Match the backside to the bike ride

A few more pictures from the longest night

Trying to sum up the Le Mans 24hr velo is quite tricky.

You would think that when people ask you what it was like the focus would be on the speeds, distances, cornering etc. Not so. My abiding memories around about the small hours, eating and heading back to the pit area. The range of food rustled up by Kristin was awesome, I had no idea you could eat so much and still be hungry. But as the stats show 26,907 calories is a lot to put back in.

There always seemed to be a specific reason to go back in to the pit and I remember it as a crowded and busy place. Although some of us in there were more active than others.

From the photos it looks calm and quiet, not the feeling at the time as there was usually a heated discussion going on about something. Usually pace and who kept disappearing up the road.

I suppose minute for minute we did spend more time in that room that at any single point on the course.

Banging on about food and the pit lane does elicit some unusual looks. 'Where did you sleep?', is the usual question. How great to be able to say: 'we didn't.' I'll be dining out on this ride for years.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

I always knew that my Garmin readout from the 24 heures velo was going to be a little strange, tracking the same squiggle for a whole day. My Forerunner only has 10 hours of battery life and I wasn't convinced that charging it during the race would work, but it did. Stupidly I forgot to start it at the beginning of the race but the readout below still offers intresting numbers. My personal favourite is the total of 26,907 calories burned. It makes me feel much better about stuffing my face every time we came back to the pits and trust me, that was often. Second favourite has got to be the climbing, 31,098ft of ascent, astonishing even for someone who cycled it. Good news comes in the form of my average heart rate 103bpm, very low I thought. From the graph below you can see how it varied. The shape is a classic bathtub curve. When I was a student of engineering this kind of graph would be used to demonstrate the life of light bulbs and the like -- MTBF, Mean Time Between Failure. I think this is also true of cyclists, you either blow up early and die or hang on in there but eventually wear out and die. My burn out was self-inflicted as I blasted a lap at the end to celebrate. I should imagine the shape of my fellow riders' heart rate curves would be more of a chaise longue profile, much more civilised.

Elsewhere Andrew has tracked down this great video at 6.45 there is a team of three Transitions riders speeding along in close formation. I think I need to take another look at my riding position.

Follow the velo thick road

Dinah Washington certainly knew what she was talking about when she sang 'What a Difference a Day Makes' but even she would have struggled with 24 'little hours' on the blustery Bugatti circuit suffered by the SBR Team at the weekend.

Tension was high the day before the start as the bleary-eyed cyclists gathered in London's St Pancras station to catch the Eurostar to Le Mans via Paris. Most had set their alarm early that day (mine was 4.15am) and travelled with their bikes to meet the van that would transport the bikes.

Sleep deprivation was to become the norm. Tears were shed ( Andrew and Mark) as the beloved bikes were loaded and left while the riders let the train take the strain. An enjoyable journey was followed by a visit to the famous circuit for registration, freebie cans of Red Bull and a recce. The return to dinner was delayed by the lack of taxis, despite Kristin's valliant efforts to flag down a driving instructor, one ( yes, just the one taxi) was found to ferry us all back to the hotel. Incredibly the team went to the bar before dinner where a few beers eased the tension as strategies were decided on, developed then dismissed and discarded.

How little we knew about what would be in store. Wine accompanied dinner as the race chatter continued. Although the race didn't start until 3 the team had an earlyish start to get to the course and set up the bikes and stock ( Thanks Matt and Kristin) the pit area. Immediately it was clear that there was a breeze blowing. The next few hours saw tension rise once again as the team familarised itself with the Bugatti stadium and realised what was in store. The sight of so many professional-looking (and large) teams also made us think. An elusive race briefing left the team none the wiser but it soon dawned that the start would be at 2.15 not bang on 3 to allow time for a warm up lap and renditions of national anthems from around the world. Much jolity was had by the three solo riders, Paul, Andrew and I, as we saluted, sang and encouraged our French solo counterparts to have a bit of fun. At 3.00pm the gun sounded and the riders ran across the track ' le Mans' style. The solo squad set off easily resisting the temptation to chase down any groups. The first few laps were quite easy and keeping the target of 25kph wasn't a problem. As the race went on we eased into apace just about the level planned, this wasn't too bad but did encourage the odd turn of speed. On the descents Andrew and Paul would chase down a group or two and wait to be caught. I may even have had a blast or two myself. Not a good idea in a 24 hour race. It wasn't long before the headwind at the back end of the circuit began to take its toll. The laps took on a pattern of: climb the hill, enjoy the descent and the hairpins then, find a wheel to hang on to and shelter from the muscle sapping wind. All too often that wheel tuned out to be ours as riders in teams of 4,6 and 8 happily enjoyed our slipstream while getting shirty if we decided to enjoy theirs. The chosen strategy of 2 hour on, half hour off began to falter in the late evening as the wind peaked at around 35kph and the mind games began. Morale hit rock bottom around 1am and the group decided that if we were going to finish the strategy would have to become more flexible. Time targets were swapped for mile marks as we headed out onto the track with a distance in mind rather than for two hour stints. Not only would a two hour stint have been crippling in that wind but (for different reasons), we all wanted to use the toilets.The pit area became our world as the night dragged on and new foodstuffs tried. Each stop gave us the opportinity to drink copious amounts of Red Bull, eat chocolate, energy bars, peanuts, bread and stretch out. Andrew overdid the energy gels a tad, hence the frequent toilet stops.

