The Training Diary

I awoke around midday having had a good 4 hours sleep and feeling much better than I did at the end of the previous stage. We were heading towards TS51 in Mount Airy (MD) where all crews were required to stop and check if they’d received any time penalties during the race. If they had, they had to wait there and serve the penalty before continuing to the finish. We’d had reports that Jon and Coz were making good progress, particularly given the lumpy terrain and the two large peaks that t...

I awoke at around 11.00 pm feeling very tired and a little disorientated having only managed around 4 hours sleep. The lateness of the hour combined with the desolation of our location (Gas n Go station at TS46) and the minimal amount of external lighting made all of us a bit subdued. We busied ourselves getting everything ready and then Jon and the crew appeared; Jon riding Cozza’s bike as his had punctured within minutes of our rendezvous. The first 15 miles of my first leg were very lump...

The day started (around 7.00 am) in an eventful way as, after getting ready to start our next stage, we soon discovered that we were off the official route and therefore in the wrong place to meet Jon and Coz. We quickly put the bikes back in the RV and tried to remedy the problem. After a couple of wrong turns, some panic, and several miles in the wrong direction, we finally managed to locate the gang, thanks to our on-bike GPS systems. Jon and Coz had done a great job of riding through the ...

I awoke later that same day in Dieterick (Illinois) to prepare for the next stage. It was nice to be cycling in daylight once again. Indeed, this was my favourite time to start, as the weather got cooler as the stage progressed, plus you finished in a normal time for sleeping. It was, yet again, extremely hot but my first leg went really well despite having to negotiate several turns. The crew met me about 5 minutes earlier than scheduled and I remember feeling a little frustrated when Mike c...