gecho

I finished a 200 and two 400s this spring and have my first 600 scheduled for this weekend. For the 600 the wind might pose a problem into Sunday depending how quickly it ramps up to 60 km/h.

The second 400 confirmed my observation from a few seasons ago that riding with too little effort can cause significant problems. My average HR for that ride was one of the lowest I've had on any ride. When dialing the effort way back I couldn't use my regular 90 - 100 cadence since it feels weird pedaling that fast with so little resistance. So I had dropped my cadence to 60 - 70 just to keep some weight on the legs. Even so weight seems to shift from the legs to the saddle, so I had to stand much more often. In general going slow just leave me feeling lethargic. And late at night with a much lower HR my wakefulness was significantly reduced. After the ride ended I picked up my pace for the ride back home and woke right up.

abshipp 

I thought about posting about this ride on Friday, but given that the last time I announced my intentions to do a ride I ended up not following through.

So, I'm happy to say that on Saturday I completed my first 200K.

The ride was an out-and-back loop from Whitewater WI to New Glarus WI.

205km (128mi) total distance, with ~4200' of climbing, per Strava. Total time was 12h35min, with 10h7m on the bike.

Overall, it was...okay. Not an overall terrible experience, but there were definitely some really low points.

9 riders started, almost immediately the sole recumbent rider was off the front, followed by 2 more people who were only seen once more leaving the second control where the route doubled back on itself.

The remaining 6 riders split again into 2 groups after a rider flatted about 10 miles in. Myself and two others rode together for about 15-20 miles when one in our group dropped back on one of the first big hills of the day. We did not see him again until several hours later when we were returning from the second control.

Between control 1 (15 miles) and control 2 (mile 66) the hills began in earnest. As many of you know, consistent rollers can be quite exhausting, and this route had a bunch of them. The first big challenge of the day occurred at mile 55, where we encountered a 3.5 mile long stretch of road with 4 or 5 sets of rollers each between 8-12%. I had a low gear of 34-28, and had to tack up a couple of them in an attempt to stay upright. Thankfully this section of road ended with a mile long descent that helped us cool off, but it certainly put me into the mindset that this was going to be a very challenging ride from then on.

At the second control, the trailing two groups as well as the previously solo recumbent rider consolidated into one group of 6, and we remained as such for the remainder of the ride.

The second half of the ride was predominantly into a ~10mph headwind. This is where I made some mistakes and the ride began to suck. Since I was in a group, I wanted to stay with that group. This led to me chatting at the front with a very strong rider and working way too hard for about 15 miles. We then hit an extended hot and windy climb and I fell off the back. Miles 75-90 were subsequently spent about 1/2 mile back from the rest of the group, fighting nausea and feeling like absolute crap. I managed to drink a small ginger ale I had fortunately brought as well as a little more water and started feeling a lot better. I joined back up after they had graciously stopped at an intersection and continued on.

From then to the third control at 106 miles went pretty smoothly, after we passed the 100 mile mark I finally felt like the end was in sight.

This feeling was rather short-lived, however. After 5 or 10 miles after the 3rd control my body really started to scream at me. My butt hurt, my shoulders were stiff and sore, my neck was getting hard to keep elevated, and I really started wishing that I had not gone on this ride. Everyone else was in really great spirits and helped get me through the pain, and eventually we rolled back into Whitewater.

Overall, I would say that the ride was successful, but I found out that I don't have a clue how to feed myself or pace myself.

I'm also looking into some drivetrain upgrades to help make things a bit easier. I am running some 6 speed Suntour shifters in friction mode with a 12-28 cassette. During the ride my front shifter managed to start binding in such a way that it made shifting from big-small extremely difficult, and conversely, my rear shifter came loose and would not hold the derailleur in position. I had the tools to fix the second issue, but it was still an annoyance that I could have certainly done without. Probably looking into 8 speed indexed downtube shifters, medium cage derailleur, and a 12-32 cassette.

clasher

Congrats on the first 200!

I think your drivetrain upgrades should help things a bit! Keep doing some intermediate distances and you'll eventually figure out what works for you with food and pacing.

GadgetGirlIL

@abshipp - your actual finish time was 11 hours 24 minutes.

Congratulations on your first 200K! No doubt you will figure out your fueling and pacing. My dark miles were those after I lost the group sometime after the mile 74 control and before I rejoined all of you in Edgerton. I had to stop at mile 93 to loosen up my shoes (feet swell in the heat), take more electrolyte caps (calf was trying to cramp), and take some ibuprofen because pain.

