World 12hr TT Championship 2023

The season’s last race was held in the gorgeous town of Borrego Springs, California. Even though I had no intention of participating, I registered for the 24-hour event as soon as a spot opened up.

The timing was too close to the North American 12-hour time trial, so I didn’t think it was a good idea to do both. I made the decision to travel with the help of Diane from Infinity Seat and Dr. Vince. Not only does the Doctor with the big heart makes the best seats, but he also offers assistance to everyone at the events. During the race, he was doing bike fits and making adjustments as a chiropractor.

As I would have expected, my legs remained fairly heavy during the first week of my 12-day recovery period. The flight went smoothly, and I was in Dr. Vince’s hyperbaric chamber at Infinity Bike Seat Office twenty minutes after landing. He’s a great chiropractor, so I got an adjustment from him as well. That same afternoon, we drove straight to Borrego Springs from Los Angeles.

I had great time catching up with most of my Ultracycling family who were in attendance. Legend of the sport and my favorite ultracyclist, Marko Baloh, was there with his wife, Irma. He’s raced to 500+ miles at the World 24 Hour TT five times already. And if he pulls it off this year, it will be his twentieth 500+ mile event in his career! I feel dizzy just thinking about it:)

Two days before my flight, my health problem got worse, so I was hoping I would have enough time to recover. I kept it to myself because I didn’t want to use it as an excuse for not competing. The day before the race, I mentioned it to Dr. Vince because I was feeling worse and I wanted to buy something to help with it.

I was told to consider moving to the 12-hour given the chance of injury. Who wants to hear this ? But Dr. Vince had my best interests at heart. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but after a few more calls, I decided to go with the 12-hour event. At least I can try to defend my age group title from the year before.

The race

When we started at five in the morning, it was still cold, but not as cold as it had been in previous years. Maybe 45°F the lowest , but this is not accurate. In certain parts of the loop, the location results in temperature variations of up to 10F. My hands were so frozen that for several hours I was unable to open anything to eat other than my bottle filled with gel. To be more aerodynamic, one thing I did differently was to wear the 100 oz H2O bladder underneath my skinsuit. I also noticed that it warmed me up initially and cooled me down when it was warm.

Wave one was only four minutes behind wave two, which included me. From the beginning, Mike Garcia and I both put in a lot of effort and soon separated ourselves from the pursuers. When the start signal was given, the others were a little disorganized and were staring at each other. He had beaten me by five minutes the year before, so I was trying to keep him in my line of sight. We traded places for the first four eighteen-mile laps, staying evenly matched.

The fact that drafting was not permitted made the dynamics between this race and the North American 12h event slightly different. Dan Rocco, one of my teammates, was in the group before me. I was trying to get closer to the first wave in order to stay in the contention. The objective was to place in the top 5 of my category and retain my age group title.

I was finishing laps in less than forty-nine minutes, so everything was going well. That worked well for about 22 mph, but I wanted to get to 23 mph. I was keeping an eye on my numbers in an effort to avoid burning too many matches too soon or aggravating the injury. I was able to finish the long loop 12 times in total, averaging 55 minutes per lap.

The ☀️ rose, and the temperature increased. My goal was to stop quickly, change my bladder, and get another food storage bottle.

I was surprised to run out of supplies by 10:30 am, but this type of work calls for a large supply of food and liquids. In five hours, I ate a lot of bars, gels, and rice cakes, as well as the equivalent of six water bottles.

I sincerely appreciate all of the volunteers who offered their assistance: Pauline, Irma, Dr. Vince, and Ryan Collins’ mother Kim. It was already warm when I stopped, and Irma had hidden my supplies under the table to keep the sun off of them. She helped me find everything quickly and pointed out that I had some ham and cheese sandwiches, which I had been craving for. After Kim assisted me in placing my bladder under the skinsuit, it took me just over a minute to stop and start racing again.

When it got really hot, I had a few tough moments, but at least the heat was dry and there were spots along the route to find shade. It was really motivating when some of my friends passed or were passed by me.

I had constant thirst and hunger waves, and my mouth was so dry. Compared to earlier, I had almost doubled my intake of liquids and It was obvious that I would have to stop again. The good news is that, after six hours, I was on pace to exceed my personal record of 237.5 miles at this course. Except for going against one other racer in my age group, I stuck to my plan and didn’t overdo it.

Eventually, he was close to me, but I was unable to determine whether we were on the same lap or whether I had passed him while he was stopped. We chased each other for about four laps, which was pretty exciting. He was nice enough and would always make encouraging comment as he passed. He raced in his hoods on a faster TT bike than mine. I would be sitting at slightly less than 3w/kg and maintaining when all of a sudden, he would overtake me. Then, he would fall behind me by roughly a quarter of a mile. His pace was very erratic.

I figured, or at least hoped, that he would blow up eventually with this kind of pacing. I tried to look at his GPS to see his HR and his face as he got closer, trying to gauge whether it would be good to go for a quick burst and wear him down. He looked solid throughout.

There was a traffic official guiding us through a stop sign. My direct opponent just passed me once again. I looked down for a brief second and when I looked up the road, he was picking up his bicycle off the ground. Did he fall or did he stop? When I asked how he was doing, he nodded and said everything was fine.

He went past me once more, but I managed to cross the timing chip first that lap and he was nowhere to be seen again for the rest of the race.

There were three hours remaining in the race. In order to cheer everyone on, Dr. Vince was now riding the course on an electric bike. Thank you so much for your support; you are an incredible force.

I was so exhausted from everything that I was unable to eat much more, but I was also not experiencing any stomach issues. As the finish approached, the number of crews and spectators was growing.

I thought that after 3 p.m. we would switch to the 4.8 mile loop, and that I would join it at 3:05 and continue on it until the finish, which is at 5 p.m.

Another stop was necessary when I ran out of liquids. Thank goodness Diane was there and gave me two bottles instead of the one I had planned to take. For some reason, the short loop was not open yet, so instead of the 4.8 miles, I needed to race one more 18 miles loop. I would have been in serious trouble without two bottles.

Although it appeared that I wouldn’t surpass my previous year’s personal best, I was aware of the possibility that I might not even reach 230 miles. That became my new objective to help me stay motivated. I increased my pace to make sure I had enough time to complete at least three short loops. Due to fatigue from racing a few weeks prior, my legs were extremely stiff. When I compare the stats now, the HR for the two 12-hour races was almost equal, even though I did a few extra watts.

Half an hour remained, so I made my way onto the 4.8-mile short loop. I determined that I might complete at least three loops if my average speed was close to 20 mph. Can I complete four loops in the time allotted?

I knew halfway through that I wouldn’t have enough time for another loop, so I raced to complete my third as fast as I could. This event only counts complete laps and I ended up with 5.5 minutes remaining on the clock for 230.5 miles.

Mike caught up to me on my last lap, and we had a great talk. He finished second in his age group and beat me by one short loop in spite of a few setbacks. We crossed the finish line together, and it was an amazing moment.

All things considered, I’m pretty happy with how I performed. I finished in the top five of my division, first in my age group, and tenth overall.