Across Europe Cycle World Record
People have been asking me how some of my kit, route choices, nutrition, camping etc worked out during my 3980 mile world record ride across Europe. Here is a summary about the things that worked, and the things that didn’t work.
Bike – Genuinely loved the bike and wouldn’t change anything about the design. I spent a year developing this bike for fast touring so it was always going to be well suited to me. The comfort I got from the steel frame far outweighed the 1kg extra weight. I’m glad I went with the carbon forks though. I think the 600g extra for the steel forks would have played on my mind. The one thing I probably would change now would be the height of the headset. I felt I could have gone for a more aggressive setup as my neck didn’t hurt at all. I tried to move the bars down one spacer but that made the top spacer stick up too high which got in the way of my phone mount.
Gearing - Ultegra/105 combination. New Ultegra allows for a 34 on the rear so with compact front you get 1 to 1 ratio. This was very much needed on some of the hills. The reason I went with 105 was to show you definitly dont need top spec Shimano. 105 works really well and because I had Ultegra derailleur was only 200g heavier.
Saddle - Brooks Cambium C13. These saddles are amazing but I decided, the day before the ride after not having tried it, to replace my Cambium C17 with the thinner and 200g lighter C13. I think this was a mistake. I had really terrible saddle sores for the last 1000 miles. I think I should have stayed with the C17 as I know that one is really comfortable. Also, if I had dropped my bars a bit this too would have put less pressure on my rear end.
Wheels – Reynolds 46 Aero’s. I’ve done nearly 10,000 miles on them, they are amazing and would use them again. That said the rear wheel is making a weird scratching sound as if the bearings or hub might need replacing. It did cause me concern for the last 1000 miles as I didn’t know what might happen.
Tyres – GP4000s 28c. I would 100% use these tyres again and 28c was so comfortable. In fact, if Continental made 32c in the GP4000s I would have used that on the rear for extra comfort on the bad roads. I also only got 3 puntures and 2 of them were pinch flats.
Shoes – Quoc Road. I have used lace up shoes for the last two big rides I have done, 3000 and 4000 miles respectively and love the comfort you get with lace ups. I feel they stretch more when it's hot and don’t cramp my feet as much.
Panniers - Restrap. These bags are amazing and by far the most durable bags I've used. I used their top tube bag and two stuffsacks. One stuffsack bungee'd to the saddle so save some weight but it became a pain. I think I'd use their full rear setup next time.
Charging – I used a dynamo to charge a Freeloader battery bank. The dynamo and the battery worked great, however, the cable into the battery kept breaking, mainly because the top tube bag I had wasn’t quite big enough which would bend the cable. I eventually used some tape to secure the cable into the battery so it wouldn’t move. This then solved the issue.
Aero Helmet – Limar 007. I found it to be very comfortable, however, on a few of the really hot days I could have done with some more air vents. That said, being April/May, most of my days were cooler and I felt fast when I wore it. The one downside was trying to attach a helmet light was difficult and I landed up using double sided tape which started to come off near the end of the ride.
Water – I took two 1-litre bottles. This was the perfect amount. I only ran out of water once and that was only an hour before my next town so not too bad.
Nutrition - I took some ProjectE2 bars and gells to get me through the first day but from then on had to find my own and mostly lived off service stations, supermarkets, and the occasional cafe. I wish I had researched a bit more where to get food because it usually took me 2 or 3 days to get the hang of the best food places by which time that country was over and I was into the next one.
Navigation – To avoid having to charge too many things I just used an app on my phone with the GPX route. The app was Galileo and allowed offline viewing. The system was faultless I have to say.
Start time – I decided to start at 5pm on day one because I thought I could do an all nighter and through to the next evening before my first sleep to bank some miles. It also meant that to break the record I needed to finish by the 11th May at midnight, a nice easy time to aim for. This however did not work out. With all the flying, packing, bike building etc I was knackered by midnight on day one and needed to sleep, I slept for 2 hours but then was still tired all of day two and lost all the miles I had banked. For this to have worked I’d have needed to sleep all day until mid afternoon before I started. I think I’d just do an early start on day one next time.