Great riding with you and I hope to see you in Fond du Lac next month!

Regina

kingston 

Here’s a kinda funny story from Whitewater on Saturday. I’m in the hotel lobby chatting with the other riders after checking in. The RBA asks me how fast I’m planning to ride because there’s a guy thinking about riding the 400 but doesn’t want to ride alone. I figured he was new and didn’t want to get left behind, so I said I’d ride with him at whatever speed he wanted. Right out of the gate this guy is on his aero bars off the front and it was all I could do to hold his wheel. Turns out he finished RAAM last year and didn’t think anybody would be able to keep up with him. I managed to stay with him for the first 200 miles or so and finally ran out of steam and let him finish with a strong recumbent rider who was with us all day. I was so exhausted I had to stop and take a nap on a picnic table in a park with about 25 miles to go. Ended up finishing about 3 hours behind those guys with the last hour in pouring rain. Good times.

rhm

PA Randonneurs ran their June ride, the "Hawks Nest 200", last Saturday. Though not really recovered from the BRB 1200 the weekend before, this looked like my best opportunity to keep my monthly randonnee streak going for another month (the BRB started in May, so wouldn't count for June... fooey, these silly RUSA rules! ) so I signed up.

I have two randonneuring bikes I've been riding exclusively this year, one with 42 mm tires (650b, cushy, mmm) the other with 53 mm tires (26", even cushier, mmmmm) and both those bikes are out of commission due to use and abuse. All the parts are on hand, just waiting for the mechanic to stop riding and get down to fixing. Anyway, long story short, I needed to ride a different bike on Saturday, and I picked my 1964 JRJ (Bob Jackson of Leeds, England) road-path bike (fixie). It has 23 mm tires pumped up to 100 - 110 psi and it's anything but cushy. Ow.

What's the logic of riding the fixie so soon after the 1200? No logic in particular, but my butt is still pretty tender from the week before and the fixie would give me ample opportunity to ride out of the saddle, so it made sense in some twisted way.

And oh, man, I am glad I did that ride. For the first time in months, a calendared ride had coincided with nice weather. In no particular rush, I managed to finish the ride in under 10 hours which is not lightning fast, but I'm not complaining. I walked two of the hills, which is a lot less than I was expecting.

antimonysarah

I finished my first 600k this past weekend, and with it, my first full series. I'm delighted, it was a great ride (and fairly good weather -- some rain and headwinds but no heat), and am already feeling pretty recovered and excited for the Lap of the Lake. (I rode the Central NY 600k, so the first 120 miles were basically the same as LOL, so I have a decent time estimate for that section as well.) 38:35, and I could have gone a bit faster on the second day but was prioritizing good company over maximizing speed after having done the opposite on the first day so that I could sleep. (I got three hours, which was what I'd hoped/planned for and was, in fact, plenty.)

rhm

Congratulations!

clasher

I DNF'd the Cascade 1200 early on the second day, my Achilles was starting to hurt a lot so I quit in Goldendale before the ride got really remote and self rescue would be harder. I got a motel and slept 12 hours before riding another 50km down the Columbia River to a car rental place.

SIR has a lot of awesome volunteers and I was amazed at the food and support I saw during the part of the ride I did. The scenery was spectacular as well... Got to see Mt. St. Helen's as well Hood and Adams. Seattle was nice and I see why a lot of people move out here.

My time management was poor too; I wasted a lot of time at the first overnight instead of just trying to sleep. I think I prefer getting a hotel of my own as I'm a softie.

I've been lucky enough in my rando riding to be fairly successful just doing it by the seat of my pants but I might have been successful out here with a better plan and more focused training.

unterhausen

If you are a naturally social person, overnights can be problematic. Sometimes it's hard to keep that in mind, especially when you are a little loopy from not enough sleep and 20+ hours of dopamine.

atwl77

Congratulations! My first 600k is gonna be this Saturday... and I'm giddy with both excitement and dread, lol!

antimonysarah

Good luck and I hope you get good weather!

Machka 

downtube42

About 40 miles from the finish of the Cascades 1200 last week, I saw a life-sized statue of a goat lying in a ditch. At least I thought it was a statue, until it turned it's head and looked at me. Hallucination? I wasn't sure. I rode on.

