle bosses and Condenser front rack, I probably could have fitted all that I needed on a Bokeh however the ISO is designed for the heavier duty when fully loaded as well as being slightly more burly and a little more manageable over rough terrain while loaded up.
The frame was built up with shimano ultegra/xt di2 mix. I went for di2 primarily for the ability to be able to add shifters from the aerobars as well as its ability to shift under load. The downside of an electronic groupset is that I will have to keep it charged up resulting in extra kit that needs to be packed however I feel that it's with it. One alteration that I have made from the stock group is the addition of a Garbaruk 10-50t cassette with matching derailleur cage extender. This paired with the 36t front ring should give me all the gear range I need.
I went for the obvious choice for wheels which were the Mason X HUNT ‘The Search’ Dynamo which I have shod with Vittoria Terreno 29x2.1 inch tyres which are a speedy semi slick cross country tyre. I suspect that this will be wider than most other riders but the increased comfort, control and puncture resistance is well worth the added weight and rolling resistance penalty. The bike is finished off with Ritchey VentureMax bar and stem, Mason Penta carbon seatpost topped with a Brookes B17 saddle (worth its weight in gold).
With around 20kg of kit to carry, hours were spent deciding on the optimum setup. The way I saw it there were three options: trailer, panniers or frame bags. A trailer would provide an enormous capacity; however, they are very heavy and when I have used them before, they don't handle so well in tough off road terrain. Panniers would seem like a smart move and I think that's what the majority of the field will go for. They can have a large capacity as well as being quick and easy to use. The thing that steered me away from this option was my prior experience of riding off road using panniers, not only do they handle awfully off road but they can also be prone to failure without warning. I have had racks and panniers snap on me on the Mongolian steppe where at least If something goes wrong it will only be a two day push to find a town where someone can help you, in GBDURO if something breaks beyond what can be repaired by what you have with you then you have no option than to scratch from the race. This left me with the decision to go for bikepacking bags which do have a smaller capacity and fiddly to pack but do have two main advantages which are that they are durable and ride well on technical off road sections.
When it came to specific bags I decided to go for a mixture of brands which would allow me to pick the best option for each purpose. Most of the bags are off the shelf products from Apidura, Revelate Designs and Salsa however the one custom bag which I have is a made to measure frame bag made by Ross at Straightcut Designs in Edinburgh. This allowed me to eak out every last inch of space in the front triangle. Overall I will have a seatpack, anything cages on the forks, a drybag on the Condenser front rack, feedpouches, top tube pouch and a jerrycan. Fingers crossed that it's enough capacity as I'm yet to pack everything onto the bike at once.
One very important consideration Is staying hydrated, only being able to fill up from outside sources means that a large water capacity is required. To this end, I have modified a saddle bag stabilizer to fit an extra two 1L bottles behind the saddle, I will also have a bottle on the aerobars and a 3L soft bladder to keep me going through long stretches between refills such as the South West and North England. I won’t go into too much detail about my food here but its essentially a mixture of freeze dried meals, marzipan and chocolate amounting to around 8000KCal per day. This is one aspect of the event which could well be a deciding feature so its best to air on the side of caution here.
Whilst I have spend a long time thinking about getting everything ready it really is a guessing game for large parts of it and I'm sure that there will be some oversights as well as successes in my gear selection but only time will tell. One of the aspects that I am looking forward to most about the event is seeing all of the different approaches that all of the other riders take to tackle the unique situation of this year's GBDURO.
Further 2019
In the weeks and months leading up to Further we had been drip fed information from the illustrious race director, Camille. A cyclocross racer in his youth turned photographer and now the creator of the most revealing projects that I have had the pleasure of playing a part in, that being Further 2019. I say revealing as the first piece of information that we receive is that there is going to be a rally in the Ariege celebrating all that is good about our niche sport of adventure cycling and alongside this there will be an unsupported bike race which will explore the region as well as heading high into the Pyrenean mountains and over into Andorra and Spain. This was when I revealed the first thing to myself, whilst the promise of spending my days lounging around by the river and talking about tyre tread patterns sounds like a dream, I knew that I would never be quite content if I was back at the rally relaxing whilst there were other people out there pushing themselves to each and every kind of limit. So I signed up to race, knowing very few details other than it was being designed to break people.
Slowly, we, the riders, received more information about the race. First, the format, the race was to be made out of a combination of mandatory sectors, which have to be completed in order and free routing between these. Next, the start list, with the event being invitational there were familiar names on the list but it also bore a few surprises, I was certainly eager to find out how some of the road racers would shape up against ultra racing elite. As a relative newcomer to the sport I felt honoured to be part of such a line-up.
