Kangasala 24h

Training

I participated my first cycling competition. It was 24 hour mountain bike race at Kangasala, Finland. I made one training which was 136km long. Approximately 1/3 was good asphalt road. 1/3 was sand road with lots of ups and downs. And the hardest part was of course 1/3 and it was narrow trail with roots and rocks. This took about 10 hours to finish.

Raceday (pre-race)

I got my bike from maintenance just before I drove to Kangasala. At arrival I noticed that I had underestimated my hardware and other equipment needs since all other team had maintenance tents and "support crew". Some had even a sofas.

After an hour I had my bike numbered and all of my equipment at my service area.

Race

Light rain fell from the sky when race started. My spirits were high but I was feeling doubtful. Track was about 8km long and during the first lap I realized that I hadn't trained this at all. Most difficult thing for me was the rocks and roots. Other competitors drove over those difficult sections twice as fast as I did. And when I tried to keep up with their pace my palms and wrists were not satisfied. After second lap i needed to put sport-tape to my hands to be able to continue driving.

Eventually night came and I attached my bike lamp and continued driving. After 3 hourds of pitch black my battery died and I didn't have charger, extra battery or extra lamps with me so I went into my car to get some sleep. After about 3 hours of sleep I woke up. My ass was in fire and walking was horrible.

I taped my ass and continued race. First lap after sleep was painful but after that I felt surprisingly good. On midday I didn't feel anything in my left toes.

At the finish line I had 21 laps and 30min race time left. Organizers talked to go ahead and drive one more even there wasn't enough time (my best lap was about 35min). When I came back from the extra lap the race was finished.

Race day (post race)

Result you can see from organizers web site. I had only one goal and that was to get at least 20 laps and i did it, so I was satisfied. Of course if I speculate.. With more lamps and batteries, support person and pump to my fork I would have drive 5-10 more laps. But that would be next year then.

I got extra chain from as prize my extra lap. Thanks :)

After I took a shover I drove back to Helsinki. I needed to make one caffeine stop since keeping awake was quite hard.

After race

Race was demanding, fun and teaching for me. Next year I will do better. Thanks for the organizers for excellent competition

kangasala24h.fi