I found this ride spectacularly beautiful and extremely difficult. It had an urban start at the base of the Space Needle, miles and miles of forest roads, views of snowmelt-filled rivers, tough climbs, thrilling descents, the heat of eastern Washington's high plains, views of three perhaps four mountains, and a final day that started with a 17 mile climb. The DNF rate was about one third, with the heat of day 2 combined with a freakish windstorm taking out quite a few. At the end of day 3 I thought I'd be a DNF as well, with sharp knee pain the last few miles. I can attest that one-legged riding is extremely difficult and quite slow; at least it was pain free. I iced the knee, took ibuprofen, and slept past the control close time to give it some extra rest. Fortunately, after the climbing start, day 4 was mostly downhill. I was able to push hard to the finish, ending with 3 hours to spare.

Chatting with others at the finish, I told my goat story. John, the lone Brit on the ride, was quite glad to hear it wasn't his hallucination.

atwl77

So the 600k that I completed over the weekend was touted as the toughest BRM600 in Malaysia to date, and I went in with two things stacked against me. First of all, it was a 3am start so I planned to try and get some sleep the day before, but failed miserably. Tossed and turned, didn't really get any sleep at all so I was going in sleep-deprived and that would come back to bite me in the ass later on.

The second thing was that I was using some new equipment for the first time -- a very big no-no but too late to really change up anything. I decided against using a drop bag service so I brought everything with me. All the usual tools and supplies, plus spare tyre, change of clothes, toiletries, rain coat, spare lights, spare USB charger. That's about 5kg hanging off my saddle, something I was not used to. Bike handling felt wobbly and unstable... and it took me over 150km to get used to it. I'm pretty sure it impacted my climbing as well.

The first climb from between approx. 137-182km was a nasty one. The Strava segment makes it appear to be a benign avg 3% grade continous climb, but in reality there are a lot of little ascents and descents all along the way. The Garmin showed 8-9% slopes way more than I would have thought. Furthermore, there was very little shelter from the sun and almost no stores to stop and resupply on the way up, so hydration strategy was extremely crucial. From what I hear, a bunch of people DNF before reaching the peak. I took over 4h 40m of slowly inching my way up, needing to pop an energy gel near the peak to continue, and then the weather turned bad.

I think a lot of people waited too long for the rain to let up which led to their eventual DNF later on. Me and a couple of riders decided to brave through the inclement weather though, which was actually a particularly risky move on my part. With 44mm carbon clinchers and rim brakes, heavy downpour and a long descent... yeah, you know what I'm getting at. Fortunately the roads were wide and traffic was very light, I bombed downhill minimising brakes while constantly looking ahead for road hazards. There were a few rises which helped me to slow down without needing to touch the brakes too.

I thought the worst of it was over but noooo... the rolling hills after the descent turned out to be a nightmare. Another slow crawl for hours with very little civilization along the route ensued, plus there was riding in total darkness when night came. When we reached the next checkpoint, we were short on time that we could only afford ourselves about 3+ hours of sleep before needing to ride again. A bunch of people DNF by this point -- they didn't think they had enough time to sleep and then finish on time.

There was this very long, monotonous 40-ish km stretch of highway where the effects of sleep deprivation kicked in full. I could barely keep my eyes open, I may have even nearly dozed off two or three times without realizing it. We found a nice little spot by the side of the road to take a power nap, and I also tried napping anytime they decided to stop to rest, eat, or just take a break. We passed a lot of riders who also did the same -- somehow this felt like the stories I hear about the return leg of PBP where everyone just finds spots all over the side of the road to sleep, lol.

The next stretch of time suckers was another set of rolling roads heading towards the next checkpoint. This wasn't as bad as the previous day, as this time there were a few where I could use the momentum from the downhill to get over (or at least get near the top) of the next rise... but there were some gems (or should I say, "walls") amongst them. Counted several 12% and one 15% all coming in sequence. Had to pop an energy gel here to keep going.

After that the roads were being merciful but we were already short on time from all the crazy climbing before. Upped the pace, took turns to pull, minimized our breaks and we eventually finished in a somewhat staggered time with the slower riders dropping off behind while the faster ones kept pushing onward. We were fine with that arrangement -- if you had the energy to push forward, by all means go ahead if it means you complete within time. I managed with 6 minutes remaining... that was a hell of a ride!

