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Day Nine – Half Way!

It’s IndyPac season! As I write this, I have one monitor tuned to the 2022 race, and I’m watching the facebook feed on my phone. I know a lot of the dots, and I really wish I was one of them. I’m not, so I’m compensating, by writing about my own adventures. Next up is Day Nine.

It was dark, when the alarm went off. I lay in bed for a moment, appreciating having gotten a good night’s sleep in a comfortable bed, then I threw back the covers and got up to greet the day. I’d saved a slice of pizza from the night before to get me started on breakfast, so I gulped that down as I got dressed then I rolled out into the pre-dawn light.

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Day Eight – A Dark Day

The next day dawned… well, grey and overcast to be honest. I headed out of the hotel and went straight to get breakfast. Someone decided at some point that Kimba is halfway across Australia, and to celebrate that they (or someone else) erected a giant Galah. I really can’t think of a better way of marking the halfway point, even if it is actually only the halfway point if you are taking a specific route from Perth through to Sydney. Well, to be honest, I can think of one better way, but happily they also built a bakery, so they had all bases covered, and I had breakfast covered.

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Day 7 – A Lazy Day

Kristoff Alleghert is a legend in ultra-cycling. He has won some of the toughest races in the world with huge margins, and had a solid lead in IPWR 2017 when it was halted. He doesn’t write nearly as much as I do, but he does write a bit (and what he does write, he surely writes quicker), and one thing I remember reading from him is “Standing around waiting for the rain to stop is not a solution”. In my defence, I was not standing.

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The road to the finish line is seldom straight…

…so just before we head there, here’s a short little detour, in case you were worried that there wouldn’t be more racing!

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Day Nine – A funny thing happened…

I woke up pretty early, knowing I had a big hill to get over first thing. I hadn’t ridden over it last night because I was worried that I would get too cold. I wanted to get over it quickly and early now though, because I knew that if I didn’t I would end up suffering through the heat. Beyond the hill though was checkpoint 3. When I started this race in 2017 I got as far as checkpoint 3 before pulling out, so knowing that I was at least within range of equaling that effort was a comforting thought. Continue reading “Day Nine – A funny thing happened…”

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Day 3 – Struggles in Serbia

Day Three started well, crossing into Serbia. I’m sure others have different strategies, but for me having landmarks and milestones helps with my motivation, and crossing a border counts as a milestone. It isn’t all good though – in this case it also came with a change of language (not that my Bulgarian was good enough to be much benefit) and a change of currency. Serbian currency is actually quite difficult to get outside of Serbia, so like many others I was relying on finding an ATM, or failing that people who would accept payment with card or Euro/Bulgarian Lev.

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Day 1 – the long version

Ok, my plan now is to do much more detailed write-ups and post them over the coming weeks. The fundraising has been going really well – thanks to contributions from a whole lot of wonderful people I have passed my goal, but I’ll keep it open here just in case anyone still wants a chance donate. Forgive me if these write-ups are too long, i had a lot of time to think on the bike!

Race day! It started perfectly – but that only lasted about 5 minutes. Many years ago I worked in Bulgaria, and had a great guy working with me who taught me a lot. In particular, there is an ancient Bulgarian saying that has been passed down from generation to generation, that this guy shared with me. I followed it for quite a while, but the night before had chosen to ignore it. I’m not sure if that was the cause, but it meant that in the hours before the race any spare fluids I had were rapidly exiting my body. The saying was “Don’t eat the small meat, Rowan”.

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And finished!

Well, the short story is that I made it. I was nowhere near as fast as my original plan, but just completing the course is an achievement and to be honest I am satisfied – for now.

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Cloud Ride Prologue

Ok, if you haven’t already heard the news, I’m heading back for another crack at the Transcontinental. I’m all signed up and will be heading off from Bulgaria in late July. I know I can ride that far, so the aim for this time is to do it quickly. I developed a great training plan, and have totally failed to stick to it, but hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks.

Anyway, with that in mind it seemed like time to do another long race, so I did. There is a great off-road race called the Cloudride that starts and finishes in Canberra that I’ve thought about doing for a long time, and I’m not doing it this year either.

What I did do though was the Cloudride Prologue, a 500km race designed as an entry into bikepacking and/or a testing ground for gear and set-up.

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All the way!

Well, I made it! I had a great trip, saw some fantastic things and met some wonderful people. Right now though I’m thoroughly enjoying being ridiculously well looked after by some wonderful friends, old and new, so the stories will have to wait. Shouldn’t be long though!