About a month before the start Camille sent up the gpx files for each of the sectors and the task of route planning started. This was something that I was fairly nervous about having never raced a free routing event before but I soon got into things using a combination of online mapping software,satellite photos and streetview to give me a fairly decent understanding of my route and the terrain I was about to cross. The total distance: 480km, seems fairly straightforward, total elevation: 14,500m, ah, that may prove to be an issue.
With this in the back of my mind, my attention then turned to optimising my setup to be as lightweight as possible but also have everything that I would need.
The bike of choice was my MASON Bokeh built up with 1x di2, I opted for a 40t chainring paired with an 11-42 cassette to allow me to winch myself up even the steepest of hills, I was rolling on a pair of HUNT 30 Carbon Dynamo Disc wheels which powered my lighting setup without fail. Tyre choice was a tricky one and in the end I went for as wide as I could squeeze in my frame with a 45mm up front and a 42mm at the back. Sleeping kit was minimal, just a bivvy and a down jacket as well some leg warmers and a thin fleece that could be used if necessary. I packed an extensive tool kit including 3 spare tubes, none of it was used in the end but I'm glad that I had it as the fear of being forced to scratch from a race due to mechanical issues is a big one for me.
Eventually, late August came, and it was time to pack everything up and head down to France. It was at this stage that the nervous excitement set in finding this chaotic equilibrium between cool contemplation of the race ahead and total panic that I have forgotten something, got the route planning wrong, chosen the wrong tyres etc etc. However when I arrived at Zero Neuf Escapes, base camp for the event, all fears were put aside. I was greeted with open arms to the sight of people pouring over maps and enjoying ice cold beer by the pool. The afternoon was spent assembling the bike and chatting with my fellow competitors, it was a relief to know that I wasn't the only one who felt grossly underprepared. After a bbq for dinner and maybe a couple more beers than necessary I was off to bed.
Perhaps helped by the alcohol I woke well rested in the morning and then proceeded to spend the next few hours faffing and drinking a seemingly endless supply of workshop coffee. A quick pre-race bike check from MASON mechanic Matt and I was ready to go.
The race was a Le Mans style start which meant that we all started by running across a field to frantically mount our bikes and head off onto Sector 1. This was a small loop which just passed back through the start in order to split the field up. I went off at a firm but comfortable pace riding within myself however I did find myself at the front of the race after things settled out. The first couple of hours passed very quickly and without any sort of drama and some sneaky route planning meant that I had a decent lead going into Sector 3, the climb up to Mt. Fourcat. What started as a road climb soon turned into gravel and it pitched up; It was at this point that things started to take a turn for the worse. I began to suffer in the heat and was forced to dismount and start to push my bike, my stomach was churning and started to feel dizzy so I stopped to sit down. It was at this point that I was sick for the first time leaving those precious fluids that I had worked so hard to conserve and had no hope of replenishing for a few hours on the side of the mountain.
Not long after getting moving I was passed by Tim O’Rourke who seemed to be flying, soon after ex-elite road racer Lisen Hockings caught up with me and we pushed our bikes together for 10 mins or so through an unrideable section but I struggled to keep the pace so let her drift ahead. Eventually it opened up and the summit could finally be seen. We had been informed that half way up the path would split into two, one path would carry straight on and the other went round to the right the long way round but crucially via a water source, this was my target now, the incentive of rehydration driving me on. Progress up the mountain was slow having to stop every couple of minutes to put down the bike and rest my shoulders. After half an hour of this stop start I was forced to stop and be sick again; I try to get going but I’m feeling dangerously low on energy so decide to have a bit of a sit down and a chill in the shade of a nearby cairn. The friendly face of Josh Ibbet pops up out of the dead ground, unfortunately it clear to see that he is in just as bad a state as I am if not worse. We sit together for 20 mins or so mumbling at each other about how bad we feel as Hamish Paine and Emma Pooley pass us both looking super fresh.
I slowly pick myself up and recommence the climb, I turn right at the fork and find the water source and down two bottles of Dioralyte straight away before refilling completely. Needless to say I felt a million times better the decision is made to go cross country and head straight up across the scrubland. Five minutes later as i’m stood there waist deep in a bush I start to think this may not have been the wisest decision but I press on and after what seems like an eternity the summit of Mt. Fourcat appears out of nowhere, I see Camille, shake his hand and then simply lie down on the grass and close my eyes. I feel horrible, like I’m drunk almost slurring my words as I describe my day to the assembled crowd but at least I know that there is no more up for a couple of hours.
