How Did it Begin
Článek je k dispozici i v češtině.
I quit. I barely made it halfway through the Montana section, and I couldn’t continue anymore. This wasn’t the first time I didn’t finish the race and I usually do it because of health concerns. This was no different. However, I had never invested so much time, energy, focus and money into one event. This should have been my “AA” race and I felt I screwed up even before it even started.
At first, I had no intention to write this article. When I quit, it was like a fresh wound that was bleeding and bleeding. Life felt meaningless and when no one was looking I was at the edge of crying. But it wasn’t only the solo reason, that made me emotionally unstable. I wanted to get home, but it wasn’t that simple. I knew that when I came back home, my life would change forever.
A lot of people had offered me a patch, but it couldn’t stop the flow of desperation. It was about a week when my wound started to dry up and my mind cleared looking forward to a new future. After all, it wasn’t one big loose. I learned something. I met new people. I earned new scars. I realized this was a completely different event. Different to anything I have ever done. And to be able to master it, I need to learn from this experience.
This is why I’ll give you the full picture. No beating around the bush. No sugarcoating. I will give you my raw feeling.
To give you the full story I need to start at the beginning. Because it’s in the beginning when the “Why” is growing.
👨🔬 Easy to Say, Difficult to Do
I wasn’t eager to start the Tour Divide and definitely not this year. I know it is a grandgrandfather of all bikepacking races but:
- It’s so far away and the logistics of this trip will be so complicated.
- It’s called a mountain bike race but only because it’s in the mountains. It’s more of a gravel event.
- It takes so long… I would rather do two one-week races. The toll on your body can be huge and it will consume most of my yearly holiday budget.
I didn’t have this urge to ride the Divide. It was more like an item on a bucket list. I wanted to do it, but there are items above it.
This changed on the first day of my last year “A” race—the 2020 Miles Adventure. I was riding for a moment with one of the TOP Czech bikepacking racers Milan Hanyk. He told me, he want to do Tour Divide next year and if I want to join him. … My first thought was: “Why not?”
In the autumn we created a group of three—Me, Tomas Fabian and Milan Hanyk to tackle the challenges of logistics together. No sharing pumps or tents during the race itself of course!
I still wasn’t keen on doing it, but it was a great chance to make travelling a little bit easier. I can call myself privileged that I could make this decision easily. I have enough physical ability and experience; I know the language and my financial situation is stable.
The last race of that season was Bohemia Divide in September. After finishing I took a very easy week and started my preparation for the Divide. It might sound like I started too soon but it wasn’t a hot phase as I did only a few hours per week.
😵💫 The pain forest
My style of training is to keep it simple and schedule my rides based on one rule—do the least specific things first and as time passes, focus on the most specific things. It means that I started with sprint intervals. I don’t think it has a big impact on my performance during a bikepacking race, but it’s just nice to explore all parts of cycling. I’m usually a slower guy but I got a little bit faster as I started to train in shorter boosts of power.
In late autumn, I was doing 15-second and 2-minute intervals. I liked that part of the year. Cycling didn’t take so much time and I had a chance to do other things. I slept very well, I didn’t feel tired, and the quality of my life overall has skyrocketed. It was a tough year, and I needed this rest period.
My 2024 season began on November 27, 2023. It’s usually the phase when I start doing 3-minute intervals in a nearby forest. A lot of people hate these, but I love them—if it’s not snowing and the temperature is at least above freezing. It costs me so little time and if I finish them, I have a strong feeling of accomplishment. As I do them at 6 a.m. I have a nice and kind feeling of tiredness in the first half of the day.
The structure of my training was disrupted in a few days because I made an impulsive decision to sign up for a winter bikepacking race – Spiral. The initial goal was to try all the clothes I would use on Tour Divide, but we got a forecast of huge snowstorms and very low temperatures, so I brought the coldest winter gear I had. Luckily, I survived 🍀
🙈🙉🙊 The World of Distractions
I intended to document my preparation for Tour Divide and I kicked it off with the article “The Why”. Unfortunately, that was the last thing I wrote. I never felt I had the time or mood to write something. Or what to write. And to whom? The more I thought about it, the more difficult it has become. In the end, the easiest solution was to be silent and just ride my bike. That is where the fun comes from.
I moved to another phase at the end of January. The numbers were good. So far, they are increasing every year which feels incredible. My threshold phase—focus on 8–20 minutes intensity—had some issues. I did have good power numbers, but I wasn’t able to do as much volume as I wanted.
I had a tough time at work, and I faced the challenge of separation between my personal and work life. I have so much passion for what I do that sometimes I can’t stop working. I spend the day on meaningless meetings and doing shit I didn’t care about. In the evening, that was the time when I had a chance to do a real job and I did it for free.
