2 down; 5 to go... 😬🤪🤕 I had a brilliant sleep last night and woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck! My body is bruised and scratched all over the place. Luckily nothing serious, but still painful. We’ve just finished another 40km day, and I cannot begin to convey the details of the route. Cumberland started with some lovely uphill and rolling gravel roads which I loved! The steep climbs continued in various forms - gravel roads, rooty trails, etc. - until we were around 1000m of vertical elevation. Looking at the stage profile, you would think that was the biggest challenge but BCBR is never straightforward, and the worst was yet to come. Severely tight trails closely lined with trees showing their roots every couple of pedal strokes. The roots were exposed and as slippery as butter. Wheels were slipping and sliding all over the place, bucking us off our bikes and sometimes causing us to crash.
The landscape was like a screensaver at times - lush green biodiversity at its best. But it was difficult to enjoy with the grueling biking conditions. Around 14km from the end, the course wound through the camp from the night before - which also happens to be where the finish line sits. Because I broke my Wahoo ELEMNT mount during our training ride, I’ve been carrying my Wahoo in my back pocket and have no way of knowing the time, distance or terrain unless I take it out. Which I have not done yet. So when we came to the finish I was sprinting because I thought it was the end and would have been very happy for it to be over. But no. The worst was STILL yet to come!! By the time we found ourselves amongst the final rooty section, it was so technical and we were so knackered, people around me were falling over more and more, and so was I. I felt slightly drunk. Probably dehydrated. Definitely exhausted. It was hard to push my bike up the short steep slopes and I didn’t trust myself to tackle the more technical descents, so lots of walking ensued. Back at camp now with a few precious minutes of WiFi now! Wanted to document at least a little of today. Sorry - no pics of the trail today - it was nuts! John kept riding ahead and he will have more photos and video to share when we have more time and better internet connection.
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Nobody will believe me if I say today was the hardest day on the bike ever because I always say that. But it seems we have once again taken our cycling adventures to an entirely new level, starting with some double-black MTB trails on the course today! 🙈😱 Even before the double-black super technical downhill (and to think the announcers were taking the piss out of some guy wearing a full-face helmet at the start!), I had my most dramatic crash ever, fulfilling a recurring nightmare I have of me flying off a cliff! It wasn’t five minutes into the race on some gentle flowing singletrack when I clipped my right handlebar on a tree and we (bike and me) flew through the air to land in another tree down a step embankment on the left side of the trail. I quickly got myself disentangled from my bike and did a quick inspection of the bike before remounting and continuing on. It’s funny because when I woke up this morning, I was reasonably relaxed and relieved to find that John and I still have our morning race routine dialed in - even before coffee! I had no idea what we were about to experience!!
We knew the climbing on this 40km stage would be a killer with over 1,000m of vertical elevation. On a tricky and very technical MTB course. The climbing was rough, but I’m a workhorse on the bike and generally speaking I find the physical effort of tapping out long climbs very rewarding (at least that’s what I say when I’m not grinding up a hill!) But today’s climbs were rocky jagged forest trails on which you have to power your bike up over roots and sometimes tangled root networks with some big pointy rocks thrown in. All while balancing yourself precariously on the bike, pushing the pedals at exactly the right speed, unweighting your front, then your back wheel, again at exactly the right split second. All this and more is happening as you scan the trail ahead to make sure you’re ready for what’s coming next, which may be another tricky obstacle to climb. I was enjoying it for awhile but my hamstrings started burning and tightening up, and the trail got more and more demanding as I was getting more and more fatigued. This is not unusual on many MTB trail ascents, but today was exceptional, as evidenced by my taking more than 5.5 hours to complete 40km! For non-cyclists, and for comparison, I can usually do 100km on my road or gravel bike (solo riding) in around 4 hours or less. In addition to my high flying crash at the start, I was off my bike seemingly every few minutes once we got to the steeper downhill sections. Big rocky shoots awaited us after both massive climbs today, as if once weren’t enough of a challenge! With steep drop-offs immediately to our right or left, there was little margin for error. One mistake unclipping a shoe from the pedal or turning the front wheel a little too aggressively could mean disaster. I relied on my brakes to allow me to sight upcoming obstacles, but riding these trails blind was crazier than I could have imagined. Braking too much on some of these steep downhills means either going over the bars (which I nearly did several times) or having your back wheel slide until you find yourself careening down the slippery gravel or powdery sand sideway. This meant even more hike-a-bike for me. Speaking of which, walking with your bike on these trails can be nearly as dangerous as riding them. Using my bike as a kind of crutch, I had to apply the brakes and brace my front wheel to stop myself from falling down some of the near-vertical drops. My leg muscles only got tighter throughout the day. As with JoBerg2c, they like to have riders smiling as they cross the finish, so they often make the final kilometers a pleasant and easy singletrack so most of us can float into the finish line. Today ended with a dark lush forest descent that indeed left me smiling and nearly forgetting the other terrifying events of today. If I were to do this day over, I would wear knee and elbow pads, if not full body armour! I wrote this on the bus to Cumberland post-race and hoping for some very precious WiFi when we get to camp! Note to BCBR 2019 hopefuls: splurge for a stupidly overpriced Canadian SIM card, as the race only provides a very limited time for fairly unreliable WiFi and you probably won’t be able to do FB live ;) Excitement at the top! "If you can catch Neil, you'll be fifth overall!," John said as I stuffed some more food in my mouth and gulped it down with water. He was talking about Neil Melville, my friend Julie's husband who apparently had just come through the start area ahead of me. I felt a twinge of renewed excitement. "Now we're really racing!' I thought. We were around 22 hours (I'm really guessing - it's all a blur to me!) into the 24-hour race and I had been through so many low points I thought I couldn't do one more lap. But with this information, I felt a surge. I hopped back on my bike and set out for another grueling lap. Recovery
It was hard to rest right away. I had a quick shower and was immediately desperate to be in the company of other people. One very surprising thing I learned about myself on this journey is that I am a very social creature! I can picture some of you thinking that's not really shocker as I am slightly extroverted, but I really love my alone time and thought I was going to love the isolation and alone time involved in ultra endurance cycling. In fact, whenever I had the chance, I was talking people's heads off! Even if they didn't understand a word I was saying! I still enjoyed the solitude, but it made me crave conversation especially by the end of it.
