Breaking point
“I know that as good as I feel now, THERE WILL BE SOME DARK MOMENTS, and how I manage these will determine my race.”
THE HOPE IS THAT I WILL RETURN TO THIS VERY SPOT in around two days time having successfully ridden the 1,000km course, amassing over 16,500 metres of climbing in the process, including the daunting prospect of back-to-back ascents of the mighty Grossglockner, the highest paved road in Austria. There’s always hope at the start, an eternal optimism that anything is possible. But hard-fought experience has taught me that with every kilometre and every sleep-deprived hour that passes, it will wane ever further until eventually all that’s left is me, laid bare, exposed and vulnerable asking the same question I always ask in this situation; ‘Have I got what it takes?’
When I signed up for the Glocknerman, Europe’s oldest extreme cycling race, I knew what I was letting myself in for. As well as being the oldest, it is also one of the hardest, its fearsome reputation confirmed by a quick glance at the previous year’s stats: fewer than 20 riders entered the full ultra-distance race, and of those only half finished. These numbers did
