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Accelerace Mountain Biking
Event Diary 2008 - diary transcript
Day 8 - And he's made it! From the North to the South of Portugal in 8 days. Even the last day had its tribulations however - SMS follows, we'll hopefully get a round-up from Ross once he's back and settled, but that might be quite slow in coming (if past experience is anything to go by...) In any case - I think I speak for all in saying congratulations...
08/06/08 15:55
>>>FINISHED! Snapped the cable to the rear mech so rode 25k with 3 gears. Amazing last day along the coast. Some sketchy singletrack. Had a cold beer and a dip in the sea at the end. Full report soon...<<<
Day 7 (and 6) - Ross crafts an elegant description of his last two days riding, in the thrilling interactive and fully ultra-modern email format...Read on...
>>>Day 6 - The Oven
The long day before had taken its toll more than I thought. For the first time all week my alarm woke me and I felt pretty terrible. I'd ridden pretty hard for almost the whole 160km and my legs were starting to feel a bit hollow.
During the ride down to the hotel from the finish I suffered my first puncture, and this delayed me in the morning because I just couldn't be bothered to fix it the night before. I was so rushed on the startline that i managed to cycle off and leave my glasses on the floor. Consequently, after turning around to collect them, I began the stage dead last.
Freshly smothered in suncream i set off down the road and instantly became a giant human fly trap. It felt like there were more bugs than usual, and suddenly i was getting bitten too. First in the middle of my forehead, then inside my lycra. All pretty unpleasant.
It took me a while to settle in, but I felt ok back in the saddle. In fact i felt ok enough to push on and catch the lead group. The first 25km or so were all on road, so i figured that if i could latch on to them i could sit in their slipstream and save some effort. I stuck with them for about the first 20km, but the effort to stay in the group greatly outweighed any gain, so i dropped back.
It was brutally hot. Especially on the small climbs where the wind disappeared. On paper this looked like the easiest day, but not after what has come before. The rolling hills were causing me to slow up. I had caught up the usual people, but it was taking me longer. Then I came round one corner and saw a group of about 6 riders all stood together. I figured they couldn't all be lost. One of the girls had come off her bike, on a fairly innocuous part of the course, and broken her collar bone. It was decided that when the safetly car had been to pick her up we would all cycle off together. I was too busy applying suncream and missed everyone ride off. Still, after seeing the crash i was in no mood to race, so took the last 30km pretty easy. Plus, having trained and practiced on my bike, it was not easy learning how this new bike handled, so I was cagey on all the downhills, or where the ground was loose (pretty much everywhere).
I actually started to go pretty crazy. The heat, the dehydration, the lack of solid food, all contributed to some strange thoughts. At one stage I actually questioned whether I was riding the bike properly, and looked around to see how other people were riding. Understand that it was really, really hot. All day I had The Road To Amarillo stuck in my head. Which gets tiresome.
I rode into the finish feeling more tired than perhaps I should have for what was quite an easy stage compared to what we have been used to. Every day we have been going out and punishing our bodies, every night is a mad effort to help them recover and then we expect them to ride just as hard the next day. Mine is starting to feel the strain.
Day 7 - One Foot in the Algarve
Todays route profile looked awful. The last 40 km in particular showed some solid climbs. Including one that was supposedly the toughest of the whole week - 25% for 4km on rough forest logging roads.
My mp3 player ran out of batteries pretty early, leaving me with The Pogues and that dodgy christmas song lodged in my head for the rest of the day. I felt slow, and the first 40km were blisteringly hot. I just chuffed along, in no mood to push myself hard. It was too hot. For the first time i was using an isotonic mix in my water, which I wish I had done from the start, but it was too late in the week to worry about.
The main climb was now within sight. Dominating the skyline. I stuck the bike in granny and hit the main slope. I had to lean right forward to stop the front wheel coming up and rolling me backwards down the hill. I kept going up, and up, and soon was past the toughest section. I was well pleased, and thought that reaching the top in one go was well on, but suddenly all the sweat from my helmet collected in my eyes and blinded me. I had to step off. It was like lemon juice in the eye. Like doing a tequila suicide.
Mountain biking is mentally tiring as much as it is physically exhausting. You must concentrate the whole time on where your front wheel is going. Coming down a short but steep slope today, not really paying attention because the surface was really smooth, i took a bend and planted the front wheel in a deep section of sand at about 30k/hr. I lost control of thge front wheel, the bike jerked wildly and I clattered my knee into the stem , giving me a dead leg, which i had to ride with for the rest of the day. Somehow I managed to stay on. There are so many rocks that jerk the bike all over the place. Later in the day one of the leaders was taken to hospital with another broken collar bone. Earlier in the week, close to where my bike had given up, someone had come off and broken their femur.
