Sep 25, 2025
The-508 Race Report - 2 The race had 4 loops with start/end in Borrego Springs. 205/138/113 and 52 miles (330/222/182 and 84 km) with 16,431/7,197/10,715/4,568 ft (5008/2194/3266 and 1392 meter) elevation gain making loops 1 and 3 the strongest for climbing. I tried to adjust to heat a but before the race, but the unexpected rain system changed the process adopting to heat. Plan was in first loop to see that I can make good ground and have one stop for refueling. Loop 2 would be during nighttime and should be possible also with one stop while loop 3 was unknown how to refuel ad loop 4 should not require a stop. Main fuel was two bottles of water mixed with Hammer Pereptuem for carbs. After every loop plan was to get my bottles refilled and have some food. Critical for first loop was to make sure I have backup of lights if needed and enough tubes in case of a flat. So, I did take 3 spare tubes, CO2 cartridges and a tiny electric pump. For lights I did mount 3 taillights to run 2 in parallel (experience is to be visible for traffic from behind) and 3 head lights. Two for daytime and one for dark (a bit brighter). With crew it’s all no issue but without a backup is needed for safety reasons. A plan is always great before the race, and I admit I have not done self-supported in that type of heat with the amount of elevation gain. I checked the climbing required and tried to see when it’s best to refuel. But that was a bit of a gamble. So, taking off we had to watch out for issues with sand on road and one spot of water on the road. I almost lost the bike on sand shortly after taking off. The amount of sand was simply not visible with my headlight, and I was on bike lane at the time. Main lane would have been cleaner. Was able to catch it but had chain jump off so had to let the one person behind me pass me for the moment fixing the chain issue. A few miles after start we had the first challenge with climbing the ‘glass elevator’ a 12-mile (19 km) around 4k ft (1.2k m) climb. Knowing the climb, I was able to do ok and kept passing a few other cyclists. I knew after that climb I could relax a bit and recover in the descents. That part worked out just fine. I kept going and found a decent pace to keep pushing. But as plans go overboard easy … I start running into hydration issues when sun came out and I learned that I judged the dry heat wrong. I am used to humid hot conditions and dry hot conditions simply is a different situation. So I had to look for refueling much sooner than planned. First stop was around mile 80. Stopped at a gas station and had a soda and refilled water. Unfortunate I had to switch to more start chewing Perpetuem tabs for cabs and refill just water. I did ask for banana as option but …. At all gas stations during the race only one had a banana. Did not expect that so food was an issue since I did count on bananas as one option. Again … planning is cool until first change is required … I do not remember exact spot any longer but around mile 110-120n I think number 508 (Joey Ducut) came next to me and mentioned we seem to have a similar pace. Impressive cyclist … I thought of trying to stay somehow together but besides we have to go solo anyway I let drop back and knew I better let him go and use my own pace. I did have to have 2 more stops for refueling. So instead of one stop I ended up having 3. That did cost extra 20-30 minutes and was not planned for. So from my initial idea to finish top 3 I decided to focus on just finishing the race. It’s more critical to adjust goals in a race instead of going for overdoing it and end up with a DNF. The rest of loop 1 was uneventful. I made it back over 30 minutes later than initially planned. At end I did see two racers coming towards me with them have just taken off.
Sep 24, 2025
The-508 Race Report - 1 Overall, a race of over 508 miles (818 km) with about 39,000ft (11600 meter) of elevation gain. At new location back in California. Why did I sign up for it? Very simple I had a DNF in 2023 at the other location due to hypothermia. So, I do not like a race that I have not finished. Since I have no longer crew-support I thought it was great to sneak in this race in my race schedule. I participated in the Self-Supported racer group. Was surprised to see quite a few self-supporting racers and was happy about that. Its great people do self-supported racing even its much harder compared to using a support crew. One thing upfront … there have been overall 26 Relay Team and Solo racers and like RAAM we had only 50% finishers in the race. That’s amazing and shows how hard the race is. What was my goal this time? Only crossing finish line. So, I decided to stick with strategy to race only against myself and not worry about competition. A strategy that worked decently well the last month too. I did show up the race location 5 days before the race. It helped me test some of the loops starting miles to get a general feel for them. And I was able to adjust a bit to local climate. Did go through the different layouts of the loops a few times to come up with my personal race strategy. I assume at the end it paid off. One thing I learned doing self-supported racing only … plan a strategy and try to stick to it. OK some minor situation related adjustments maybe required as I learned also in the-508 race but it should not kill power too much.
