יום שישי, 26 באוגוסט 2016

203. IL24TE 2016

Hello,

My ride report of the IL24TE of 2016.





The IL24TE is the Israeli 24 Hours Timed Event.
It's a set of time trials of 24 hours, 12 hours, or 6 hours.
The official web site is here, and it has additional information to what's written below.

Since I need to support the riders on the official date, I rode the 24 hours time trial exactly 2 weeks before the official start.


Some background:
I was always fascinated by time trialing, especially 24 hours time trials.
I know quite a few who rides them, and also some people who support riders.
Since there was no 24 hours time trial in Israel, I decided to have one. :-)

The route was chosen due to its flatness, so there's a good chance of achieving a good result.
The wind might play a part in the final result, but it's a circular route, so it shouldn't play a too big role.


I rode the course several times in the months leading to this ride.
Either in the morning, or at night. Never in the afternoon.
Never more than 2 laps at a time.

I didn't train in any special way to this ride.
I didn't want "a record," just to enjoy the challenge and the ride.
I decided to ride it "Randonnee Style," with no support, and relying on a fuel station convenience store and some stuff in a car that was parked there.
The bike I used was my do-it-all bike, made of round steel tubes, S&S couplers, and no aerobars. Standard aluminum wheels with 32 spokes each. Similar technology to what Eddy Merckx had in the early 1970's. And, as usual, I rode with sandals.
Before the ride I said that 400 km would be nice, and I'll be very happy if I could ride 500 km in under 24 hours, which is a little more than 18 laps.

In the car there was water (so I wouldn't need to go inside to refill) and some food (bars, and sandwiches.)
Also extra tubes, tools, and a floor pump.

I fitted 3 water bottles of 1 liter each, to minimize the stops.
I didn't add anything to the bike that's not on it in my weekend rides, or a brevet up to and including 300 km.


I arrived about 30 minutes before the official start, which is at 18:00. I bought a sandwich, and ate it leisurely.
I talked with the person there, and he said that between 23:00 and 06:00 you can only buy from the window, asking the person there to fetch whatever you need.
Then I got ready, and rolled to the start. I didn't do any warm up.

I took a picture of the Garmin, and realized that it's time to move, so I started the ride.
There was headwind at the start, but the first section has some descends.
The seconds section is downhill all the way, so I was doing about 35 km/h without pedaling.
The third section is what I feared the most, as it's uphill. But to my amazement, I was riding 31 km/h without any effort.
From what I read (this is actually my first ever time trial. To any distance or time!) I knew that I should Not Start Too Fast, so I feared that I was pushing too much on that third section in the first lap.
But I hardly pedaled, so there was nothing to ease. The tailwind was really good.

The first 3 laps went well, and I was averaging around 27 km/h.
The 4th lap was slower, as the tailwind on the 3rd section was calming down.

I stopped after 4 laps, before 23:00, went into the store, bought a sandwich, ate it at the table, filled water, and went out again, after a little more than 20 minutes.
I also tweeted a pic from the start.

At night I rode another 5 laps in a row, and had to refill my water bottles. I rode them at around 24 km/h.
I stopped for a little more than 5 minutes, and went on to the 10th lap.
I finished the 10th lap at 05:45, and decided I'd wait till the store opens and I could wash myself, as first light has started.
I knew I was on schedule for 500 km, as I rode 10 laps in under 12 hours, and only needed 9 more laps and a bit.
So I decided to sleep for 30 minutes, which I did.
When I woke up at 06:15 it was light, and I went into the store for coffee and a morning pastry.

For the 9 remaining laps I decided I'd split them into 4, 3, and 2.
But then I thought that if I was going to stop twice, then maybe it would be better to split them into 3, 3, and 3. Which I did.
Around noon the wind changed, and I was again enjoying it on the 3 section.

Every time I stopped I went into the store to wash up and buy something to eat and drink, and stop for a little more than 20 minutes.

After I finished the 18 laps I continued without stopping until the 1st intersection at Maun, where a marshal would be during the official ride, and stopped.
Took some pictures, and rode back to the start/finish.

Officially, I stopped after 22:50 hours and 505.1 km. I was happy.
My ride time was about 20:36 hours, so off the bike I was about 2:15 hours.



Good luck to all the other riders in the IL24TE on the official date!

Tal.

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