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This time I want to keep the days a lot<br />
more consistent.<br />
Does being on the road ever get<br />
lonely?<br />
Strangely, no – not really. Riding long<br />
distances during a race is quite different<br />
from riding those same distances in a<br />
more leisurely way, such as on a touring<br />
holiday. When I’m racing, a big part of the<br />
day is spent thinking about how<br />
I can best keep moving,<br />
and where I’ll find the<br />
basic elements of<br />
existence: water,<br />
food and shelter.<br />
Or perhaps I’m<br />
thinking about<br />
the running<br />
repair I’ll<br />
attempt when<br />
I next stop, and<br />
how I can do<br />
this as quickly as<br />
possible with the<br />
tools at hand. There’s<br />
almost always something<br />
to think about, to plan.<br />
So individual moments might drag on,<br />
and a climb over a mountain pass might<br />
seem interminable, but in the bigger<br />
picture time passes like the wind. I don’t<br />
think I’ve ever known weeks go by so fast<br />
as when I’m absorbed by the process of<br />
moving as quickly as possible from A to B.<br />
You must be burning an astronomical<br />
number of calories each day. Is there a<br />
science to what you eat or do you just<br />
smash down anything in sight?<br />
Yes, it can easily be well over 10,000<br />
calories a day. But ultradistance cycle<br />
racing is a world away from the controlled,<br />
scientific world of professional sport.<br />
It’s still an underground, ghetto sort<br />
of event. On top of this, races like the<br />
Transcontinental, the North Cape 4000<br />
and the Trans Am Bike Race insist on<br />
riders being entirely unsupported. All of<br />
this means that you’re living on whatever<br />
you can find quickly and easily along<br />
the road. And that basically<br />
means a lot of junk food<br />
from petrol stations.<br />
This isn’t an event<br />
for people with<br />
finicky digestive<br />
systems.<br />
A m o n g<br />
E u r o p e a n<br />
u l t ra c y c l i s t s ,<br />
the 7Days<br />
p r e - p a c k a g e d<br />
croissant has<br />
achieved almost<br />
legendary status: it’s<br />
a massive slug of sugary<br />
calories that will slip into a<br />
jersey pocket but which you can<br />
find in almost any petrol station across<br />
the East for about 50 cents.<br />
This record attempt will be selfsupported.<br />
What will you be carrying<br />
and is there anything unique about<br />
the bike you are taking?<br />
Guinness don’t distinguish between<br />
supported and unsupported world<br />
record attempts, so I could in theory do<br />
this ride with a crew who would massage<br />
me and prepare my meals. But, if I’m<br />
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