RAF2022 / CP1

The first 24 hours of Race Across France 2022 were supposed to be „fast and furious” as we all knew about the massive tailwind and rather a flat route profile at the beginning. So it was and for the first three hours, I was comfortably averaging a little less than 40km/h. It was warm, it was nice, small hills were rolling, and the legs were strong.

The night brought the storm, rain, thunder, and lightning all around. I put all the necessary layers on me to be comfortable in riding through the rain, but unlucky for me, I’ve got a nasty flat on the rear wheel, and the tubeless system didn’t help here. I’ve spent more than 30 minutes in the heavy rain, fighting with it, and watching other riders passing me by. All my previous work went to rubbish. Finally, I put the tube in!

In the morning I was already in Normandy, a lovely place and way far from being flat. Hills one after another, some of them much steeper than expected. It was here where my achilles started to be painful. I was still pushing hard, through rain and a massive crosswind, but started to be concerned about it. I knew that this is only the beginning.

My first stop was in the little town of Thèreval, about 390km from the start. A bakery and a small shop were enough to resupply and have breakfast on the go. It was still raining and cold, and while I continued I was thinking where is that heat wave that all were talking about?

Every hour passed, the achilles was getting worst and I had to decide something, as the race was developing pretty fast, and on the other hand, it still had a lot of kilometers to the finish. Around midday, the weather cleared and finally started to get warm again. I stopped for a quick coffee in Avranches and used this to change my clothing layers.

As for achilles, looking at how the pain was developing, I knew that the only way to heal it was to stop. As I didn’t want to do this, I decided that I’ll try to somehow slow down, and work along the way if I’ll be able to continue, without making too much harm to myself. It was a bit sad for my mind, as I felt that there was a lot left to push harder, but on the other hand, it was also easy as the landscape around me was pretty impressive. I loved that part of France. Roads around Mont-Saint-Michel were beautiful. Full of bikepackers of all sorts. I even saw a couple bikepacking along on two Omniums!

So, as I did put myself out of race mode already, I still wanted to perform well and was trying to balance my speed with comfort. I found a pharmacy in La Croix Desilles, where I taped the achilles, as good as I’ve learned to do that beforehand. That helped with the pain a bit, but I knew, that this will not be a solution, and I still have to be careful and look after it a lot.

While getting to the first control point I was trying to find some comfortable positions on the bike, rode a bit slower, take my feet out of my shoes, and had all sorts of already known options to help myself a bit. In Vitré, 40 kilometers before the CP1, I stopped in Macdonald, and bought a lot of cheeseburgers for the coming night, as I knew that I won’t stop for longer in Quelaines Saint-Gault. Apidura’s backpack was perfect for this sort of mission

I did arrive there at about 9 PM. Got the stamp, checked up on my achilles, if it is not swollen yet, refilled my water bottles, change my layers again, and continued into the night. I knew that I’ll have to stop for some short sleep, as lack of sleep is what achilles hates the most, but it was still too early for me, and I wasn’t feeling too tired or sleepy. At the end of the day, it was only 660 kilometers!