Did a math thing on the whole route. Total elevation as reported by Strava is 6,138m (20,138ft). The two major hill climbs are 1,312m (4,304ft) and 587m (1926ft). So where did the rest of the elevation go??? :-o Rolling hell, that's where. :-D

Finally, my boring ride video: https://tinyurl.com/yayxlrf9

unterhausen

Thanks for the report, sounds like a tough ride.

I figure if I train right that someday I'll be fast enough to get 3 hours of sleep on a 600.

atwl77

I finished my 400k over the weekend, and with that completed my Super Randonneur series for the year. This was another one of those tough, hilly routes like last month's 600k... 446.3km with 3,552m of elevation. Because of that, we had the cut-off time officially extended by 2 hours.

Almost right off the bat, we were already riding into the hills. Between 100-150km we rode along a hilly, rolling route skirting a large and scenic lake. Although I didn't spend much time sightseeing, but some people managed to catch a few elephants via extremely zoomed in mobile phone video footage. Instead, I was hunting for the first checkpoint at an unspecific location. Most of the route was uninhabited, surrounded by either the lake or forest with very few rest areas, so I suppose the organizers had to look around and see which stops were actually open and had food and drink on that day and just listed the checkpoint location as 100-150km "roadside" on the cue sheet. We ended up finding the checkpoint at the 144km point.

After this the route was relatively flat as we rode north near the east coast. Because of the flat course, the group upped the pace significantly -- not sure if intentionally or not -- but I felt that it was unsustainable for more than 2-3 hours at most. But I mostly stuck to the rear where the effort to maintain it wasn't too great, but still required more effort than I would be comfortable with for any long period. We experienced light showers along the way, nothing much to worry about but riding in a group meant accumulating road spray all the way. We quickly reached the second checkpoint at about 171km, inside a local restaurant where we consumed everything like locusts and left the place bare. :-D

We passed the 200km mark in about 11 hours, which I felt was a pretty good time. My personal goal was to do 400km in 24 hours, which would then feed into being able to do longer rides like 1000km or 1200km in 400km chunks of 24 hours per day, leaving plenty of extra time for sleep in between so we were doing well. But alas, all good things must come to an end. While having an early dinner, we were beset by heavy torrential rain and strong headwinds. My group decided to wait it out, but we saw a pair of brave souls passing by... true Rule #9 badasses!!!

Anyway, the rain pretty much ruined any time gains we obtained from earlier on, and also slowed us down significantly after that because night riding in wet weather isn't fun. Every puddle on the road was a potential danger, so our pace was slowed noticeably. We passed the 300km mark in around the 19-hour mark, and then the third checkpoint at 20 hours. Spent an hour there, managed to catch around 30 minutes of actual sleep time before we decided we had to press on in order to finish within the cutoff time.

Due to lack of sleep, we also began running into sleep issues and ended up stopping several times to take short naps. Definitely not good for progress, plus the route from here onwards started becoming hilly again, and there was another big climb right before the 400km mark. There was a bit of miscommunication just before that climb, it ended up with two of us continuing on while the rest stopped for breakfast and additional rest.

In the end, I dropped the guy I was with during the climb and rode solo for the rest of the way. Reached the 400km mark at 25.75 hours -- nearly two hours off my target, but at that point I was just focused on finishing the ride on time. With another 46km to go, I briefly entertained the thought of trying to finish in 27 hours... but seeing the rolling hills ahead of me quickly put an end to that. Even down to the last 5km, the course was up and down and up and down and up and down -- with fairly steep ups quite often.

I completed the ride in slightly over 28h 05m... off my targets completely, but a good learning experience. Two things to take away from this ride: firstly I need to find a way to deal with the sleep issues. Currently I've got nothing, I just know I need a plan for that. Secondly, bike fit still isn't as good as I want it to be. Still experiencing saddle sores at the sit bones as well as hand discomfort... a lot of it very likely because I'm not putting enough pressure on the pedals to help relieve pressure off the seat and the handlebars, but also probably something I need to revisit my bike fitter to see if it's something he can help me deal with.

Ride video, for anyone who's interested: https://tinyurl.com/yapk8tz5

(edit) Oh, I forgot to mention one other thing. The night was COLD! Ok, well, perhaps not really that cold to most of you folk... but for most South East Asians, below 20 degrees Celcius is shivering cold. I myself wore four layers: base layer, jersey, gilet, rain jacket, and yet was shivering (at least at the beginning; after some riding I guess the body warms up a bit to mitigate the cold, but anytime we stop for more than a few minutes of rest, it's back to shivering, teeth-chattering cold again). I'm thinking I'll need to start investing in some insulating gilets and jackets if I'm even thinking of doing any rides such as PbP.

unterhausen

yeah, 20C is a nice nighttime temperature in these parts. I'm pretty sure our 400k featured temps not that much above freezing. I definitely had full winter gear on at the end.