As the night wore on each of the team of four riders made an appearance and to their credit they provided us with all the support they could. Some protected us from the wind and others just cheered us up, either way seeing them out on the course provided a much needed morale boost. As the morning dawned and the bodies warmed up the 300km marker was passed but by this time the goal was simply to keep going and finish. There was little energy for bravado about big distances that could be covered let alone how fast. The sun was up and the wind wasn't dropping and niether were we! Unoffcially I would say our race finished around 2pm. We had pulled in to have the midday meal and with the race finishing at 3 the last few laps were more of a thank you to our growing band of fans around the route. The pace dropped and the realisation that we had made it sunk in. Unlike most of the riders we weren't taking things too seriously which went down badly with the other riders but seemed to endear us to sections of the crowd. One group of supporters who had adopted us the previous evening and returned the following morning to pick up where they left off even rustled up a Union Jack to wave at us as we went by as I gradually exhausted my repertoire of French phrases to shout as we went past. As the bell sounded for the last lap I decided to have a final blast and link up with a fast group ir exersions and take the cheers of the crowd. All in all a great day. How will we follow that?

Crucial training information

The latest findings from the Bennett Institute of Endurance Cycling Research conclusively shows that extensive training is needed to compete in endurance cycling events. Ahead of the Le Mans Velo 24 heures the Institute decided to conduct research into how the body might cope with a day-long bike ride. The purpose of the trial was to induce fatigue through cycling up hills over a period of four hours and then increasing the period of excercise. Initial findings were very successful with fatigue setting in after less than two and a half hours. The second half of the trial was to see how performance dropped off once a stage of fatigue was reached. The results were conclusive -- it does. After a day's rest the experiment was repeated. This showed that discomfort during extended exercise grew exponentially while speed continued to fall. Researchers called off further trials due to the conclusive nature of the early findings. Associate professor at the Institute, Siad Al Soar, said anyone attempting to ride for 24 hours without careful planning and comprehensive training could well be suffering from an Olympic Games-induced psychological condition. Professor Al Soar said the condition had first been identified, among UK cyclists, ahead of the 2011 Vatternrundan and was known by the medical term Phantasie Landous abillitius. He added that sufferers may benefit from a small dose of reality and large amounts of Chamois Cream.

It's a Le Mans world

With the the Le Mans 24heures velo looming and lots more entries made by Matt a little jockeying for position has started around who is going to ride what. Now the frites are down, so to speak, who will be up for the full 24 hrs?

I had resigned myself to a few hours riding and lots of lazing about in the sun, but with three 24hr entries to be honoured things have suddenly got a bit tougher. Having looked at the website it appears that the pace will be quite high. On the day I envisage a few Englishmen travelling at a slightly lower pace in order to make it through the night. I'm sure Paul has some ideas on how we could make it even more difficult.

Olympic inspiration

There's been a bit of a mixed bag of emotions surrounding the Olympics.

While Wiggo has been collecting gold in the TT (shot here on the Portsmouth Rd) the previous weekend was a bit more of a shock. The gold expected by Cavendish didn't appear but Lizzie did us proud in the rain the following day. I met up with Andrew for the Men's Road Race and a very nice day it was too. There was a real party atmosphere down on the A24 where we pitched up at a spot just as the riders turned into Mickleham village. Little did I know that a fellow SBRer was standing just outside the church in the village.

Andrew also had a chat with this guy, no wonder he was late onto the Mall with those little legs. All of which provides great inspiration for the Le Mans 24hrs. Thanks to Matt this now looks like being a 24 hr race for Paul, David and myself. A leisurely ride in France has just turned into a potential epic.