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JonD
From Arjan Zwanenburg (He of the disastrous start)
Finally, after so many training kilometers and preparation, I am participating in the transcontinental race.
I am one of the racers who can participate in the race of 4000 km of which I, like so many other riders, have no idea if ican makei t or not, but in any case a serious attempt is made.
I have lost about 20 kilos in recent years (train now about 4.5 years) and in good condition my bike is carefully prepared and thoroughly tested in all the seasons in snow, rain etc. im only missing serious altitude meters but I expect the "Dutch Mountains" (the wind in the polder) to compensate. I just hope that I am ready for it.
Got up early at 6 am and around 7 pm the train to Geraardsbergen caught. Is going to be a long day since the start is planned at 22:00 in the evening and will be raced in the night.
Once arrived in Brussels for the transfer to Geraardsbergen it is nice to see that there are many packed racing cyclists on their way to Geraardsbergen. Brussels / Geraardsbergen is a short ride of an hour, but seems only a few minutes, the bikes and the preparation are a willing topic of conversation, I speak to Russians, Englishmen, and an Italian and have no notion of difference in time and language .
When I and the other cyclists arriving , we see that the town is completely occupied by the riders from all over the world, the benches in the park, the terraces the restaurants everywhere are the bikepackers / racers and everywhere.
The building where the first checkpoint is, is quickly reached.
Once inside, there are bikes mounted everywhere, the one nicer and more expensive equipped than the other. Everywhere there are riders on airbeds on the floor and there are several rows for the control points. I therefore undergo the following checks
The doctor's note ... ticked off,
The bike check .... trouble-free, and I'm told that I do not even have the heaviest bike.
The insurance papers and other papers are fine,
Ready.
I spend the rest of the afternoon with a very experienced Dutch cyclist Lieuwe on terraces, eating pizza at an Italian and we rest in the sun on a bench in the park.
Everywhere are the cyclists on the benches or in the grass, the friendly residents are smiling when the look at us, passers-by make photo's ask questions and I think they are used to this yearly scene.
The evening falls in and all the riders take a seat for the briefing of 19:00. First there are videos of (Mike Hall) in which the basic rules are well explained, then Anna Haslock starts her story, when she announces the next speaker Anna breaks and bursts into tears. The next speaker is the son of the cyclist who crashed last year during the transcontinental race.
With a lump in my throat and first fight against the tears listen to his emotional story.
Afterwards I and the other Dutch rider will visit him and his mother out of respect, and have a long conversation about, among other things, the circumstances and the outcome and handling of the accident. One thing is clear ... drinking and driving a car do not go together and how vulnerable are you as a cyclist ..
The start is great, 250 riders are standing in the dark in the dark, numerous spectators keep burning torches an soon another emotional moment when an official marriage proposal takes place between two riders of the past year.
The pacecar departure at 22:00 and we drive a round and continue the wall of Geraardsbergen. The countless people on the side of the route cheer us up. Shaking on the cobblestones and pedaling hard in the lightest gear with the full bags on the cycle , I kick myself up, not stopping now is my only goal otherwise i have to walk. After happily reaching the top, carefully going downhill,avoiding some fallen sleeping bags, food bags, drinking bottles, clothes etc. Which poor riders will find out '' to late'' that they no longer have a raincoat, food, tent or sleeping bag. Later I found out that my slippers are also donated to the "wall".
Driving in the night with so many road cyclists is wonderful, soon I drive in a group where I ride my own comfortable pace. Do not want to go too fast, and pay particular attention to breathing.
Navigation is on but I decide not to follow my route, I do not want to leave the group, I like the fun, and talks, also the safety is much better all those lights, fluorescent vests, this make sure the motorists catch up quietly and carefully.
Just at the moment I enjoy the night ride, I am in the right cadence after about 50 km there it is..the first hit. I knew that the Belgian roads are bad. In front of me, a piece of road is full of holes, i cannot avoid it (because of a car sound right next to me) my front wheel bounces in something that actually had to be a piece of concrete / stone, followed by the sound that you do not want to hear. A big beng and than a scraping sound from the brakes against the rim from the Wheel. My headlight is laying in peaces on the street. How is this possible the bolts and nuts are still in place but the plastic housing is broken. Shit shit shit.
Stay calm the road is still long .. What is the damage.
In no time I replace a spoke in the wheel and straight the wheel a bit. attach my cateye battery lamp to my helmet and after fifteen minutes. Game on.
The second hit
In the meantime I have found out that my USB charger is no longer working, which is quite important because my telephone and navigation are supplied with power from my Sonhub. But I still have battery for hours. I'm going to cycle through that problem later. Then later on at about 90 km, fate strikes harder. I come to a standstill with a bang. A lot of swearing and F ... .ck. .. My rear derailleur is folded into my spokes. The damage is now a lot bigger. Stay calm and start repairing.
In my head I work efficiently on my plan of action.
Derailleur path broken = spare path and quickly repaired.
Derailleur broken = no derailleur.
Spoke broken = new spoke
Chain with two broken links and curved = remove bad curved parts from chain with chain spindle and fasten everything with spare links. Just make a "fixie" of it.
After the provisional repair, cycling is unfortunately no longer possible. The chain is still too crooked and jumps on the back of the cassette to keep sticking and when I pedal, I'm sure it will break and / or the damage will become even bigger.
My only option now is walking back (6.7 km) to the bike shop that I met along the way and waiting for the opening. I made up my camp in a field a kilometer from the bike shop.
. "Monday Day two has started"
At 9 o'clock the friendly helpful owner, and a mechanic of the bike shop arrives. Im so lucky the first working day after his vacation.