Thanks for the report. Was there a 400k before the 600k? Just curious that you did them out of order.

atwl77

The first 400k was on December 30 last year, did not do that one. It's a bit odd that they set it up so early in the 2018 season. A lot of people said it was easy and flat though... just too bad the timing wasn't right for me.

abshipp 

Thanks Regina! Thanks for the official time

Sorry about the delayed reply, I've got a bad habit of letting messages just sit and sit and sit and sit...

I'm a little bummed that I missed out on Fond Du Lac, I got a nasty cold two weeks prior that absolutely kicked the crap out of me, I barely rode at all in the month of July.

I did sign up for the post-starlite 100K in Delavan next weekend though! Currently trying to get a little bit of fitness back. I am very thankful that this is going to be a much flatter course than Woody's or Fond Du Lac.

GadgetGirlIL

@abshipp - so good to hear from you! We missed you at Fond Du Lac. I found that a more pleasant ride than the New Glarus ride even though there were hills! But no Exeter Road type hills.

So sorry to hear of your nasty cold that knocked you out for so long :-(

I look forward to seeing you at the post-starlite 100K. I'm also doing the 200K so I probably will be sleep deprived!

atwl77

I finished my second 600k over the weekend. I dub it the Fire and Ice ride, and despite not as challenging as my first 600k (total elevation is much lower), I still felt like it was more taxing/tiring.


The ride began with a very popular climbing route which starts off with an 11km flat route for warm-up before the 8.9km climb with 3.4% average grade. Going up this way is easier, but coming back the same way is going to be tougher because of steeper grades coming from the opposite direction. As per standard Malaysian weather, nice and cool in the morning but started getting hot by 10am. We reached the first of four checkpoints at the 135km; by that time it was already noon and the heat was in full blast.


Continuing to the second checkpoint under searing hot sun, made a few short stops along the way for cold water and energy drinks, but overall was a slow and tiring slog. Average speed dropped but we were still making slow and steady progress. By the time we reached the checkpoint it was late afternoon and dark skies were seen at a distance. We experienced strong winds along the way too and, eventually, it began pouring as we were riding towards the third checkpoint. This part of the route was a bit unpleasant as it was a main road heading into Kuantan, the state capital of Pahang, Malaysia. As a main road, we experienced heavy traffic as well as plenty of large lorries plying the route. Riding in groups helped keep us safe from the traffic.


My original plan was to try and do 400km in one run before turning in for the night, but by the time we reached the third checkpoint I was already very sleepy and didn't think I would be able to continue so I stayed at a budget hotel with my group but we only had about 3 hours of sleep before continuing. Lack of sleep continued to haunt us on our way towards the fourth checkpoint and we wasted some time taking quick catnaps along the route. Fortunately we found bus stops and similar conveniences to sleep, unlike the last 600k where we napped along the shoulder of the road. By 7am I was still quite sleepy but we managed to find a local shop that was open at that time. Breakfast and a cup of coffee helped shake off that last feeling to sleepiness.


But because of all that time wasted, we were very short on time. We went into time trial mode for about 30km of rolling roads in order to barely make it to the fourth checkpoint before its closing time. By then I was already quite wasted; fortunately the stop was also near some food so we had some more rest and refueling before the final leg to the finishing point.


What comes next is probably and unanimously the most unpleasant portion of the route. 71km of mostly broken road, rolling all the way, and for some mind-boggling reason classified as a highway and with that, speeding cars and large lorries. We spent nearly five hours on this soul-crushing road and I'm pretty sure everyone was glad the moment that segment was over. By then it was 5pm and approx. 80km more to go, however it was on very familiar roads so it would have been pretty smooth going all the way... except for cold winds and rain again.


Due to lost time fighting the winds (at some points we couldn't even hit 20km/h on downhill segments), the final climb and descent was done at night. Then it was another all-out full gas hammerfest for 11km all the way to the finishing point. I was surprised at how much energy I still had remaining, but I have to admit, it was plenty of suffering, like hitting the last lap of a criterium. Made it. Totally bonked (figuratively speaking) after finishing.