As i relaxed on the downhill into the hotel finish, there was so much salt on my face from sweating that I couldn't open my eyes properly.
So, on the eve of the final day, with one foot in the Algarve, I can almost smell the sea.<<<
Day 6 - Ah Portugal, where the hills are never-ending, and the internet crashes (much like here then). Sounds like Ross made it through another day though, which is excellent news...
06/06/08 23:55
>>>Just spent ages writing an email and the internet crashed. Full 2 day update tomorrow. Feeling it today. Rode easy after arriving on the scene of a broken collar bone. Hard day tomorrow. Supposedly includes the week's toughest climb. Will let you know...<<<
Day 5 - No email contact, but seems (almost unnervingly), as if Ross has managed to string two days of cycling together without something falling apart. A quick SMS confirmed that he not only completed the stage, but did so with some speed...
05/06/08 22:42
>>>No internet ce soir. Feeling pretty good, but really tired. Only major hills were in the first 20km so the route was pretty fast. Minus the handicaps my time of 8hrs 32 for the 160km was quite reasonable. Tan lines are awesome. Have holes in my feet from shoe rub, but remedied the sore arse slightly by angling my saddle down. Full email tomorrow. Quote of the day as i passed one of the older guys who started before me " Hey, you are pushing like hell. Are you on drugs?"<<<
Day 4 - A new day, a new bike - but would Ross manage to break his unlucky streak (or another bike)? Read on - he managed to get to a computer after a long hard day in the saddle and pinged over an email for your reading pleasure...
04/06/08 21:00
>>>Day 4 - New Bike
with my bike failing to pass a late fitness test (photo soon hopefully), my only hope of getting to the finish now rested on borrowing a bike from one of the camera men. the bike looks nice enough, and is particularly light (partly due to its size), but has more flex than a foot-long wiener. the mechanics main concern for me was that, with the bike being so small, i have had to use almost the entire length of my seatpost. which he feared would break off under my weight. due to the amount of flex in the bike, the front break rubs horrifically if i ever want to get out of the saddle. so with 106km ahead of me i set off from the hotel on my new ride, with the last (and not particularly encouraging) words from the mechanic ringing in my head "Good luck! You are going to need it". Thanks.
the first few kilometres were pretty uneventful. averaging 21km/hr along the river banks felt pretty good. comedy quote of the day came from one of the slower guys who had set off before me. as i passed him he shouted "Hey Ross, you have a new bike. now go past me and show me those powerful American legs". which i did. except i was moving so fast my mighty pistons would have been just a blur. i wish.
the last third of the stage was predominantly up hill and my backside began pining for my full suspension frame. the benefits of the lighter bike were drastically outweighed by the lack of comfort. so i began spending more time out of the saddle. which in turn put more pressure on my feet. which meant i cycled the last 30km with my shoes undone.
with just 2km to go i reached the last climb. pure cobbled hell. just what my backside didn't need. i was steep too, but i nimbly dealt with the small steps, gritted my teeth and clenched my cheeks. after peeling myself from the saddle (it really is that bad) i sat for ages and stuffed my face in the post-race buffet gazebo. my time - 6hrs 17mins. would have been nice to go under 6 hours, but i couldn't spend long enough in the saddle to get any speed on the (not so) flat sections.
at the evening briefing the race leader was presented with his yellow jersey for the 3rd day in a row and we were given a route guide for the next day - 160km. the longest. and the only words to stand out? very bad surfaces, very uncomfortable. sweet! <<<
Day 3 - Small ray of light through a pretty bleak outlook - quick SMS confirms that at least he'll be racing tomorrow...
03/06/08 21:19
>>>Hiring a bike from one of the staff. Mine is beyond hope and no way of fixing it in time.<<<
Day 3 - Bl*&dy hell. When it rains it pours. Ross is having a real time of it in Portugal. After his initial issues on Day 1 (see below), he seems to have killed his bike today. Really really unlucky.. Synopsis of quick phone call follows...
03/06/08 21:00
>>> Today was a 112km stage, and it sounds like Ross was pretty fired up for it after his initial set-backs on Day 1, and the more encouraging performance on Day 2, ready to get his teeth into the day and keep up some momentum. Started ok, but after about 20km he lost the ability to lock-out his front fork. For the unitiated this means that whereas usually he is able to switch his front fork from suspension to rigid with the twist of a dial, this no longer made any difference. Why would he want to do this anyway? If the trail isn't so bumpy, and is mainly steep uphill, having very bouncy front suspension can be pretty energy inefficient and sap a lot of strength, so it's useful to be able to 'lock-out' the forks. In this particular instance, the reason Ross wanted to lock the forks out was because he was bottoming out the suspension on even the slightest of bumps (something serious wrong with what are otherwise some really nice front forks). Basically, this meant that he had to ride for about 50km (till the checkpoint at 70km) bobbing around uncontrolably, making life particularly unpleasant. Sadly, this wasn't the end of it - since at this point, his fork decided it had truly had enough, and, in Ross's words 'blew up'. Sounds pretty messy. Seems the forks lost all semblance of normality, and the innards were, basically, screwed. So his wheel was basically hanging off his bike - held on only by the brake cable (which was stretched pretty tight.
