20K Ultratrail - CRUK fundraiser

[Valerio]

Next Friday I'll be taking part to a long (1000km, 25000m+) off-road cycling event and I'm using the opportunity to raise money for CRUK.

This is in memory of a friend for whom I rode BB200 back in October, as him and his family were trying any possible treatment to save him. Unfortunately Piotr is no longer with us.
Thanks to all of you who contributed to the fundraiser, i know it helped his wife and kids to try every possible avenue.

No donation is too small and I'm hoping to raise £1 for every km I manage to ride, walk, crawl, etc.

You can read more about the fundraiser, the event, and how to donate on the JustGiving page:

https://lnkd.in/eBZ78f4T

Please consider sharing the link with your connections and friends.

Hopefully Piotr will give me some guidance like he always has.

[fatbikephil]

Looks a good route, best of luck!

[Boab]

Yeah, some of the roads in those photos look amazing.

[Valerio]

Thanks both!

Unfortunately the weather has wrecked part of the route so we will miss some of the highlights (I'm still waiting to receive the definitive route!) including a tunnel at 2650m.
One of the additions to make up for that it's a climb up to 2993m....

For the first time in my life i might be overbiked, looking at the photos, but the organiser swears that a MTB is the best tool for it.

[Valerio]

Hi All,

The race went "well" and was a great learning opportunity for me, especially in terms of pacing and nutrition (and kit choices).
As usual, I showed up with one of the heaviest bikes - owners of the other heavy setups scratched withing 48hrs - and I am still puzzled as I cannot understand how some people can have 8kg MTBs AND such lightweight kit in mountainous environment.

Things were going well for the first 48hrs where i somehow found myself in the top5. That should have told me to take it down a notch but legs felt good.
However, I started caring more about the other participants than myself and got caught up in the race forgetting to resupply properly or taking proper stops during the day. Temperatures up to 45degs and climbs up to 3000m a.s.l. didn't help as I'm completely not used to those.
My pace collapsed and after the 4th day I realised I wasn't going to finish in under 5 days like I hoped.
Nevertheless, I was happy to finish in under 6days and having had more sleep and food I actually enjoyed the rest of the ride.

The thunderstorms, heat and scrambling took several victims with riders scratching and one (i believe he won Trans Am a few years ago) having to be airlifted to the hospital with a broken ankle due to a fall on one of the HAB sections.

Finished in 5d21hrs in 7th position. Probably not the strongest field ever seen at the event but the top riders had a much better resume than mine (multiple 20K winner, multiple TDs, HellenicMR, AMR, etc) so I'm OK with the result.
Part of me didn't know if I was going to make it. I'm happy to report that apart from saddle sores right from day 2 (I reckon caused by the heat and lots of sweat) the rest of the bike and body were absolutely fine at the end of the race.

[Valerio]

There is still time to donate for Cancer Research at the link at the top of the page, ,where you can also find some photos and a bit of a breakdown of how the event went.

No donation is too small!

[fatbikephil]

Well done
Fair play for keeping going when the wheels fell off too.
Write up?

[Valerio]

Thanks Phil!

Yeah I'll try to put together a better write-up, and I have a few (not great) photos to go with it.