‘Woefully underprepared’ is the only way to describe our first ever cycle race.
We had entered a 12 hour endurance race in Sebring to mark the end of our trip through the States. At the time of entering it was a great idea, with only a few minutes until the off, it suddenly didn’t seem such a fantastic plan.
A grand total of 4 and a half hours sleep hadn’t set us up as well as we’d hoped. A nice breakfast took the edge off but the freezing conditions weren’t helping. Especially as I’d left all my thermal clothes back in Miami. It was still pitch black and time was getting short.
Fifteen minutes until the whisle blew… I’d only just parked the car and taken the bikes out. Now we had to put the wheels on, attach the electronic tags and get the sports tracker set up.
Ten minutes to go… “Where’s my phone? Bo#^%cks! It must have fallen out of my pocket at breakfast.” I left Susie to head to the start line where they had already started giving instructions for the race. I cycled back to the hotel. The phone was not at reception, not at the restaurant, not in the bathroom.
Five minustes to go… Back to the car, the phone wasn’t in the car. “Sh&t!!!” Too late to do anything else so I headed back to the start.
Three minutes to go… Found Susie on the start line. Her saddle was in the wrong position and I’d gone off with the multi-tool.
Everyone else was set, primed and ready to go listening to vital final instructions on how not to get lost on the course. Susie was frantically adjusting the seat post on her bike. I was standing there in my baggy trousers and a T-shirt under my cycling top as a futile attempt at keeping the chill from reaching my bones. I realised I hadn’t got my race ID number on.
Two minutes to go… I was having my race number pinned to my back by a kind spectator. Susie was fiddling with the saddle. We still hadn’t checked if our electronic tags worked.
Thirty seconds to go… Susie’s passed me back the multi-too and we checked our tags worked so our milage could be recorded.
I’d like to say that our countless hours on the bikes had prepared us and that, at this stage, we looked calm and professional.
Unfortunately I can’t.
My baggy trousers were tucked into my socks and my exposed arms were goose bumped. Susie had her hoody on with one leg rolled up on her trousers. Neither of us had lights for the Sebring race track, still pitch black. We clearly looked as though we’d taken a wrong turn and somehow ended up on the start line.
Go!
Off we pedal with nothing to be done about the numerous things we have overlooked.
12 hours to the finish… 12 hours to tally up as many miles as we could.
We weren’t sure who to cycle with in order to keep a good pace but the second group that formed seemed to suit us fairly well. Pace was fairly swift but having racing bikes and no paniers to haul meant we were keeping up. By the end of the 3 laps of the Sebring race track it was almost light. We headed out on the roads of central Florida for 100 mile loop that would lead us back to the start line.
25 miles in… Flat tyre. Well, not flat, but very low and after 25 miles I stopped to pump up my tyre get food from my saddle bag and take a leak. I told Susie to stay with the pack so as not to lose energy. I intended to catch them. Not as easy as I’d thought. Conditions stayed cold and the wind was directly in our faces. After 20 miles of pushing and almost catching the pack I resigned to the fact I wouldn’t manage before the turn around point and eased off slightly, reserving some energy.
9 hours to the finish… Susie was waiting for me at the turn around and we took 10 minutes to chomp some food while I got my tyres inflated. My attempts with my hand pump were taking way too long. Susie got her seat post adjusted as it was still in the wrong position.
7 hours to the finish… My saddle brakes and starts moving from side to side. Nothing too worrying but quite irritating. We headed back to the race track and roughly the half way point. This time we took it in turns in the lead as we have been doing for the past 9 months. The wind was with us and we kept a good pace.
6 hours to the finish… Lunch time, it wasn’t a pretty sight. Both of us trying to get pasta, banana’s and sugary snacks in our mouths as swiftly as possible without it coming straight back out. I went to fill up my water bottles only to find on my return two of the mechanics fighting to massage susie’s legs with their ’special stick’. Susie finally got her seat in the right position and popped some painkillers for her knees, now killing from the previously cramped riding position.
10 minutes rest in total, then straight back to the job at hand… racking up the milage. My aim was to try and see if we could do over 200 miles in the alloted 12 hours. This meant a high average speed and precious little rest time.
The next part of the course changed, smaller circuits of 11.7 miles. The sun had emerged and we found the cycling very pleasant. Our first 30 miles was great. Susie would invariably be singing out loud when drafting me. In fact I was getting a little embarrased as we passed rider after rider with her screaming out lyrics from behind, as if saying “this is a breeze, I’m passing you and not even out of breath”.
Show off.
I took this as a cue to pick up the pace a bit as she obviously wasn’t working hard enough.
After the next and final break though Susie started to feel the burn and the one hill on the circuit coupled with the head wind meant she wasn’t a happy bunny on that section. The next part of the route had a long stretch of downhill with the wind on our backs and was much more her style at this stage.
2 and a half hours to go… Over three quarters of the way through and I was expecting time to drag and my energy levels to drop. However I was getting used to snacking on the go and despite pushing our pace I was surprised to find I had lots of energy and that time was shooting past. I was clearly more concerned with getting over 200 miles of tarmac under us. In the last couple of laps I took the majority of the headwind in order to keep our pace up.
40 minutes to go… In the final hour we rejoined the race track to complete circuits of 3.1 miles. We figured we needed 4 circuits to get us over the 200 miles. Just about possible. Unfortunately Susie’s energy levels were low and she urged me to try for the 4 laps without her.
I sped off like a madman, surprising myself how much more I had left in my legs. It wasn’t enough though and I could only make 3 circuits in the time we had left. I then waited on the finish line hoping Susie would make it round three laps as well.
2 minutes to go… Susie crosses the line after an exhausting final lap. We congratulated each other on how well we’d done but secretly more because we’d managed to finish. One of the officials told us that 8 laps of the small circuit and 3 laps of the race track meant we were just shy of 200 miles.
Half hour later… After getting the bikes packed and changed we eventually found the award ceremony. Susie had managed to win her category… yay! Our friend from the race told us that all the serious male competion was in my category and I didn’t place anywhere. Looking more closely at Susie’s medal we noted she was marked down for over 204 miles. I had to check if I’d done the same so asked the organiser if I could find out my times for the race.
It turns out I had won my category too with the same milage as Susie and that our lack of organisation meant we had undermeasured the circuit distances… double yay!!!
Totally knackered and ready to drop we headed off to get the bikes back and try to get our hire car back before midnight.
Luckily for us we had met Chris, a local cycling fan and owner of Velocity Studio in Palm Beach. He had lent me his bike for the race and helped to organise one for Susie.
We sped to meet him where he was enjoying a couple of Saturday evening beers. We can’t thank him enough. Not only had he brought his jeep out to rescue the bikes but also assured us that - though we returned them to him dismantled (and with dodgy seat post) - all was well and waved us off.
Once again we have been amazingly lucky to meet such a fantastic guy. It just added to what was already an incredible experience.
Susie is still complaining that she feels like she has been “hit repeatedly with a big stick” and she never wants to do anything like that again.
I, on the other hand really enjoyed the experience and can only hope I learn from this and be a little more prepared the next time.