So, another day, another pick-up and return to the finish. This time, a very serious bike failure to repair, and when I spoke to him earlier it was all looking a bit hairy as to whether they'd be able to get hold of the nearest bike shop (30km away), and get the appropriate conversion kit to put a new set of forks on the bike, and then get him onto the start line tomorrow morning. All of this obviously aided by the stream of tutting competitors wandering past and offering useful (and less useful) advice and condolences. As you can imagine, I don't think Ross's mood was particularly bright. Will hopefully hear later what the outcome is - fingers very tightly crossed that he gets to race tomorrow.<<<
Day 3 - just when things seemed to be looking up - sounds like Ross has had another monumental mechanical issue - although full extent not yet clear, this doesn't sound good...
03/06/08 20:19
>>>Would imagine it takes quite a lot of force to break a Lefty fork into two pieces [the type of front fork Ross has only has a left stanchion, hence 'Lefty']. Unfortunately my front wheel is now hanging off. Not a sweet ride. Was riding really strong and eating and drinking well too, so quite pissed off with the whole situation.<<<
Day 2 - the full report - Ross emails in, and gives a longer account of quite what befell him on a generally more successful day...
>>>Mad dogs and transportugal mountain bikers.
what a difference a day makes. arrived at yesterdays finish, having been picked up by the support van with just 30km to go, feeling particularly depressed. my bike looked tragic and sounded worse. my shoe, wedged in the pedal, took two mechanics to release.
and i didnīt feel much better when i woke up. tired and stiff getting out of bed I remembered just how much of a beating your body gets after a day of mountain biking, and i still had 7 left. shoulders, back, legs and neck all ached and the bruise on my hand had made that chunky bit below the thumb look like a plum so i was not looking forward to gripping the handle bars for the next 7 hours. this was all before i remembered what todays route profile looked like. 45 km of solid climbing to start the day - sweet!
as i pulled on to the startline and looked up at the hill awaiting us, i tried to plan a strategy. go slow. which i did.
but once back on the saddle and the shock and complaining from my backside had subsided i began to feel some rhythm. i passed a few people early on, and managed to survive the treacherous gorge that we had been advised to walk down. to me it looked suicidal to try and ride, so i hugged the edge and crept down. others rode... and fell.
i caught up with fellow brit paul west on the next big climb. he had felt gutsy and tried to ride into the gorge only to get a wheel jammed in the rocks and get catipulted over the handlebars. the cut on his leg could have been much worse.
one steep climb lay between me and 50 km of supposedly easy riding. it was a steep climb, but it felt doubly good to ride past all the pushers. just what my confidence needed. what followed was 50km of pretty desolate and bleak countryside. i managed to maintain pretty good speed and gradually my average k/hr crept up. paul had been riding with me and we managed to avoid stopping for too long anywhere.
with about 20km left we approached a fork in the track. gps said turn right, but as i moved to make the turn my front wheel went straight into a fist-sized loose rock, sending my bike one way and me the other. (i would just like to add that this was the only rock on the whole track. a track that was wide enough for at least two double-decker buses - i blamed the tiredenss). apart from a cut knee i couldnīt find anything else wrong, until in the shower afterwards i founbd cuts across the top of my shoulder. quite a tricky place to reach. i can imagine the whole crash looked pretty funny and at least my bike survived. i did chew a lot of grit until the finish.
i managed to keep the pace up, in spite of the route taking us on a bush-whacking tour during the last few km. i rode into the finish fweeling pretty chuffed, and under 7 hours, just.<<<
Day 2 - sounds like a much better day - quick SMS showing a much happier Ross. Guess he deserved it after yesterday..
02/06/08 20:19
>>>My time of 6hrs 58mins was the fastest brit by 5 mins, but then the other guy gets a 2% handicap so beat me by 59 secs. Good day tho. One major fall. Nice face plant. Also got praised on my climbing ability by someone who has done the race 4 times. Hopefully an email this eve.<<<
Day 1 follow-up - voicemail this time - we are so multimedia... Sounds like Ross had the mother of all days, with cow pat puddles combining with monster mechanical failures and a vicious course to make life difficult.. Summary follows...
