Only this weekend did I think to myself “I need to do a blog and I haven’t done one in a while” and when I looked I couldn’t believe that the last one was before Challenge Almere!
It’s fair to say a bucket-load of events and experiences have happened since that blog was posted.
There’s the Almere Middle Distance Aquabike, there’s my cycle-tour, there’s Majorca Parts 1, 2 & 3, there’s another Majorca trip, Kelling Heath and very recently London.
Soooooo, I’ll start with Almere…
Suzy & I set off for Almere later than we usually do for this event, it’s usually an overnight ferry on the Wednesday and then we arrive at the event venue on the Thursday lunchtime. This time it was the Thursday overnight ferry due to a lack of annual leave on Suzy’s side. This meant arriving in Almere at lunchtime meant a quick registration, a bike check, a pre-race ride and then racking the bike all within the afternoon…as the race is on the Saturday.
We travelled down to Harwich on the Thursday evening, as normal we were asked to get there at the check-in around 8pm but the boarding was nearly 10pm so we were just sitting in the car and waiting around. Once we were on the ship we headed straight to the lounge where we took advantage of our “plus membership” and hit the free nibbles and drinks before going to our cabins. I was off the leash so-to-speak regarding my nutrition plan as it was ok to eat a little bit of excess (as long as it was kind of healthy) as I could mask it as “carb-loading”.
The morning came and we disembarked at 6:30 local time and headed to Almere, which is just beyond Amsterdam, roughly a couple of hours away. With no major traffic issues we arrived nice & early just before the Expo opened up. My eye was caught by the DeBoer wetsuit stand and the fact that the Fjord 3.0 (a racing wetsuit) was on a reduced price. This is probably down to the 4.0 coming out soon and they were keen together rid of their stocks. The guy was over the top confident and started blagging claims that it was the fastest and I’d never get this prices anywhere else. I simply walked away and thanked hime for his time due to the fact I had seen it at the same price some days before online. Never mind.
I got my bike out of the car and built it up and set off on part of the bike course to just just the bike…and my legs, and couldn’t help but notice a stiff wind so I knew tomorrow’s race was going to favour the stronger bike riders. I went through the motions and did my “openers” workout and headed back to the garage under the hotel to get some food and head for registration.
Suzy & I walked into Almere city centre – a 5min walk away from the venue and met up with BTC member Jenny, who was there in an official capacity as “press” as she works for 24/7 Tri magazine and I had the privilege of getting interviewed by her and her sidekick – Gregg (I think) – the photographer and videographer.
Registration was a bit drawn out, far more than it needed to be really. I do wonder why there’s so much stress the day before at registration when, in fact, packs could be sent out (to local athletes at least) to limit queues and “standing on your feet” time for athletes who were expected to perform some 12+hours later.
Once I received my race-pack I put the stickers on my bike & helmet and walked round the lake to Transition to rack my bike. This is a new site for T1 as it used to be right next t the registration in previous years. The 15-min walk round to T1 is a bit annoying but I guess they have their reasons.
Race Day…
The advantage of being in the Aquabike event AND being in the Middle Distance event is that the start isn’t until nearly 10am so you don’t need to get up early. I did anyway as it’s race day and the nerves were kicking in.
After breakfast at our nearby hotel – a stone’s throw away from the venue, we wondered into the venue and headed out the other side to T1. I put my nutrition on the bike along with the bike computer and all the necessary kit in my bike bag and wondered back to the swim start with my swim gear in-hand. There we had a few strong coffees from a cafe that had opened up early on the site and we sat there watching the Long Distance Athletes and Middle Distance Triathletes head off before being called to get in our start corals.
Swim start was a rolling start affair so there was only a limited chance I’d get punched in the face (more likely with in-water mass start events) so this suited me quite well. I initially had a dilemma which coral to go in – a sub-34min coral or 34-38min…..