Camping - To save 380g I replaced my tent with a bivy. I think I’d take a tent next time. The evenings when it was looking like it may rain made finding a place where I might have a good sleep quite difficult. That said if this record gets any harder and you need to do bigger miles per day then I wouldn’t take a tent. But at a 165 mile per day target, I could afford longer sleeps.
Direction – I chose to start in Portugal because that’s where the previous record holder started and I wanted the tracking map to be exciting for people to follow and by doing the same route as him, meant it was like a proper race for me, which I liked. Yes, it was stressful waking up each day and seeing he had overtaken me but that also made me push harder. The downside is that the last 1000 miles in Russia are the hardest and it’s difficult to build on your mileage there because of road quality. My average came down significantly. I also had a 15-25mph headwind for the last 1000 miles. I think if I had to do it again and didn’t want to have the ghost rider to race against I’d potentially start in Russia and wait for tail winds. It would have been much easier to claw back miles in France and Spain if I was behind. If I had been behind when reaching Russia, it’s almost certain I wouldn’t have been able to build on the mileage. Russian roads are really terrible for road cycling.
Time of year – I decided to do the record in April because I was hoping it would be cooler. It was cooler, although still quite hot, but very happy with the choice I made. Also, I knew there was another chap, Leigh Timmis, doing a fully supported ride in June and once that gets done then it would end any further attempts at unsupported. Note that Guinness make no differentiation between supported and unsupported. I needed to get in before Leigh to have a chance as I am not interested in supported rides.
Fitness - I went into the ride not nearly as fit as I was hoping and this is quite significantly down to the fact I got a puppy in December and if anyone has ever tried to train a Lakeland Terrier will know, it takes a lot of time. So, puppy training replaced bicycle training. Also, it snowed a lot over the winter and I live in the Lake District. The roads were too icy to train on, which left me doing a lot more indoor sessions than I was hoping. This helped a bit with endurance and cardio but I was really down on power on the ride and most hills around 5% would see my pace drop to around 5mph. I’m not sure how I would have been able to get more hill training over the snowy winter months other than going abroad, however the Russian Visa office had my passport and as I mentioned, I had a puppy to train. I possibly should have concentrated on lower cadence power intervals on the trainer I think.
Bike – Genuinely loved the bike and wouldn’t change anything about the design. I spent a year developing this bike for fast touring so it was always going to be well suited to me. The comfort I got from the steel frame far outweighed the 1kg extra weight. I’m glad I went with the carbon forks though. I think the 600g extra for the steel forks would have played on my mind. The one thing I probably would change now would be the height of the headset. I felt I could have gone for a more aggressive setup as my neck didn’t hurt at all. I tried to move the bars down one spacer but that made the top spacer stick up too high which got in the way of my phone mount.
Gearing - Ultegra/105 combination. New Ultegra allows for a 34 on the rear so with compact front you get 1 to 1 ratio. This was very much needed on some of the hills. The reason I went with 105 was to show you definitly dont need top spec Shimano. 105 works really well and because I had Ultegra derailleur was only 200g heavier.
Saddle - Brooks Cambium C13. These saddles are amazing but I decided, the day before the ride after not having tried it, to replace my Cambium C17 with the thinner and 200g lighter C13. I think this was a mistake. I had really terrible saddle sores for the last 1000 miles. I think I should have stayed with the C17 as I know that one is really comfortable. Also, if I had dropped my bars a bit this too would have put less pressure on my rear end.
Wheels – Reynolds 46 Aero’s. I’ve done nearly 10,000 miles on them, they are amazing and would use them again. That said the rear wheel is making a weird scratching sound as if the bearings or hub might need replacing. It did cause me concern for the last 1000 miles as I didn’t know what might happen.
Tyres – GP4000s 28c. I would 100% use these tyres again and 28c was so comfortable. In fact, if Continental made 32c in the GP4000s I would have used that on the rear for extra comfort on the bad roads. I also only got 3 puntures and 2 of them were pinch flats.
Shoes – Quoc Road. I have used lace up shoes for the last two big rides I have done, 3000 and 4000 miles respectively and love the comfort you get with lace ups. I feel they stretch more when it's hot and don’t cramp my feet as much.
