Originally Posted by
downtube42
Brief LEL 2022 ride report.
I DNFd at Innerleithen, about 50 miles southbound after the turnaround. After some thought, I've identified three contributing factors leading to this, my first ever DNF.
Saddle
I've struggled with saddle comfort since switching from recumbent to upright, and clearly still don't have it sorted. Although I rode an SR series on this saddle, by 400k things were bad. Every chance to get out of the saddle, I took. Before Dunfermline, pain was approaching unbearable levels. I faced sleep deprivation and was very close on time, but saddle pain was the deciding factor for abandoning.
Sleep
Jet lag and a hot hotel room meant I slept little the two nights before the ride. I was behind on sleep at the start line. This led to drowsiness and roadside naps that my speed could not afford. To make matters worse, the first night in a control, I could not sleep at all. After three hours I got up and carried on. That was three wasted hours
Lack of fitness.
Speed on the bike makes everything else easier. Speed means time to deal with things, more time to sleep. Speed = time.
London Edinburgh, however, was a fabulous ride. Beautiful scenery (and I live in Oregon), super volunteers, a beast of a ride. Not the quaint villages and cheering crowds of PBP, but oh my the rugged beauty of Scotland!
It's true, what Ken Bonner told me after Cascades 1200: people who DNF have stories to tell. There's much for me to learn from this.
Typed from my phone, on a southbound train to London.
A wise person told me that long brevets always get very personal.
I DNF'd a 1200K recently. I broke the seatpost changing the saddle in the morning. Even the best wrench in NJ couldn't fix the Cervelo proprietary POS. Jim had the one bit but there was a part broken that could not be extracted (maybe a machinist in a tool shop??) If I had just replaced the saddle before going to sleep, I could had my wife drive me up a different bike but I had already slept way more than the rest (it was just getting light out) ready to take my position on the caboose. Anyway, my butt was "ok" but not great after hundreds of miles on NY patched pot-holed roads. The vibration was a bigger issue on my neck, it screws me up and believe it or not, gives me some balance issues at slow speed. I rode pretty easy enjoying myself, the scenery was nice, the support was beyond 1st class, but I failed. I was pretty much at the caboose riding alone but I wasn't rushing, did the first 300K in 14:30 ish hours total and around 13 hours moving but like 3 hours behind the peloton. I considered LEL but for a variety of reasons decided against it, but if I broke my seatpost on LEL, I would have been really upset.
In any case, I know the feeling of a DNF. It sucks. Have a safe journey home.
Edit: my fitness is better than 2019 PBP which I completed. FTP higher than 2015 PBP but my training load (CTL = 80) is much less than 2015 (CTL around 120 then) and better than 2019 (only 60 for CTL)