Hate & inspiration

The Witham 200. April 13th

Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 1... So there I was, pedaling along, when a German cyclist cruises up to me. His opening comment was "excuse me, may I ask if you are into long distance rides". I thought of retorting with "so what the hell is this 200k ride we are on then, idiot" but felt the humble response would be "no, not really". It turns out he wasn't trying to score points, just get some information and in particular about the guys we were following who had "got the shirt" for having done "The PBP" last year, an amazing 1,200 km (750 miles) ride from Paris to Brest and back to Paris which must be completed within 90 hours. Basically cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, cycle for 22 hours, sleep for 2, for 4 days solid. HOW????? I am totally shagged after 10 hours, 125 miles. Very inspiring to talk to the guys who've done the ride though I can never see myself doing it.

http://www.paris-brest-paris.org/EN/index.php

On other HOW???? notes, I just read this book, it's quite an inspiring read. On holiday I read it and thought "sod all this 100 mile bike rides, let's step it up to 200 or 250 miles". Then I did 125 miles on Sunday on the flatlands of east anglia and thought "125 miles is quite enough, thanks". This guy is into running rather than cycling - but check out his bio (about -> bio) - this guy RUNS 350 miles non-stop and has just run 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 days. Then he ran back home again, another 1,300 miles EH??? Again very inspiring & very humbling.

http://www.ultramarathonman.com/flash/


Sometimes I hate other cyclists, part 2... So I pull into the first checkpoint on the weekend ride and the controller says to me "it's nice to see you taking your time". Felt like saying "piss off you turd, I was going as fast as I could!". It's interesting though how things work out over a number of hours on an endurance ride - I was definitely a little slower on the road than most other riders and when I pulled back into the carpark at the end I expected there to only be a few cars left, but it was still pretty full. Somewhat confused I asked the controller out of interest how many people had done the 200k ride and how many had finished so far (there was also a 150k and 100k ride that started & finished in the same place and shared some of the route), he said I was 12th home out of 34 - so that I was very happy with. I think what it is is whilst I'm a little slower on the road than average I linger a lot less in the rest stops, I typically just fill up my water bottles and set off again, eating energy bars etc whilst I cycle along. Who knows, all a bit confused about that.

Off to Taunton this weekend to to Dustman Daves Demon Hilly, the title says it all...