The sun is starting to set and Im aware that the temperature is now dropping, after suffering from what I now assume was mild heat stroke in the day I knew that would have been a classic move from me to now go hypothermic at night so I say my farewells and leave the small comfort that was summit. As night falls and the temperature drops I begin to feel progressively better and before long I’m powering my way along, and over. I get to the start of Sector five at around midnight and see two bikes parked against a wall and get a mental boost. I move ahead a hundred meters or so and check the tracker for the first time to see that there was only one rider ahead of me, Olympic medalist Emma Pooley. I press on as feel strong and the miles tick by I check the tracker once more and see that Emma had gone to sleep and I had passed her half way up the Col Du Port. I reach a village at the base of the long climb up the Andorra at around 0530 and spot that there is a bakery that opens in two hours so I take the opportunity to get my head down and have some recovery on a picnic table.
I’m woken by my alarm at 0715 with just enough time to pack my kit up and find the bakery doors as they are opening, not long after I leave with a belly full of Croissant and a bike laden with chocolate bars, crisps and coke. From here It's all uphill until the highest point of the race, the Port du Rat an old smuggling route peaking at over 2700m. The road section was fairly straightforward, about 12km at 8% with the odd ramp up however this then transitioned to a gravel climb which ended abruptly with around 600m of vertical ascent left. It was at this point that Emma passed which really highlighted how much faster she was than me when the road pitched upwards.
The remainder of the climb followed a smugglers path which didn't allow for pushing of t
the bike let alone riding. Two hours of bike carrying later I reach the highpoint of the race only to be greeted by a descent that I had no chance of riding. I have always found that pushing/carrying your bike downhill is rarely an enjoyable and rewarding experience as you have had to work so hard to gain the altitude and you never get the reward of the descent. Nonetheless, I press on reach a ski resort and more importantly a road which descended all the way into La Messana the regional town in Andorra. A long road climb into spain awaited me so took the opportunity to grab a mid afternoon meal (or two!).
The next few hours were mainly on the road and I mostly zone out as I go up out of andorra and through the Sapnish valleys. My next mental hurdle was the pass back into France which was ended in an 800m hike-a-bike over 3 km. It's a long slog up the valley so I stop halfway to have a well rounded dinner of three salted caramel gels as it was all that I could stomach at the time. Checking the tracker I notice that Emma has stopped in a refuge at the base of the climb, spurred on by this fact and thinking that she wasn't planning on crossing at night I press on and before long I reach the foot of the climb. It's around 11pm and I start the climb, progress is extremely slow due to the severity of the terrain and lack of light but I keep moving, my thought process is that I need at least three hours lead at the start of the day if I have any chance of winning. After feeling fine all day my stomach is starting to feel the effects of the days excursions and around 2am my “dinner” makes a reappearance on the grass. I'm not sleepy but all energy is gone from my body the decision is made that it's time to get my head down so I whip out my bivvy and have two hours of blissful uninterrupted sleep no more than a foot from my stomach contents.
My alarm wakes me and a pack away my kit and as I look back down the mountain, my heart drops as I see a white light storming its way up the hill maybe only an hour behind me. It dawns on me that she must have woken early to start the climb. I double time it up the last 300m of the climb barely stopping to put my bike down. To my relief the summit revealed a gravel track which wound its way down into France. By now its light but i'm determined to keep my lead for as long as possible so I press on only stopping to shed layers as the sun slowly warmed me up . I reach a small town and spot a supermarket where I perform the classic smash and grab without really thinking what I'm buying and come out with chocolate milk, haribo and smoked trout, an odd selection for sure.
This Is when Emma comes storming past without hesitation, My heart drops as in my sleep deprived mind it feels like the event is over for me and there was no way of catching her now. Looking back at things now it would have helped to have a positive approach on things as the margins were tight however at that time I lost the mental battle and settled for second. From here the last 8 hours of riding seemed more like a procession to the finish rather than a race for me the miles just ticked by and I arrived at the finish early evening around two an a half hours behind Emma.
Perhaps the biggest lesson that I took away from the race is that there are times when my mind does lose out. It admitted defeat early when I probably could have carried on. I took the easy option and was satisfied with it until weeks later where I really thought deeply about my learnings.
Overall I was happy with a second place but It has left me with some unfinished business with the event and ill be back next year for sure.
