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Thrasher
Finished. I belive I came 17th.
I did a final push of 672km in one go, starting 5am Sunday and finishing 5pm Monday.
When I started this race, I really wanted to push myself and see what I found; on Saturday night I had the feeling that if I kept chipping away with 300km days then I'd always wonder what if...
So I went big. Lots of it was fun but I had the coldest, lowest moment I have ever had on a bike in the southern hills at 4am. I had sweated through my base layer and was left fixing a mechanical at the top of a hill in the freezing wind. I spent the sunrise hour crying, not sure how I would finish.
At a McDs I put on ever item of clothing I had, fresh base layer, and all the coffee. It was enough to help me blast through the final 200km, although I was a bit stop-start over the final 20km just trying to nurse it home.
Incredible experience. Netherlands has some beautiful roads and paths, but also some the the bleakest, hardest sections I have ever ridden. But for a first tast of long distance racing it was fantastic. Would do again.