My life was full of distractions, and I couldn’t focus on important things. It felt like I’m crawling shit to shit, with some bike rides between. I should have a plan for what to do, and what to prepare, but I felt so overwhelmed and powerless that didn’t do much.
Distractions are huge trouble. The world is changing for the worse. A few years back social media were at least full of stories and interesting people. Now it’s just a random bullshit begging for your attention. It’s only stupid memes and short reels trying to grab your attention. Everyone is trying to broaden their reach and catch five seconds of your time. However, I believe that there is still room for real content that can bring positive value. It’s just not that easy to consume it.
🐣 Easter Opportunity
In February I did an FTP test that showed a big increase in power. I was a little bit afraid that it was just a glitch in the power meter, but I calibrated it properly.
Trying to achieve bigger numbers might have been a reason why I didn’t hit my volume target. Raising the FTP is a double-edged sword. It motivates me but it also makes everything harder.
At the end of March, I transitioned to the tempo phase, and once again I found my rhythm. Rides were challenging but doable. With all of this, I still had a lot of room for running. I like that a lot because it’s a pure movement when nothing is for free. I need to work uphill, flat and even downhill. It also strengthens bones and tendons. You can’t do that on a bike.
Pretty early on I had an opportunity to do a bikepacking trip to test my gear as in the Czech Republic we had two days of bank holiday and a weekend between them.
I think there is something wrong with the universe. On my last 5 bikepacking adventures I encountered some crazy weather conditions. I hope I won’t become a mythical figure that brings misery everywhere I sign up.
I wanted to ride through the Czech Republic from the east to the west. And man … it was so windy. Several times I almost fell off my bike as it was coming from the side (or front).
Overall, it was a success. I had to cut a route on the last day because I wasn’t going to make it in time. Despite the weather, it was a relaxed ride. Since it wasn’t a race, I slept a lot, and it had a great effect on my performance and regeneration. After the trip, I had one rest day, and one light day and went back to the training.
💨 The Dust Trap
Since the half of April, I went full gas on endurance. I was doing long rides only, easily hitting 20+ hours per week. It started to be hard to balance my life because it was a real part-time job. And it doesn’t count the time spent researching and looking for information.
I tried to hit my 8-hour sleep regularly, but when I need to do a 4-hour ride before the start of my job I have to make some compromises. I don’t know, how I could do a 5-hour ride a year back.
For the more specific training, I have chosen race Via Regia. I needed something that would require only a small amount of holiday, and this might have been perfect training for sections in New Mexico. Not so hot, but flat and windy. It was also more of a gravel race than a mountain bike race, but that’s a real vibe of Tour Divide.
I faced a strong headwind on the first day, but it didn’t bother me that much. I could just lay on aerobars and pedal nice and steady. I was second in the race, which was pleasing. What I could improve was balancing my strength as I lost quite a bit of power in the second half. I still had time for one month of training.
The whole time I was pretty much healthy. Little tired sometimes but in good shape overall. Since Via Regia, I have had little struggles. During the race, there were a lot of dusty roads. As I breathed this tiny junk, it got into my lungs and gave me a nasty cough. It didn’t last long but it was getting it back from time to time.
⚰️ The Final Nail
After a brief regeneration, I went back to my endurance training. The start of the Tour Divide was very close, and I felt that my physical ability was not what I lacked. I started panicking as I felt I was not prepared at all in the field of planning. It was very stressful as I tried to log the last long miles, go through all route’s points of interest and prepare everyone for my long holiday at work.
As my training should have been more specific, I tried heat training by cycling indoors without a fan, but I did only a little of it. I had no time left.
Race “Dokola” was my last big ride before the Tour Divide, and it might not have been the best idea. I should have been able to regenerate after 14 days but it’s just a lot of stress on the body. Especially when there were (once again) some crazy weather conditions. 8 hours of constant heavy rain is a recipe for problems. Especially when it was all in the night. I was worried about my health thinking I should quit and not risk getting sick. But how could I quit in the middle of the night? I saw no other option than to continue.
I pushed through and it was OK. I was second once again. I felt well, and I was getting quality sleep. At least on Sunday.
The week of my departure to Canada was crazy. At my job, it was the most stressful week I remember in years. People say that Tour Divide will change you, but I was a different person before I even stepped into Banff.
| #Races #ByHumanPower #Bikepacking
Tour Divide 2024
- How Did it Begin
- The Week of Hope
- Day #1 Out of Breath
- Day #2 Unstoppable Junkie Enters the USA
- Day #3 The Last Resort
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