« It looks as if you’re on holidays and enjoying » said mom after two days of racing.
And indeed, despite the colossal distances, I was still relatively fresh and keeping my body in balance. Posts about varied food dishes in a restaurant were not rare, and I sent short videos via Whatsapp as if I were on a school trip to the Antwerp Zoo.
The Transcontinental Race number 8 had started successfully in Geraardsbergen and I was following known roads through my home town Brussels, to Leuven, Tienen, Sint-Truiden (I was born 20km from here!), Tongeren and Maastricht. By the time we crossed the German border, the morning sun rose and I had an average of about 27km/h. The legs were still fine and I was surrounded by really good riders. I really felt that I could actually keep up with them if I just managed my sleep well.
Day one finished with 440km. It was 20h30 and there appeared a small hotel by the road. I took a portion of pasta and went straight to bed. The next morning I woke up to plan at 4h00 and got my first 100km in before 10h30. The wind gently pushed us via the rosary of cultural cities: Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, Gera, Chemnitz. Even if some fatigue was crippling in the legs, I made good progress and always found ice cream or fruit juice to refuel them.
By the end of the second day, the Wahoo said 350km (so almost 800km in 48 hours). My absolute record! I was ahead of the riders that I considered my strongest competitors. Well done, Sebi! In the small town of Augustusburg I hit the window of a pension. The landlady did not expect guests, but gave me a room and a surrogate breakfast, including fresh baby apples from the garden!
The next morning, I woke up on schedule again and made my way to Control Point 1 in Krupka, CZ. There were a few climbs to get there and it started raining. But the motivation was strong and I reached the Control Point together with super fast cap number 3 Cara Dixon. This was my favourite CP: a mountain shelter with solid food and a wooden architecture. I just loved the oxtail soup and pasta. The company was made of participants who would mostly finish the race around me: Paul Alderson, Kim Heikkinen, Frank Scholler, Gabriel Bercolano, Arthur Proust.
TCRno6 legend Jean-Yves Couet was collecting our signatures and encouraging us. It was great to see he had travelled from Vienna to cheer on us! Cara Dixon had already left. I thought it was strategically not clever to skip such a good opportunity to eat quality food, but then again perhaps I just needed a good excuse to rest a bit longer. My Brussels friend Zeno Bonduelle was near the CP struggling with a broken hub. I crossed fingers that he could repair it, and he did! (and eventually finished TCR days before me)
As I finished the very hilly parcour 1, I could not avoid thinking about my fellow participants who are not so keen climbers and who would probably end this mandatory section devastated. Especially the last useless climb, ending with a 25% street was tricky! I also felt really hungry (again) after finishing it, and it took me about one hour to set off from Litomerice… next stop: Italy!
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Sebi Cicleta 