Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Next in program is
"Long distance cycling in Finland and abroad. Case: Transcontinental race".
I am Mikko Mäkipää and I am here to talk speak about long distance cycling. I have
been cycling for about 10 years and about 7 years of that long distance cycling.
I will focus on things I would've wanted to hear about
long distance cycling before I started.
I participated Transcontinental race from London to Istanbul last year. I was interview
for Helsingin Sanomat before and after the event.
1st article, 1st question. "Why does someone want to torture himself like that, Mikko Mäkipää?"
Not good.
2nd article, 1st question. "So, you are still alive?"
Yes. Nice. I survived the *** summer camp with any fatalities.
Image of long distance cycling could be better.
What do I mean when I talk about long distance cycling.
Is ridden with bicycle? Yes. Any humanpowered 2-3 wheel vehicle will do.
Events are nonstop? Yes. This is a major difference to gran fondos and lots of other cycling events.
Like Marathon cycling in Lappland where clock stops for night. Or Rynkeby, long distance,
but not nonstop.
Event has rules? Yes. Any "sports" have rules. So does long distance cycling.
Rules vary between events.
Is it race against others? No. The road itself is the challenge.
Outside support allowed? No. This is another big difference to certain events.
Like Race across America. You ride long distance, but support car follows you all time.
In long distance cycling I am interested and discuss today, outside support is not allowed.
So this is the kind of long distance cycling I am talking about.
Most popular kind of long distance cycling is so called "randonneur brevets".
"Randonneur" means wanderer. "Brevet" is the event.
Classic of brevets is Paris-Brest-Paris. 1200 kilometer
brevet that started it all in 1891. Same organization still makes the official calendar and sets
the rules for brevets. So the events everywhere in the world are the same. If you read ride
reports from Uzbekistan or Oulu they will be roughly the same.
So ACP has set the rules for used in all their brevets.
Events are nonstop. The times are here, 200km 13 hours 30 minutes, 300 kilometers 20 hours,
1000 kilometers 75 hours, 1200 kilometers 90 hours, longer events vary a bit. Shorter
events are 15 km/h average speed. If you compare this to Tour de Helsinki gran fondo, there
minimum speed is 20 km/h. In that sense brevets are easier, but challenges are a bit different.
Participants have a brevet card that is used to make sure everybody actually rides the
route. It has the control points where everybody must visit and get stamp and time of arrival
to their brevet card. In Finland controls are usually gas stations or cafes.
Only other important rule is that night time everybody must wear reflective vest and lights.
What are the differences between gran fondos and brevets? More freedom in choosing the
pace of the ride. You can ride 500 km and take a longer break or ride 200km and take
a shorter break. That you can't do in most other events.
Another difference I like is more relaxed atmosphere than in sporty events. You won't find anyone
riding a brevet too seriously. That is something you will likely see in Gran fondo.
So what kind of people attend brevets? Like I said you can choose any kind of bicycle.
Rowbike.
Fixie.
Tandem.
Retro bike.
Recumbent tandem
Kinner.
Anything will do. Most of the participants, maybe 90% ride road bike. Participant average
age also varies by country, but usually about 50 years. 10-20% of participants are women.
Here are 4 examples of participants.
1st "Vättern rider". Someone who participates lots of gran fondos and similar bike rides.
And also brevets. They ride light bikes, sleep long nights and ride fast for the day.
2nd group is "lifestyle cyclist". Usually use old or special bikes. Will always use
the maximum time allowed for the ride. Won't feel sad if they don't finish in time. Just
riding because it is fun.
3rd group couples friends. Want to see some new routes somewhere further away.
Might need a excuse for a vacation abroad and go ride a brevet.
4th group is those competing against themselves. Try to ride fast or break previous best time.
Ride with very light bikes and gear. During ride participants sleep in hotels, controls.
Everyone can choose what fits them best.
It could look like this.
Or this.
Or that. In Paris-Brest-Paris.