Here's my ride video of the event: https://tinyurl.com/yanhdfuv


We experienced quite a number of mechanicals during this ride. I dropped my chain while shifting down to the smaller crank, but fortunately saved by my chain catcher. One rider in my group had a tire sidewall cut. It wasn't bootable (I tried), fortunately I had a spare tire to lend. Another rider had a broken chain; we had a chain tool to break and remove the damaged link and reconnected the chain. Elsewhere, we heard that one rider had his rear derailleur destroyed very early into the ride (no idea what happened, perhaps over-torqued during a climb). Another broke their Ultegra crank at the spider. I heard of at least two crashes, but (very) fortunately no incidents involving vehicles.


But with that, I think I still have problems to address before I am able to attempt longer distances, the primary one being sleep. I'm really impressed by the people who can just keep on riding; by night time I already get very sleepy and in the early hours of the morning (typically between 3-7am), I just can't stay awake and have to take frequent, short power naps or else I might just fall asleep and crash on the bike. There is also the issue with saddle pain, even after going through multiple saddles with my fitter and concluding that narrow saddles such as my current Fizik Arione are the best fit for my sit bones, but it isn't as bad as my first 600km so I guess there is a slight bit of improvement, but my fitter has stressed that I really need to work on my core strength (i.e. weight distribution) in order to resolve my saddle issues once and for all.


Anyway, that's my ride report for now. Thanks for reading. There's going to be a 1000km coming in two weeks but I am still having doubts. I might just give it a try to see how far I can go, but not much hope on actually finishing.

atwl77

I mentioned earlier in another thread that I had completed my first 1000k over the weekend. Here's my ride report.

This was a night start with 86 cyclists rolling out together as a group at 8:30pm, but quickly separated into their individual groups and cliques. We quickly reached the first checkpoint; it was only 10.5km away, after all. The sole purpose of this checkpoint was to add mileage to the route, otherwise it would have come up short of 1000km. There's a very short but slightly steep climb up to get our brevet cards stamped, then we rolled back down the way we came and continued onwards.

I got separated from my group on the way to the second checkpoint at 85.6km. One of my group was supposedly ahead of me, while the rest were behind. I passed a petrol station along the way and saw a bunch of cyclists hanging around there, along with a group just ahead. I wasn't sure if my group mate had stopped or moved on, so I ignored the petrol station and followed the front group all the way to the checkpoint. Turns out I was the first of my group to arrive. While waiting I refilled my water and also grabbed a bottle of 100 plus. When they finally arrived, I found out that they had stopped at the petrol station earlier to rest and regroup, and that they wanted to rest a bit more at the rest stop. So I decided to wait with them... which in retrospect was a huge time waster but not sure what's the best choice in this situation. It's still very early into the ride, after all.

The next checkpoint was a long distance away -- at 239.1km -- but the route was mostly flat and it was still very early in the morning so it was mostly smooth progress with not much to see along the way. We reached in time for breakfast and continued our merry way. However along the way I got hit by a bad case of sleep deprivation. Couldn't keep my eyes open, got dropped by the group, decided to take a short power nap at a bus stop before continuing on my own. Managed to eventually catch up with my group at the checkpoint, and just in time for breakfast too.

The next checkpoint was at 321.0km, and follows the same route that we had ridden during the 600k two weeks back. Mostly flat with some rolling sections, heavy traffic near the towns. We made good progress despite some strong winds, arrived at the checkpoint with some time in the bank which everyone decided to spend resting. With the 2 hours that we had budgeted, I walked over to the nearby A&W for a coney dog and root beer float, took a quick snap of the nearby beach, and then tried to get in some rest.




The journey to the fifth checkpoint at 455.3km was quite unpleasant. We had long, boring sections of flats where we had the joy of being passed by speeding heavy vehicles -- lorries and busses. We had to stay in a group for safety reasons, but even so I heard that two people from another group were hit by a bus a couple of km before from the checkpoint. Thankfully no critical injuries, and fortunately my group arrived safe and sound. Thinking back I was very fortunate as I was battling drowsiness again and I could have been the one being hit. By the time I reached the checkpoint at 0:50am, most of my group had already left for a homestay to sleep, but me and the remainder of the group decided to sleep on the floor at the checkpoint instead.