Sep 02, 2025
Endurance training on last two days in August. Ok … not the regular type of training and no I do not recommend others to copy that type of training… every coach would tell me its not smart and they would be correct. Why did I still do that? Because I had fun and simply enjoyed getting to the limits plus there are a few things I focused on to improve them. Therefore from Friday to Saturday I had a cool night ride with total over 245 miles and Sunday morning a second ride mostly at night time with a bit over 130 miles. Saturday I had lots of fun also because I joined Jeff Dudley on his Century ride. Yes .. temperature went up high and we had to suffer in the heat. But we had a successful ride without issues. Sunday I noticed I was fatigued and had a tough time at most of my ride. So I used parts of it for active recovery to see how I can turn it around again. Was a cool experience and made sure I only stayed in the Easy Sunday Morning Group Ride for 20 miles. Good thing even the last part I was able to push again on solo riding. Very cool me to prepare for future longer distance rides.
Aug 19, 2025
Still in recovery mode. So my Saturday century ride was at slower recovery speed managing power levels at Zone2 and 1. Sunday was a cool group ride. i am very thankful for the outstanding help I received specifically after being back in Cape Coral since my injuries caused some bad pain putting power down. I was amazed I could stay up with the speed for the first parts of the ride. Also big thanks to the bicycle store in Ft Myers getting us freh water refills. Overall another cool century ride for Sunday.
Aug 12, 2025
Race Report MidAtlantic 24 hour Race 2025 Washington NC On August 9-10 I participated in the 24 hour race in Washington NC without support crew – so completely self-supported. First well-organized event and I have done the 12 hours in 2024 and 24 hours this year. I most likely will be back again. My issues started way before the race. No details needed but 2 weeks before I fell non cycling related and caused some cracked ribs on left side plus having issues on right hand and shoulder. Still did Boone NC race the weekend before to test out how I can ride. Went to Washington NC a few days earlier and … next issue with my time trial bike broken down. So I had to switch to the spare bike. Sounds odd but the Trek Madone is easy about 1-2 mph slower than the Speed Concept. Still decided to get this race done and target changed from a good ranking to simply getting through the 24 hours without additional injuries. Race started OK and had 3 solid first laps (about 25 miles per lap). My top average speed on first laps was about 3.5 mph slower compared to 2024 but that was expected due to injuries and bicycle switch. After 3 laps the pain when breathing on left ribs was getting a bit much so I start reducing power input. Kevin passed me in lap 4 (around mile 80) and he was very kind asking me how its going. Big kudus to Kevin. I decided to keep going but at slower power level. Did the first stop after lap 4. Refilled bottles and had a banana and back on the road. Still speed was down a lot. Kept managing pace ok even my target got adjusted in my mind from about 430 miles down to 400 miles. Also changed strategy from every 100 mile stop to every 50 mile stop. That new strategy went down the drain due to my issues breathing plus. In addition, I ended up with an issue to plan for lights change. I completely forgot swapping them after lap 6 and noticed the battery level going down. So, I had to add a stop after lap 7. And sure, enough I did forget swapping my sunglasses to clear glasses … That again added an additional unplanned stop. With issues I faced I ended up with 3 unplanned stops. Not cool but safety first. It was about 12 hours when I realized my adjusted target of 400 miles seems not feasible any longer. So, I adjusted my mindset again to make it about 380 -390 miles instead. It was later in the night after about 18 hours when I was getting frustrated about the issues. My race was no longer a race competing with the others. It was only competing with my inner motivation and personal targets. So, I decided to ignore the pain completely and avoid additional mistakes on my schedule. So, I start pushing much harder. When getting into lap 16 I noticed I made up distance and I may be able to get past the 400 mile marker. So, I increased power and pushed as hard as possible. My last 10-15 miles I was able to push well over 20 mph again and targeted 400-402 miles. Not sure how I was able to cut the pain out completely, but I ended up making it to mile 406 at the end. Rolling back to start finish was emotionally crazy. I knew I was in bad shape and expected nothing specifically on my result. Learning that besides Kevin I was the only other person getting passed the 400 miles was a big surprise. After the race … would I do it again with all the issues I faced upfront? Yes I know I would do it again. However, I cannot recommend it to others. Please try not to push the envelope that much since it could cause additional issues.