Or that. Again Paris-Brest-Paris. Just lie down on the floor with cycling clothes on
and continue when your eyes open.
Here is 2014 calendar. Normal brevets seriours 200 to 1000 km. More details on www.randonneurs.fi.
Fleche in end of may. Groups of 3-5 riders start where they want, make own route and
have 24 hours to ride to Tampere. Last control is Hotel Rosendahl.
For beginners who are new to night riding we ride the Tour de Helsinki route as group
ride at night time. Easier for beginners than just riding to night alone.
In december we have "Winter solstice ride". This year is the 2nd edition. You can start
end sun sets and you have to finish in Tampere before sun rises.
Now we change to a bit different long distance cycling. Like I said I participated the Transcontinental
race last year. It was the first Transcontinental race and there were 30 participants. Route
was from London to Istanbul with only 2 points set. Muur de Geraarsbergen in Belgium and
Passo di Stelvio in Italy. Minimum distance was 3200 km. Everybody rides alone and all
outside support is prohibited. We could use everything that was available to everyone.
Hotels, restaurants and bike shops, but not ask a friend to help us plan a new route when
you hit a highway or send equipment to route to pickup during the ride.
Maximum time was 14 days and 14 hours. I will discuss the preparations for the ride.
To finish something like this you need motivation and experience.
3 things you should remember when preparing.
1st thing you need to remember is that this is saddle sitting competition, not a bike race.
The 1st one in Istanbul would likely be the one
who has by then spent most of the time on saddle. Not the fastest cyclist. You can't
waste your time to things that don't help your cycling. You don't need to be in great shape.
Just ride 3000 km in 2 weeks and you will be in better shape. I don't do any spesific
cycling training for this. I do circuit training around the year and my cycling is just everyday riding.
The way you spend your time during the ride is a lot more important than being
strong and fit for cycling. Transcontinental was a good example of this.
You need routine for efficient breaks and other errands.
2nd thing navigation and planning. I used Garmin for navigation. In Transcontinental everyone planned their own route.
I made way too long routes. I used gpsies.com for route planning.
Garmin crashes when navigation routes that are about 200 km or longer.
I had to make factory reset for the Garmin about 20 times during the ride because of the troubles.
It was very stressful because you couldn't guess when it stops working. That was one
problem. Another was that during planning I had used walking instructions for France.
It guided me to these nice farm roads. It was the shorts route, but by far not the fastest.
I was riding on these tractor tracks at the middle of the night.
Also I ended up in 3 highways that were not visible in Google maps.
3rd thing you should know your equipment and what you have to during the ride. Remember
to eat, drink and rest. Here is my dashboard. Polar was used for measuring distance and
heart rate. Garmin for navigation and power. Power tap, power meter, is useful tool to
not wear yourself out in uphills and headwinds.
Then bicycle lights. If you haven't been riding
a bike lately and now test new bike lights you don't want to go back to the old lights.
Only problem with today's bike lights is that you have to aim them properly so they aren't
dangerous to other traffic. You will see properly even in heavy rain.
I had a secondary light just in case there was a problem with main lights in downhills or some unexpected situations.
Other packing philosophy. In the (under) frame bag I had basic clothes
like leg warmers, arm warmers, gloves for easy access.
In other frame bag multitool, sunglasses and work glove.
The front frame bag had food in it.
In the saddle bag shoes, tools and some more cycling clothes. I also had a backpack with normal clothes
and everything that is needed during stops. For example chargers. When I stopped I could
leave my bike as it is for shopping and other breaks.
My packing philosophy is the same for 1 day and 2 week trips.
Lots of people have asked me how do you eat during these rides. Here is Mike Hall's version.
Food during brevets is both fuel and pleasure. Mostly fuel. You absolutely need enough of it.
It should be something you usually eat. Not something special. If possible something
you really like. It is very frustrating to eat because you have to. Especially if it
tastes bad. There are some tricks I have figured out over time. How to find places, like in
the example, where you can get lots of food fast. You have to think about things like
that in nonstop events.
