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Curious about the preparation for my first season? (S1: E1)

Cycling Adventure 15 S1 bike preparation

My first season (S1) in 2021 of Cycling Adventure 15 is the start of my growth path that will start in the continent on July 18 in three months Europa. I leave in the Spanish Marbella and travel on Spain and France after more than 2.700 km and 30.000 vertical meters 18 days to arrive in my home base Buggenhout on August 4. I plan 15 cycling days and 3 rest days.

Since January I have been preparing. There are many aspects that I am working on: my bike and luggage, food and drink, the mental preparation, the physical training, planning the route, the stay and the website with stories about Cycling Adventure 15.

My bike and luggage

I travel the route alone without supervision, which means that I must be able to transport all my luggage efficiently on my bike. I did undergo some research and testing for this, which did not always run smoothly.

My initial idea was to take a bag on the top tube and a bag within the bike frame of the Apidura brand. At the back I place a bag on a special luggage carrier of the Tailfin brand. I place my two drinking bottles at the front of the front fork of the bicycle and on my saddle I hang two extra drinking bottles. I quickly had to change my tactics: the drinking cans at the front slid down and did not stay in place and the Apidura frame bag in combination with the bag on the luggage carrier do not offer enough space to take all my clothes and accessories with me. In the end I opted to take two additional panniers. To withstand the heat, I bring 8 insulating drinking bottles. I hang two drinking bottles inside the frame and I take the other one with me in one of the bicycle bags.

During my trip I carry more than 15 kg extra weight.

The extra weight that I bring is more than 15 kg. I am 1.87m tall and weigh about 87kg which brings the total weight to almost 105kg that I have to get through the different mountains.

Food and drink

An important aspect is not to dehydrate during the trip. Since it is an average of 30 degrees during the ride, I will have to absorb one to two liters of moisture per hour. During the practice rides in the first months I also noticed that after a few days I had an empty feeling during the rides, even though I regularly ate a snack. Finally, two months before my departure, I decided to seek professional advice. One condition was that the feeding schedule took into account the fact that I should be able to easily get the right nutrition in the different places. It will be a challenge to be able to follow this as closely as possible.

It is a challenge to find the right nutrition during the 15-day adventure

Mental and physical training

The goal I want to achieve is of a completely different nature than my cycling races. To this comes 25% of physical strength and 75% of mental strength.

The goal is to cycle more than 180 km every day with an average of 2000 meters in altitude. I will do this in 15 days with 3 rest days. I'm used to training for amateur cycling races that last a maximum of 2 hours. To prepare for this, I spend an average of 8 hours a week on the bike. The objective I want to achieve is of a completely different nature. I will have to be able to ride a bike for much longer and this for days on end.

With a few good tips from some friends, a book about “Endurance - How to Cycle Further”That I received as a surprise from my friend Danny D. and some interesting blogs about the Trancontinentale cycling races I started preparing. In order to achieve my type of goal, various experts by experience propose that 25% comes from physical strength and 75% from mental strength.

In order to get the mental aspect under control, I ensure good planning, whereby I wish to leave as little as possible to chance. This should ensure less stress during the trip and therefore more mental peace. I also have my website Cycling Adventure 15 where I can share both my positive and negative experiences and thus create a mental balance in a certain way. I also try to make myself aware that it will not be easy mentally so that I do not make my expectations too rosy in my head. It will be a special experience for me to find out what impact the mental aspect will have in reality.

I mainly practice in the Aerobic zones with the occasional more intensive Anaerobic training

In January 2021, 6 months before the start of S1, I started specific training sessions. I have systematically increased the duration of the sessions. Since January I have been driving between 300km and 500km in the week, both indoors and outdoors. I mainly train in the Endurance zone Z2 and regularly in the Tempo zone Z2 for a while. These are the zones to increase my Aerobic abilities. My rides take an average of 6 hours. I also do an Anaerobic training in zones Z3 and Z4 for a maximum of 2 hours every two weeks. The combination of Aerobic and Anaerobic practice rides with the focus on Aerobic rides is an important aspect. During the Aerobic training sessions I get a power output between 200W and 230W. In the Anaerobic training sessions, the power output is above 250W.

During my adventure I will not produce as much power output as during the training sessions. To keep it up, the advice is to keep my power output between 100W and 175W. This won't be possible on the climbs, but I'll try to limit my power output there as well.

The route and the stay

I mapped out the route via the Komoot app. A fantastic application with which you can plan multi-day trips. You first define your start and end points and then you can indicate in how many days you wish to achieve this. You can simulate how many kms and altimeters you have to do per day, depending on the number of days you enter.

I used Booking.com to plan the stay. For each ride I looked at the end point and looked for an authentic place to stay with as many shops and restaurants in the area as possible. If this was not possible, I adjusted the ride and the route. In some cases it is not possible to have shops and restaurants close to the residence.

In the second episode of season 1 (S1: E2) I describe the ultimate test I did in the Belgian Ardennes.

From Friday April 16 to April 18 I will do an ultimate test in which I try to simulate all aspects as much as possible. You can read more about it in the second episode of season 1 (S1: E2). After that, there are still two months left for me to prepare myself intensively before starting my adventure. I am looking forward to it with great enthusiasm!

    Lieve
    Apr 15 2021
    9:52am

    Good luck
    I believe in it

    Three-day test in the Belgian Ardennes. (S1: E2) - Cycling Adventure 15
    Apr 18 2021
    6: 37pm

    […] To respond to it is difficult to estimate. And in addition, I took the test for three days. My first adventure (S1) will last 15 days, which is 5 times as much. But if it is true what the specialists […]

    Jurgen
    Apr 19 2021
    11: 18pm

    Euh Bart, top page here, read me through… nice man….
    1 roll of toilet paper? That is not coming good mate
    You seem super well prepared, to be honest, great!

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