DNF Broke Me! My Utrecht Ultra Cycling Race Story (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany)

DNF Broke Me: My Utrecht Ultra Cycling Race Story (Netherlands, Belgium, Germany)

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What seemed like the easiest challenge was finally the one that broke me. This is the story about how I DNF my first ultracl race. Ultra Ultra Sneaky Gravel. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So, finally it’s May, race day, and I’m getting ready to go to Utre for the start. And it’s a sunny day. Perfect. The atmosphere was great. They were having some barbecue at the registration, food, music. I got to catch up with some fellow riders. Uh helmet is probably also there. I just have lights are front and back. USBC cable. So then you get aud. You’re familiar with those, I think. Yeah. Yeah. And the tracker. Perfect. Thank you so much. It’s already turned on. It will show up on the map in about an hour. Should I put it in a plastic bag or It’s best. Yeah. Yeah. It’s water resistant, not waterproof. For the food, you can get it over there. Ah, awesome. Um, we have a riders briefing at quarter to 6 in the parking lot over there. Okay. And if you have a bag that you want to drop off with us, you can leave it here until 5. Okay. Perfect. Not prepared, but at least I’m here. So we are here at the start line of Utre Cultra 1,000 kilometers. Uh depending parts are fixed route and parts are self routed. So let’s see the route is going to be a surprise. I had to redo it last minute. I’m not a very organized person I must say. But uh it’s an adventure, right? So yeah, I have to make it in uh 54 hours maximum because I have a flight the next day. So, there’s always a challenge. Can I make it? Leave a comment below. What’s the weapon of choice for this one? So, for Utre Ultra, I bring in my Rose Reveal 6. It’s a lightweight uh carbon bike. I have the Aidora frame back prototype and then I have a small saddle back. I’m a bit of a weighteny. Then I have my gel bottle 400 g. I have a no alarm to park my bike. Then I have a power meters ram force [Music] 3D printed saddle and my head a bar [Music] and a supernova pre-race food. Yeah, really well organized. I like the place and they give you a pre-race meal. [Music] Really good. concerning. So now getting everything electrolytes, gels, gels, gels, gels, shoes, [Music] all the gear. I start with over shoes for the night. What is this for? Electrolytes. Before I didn’t use electrolytes and I used to get ed. So it’s very important to take some. I take in 1,500. So it’s enough for the bladder. Should last until tomorrow. It’s warm. So it’s quite important. I think warmer than I expected to be honest. Now you have to get the air out of the bladder to be able to close it. So letting off the air and then you tight 10 minutes. Ready to rope. Yeah. I forgot my leg warmer. So I’m going to freeze at night. But I guess you just have to paddle faster, right? I’m always like, “Okay, let’s see how this turns out.” Okay, let’s do it. However, I was struggling with my health for Luxembourg and then one night 40 hours. Uh, she has a flight I think 50 something hours later. So, we’re good. Plenty of of papa. Uh this is already the third edition of INT with Ultra and uh uh the amount of people showing up is uh is as big as as ever. So that’s super great. So okay, I stand there at the start line knowing that I have to ride through two nights to make it in two days to catch my flight to go to the Tuskani Trail, an event. I got a spot the week before and I really wanted to do it. But of course, you know, like uh you sign up for one event and you want to do everything. Sometimes you have to listen to your body. And even though I was sick, I decided to tow the line. Let’s go. [Applause] So the pace at the beginning of the race was really fast. We started following the canal out of Utre was really cool and uh definitely fast rolling. We had tailwind which really helped to the average speed. I spent I think the first hours all the time in my Ato bars. The top group went full gas but I knew if I follow them I will completely crash and burn. So I decided to pace myself a little bit more and we continued into the night. That was the first challenge. We went heading towards Germany first to Beno and then continuing down towards Belgium. I did the record of the route because half of it was uh self-outed. So the first 200k was fixed route and after that you have some self-outed parts and parkour in Germany and Belgium with some checkpoints. It was a really cool route to be honest. Going through there, I felt something different. Sneaky gravel. As the race continued, I started feeling bad again with a lot of pain and uh yeah, some girls issues if you know what what I mean. And uh I decided to stop but unfortunately there were not many bathrooms around and uh yeah resupplies at that time of the night were a bit more tricky. So I started feeling a bit desperate. I mean I was fueling well and uh had plenty of water. Before when I did some break of the route I mark the fountains. That was really important because once you got to Germany and Belgium it was even more difficult to resupply. So hard to energize for the clients. [Music] [Music] Making progress. [Music] Check [Music] maybe [Music] bicycle Fair. That comes in handy. Good to know even with a bison. It was supposed to be short, 1,000 kilm flat, 7,000 m of elevation. And here in the Netherlands, close to home. The pig’s parkour finished in the area of M Street in the Netherlands. From there you will cross into Belgium or Germany and you have to create your own route to leave the parkours that were in Germany in Luxembourg and Belgium. There was much more elevation than I expected. Maybe I didn’t take the best route but I was surprised how good the infrastructure was in Luxembourg. The roads were really quiet. [Music] Bad woman. Bad woman. Utre ultra going to parkour 3. So it’s a self-outed one and we are joining the parkours. I’m going uh we did uh CB2 now CB3 in Belgium. Let’s do [Music] Come on, do your thing. Say hi. Say hi. Hi. But unfortunately, I never got there. This is all footage from the reckon because the night of the race everything suddenly changed. The night progressed and I started to feeling more and more bad and the issues started to increase and all of the sudden it was 12 in the night and you know the problem is like I’ve been in some tough situations like in Atlas Mountain race in transcontinental that you want to scratch but you are too far from home to scratch. It’s very difficult. you are in the middle of nowhere and by the time you get to a village or to a city, you already like, “Okay, I’m just going to continue.” But this time it was in the Netherlands. So the easy way was just to DNF. It was too easy. I think if I would have been in another country with no possibility to go back home would have been different. But I thought to myself, you know, I will have to ride through two nights to make it to my flight to Italy. And the Tosskani Trail is one of my dreams. You know, I didn’t want to torture myself is I don’t want to blame, you know, like uh that I wasn’t feeling right. I just also wasn’t in the mental space uh for it when is that situation and yeah, you are so close to home. So I decided to DNF around 2 in the morning and also to look after your health. I think I didn’t do that after Atlas Mountain race and the previous years and what nobody tells you is that uh yeah ultra races are nice challenges but it really takes a toll on your body long term. I mean, I still have numb hands like uh a few months after the race and uh yeah, I think that can create long-term damage. Also, I struggle like uh with breathing problems after the race and hormonal imbalances. So, you just have to listen to your body and take some time to recover. However, you know, it’s like something like uh that is in my the background like unfinished business. Maybe one day I decide to go back and finish what I started.