Psycho 48. (October 2023)
Like a lot of Endurance Cycling events , Psycho has a few different categories to choose from, 48, 24 and 12 hours. A 100 mile race and the one that I chose to enter, an “Open” category, which gave me the choice to do as much or as little riding as I wanted.
I had decided I was going to try and ride for 24 hours and see what happened. The open category started off last and I soon found myself riding pretty much alone. This was fine by me, as I had put some aero bars on my bike, and was happy to get used to riding with them away from others. It didn’t take too long before I could keep my line straight and pedal smoothly in this new aero position. The course is very flat and basically it is a 35 mile triangular loop around farmland. It’s a fun ride, and is run by two great people in Carole and Rich Beliveau.
First couple of laps went well with decent a speed. We did have a pretty strong headwind on the final 3rd of each triangular lap, but nothing to get worried about. I took stops each loop which ended up being probably longer than needed, mainly due to my messing around, looking for stuff and not having made real plans for breaks. As it grew dark, I prepared for my first nighttime cycling experience. There is something quite magical about riding a bike on a road lit by your own light and the stars. The course is far enough away from urban sprawl not to have that yellow city night light haze. Looking up, the stars were many, bright and to be honest beautiful. I felt like a kid out on an adventure again. Riding along on my own, free as a bird. Occasionally one of the faster riders would pass me, shout encouragement and then they and their flashing red taillight would slowly disappear off into the night.
As the night grew darker, so did my ride. I started to feel a pain in the back of my left thigh. Every pedal stroke the nagging little ache was there. In a few more hours the ache became a pain and I was having to pedal for a short spell, stand up on the pedals and then freewheel as far as I could, rinse and repeat. My speed dropped dramatically. Then my light went out. Luckily I had a spare. I had bought this light, as it said it would last for 12 hours. It had actually only been on for 4 hours. Next lap my second light was losing its brightness and I was wondering if I would have to ride a few miles in the dark.
After around 20 hours and about 16 of them on the bike I had done 216 miles. This was 60 miles further than I had ever ridden in one day/single ride so with by now a very painful leg, very slow speed and no spare lights I called it a day.
So what did I learn from all this? Well a torch is very important. I forgot to bring mine. Trying to change Lycra clothing in a porta cabin by the light of a phone in your 60’s is not something I’d recommend. My leg issue turned out to be the revelation that I have one leg longer than the other. Not that much longer but just enough that the shorter left leg was pressing onto the outer rail of the saddle every pedal stroke. That’s 75-80 times a minute for 16 hours. Read directions on new equipment. The lights did last for 12 hours if you had them set on the low setting, about 4 hours on high. I had them on high. These and many other things are things i learned and I am sure will help me and become the norm for future rides.
To end it all, I got to my car only to find the battery was flat. Internal car lights and/or the Range Rover small built in cooler do use your battery up if you don’t run the engine.
So all in all I had a great time. I rode further than ever before. Experienced night riding. Learned lots and despite knowing I could have done better and gone further it was truly a fun experience.
On the Monday, I made the 800 mile trip home in the car, which was a much easier endurance ride for sure.