The owner reports that he has no derailleur in stock, fortunately after some searching in various drawers he finds an incomplete Shimano Acera derailleur, which is somewhat fused with parts and wheels of my broken derailleur.
The mechanic puts a new chain on it, replaces the cassette, the inner cable, adjusts it carefully and straighing up my wheels and checks my bike. And gives me a pleasant bill, since the hours and the new parts.
The lamp / usb output is unfortunately not in stock.
Tribute and many thanks for MJ Cycles.
All in all, the repair took a long time and by midday I leave. I will have to catch up time, I have taken two navigation devices (at the bicycle repairer I have charged my phone) and now has to switch to my backup navigation device which I almost never use. Here too the route has been prepared and after a few clicks I get my route. Hurry, haste, hurry, quickly determine the route and direction compass clicked on steering wheel, mind on zero and go.
I follow my compas, click on my navigation from time to time to follow the line and pedal through .. All the place names are familiar to me and I confirm myself that I am on the right track. If only I had taken the time, checked a bit longer and not just trusted my navigation and compas.
After several hours under the high sun, I get a phone call from the organization and I seem to return to Geraardsbergen. I see several messages. Turn around, you go wrong. If I had checked the phone before ... my garmin 1000 will display the phone messages ... .my older garmin not ... ai.
Stupid stupid. unbelieveable. This line i followed on my back up Garmin (which was dimmed as much as possible and often switched off due to battery saving.)
Instead of winning some time it has become much worse.
Hmmm. keep the spirit high, turn around and push the pedals. Follow that Line the other way.
I cycle through and now sometimes and i check if I am still okay by occasionally leaving the garmin on and occasionally looking at the phone .. Deep in the afternoon i get my brekaing point, the persistent pain which more and more comes up in my seat and arms back and neck and most importantly my navigation is as good as empty, my phone is as good as empty my front wheel swings back and forth between the brake shoes in maximum extreme position, I have the thickest spokes possible, have super strong rims mavic CPX 33 ... .WTF ... how can this be. In the Netherlands I drive without problems throughout the year. Shit roads here. ... stopping is not an option, stopping is not an option ...... .or ... .. ??.
I stop about 5 minutes I call, I sms read the nice messages and encouragement until my phone is empty. Get on my bike ... .. f..ck it, I keep on going until it really can not do more than just navigate on paper.
I have written a notion block with the places, the complete route, the currency, the countries in short, everything I thought I should know. From now on navigate oldschool and very occasionally turn on the navigation to see if I am still well.
When I arrive in Arlon at midday, a cyclist with a French accent calls my name, he tells me that he was looking for me on his racing bike the whole afternoon, because he was following my tracker on the website and finally found me. I tell him about my problems and together we race to a bike shop whose owner just wants to close the door.
The bike mechanic is willing to check an straighting up my front wheel and we are still trying to come up with a solution for the messed up USB charger. USB does not work but I am already as happy as a child with a good running front wheel.
I kick through the night and finally get out of Belgium, fall asleep in my bivy.
Day three Tuesday.
Early I get up again at 6 o'clock in the morning and after some stiff kilometers on the bike are the legs are doing well, the wheels are crooked again (to much weight total and to many bad parts in the road) the brake pads are starting to wear down so that the wheels turn better. Finding wheels and a bicycle repairer is now important. Looking for a hub for a hub dynamo with usb output, looking for wheels (or a possibly another bike) though that will not be easy, wheels for a race bike calculated on the heaviest weight possible (120/125 kilo total) you will not find with every bikemaker. I waste a lot of time at electronics stores, Decathlon, bicycle shops etc. In my opinion, waste a lot of time drinking coffee etc. on a terrace just to charge my navigation and phone somewhat. Buy a power bank unnecessarily because after it comes out of the package that thing has to be charged
No time for hotels though that would be better incase charging the chargers, but now I have to cycle a minimum of 300 km per day, I still want to get a chance to arrive on time, somewhere deep in the night I fall asleep in my bivy and wake up at 6 o'clock.
Day 4 Wednesday.
Stiff legs for a moment then it will run. The same ritual again today, trying to find a bicycle repair shop, looking for places to load a little and keep on cycling.
I can still make it, I did around 800km and the first stamp is only 200km and I still have 11 to 12 hours to cycle. It will not be easy with the altimeters, but if I cycle through the night it is possible.
But soon final final hit ... the knock out.
When I have passed through Offenburg and head towards the border of Germany Switzerland, a violent storm will break loose. Lots of water from the sky and the lightning rays illuminate the mountains. I count the hits and they take 5 to 6 seconds after the flashes have been. Will be a reasonable distance I think ... is probably very safe, raincoat on and pedaling. The night has fallen and when I arrive in a small village I want to take my papers to navigate further. No idea where I am, no idea for myself in which country or place I am now, and which way. From my frame bag that I was convinced was waterproof, when i open the zipper the papers are sooked with unreadable letters and an unreadable route. My phone still has 4 percent. My navigation on both devices 0%, ... still try to find a solution ... .. everything is dark everyone sleeps I walk past the houses in the entire village looking for an outdoor powersocket and after many houses there is one ... .. please ... do it ... I put my plug in the contact ......... .. Scratched.
This was my transcontinental race.
Was it hard, yes
Painful. Certainly
Annoying moments absolutely.
But on the other hand it was a wonderful experience, an incredible adventure, meeting so many cool people, experiencing so many things that I did not even write down. pain limits, etc., shifted the emotional and physical rollercoaster.
Do I want to do it again ... yes, will i makei t than ... no idea. I know that I can continue my legs were still good.
Also need a battery backup garmin and very very very strong wheels.
So much respect for the riders who are still in the saddle