>>>About 90km into the stage Ross was suffering from monster chain-suck (rear deraileur dragging on the chain every 5 pedal strokes or so), meaning he couldn't pedal freely and had to pedal backwards to free the chain - this was particularly bad on the steep hills (of which it sounds like there were a huge number). On one very steep hill the chain stuck, and trying to pedal backwards didn't free the chain - then trying to free his foot Ross somehow managed to wrench the cleat on his shoe round within the pedal without getting his foot off the pedal - so went for the other option of falling off sideways and bruising his hand. Sounds like the shoe was completely spun sideways on the pedal, and entirely wedged onto the pedal, so that no matter what he tried he couldn't free it. Hence the walking with the bike - about 8/10km to the next checkpoint, where he got a lift to the finish. Really bad luck, since he was going pretty strongly, and now has to get the maximum time allocated for the stage (11hrs). On top of this generally disastrous start, his rear suspension pivot apparently sounds like an old tractor, and the stage was extra-muddy, with every puddle filled with surface run-off cow-manure from nearby fields - as you can imagine, I don't think this added to Ross's mood very much. No news on whether or how he managed to get his bike fixed, but he sounded a bit more chipper about tomorrow, despite the prospect of a very long hill to start (about 20km), the whole day isn't as long, and he said his legs weren't feeling too bad. Fingers well and truly crossed for tomorrow then - let's hope the mechanical demons stay away...<<<
Day 1 initial SMS - doesn't sound like a good start for Ross, but limited info, let's hope he get's in touch later...
01/06/08 17:26
>>>Day one has gone about as badly as i could have possibly ever imagined. Walked 10k with a decrepit bike and been picked up. Will explain all later.<<<
Last evening before the off, and this time in email format!
31/05/08 22:27
>>>ok so itīs the evening before the first day.
so far today we have put bikes together (fortunately my ride survived the flight), eaten lots of pasta, meat and potatoes and been briefed, thoroughly briefed. in fact the race briefing lasted over two hours - partly because everything had to be repeated in english and portuguese, and partly because people felt the need to ask ridiculous questions. such as "will the cafes in the smallest villages in remotest portugal accept my visa card?" the organisers are very hot on people not receiving assistance from anyone else, and this prompted many questions. apparently, if our bikes break, it is ok for us to leave our bikes in a bush, borrow a horse and ride bareback to the end of the stage.
the rest of the afternoon was spent working out how to use the gps units and for the second time in two days i managed to time going outside with the arrival of the daily monsoon. i come all the way to portugal and end up riding in scaggy mud that you can find on boxhill. bike nicely muddied, there was just enough time for a nap before dinner (you can guess the menu) and then a quick pre-bed briefing.
lots of people very scared about the overall amount of accumulated ascent for tomorrows ride - 3878m. going to take it very easy. a yellow jersey was presented to last years winner, who will be going off at the same time as me. anyone leading the race at the start of a stage gets to wear the yellow jersey for the day. not sure i will see the jersey for long. and the possibility of wearing it...? unlikely, as it is size XS and probably won't even fit over my head.
actually, the fact that they bought such a small leaders jersey says a lot about the racing crowd here. very small, very light and very shaven. not a leg hair in sight.
anyway, i need to get some sleep. 141km awaits when wake up tomorrow, and if i can avoid falling off, or being attacked by weird, stray portuguese dogs, then another instalment will be sent tomorrow.<<<
Ross checks in from Portugal, and gives his early impression on the local culture...
31/05/08 13:38
>>>Pretty fudging hot when the sun comes through. No wind. 8 hr coach journey yesterday was pants. Bike seems to work tho. Just trying to find food in a town that claims to have a great history but is mostly still being built.<<<
Ross arrives in Portugal. Apologies for the text grammar - I feel this may be something we have to get used to...
30/05/08 11:46
>>>Sweet! It's pissing it down in Lisbon. Have a 6 hour coach trip this eve which will be useful to get some sleep cos i ain't had any yet. Bike seems to have survived baggage handlers. Which is main relief.<<<
Ross is taking on an incredible mountain biking challenge in Portugal - racing from the North to the South of the country, a journey of over 1100km, over 8 stages.
The race begins on Sunday 1 June, and we're going to try and keep the site updated as he goes along, hopefully with some input from the man himself - as long as he's remembered to take his phone charger with him and can summon the energy to send a text at the end of each day (not by any means guaranteed - especially the charger). In any case we'll endeavour to post his results for each day on this section of the site.
Keep checking back - and good luck Ross!
Hopefully Ross has taken sufficient race kit for 8 days - could be fairly muddy otherwise...
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