Panniers - Restrap. These bags are amazing and by far the most durable bags I've used. I used their top tube bag and two stuffsacks. One stuffsack bungee'd to the saddle so save some weight but it became a pain. I think I'd use their full rear setup next time.
Charging – I used a dynamo to charge a Freeloader battery bank. The dynamo and the battery worked great, however, the cable into the battery kept breaking, mainly because the top tube bag I had wasn’t quite big enough which would bend the cable. I eventually used some tape to secure the cable into the battery so it wouldn’t move. This then solved the issue.
Aero Helmet – Limar 007. I found it to be very comfortable, however, on a few of the really hot days I could have done with some more air vents. That said, being April/May, most of my days were cooler and I felt fast when I wore it. The one downside was trying to attach a helmet light was difficult and I landed up using double sided tape which started to come off near the end of the ride.
Water – I took two 1-litre bottles. This was the perfect amount. I only ran out of water once and that was only an hour before my next town so not too bad.
Nutrition - I took some ProjectE2 bars and gells to get me through the first day but from then on had to find my own and mostly lived off service stations, supermarkets, and the occasional cafe. I wish I had researched a bit more where to get food because it usually took me 2 or 3 days to get the hang of the best food places by which time that country was over and I was into the next one.
Navigation – To avoid having to charge too many things I just used an app on my phone with the GPX route. The app was Galileo and allowed offline viewing. The system was faultless I have to say.
Start time – I decided to start at 5pm on day one because I thought I could do an all nighter and through to the next evening before my first sleep to bank some miles. It also meant that to break the record I needed to finish by the 11th May at midnight, a nice easy time to aim for. This however did not work out. With all the flying, packing, bike building etc I was knackered by midnight on day one and needed to sleep, I slept for 2 hours but then was still tired all of day two and lost all the miles I had banked. For this to have worked I’d have needed to sleep all day until mid afternoon before I started. I think I’d just do an early start on day one next time.
Camping - To save 380g I replaced my tent with a bivy. I think I’d take a tent next time. The evenings when it was looking like it may rain made finding a place where I might have a good sleep quite difficult. That said if this record gets any harder and you need to do bigger miles per day then I wouldn’t take a tent. But at a 165 mile per day target, I could afford longer sleeps.
Direction – I chose to start in Portugal because that’s where the previous record holder started and I wanted the tracking map to be exciting for people to follow and by doing the same route as him, meant it was like a proper race for me, which I liked. Yes, it was stressful waking up each day and seeing he had overtaken me but that also made me push harder. The downside is that the last 1000 miles in Russia are the hardest and it’s difficult to build on your mileage there because of road quality. My average came down significantly. I also had a 15-25mph headwind for the last 1000 miles. I think if I had to do it again and didn’t want to have the ghost rider to race against I’d potentially start in Russia and wait for tail winds. It would have been much easier to claw back miles in France and Spain if I was behind. If I had been behind when reaching Russia, it’s almost certain I wouldn’t have been able to build on the mileage. Russian roads are really terrible for road cycling.
Time of year – I decided to do the record in April because I was hoping it would be cooler. It was cooler, although still quite hot, but very happy with the choice I made. Also, I knew there was another chap, Leigh Timmis, doing a fully supported ride in June and once that gets done then it would end any further attempts at unsupported. Note that Guinness make no differentiation between supported and unsupported. I needed to get in before Leigh to have a chance as I am not interested in supported rides.
Fitness - I went into the ride not nearly as fit as I was hoping and this is quite significantly down to the fact I got a puppy in December and if anyone has ever tried to train a Lakeland Terrier will know, it takes a lot of time. So, puppy training replaced bicycle training. Also, it snowed a lot over the winter and I live in the Lake District. The roads were too icy to train on, which left me doing a lot more indoor sessions than I was hoping. This helped a bit with endurance and cardio but I was really down on power on the ride and most hills around 5% would see my pace drop to around 5mph. I’m not sure how I would have been able to get more hill training over the snowy winter months other than going abroad, however the Russian Visa office had my passport and as I mentioned, I had a puppy to train. I possibly should have concentrated on lower cadence power intervals on the trainer I think.