Super happy how I handled my toughest bike ride ever. I really wanted to ride, experience and finish the Pyrenees route. I had many reasons to not start or finish at all, but I worked – at times very hard – to overcome them all. The last 3th started with my lowest point, another 35km climb, mostly in the dark, cold, I stopped over 15 times to break, breath and seek the internal motivation and clarity to continue. At the top I felt tears and pride but hope wasn’t restored yet – there was still 370km to ride.
1hr decending later, at 10:00 at Checkpoint 2, I said ‘I’m going to finish, but I don’t want to feel the stress of a possible cut off any longer, so I’m just going to ride and enjoy’. A steward said the motivating words: the remainder is mostly tarmac and you covered most 19000 of the 25000 climbing.
I had a big lunch in the sun, then decided I wasn’t doing to bad after all. That id overcome many adversities, and was going to take it as it would come. The first 30km from CP2 were downhill on tarmac, in the sun, it was great. Around 13:00 I thought ‘you know what? It’s still pretty early, I’m doing ok, let’s go for it!’ At 17:00 I thought if I cycle to 22:00 today, I’ll finish tomorrow. And that’s what I did.
28 hrs and 26 mins after doubting I could handle the rest of the route I had covered the last 370km, 6500m and made the finish.
With only 1600 km of cycling in 2025 before the event, moving houses, getting married, a broken bike. I had many reasons to think I was unfit to do this, but I kept my belief in my past cycling performances and put trust in myself. I planned to go camping and take a full week or longer to finish the route, but in the heat of the moment, my plan changed and I kept cycling without camping . I slept inside and cycle longer days than I had anticipated, but I liked how it was going and discomfort, strong support, for my original motive to experience and show deals are a lot more accessible than we ought to think.
From gear to food to the route, ask me anything I’m here to help our community .
by LPPM