Eat sleep and race for 8 days.
Transportugal Europcar Race! You must have already heard of it as it is the ultimate endurance race, and probably a different from everything you have done. More than an endurance race, it is a journey, the ultimate experience, a traverse of a country from north to south all on your own, racing as an individual. You and your GPS as inseparable friends.
Along 8 stages, you cross Portugal on your own putting your tenacity and toughness to the test. Support is not allowed and there are no aid stations along the 1000km of the race route, so you will have to do it without the caring help of your support team.
Sometimes, you'll race in complete isolation through the most remote countryside, most of the time alone and following an unmarked trail, no arrows or ribbons. The terrain adversities are numerous but the main adversity is the challenge itself.
I was invited to be a member of Europcar Team this year. The high of the season is the 8 day mountain bike race called Transportugal. It's a brutal event because there is no rest day, you race for 8 days non stop. You eat , sleep and race. Eat sleep and race for 8 days.
I finished in 10 place this year with an average speed of 21 km/h . I saw disaster twice but managed to survive. i finished 5th in stage 1 and i was feeling strong. In stage 2, I decided to try again and go for it but i lost my GPS (it was not properly fixed to the bike) and without GPS you can't see where to go. I had to turn back and find my GPS during that time some 20 competitors passed i was completely desperate to see everybody taking me over like that. When i found my GPS i restarted and took back many positions but then i had a flat Tyre. I finished this stage on the 26th spot. Everything was lost! disaster.
The next stages where ok but after stage 4 i had a bad night of stomach problems i spent all night running to the toilet. i thought about quitting but at 6 am next day i decided to start without eating breakfast . i did the stage just on water and 6 dates (tamaras) i finished 8th. next day i fell but i was able to recover the 10th place in the general classification. It was a big fight full of problems.
the big lesson is that during the night while i was running to the toilette i really thought i should quit, i could not complete the 190k stage, the biggest of them all. How could i do a 8 ou 9 hour stage without eating. My stomach could not stand any food? I decided to start and my plan was just to try to finish the stage. i didn't care about the overall classification, my objective was just to drag my bike to the end line. after starting and despite of the rain and wind i felt ok, so i decided to go all out just for 2 hours to see how i felt, after that i decided to try 2 hours more at a good pace i was sure that i would blow it but i didn't and i finished 8th and recovered many places in the GC! that was a big surprise. so get up from bed and just do it. you never know how things will turn out.
I finished so well because many better cyclists also had big stomach problems and quit, that was why i recovered so many places. in a race like this we become fragile and should only eat diet and very little food however we are in the best hotels of Portugal with great food and sometimes we eat too much and then we pay heavily. The body can not stand any sauce, pepper and dairy.
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