Final push to the finish
I hit the road after stocking up at the service station next to the hotel. There would be a number of stations along the way to Muscat, but as I was leaving at 10PM to cycle through the night, I was expecting them to be closed. I ensured I had extra water and snacks, and going on only two hours of sleep with a dodgy tummy, I pedalled slowly as I started up the slight incline out of Muscat. I was starting to get used to night cycling, and enjoyed the lighter traffic and the focus that comes with your limited view of the surroundings. I could still make out the profile of the mountains around me, but I wasn't missing the view - all I cared about now was making it to the finish. Whenever I thought of the finish, my mind immediately went to all the things that could go wrong along the way. I pushed those thoughts aside and focused on pedalling and breathing. I purposely left my iPod off, and instead enjoyed the relative silence of the night.
Day Four begins from CP3
I woke excited to don my clean kit at around 2:15AM, long before my alarm was to go off. The momentum of being more than halfway to the finish has hit me and I simply cannot sleep. I snapped a photo of myself looking nervous before leaving.
Part Three: Nizwa to Oriental Nights Rest House (CP3)
188.2km total distance 9:21 moving time 557m elevation 11:01 total elapsed time
The cavalry are here
Three Omani police officers - one man in a thobe, and a man and woman in uniform stood stiffly on the steps as I approached the Oriental Nights Rest House - more significantly known to us riders as manned checkpoint #2. I was wrecked and as I pushed my bike over the camel grid, Axel - one of the founders of Bikingman - came jogging out to greet me, helping push my bike the last few meters towards the building and the officers. "They're here for you," he said, to which I immediately laughed at what I thought was a joke. It was only then it all came rushing back to me. The events of the day replayed in split seconds and a sinking feeling replaced the relief I had felt at finally being able to dismount my bike after a long hard day on a sketchy road shared with traffic and not quite enough room to call it a shoulder.
Part Two: Bahla to Jebel Shams to Nizwa
171.57km total distance 10:29 moving time 1746m elevation 16:01 Total elapsed time A beautiful morning for a bike ride I woke up after only four hours of sleep feeling wide awake an hour before my alarm was to ring. I quickly dressed and scarfed down a chocolate croissant and some dates. I clumsily made my way down the hall and back down the stairs, trying and failing to be stealthy; conscious of not wanting to wake anyone else who might be still sleeping but managing all the stealth of the proverbial bull in a china shop. I set off for Jebel Shams - the main event within the main event, and the moment many had been talking about since we registered. It was a quiet morning and I enjoyed the silence as I rode all alone. My bright light illuminated more than enough of the road in front of me, even with a packet of Oreos bungeed onto my front pack slightly obstructing it. With each pedal stroke, I felt happier and happier. On the mostly straight road to Al Hamra - the last town with services before Jebel Shams - I felt a positive energy for the day ahead. “I’m doing this!” I thought excitedly. Compared to the previous night’s desperation, I felt positively refreshed. It's incredible what a shower and a snooze can do for one's outlook. I arrived in Al Hamra shortly after sunrise. I stopped for more water and made a new friend, for whom I seriously considered making space in my luggage.
Part One: Al Nahda Resort to Bahla
291.87km total distance 16:35 moving time 1636m elevation 20:23 total elapsed time General mood: Totally shattered
Endless headwinds
The night before the race, we were encouraged to sleep on the floor of a large conference room. Finding a spot, I instantly regretted my decision to check out of my hotel room which was just steps away from this common space. The thin mattress was covered in a sheet of plastic and every time I or anyone else moved, there was a rustling of plastic. Already in my race kit, I settled in for a night with very little sleep - about 2 hours max. I awoke from my restless slumber hot and sweaty from the heat generated between my sleeping bag, me dressed in my cycling clothes, and the plastic mattress. Off to a great start. Full of good intentions, the idea was for me to ’start’ blogging consistently during 2018. However, l’ve been somewhat preoccupied with my recovery. This has given me time to reflect on 2017, refocus my ambitions for 2018, and consider what I actually want to achieve in cycling while working on improving my work / life balance.
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