Here is one from before climbing to Stelvio. Yughurt, buns, orange juice, banana, meat, candies.
From Greece. Salad and meat on a stick.
Then Switzerland in a hotel. Wheat beer and beef.
Gourmet dinner on a bus stop in Italy with 3 hours old pizza.
Then Belgium. Hamburger meal.
Another gourmet dinner in Switzerland gas station. 3 bottles of yughurt, candies, meat.
Albania. Cafe, yughurt, juide, meat.
And this is example how you eat chips while riding.
I had essentially no camping equipment. Twice I slept in a ferry, 4 times in a hotel and
rest just on the roadside. In this example from Germany. I had a bubble wrap as mattress
and the white bag on the table with clothes was used as pillow. As soon as I woke up I just continued riding.
I didn't go to hotels for warm shower and shoft bed. Rather I wanted
to wash my riding clothes and charge all electronics. I had 2 cell phones, 3 battery lights, 2 cameras,
spare batteries, etc. I could charge everything during one break in hotel. Some participants
also washed their clothes at McDonald's, but I didn't do that.
Quick review of the trip. 1st day to Dover and from Muur to Ardennes.
Next day to Luxemburgh and France. Then to Germany over Rhein and to Liechtenstein and Switzerland.
Then Davos to Fluelapass and 1st hotel night.
2 day stage to alps. 28 hour stage. Stelvio, Mortirolo, Croce domini, Dosso alto, to Garda lake and Po-river valley. Again in a hotel.
Then Italy's east coast to near Pescara.
Then to Bari. Ferry to Albania. Albania, Macedonia, Greece.
In Greece full hell with stray dogs. There were a lot of them and when you were riding
in countryside you never know when they would start chasing you. They woke up for example
from sound of switching gears and you never knew when the next interval was about to start.
Not bad happened, but I missed a lot of crossing where I should've turned. It was very stressful
to ride because the interval's were completely unexpected.
So 2 days in Greece. Then to Turkey's border. In ridiculous headwind to Belgrad forest north
of Istanbul. I had made my route 10 km north east from the actual finishline. So made a
little roundtrip in the end.
At the finish in Rumeli Hisari there were already other participants waiting.
Some cold beer and nice chat with how others had been doing.
This year's Transcontinental race will start 9.8. This time there are 101 participants.
2 Finns. I am there and Jukka Virtanen. Participants have a tracking device and there is live tracking
on the net. Our race, interesting as a game of correspondence chess, should take something
between 7 and 14 days.
I was asked to answer a question "Why would someone do long distance cycling?".
I like three answers. One. It is very interesting. There are lots
of things to see in world and it is good excuse to see it all. I am interested in history
and geography so it is very interesting to experience Europe in 2 weeks. That is a reason to do long distance cycling.
Two. It is fun. "Stupid ideas make the best stories".
You see and experience all kinds of fun things while on the road.
Even if you stare at road for 2 weeks you will see all kinds of thing around you.
Three. This doesn't apply to all cyclists, but it applies to me. I go basically everywhere
I bicycle so I don't have to get any extra gear to do long distance cycling
and vice versa. Gear for everyday traveling and hobby are all the same. Also like in orienteering
and parkour you don't need to build anything for long distance cyclists. We just use the
infrastructure available. Also you can always start cycling from your doorsteps.
Something that doesn't apply to lots of other hobbies.
Lets see what time it is. Do we have time for questions. My time run out a minute ago
so if you have some earlier questions I'll answer them.
Anything?
Question was are there good tools for route planning? Google maps and Street view.
Panoramio and Flickr have geotagged photos that might have photos of the roads. There you can check overall condition of roads.
I don't know what more you could ask for than basic maps.
Of course there are lots of bike ride tracking websites where you can check routes people have actually ridden.
If there are no more questions. Thank you for you attention and tell your friends.
Another presentation tomorrow at noon.