Lbl tomorrow

cycleclinic

Any forumites in liege this weekend. Resting my legs today for tomorrow. Will it be fun, possibly from the first 100 miles them it might become a grind.

ugo.santalucia

Respect for the way you approached this weekend in Belgium... the real Randonneur way...

Now you only need to enter some proper randonneur events, rather than those maltodextrin loaded, gel infested sportives... :-)

cycleclinic

Utter disaaster. Got a 120 miles on after going well and sugar crash. I had no idea what was happening. Some Belgians fussed over me got me to hospital. I knew I did not need to go but found communicating hard. I am separated from my bike which is meant to be at the finish area but I am doubtful I am going to find it. Trying however means I will miss the train to catch the ferry I have booked do I am screwed. I may end up leaving without the bike just do I can get home. I have no good way of finding out who has it.

I maybe looking at a replacement on Monday. Utter crap.

ugo.santalucia

Sorry to hear that...

Most likely you took it too hard and didn't eat enough. It was a tough day yesterday... warm means it's difficult to eat. I struggled to complete a 300 Km ride, the last hour was pretty brutal, as I could not put down enough food.

Hope you find the bike... if not, oh well, you have another 20 or so :-)

cycleclinic

The Belgian police are looking into it. Hopefully the police officer who attended hopefully will know where it is. Maybe I'll get good news and have to go back next week. Because I missed my pre booked travel home I am now on the train to Paris and then the euro star ( because from Brussels it is full) and there are no trains I can get to Calais ( full again). Cost 353 euros what a nice end to a break. Yes I rode hard I normally do but I don't normally bonk like that either. I normally get warning of impending doom and eat. I ate but doom happened anyway. That's a first so the tank must have been properly empty this time. It took around 5hrs to be able to talk without effort. What a day.

ugo.santalucia

The thing is you are not used to that much climbing and temperature must have had an effect... maybe you were also low on glycogen from the previous days of heavy riding.
LBL is a massive ride, it's much bigger than the Marmotte, that people think as the golden standard for hard rides...

cycleclinic

Yes and no. I rode without difficulty for the first 110 miles. I could see the power I was holding and it was good even if I had not ridden 440km already that week. I have done rides with alot of climbing before like south downs way on a single speed in 10.5hrs or coast to coast (and I did that with loaded panniers quickly) then road back to Suffolk the day after in one go. The difference was it was cooler. It was the heat that did it i think combined with the other stress factors that added up to an epic fail. Deydration may have been an issue too without releasing it. Never done a ride like that in that sort of heat. Two years ago it was zero and snowing for lbl. I knew trouble was coming when for if the last climbs I had to take my helmet off because I was overheating. Im English I am used to cold, damp and grey conditions now. This summer thing is a shock.

Yes lbl was harder than I thought and I have finally found my limit. As I am doing the 24hr this year again pushing myself to my limits is not going to hurt me.

ugo.santalucia

thecycleclinic wrote:

As I am doing the 24hr this year again pushing myself to my limits is not going to hurt me.

It seems it is actually going to hurt you... :roll:

964cup

LBL is horrific. I did it last year; it was freezing rather than roasting, and I was accordingly under-dressed rather than over-dressed. The parcours to Bastogne is deceptive - although it's less than half the total climbing, it's still roughly 1% average gradient over the whole distance. The last 90k (which you missed, and shouldn't regret) are unbelievably hard, as they've plainly folded up that bit of Belgium. It's a seemingly endless succession of 20% ramps which you face with nothing in the legs. Sounds to me like you had heat prostration, not a sugar crash. That would leave you disorientated, and unable to continue until you'd lowered your core temp sufficiently.

Hope you find your bike and recover well.

cycleclinic

You maybe right. When I stopped to lie down it all I could do. The only problem there was no shade and I was so weak I could not move to the other side of the road.

I think it a ride for when it's cooler as I kept on running out of water. The descents were fun though. One English chap got one wrong and went over the barriers on one bend. He was fine but a bit sore. I single speeded a Dutch man's bike as his drivetrain self destructed in front of me. Smelt lots of burning carbon at the begining too. You see I am already having find memories of it all.

I do find it funny there are only 9 climbs there seemed alot more than that to me. The first one out of liege was not very steep but it went on for too long and that was just the start.

mamil314

I am dreading long climbing day in the sun. Glad you came out in one piece (if worse off financially)

cycleclinic

The organisers have the bike. I'll probably have to go and pick it up. Feel fine this morning.

cycleclinic

I'll have to go over this week to pick it up and spend an afternoon riding in belgium, what a hardship.