Less than a month after finishing the IncaDivide and only three days after coming back from our holidays in Peru with Elo, I’m already in Portugal for my next BikingMan race. It’s a sprint of 950 km starting and finishing in Faro with an elevation gain of 11.000m. For this event, I decided to pick my Merckx EM525 as it’s a race bike and it suits more the road conditions and profile of the Algarve and Alentejo regions. On paper, it seems that the itinerary is way easier than the IncaDivide, but this promises a very fast race and I should not have a lot of relief moments. My strategy for this race is thus to sleep as little as possible and certainly not in hotels in order to cover the 950 km in less than 48 hours. This is very ambitious, knowing that I never rode by night nor for more than 24h. But with my good results in Peru, I’m confident and highly motivated !

The rockets are launched after the start in Faro

After a very early breakfast, we all meet under the Arco da Vila in front of the Jardim Manuel Bivar. The race starts at 5AM and the 78 entrants leave the city under a police escort for the first 25 km. I’m relaxed but ready to battle and keep a good position in the pack till the start. Once we arrive in Santa Catarina, the road turns on the left and marks the offical start of the race. And immediately, the strongest riders show their speed in the first climb, such as Clément or Marcel. I’m around the tenth position after 70 km but I quickly get tired after the steep climbs we encounter during the first hours. On my Merckx bike, I have a 52-36 crankset and a 11-30 cassette, which is ok for short distances but that’s a bit too hard for an ultradistance race. Although I try to hold a fast and steady pace, I keep getting overtaken by other riders and can’t do anything about it. However, we go through a superb sunrise and cross beautiful landscapes, one of which is the stunning Alqueva lake.

When arriving at CP1 after 332 km and 15 hours, I’m only in 18th postion, which is way too slow with respect to the ambitions I have on this race. However, some of the riders in front of me are staying at the hotel that hosts the checkpoint and I’m close to the top 10 when I get back on my bike. In the meantime, Leo, a brazilian rider who caused a sensation in Peru thanks to his old bike, told me that he has no GPS and would like to ride with me during the night. Of course, I accepted as night riding was also new for me and spending time with Leo is always fun. When we leave CP1, we meet Rodney and Jean-Paul and we ride the four of us till 2AM. At that moment, Rodney, Leo and I decide to sleep for one hour on the side of the road in order to reload the batteries. I’m happy I could ride and stop with Rodney as he has a lot of experience and it’s the perfect moment to ask him lots of questions about race strategy and discuss technical topics.

Struggling with the night conditions

Getting back on my bike is really hard as I’m suffering from low temperatures and humidity. I really struggle with those conditions till the return of the sun which allows me to warm up a little bit. But I did it, I went through my first night and we are now riding for more than 24 hours. When the sun comes back, I let him know that I will take a hotel for the second night as I’m not ready to suffer a second night. He sees that I’m demotivated and does what I had to do alone in Peru, he reminds me why I’m here and what my ambitions are. And somehow, he manages to put me back on track, I’m now fully motivated to keep pushing till the end. After reaching the Atlantic coast, we covered more than 500 km and the rest of the day goes without any issue. We are still riding together with Leo as we have a similar pace and have lots of fun chatting and laughing on our bikes. We try to stop as little as possible, only for natural needs or to reload our water and food supplies. We even stop on the side of the road to pick some apples on a tree. Definitely, we never do anaything normally with Leo !

Shortly before arriving at the CP2, we have the pleasure to discover the Axel’s surprise which is a 7 km gravel segment. Nothing to worry about, except that we are riding for 36 hours now, I’m tired and I do not want to have a puncture right now. But the landscape and the view on the coast when arriving to Sagres is just amazing and reminds me why I got into this adventure. We arrive at 5PM at the CP2 and we take this opportunity to rest for an hour, drinking and eating what is offered to us by the organization. It’s also the opportunity to share with them all the fun we had untill then with Leo. After filling our water bottle and packing some Red Bull, we head to the north for our last stretch till the finish line. The first hours are made on beautiful roads where we ride alone and we slowly enter the night.

Sleep deprivation leads to crazy hallucinations

After a last short break in a restaurant to eat a bifana and pasteis de nata, we try to chase our closest opponent, Jean-Paul, who is two hours in front of us. He decided to sleep and we are quickly approchaing him. But around midnight, we get very tired and decide to stop for a quick nap of 30 minutes on the side of the road. I put my emergency blanket into my jacket to get warmer and do not even bother to remove my helmet, I litteraly fall asleep in the grass! Again, when waking up, I really struggle with the cold conditions and it takes me 15 minutes before I can get on my bike. The road conditions are pretty bad, which does not help to go through this night. I fall asleep twice on my bike and decide to stop to drink a RedBull, which is a good decision as I do not feel the effect of exhaustion anymore. But this is another sleep deprivation symptom that is now showing up, hallucinations. At the beginning, I think that my presbyopia makes me see things badly. But after a few minutes, I notice that everything is moving in front of me, trees seem to be people and bushes appear as animals. The funniest was when I saw a dinosaur hiding between two trees ! I did not even have time to realise that he had already left my mind. Damn what I’m going through is just crazy and it’s the first time ever I’m experiencing hallucinations. It’s also amazing to see how the body and mind react to such extreme sleep deprivation.

We are now less than 100 km from the finish line in Faro and we are spectators of another stunning sunrise. It’s the right moment for another photoshoot in a very relaxed and warm atmosphere. We are now far enough from the rider behind us and we would finish 8th and 9th if we do not have any mechanical issue on the last stretch.

Approching Faro, we find a way to decide who is going to be 8th and who will finish 9th. It will consist in a sprint duel between us on the last 20 km. Luckily for me, it starts by a descent which is ideal for me. Although I am really fast downhill and not a lot of people manage to follow me, Leo has no difficulties to catch me and even overtakes me. Due to the traffic density close to Faro, we decide to stop our duel and continue to ride quietly. A last short climb where I can do nothing against the power of Leo and I congratulate him, I’ll let him finish in front of me as he completely deserves it !

The relief of crossing the finish line in Faro

At 11.30AM, we finally cross the finish line on the Jardim Manuel Bivar after 54h30 of a very long effort. I just made it to 9th position (8th ex æquo with Leo) and manage to ride 950km almost without sleeping. Even though this race looked easy on paper, it wasn’t the case at all. Spending two nights riding and sleeping only 1h30 during a 54h ride is a real challenge, not counting the high speed of the race. Nevertheless, it was magical and I really enjoyed this race and the sprint format. My transmission choice with a 52-36 crankset cost me a lot of energy at the beginning of the race and suffering from the cold during the nights cerainly did not help. The aim of 48h was not reached but I spent unbelievable moments with Leo and found in him a friend during this adventure. Never did I think of riding without him after CP1 as it seemed normal to help him with his navigation issues, knowing that he also helped me when I was in doubt after the first night. And that’s what BikingMan is all about !