I didn't get much sleep in though. The next checkpoint was at 652.0km and closes at 4:33pm; originally we budgeted 12 hours for that ride and therefore had to leave by 4:30am, but they later changed that and left early at 2:30am to include a breakfast and refill stop. Either I left with them, or try to accumulate more sleep and then ride solo when I wake up. I decided on the former, but again this resulted in serious sleep deprivation for most of the way. I let the group go as I found convenient places to stop for power naps -- bus stops, roadside shoulders, petrol stations, anywhere I can lie down, you name it. To add insult to injury, the second half of the route was littered with steep rolling hills. It wasn't pleasant and I kept thinking to myself, why am I putting myself through all this. I was seriously considering quitting, but thankfully it didn't come to that. My two motivations were that I was already halfway done, and that if I had quit, I would have to coax my wife to drive over 500km just to pick me up. So I kept fighting... and seriously, fighting sleep deprivation is so much harder than just ordinary fatigue.

After reaching the checkpoint and getting my brevet card signed, the group was in a bit of disarray. I was in a hurry to grab dinner and leave, others wanted to stay close to the checkpoint (where their support car was parked), we couldn't decide on what to do or where to eat. So I decided to head to dinner on my own, warning them that we had to leave by 6pm in order to comfortably reach the next checkpoint, and they'll contact me when they're ready to leave. I believe that was the first of two great decisions that I had made. Stopped at KFC and ate my fill, the meal really helped wake me up, then received a message that part of the group wanted to leave already. Deciding to join this splinter group instead of waiting with the rest of the main group was my second best decision as I later found out that the main group had yet to make any significant progress by 7pm.

Seventh checkpoint was at 790.7km which closes at 3:50am. Thanks to my decision to leave early with the splinter group, we had slightly under 11 hours to cover about 150km. First part of the route went through heavy city traffic that slowed progress somewhat, but eventually thinning out as we left the city and the motorways into quieter coastal roads. Had a short stop for supper in one of the smaller towns along the route before moving on, and then with about 60km to go the dreaded sleep deprivation hit again. This time it was really bad; I even had an episode where it felt like I had just woken up from a dream and didn't remember the last few km that I rode. It wasn't just me who had sleep problems, which is a good thing -- the group unanimously decided it best to make frequent power naps along the route. 5 mins of rest per 10km; it wasn't much, but good enough to get us to the checkpoint in good time.

Suddenly we had plenty of time to the next checkpoint at 862.7km which closes at 2:08pm, which we fully took advantage of. Checked into a homestay, had my first shower in 2+ days, and got some decent sleep in. Woke up at 6:00am, had a quick breakfast and then rode off in good spirits...... until I felt a major bonk happening. Legs felt weak, I kept getting dropped, took a lot of effort just to keep 20km/h on a flat road. This was the worst, I thought to myself. Until someone noticed my rear tire was badly underinflated. Turns out that I had a slow leak which probably started the day before, and after changing tubes the difference felt like night and day! I began to wonder just how long I had been riding like this, lol.

We reached the final checkpoint early and had plenty of time to ride the remaining 140km to the finish. Along the way we met up with another group and decided to go together. Parts of the route here would go into another major city with heavy traffic, so staying in a relatively big group was advantageous. The only one obstacle remaining was a short but very steep climb about 30km from the finishing point. Everyone was fully prepared for it; I took my last cereal bar and energy gel right before the climb and made steady progress up. This wasn't my first time doing this climb though, and it normally isn't that hard, but with over 970km in my legs as well as my heavy saddle bag weighing me down, it was quite an arduous effort. Some people stopped to walk their bike up the steepest sections; can't blame them for that. The descent that followed was rewarding; easily hit over 70+ km/h there.

Amusingly, at the final 10km stretch everyone went all out, as if we racing a criterium. We still had plenty of time remaining, I guess they just wanted to let loose after all that pain and suffering. For all that lung-busting effort, we finished below 72 hours (elapsed time 71:49... though if we had just ridden normally I don't think we'd go over 72 hours).

So much pain and suffering. So much sleep deprivation. I kept wondering why I'm putting myself through all this? Why? And then at the very end, I get what matters the most - the satisfaction of completion. Also, a completed jigsaw piece!!!



Now that I've experienced a night start, I can safely say that I don't really like it very much. So if/when I sign up for PBP next year, I will definitely be choosing the morning start.

Here's my ride video of the event: https://tinyurl.com/ycrhltkd

rhm

Congratulations on finishing the ride, and thanks for that report! I enjoyed reading it.

unterhausen

congratulations on completing the puzzle