My Transcontinental Bike Race 2015 (Before)
I’ve been in two minds about writing a blog about the Transcontinental Bike Race last year. On the one hand it was the most adventurous thing I have ever done and I want to record what happened so that I can refer back to it and maybe inspire people to take that chance. On the other hand it didn’t go as planned and I only managed 4 days of the race, which is a massive disappointment and I was really down about spending months training and spending ££££ getting the equipment/flights/etc. Option 1 won….
The TCR is simply an unsupported bike race across Europe to the finish in Turkey. I’d followed the race in 2014 and hearing the stories after, really got me excited at the prospect of doing something completely mental. My longest ride before signing up for the TCR was 109 miles riding the Flanders sportive and my longest tour was 3 days doing the Way of the Roses, doing 70 miles a day and stopping in B&B’s. So I was completely not physically ready for an adventure of this scale. In 2014 I’d ridden 2600 miles in total, this was the same distance that I was expected to ride in 2 weeks across Europe!
Training started soon after my place on the race was confirmed. I didn’t actually get a road bike until February, after selling my road bike the previous September.
So January was spent riding the heavy rigid 29er around the peaks, which worked really well as it meant I was able to get out even with the snow and good strength training. February I got the bike I’d ride the TCR on, so I was ready to start getting the big miles in. First thing I did was join Audax UK and on the 7th I did my longest ride so far a 200km Audax from Alfreton. I was really worried that I’d die half way round but ended up with a great group blasting round and just tiring at the end. After this successful run the next 5 months followed a similar pattern, longer commutes during the week and Audax’s or a long ride on a weekend. I did have a few adventures blindly following routes I’d found on the internet!
Audax wise I completed 9x200km, 1x300km and 1x600km. Monthly stats before TCR below:
Month Distance(m) Climbing(Ft) Weight (lbs)
Jan 372 29337 209
Feb 639 41977 195
Mar 749 53496 187
Apr 1155 55943 184
May 1096 68862 179
Jun 849 45663 180
Jul 173 12277 184
Total 5046 308189 -25
By the 20th June I was the fittest I had ever been and I was feeling great, I hadn’t had any injuries or niggles. I’d booked all my tickets and bought almost all the equipment I needed and I was about to start a 600km audax, which I felt ready for.
I set off on the 3 Coast Audax and after around 200km I ended up in a group of three other riders all riding the TCR as well, so it was great to see how everyone’s preparation was going, which countries they were going through and what kit they were taking. Also it is a race after all so good opportunity for everyone to size up the competition. All was going well, I’d not stopped to have a sleep at the control at 390km and was keen to really push myself and see how far I could go before I fell off! and I knew that there was only one person up the road (Another TCR entrant!). At 450km both knees went and it was agony to stop and start pedalling. I carried on, not knowing whether I had torn muscles or what has happening. I got to the end and hobbled round the HQ and slept in the car before driving home. My knees were in agony for the next couple of weeks, so training stopped and thoughts of completing or even not starting the TCR grew. I went to see a physio and it was nothing torn, looked like my muscles were pulling my knees at an angle and inflaming the sockets, so not much you can do about that 4 weeks before the race! So almost all biking stopped for the next month to hopefully allow the swelling and inflammation to go down, just the commute to work.
The weekend before the race started I loaded up the TCR bike and was hoping for a nice full kit (I’ll cover Kit in another post)run, my right knee managed just 12km before it started aching. I went to the doctors and I was given some strong painkillers with instructions to take after a good breakfast. The doctor was quite put out when I said I didn’t know what or when I would be having breakfast for the next two weeks. After spending most of the last 7 months, training, planning a route, researching kit etc. I was absolutely gutted as I knew there was no way I was going to get to Turkey but I’d invested so much I was going to start and give it my best shot.