I chose to be one of the last swimmers in the 34min one and my decision proved fruitful as soon as I got in the water. I had only swam maybe 100 metres and a guy came past me slightly faster so I got onto his feet and never left. There were a few panic moments where I lost his feet but with about 10 or so strokes I was on his tail again! He knew I was there – it’s safe to say I had swam into his feet at least 40-50 times in that swim as his draft was that good. With about 100m to go he slowed up considerably so I decided to go round hime & lose him before exiting into T1 where Suzy was waiting, as per usual, with my walking stick at swim exit.
After T1 it was a quick jog (if you can call it that) I was on the mount line and raring to put in a good bike leg. I did hear a feint “good luck Nick” from Jenny and half-turned back to see her & say thank you but I was slightly conflicted to do so as that had been the reason I crashed just over year ago and that was the reason I was doing this race a year late, so I decided to concentrate where my front wheel was going instead!
Through the cycle paths for the first 5k and onto the sea wall and it was time to deliver what I knew I could deliver – 280 watts for however long it took. I got into my aero position and held it there passing rider by rider until there was a point I was getting close to the Elite Middle Distance Riders.
I say that but with a rolling start you really don’t know where you’re at, all I knew the bikes just got more expensive the longer I was riding, so I guessed they were fairly handy and fast!
No less than 10k from the end I passed a Dutch rider – “Ramon” and he failed to ease off and let me go and sat on my back wheel for the next few minutes. I knew he was there but he simply didn’t let me go, I turned back to him and said “what are you doing” and he shouted back “drafting”. I really couldn’t believe his answer to be fair, at least he was being honest!!!
Not much later I hit a sharp corner and went round it a full speed and he bottled it – the link was broken and I carried on my own merry way.
I rolled into the finish line at full-tilt and when I managed to stop I had a quick look around to see who was around me and there wasn’t many, only one or two. After grabbing some water and some jelly babies I walked my bike back to transition some 200 metres away and went to get my finish line experience, my medal and my finishers t-shirt from the proper finish line some 15min walk away.
It’s a weird sensation not running when there’s a race going on around you, people are looking at you and encouraging you to run as they think you’re just having a quick break from running, or they think you’re giving up so they’re shouting at you to move faster. After a few awkward “I’ve finished – I’m in the Aquabike event” conversations in some random European language I arrived at the finish line to take the official line. I bumped into Jenny who was tracking me (as many others back home were) and said I had come 5th overall but I had won my age-group. To say I was over the moon is a bit of an understatement – I had done exactly what I had set out to do the past few months. The training, the recovery, the nutrition, everything was leading to this win…and I did it!
I actually didn’t know but Jenny was secretly holding her phone camera taking in the whole conversation of her telling me I had won and my reaction was for all to see a few weeks later when my interview before the race and my win-reaction were published on Tri 24/7’s website. Famous at last!
Once I’d collected my medal and t-shirt and took in what I had done I grabbed a few bites to eat in the finishers zone, I got changed and headed off to the feed station at about 3k on the run course where Suzy was volunteering for the event. I grabbed my volunteers’ t-shirt and joined in handing up gels, drinks, fruit and cakes to the athletes who were doing the triathlon both in the Middle & Long Distance events. My appearance at the feed station after having won my age-group got a bit of attention mid-afternoon and all of a sudden I was being interviewed by Challenge TV which later was released as part of their “volunteers” video a few weeks after the event – famous again!
After 7pm the athletes were thinning out, the middle distance had definitely finished and now only the long distance athletes who were at the back-end of the event were coming past the feed station. Suzy & I were stood down and we walked across to the other side of the lake and I picked up my bike from the transition and we headed to the hotel before going out for a celebratory pizza & a beer.
The following morning I attended the prize presentation – a rather long-winded affair but I’m not complaining as everyone who picked up an award in the Dutch Championships, European Long Distance Championships, the Open Long Distance Championships and the Middle Distance Event, not to mention the Aquabike winners both in Long & Middle Distance all deserved their moment on stage. By the time I was awarded with my win and trophy most people had received theirs and disappeared – a bit of bad sportsmanship if you ask me – you should hang around to applaud other athletes in my humble opinion – but it is what it is.
When my name was called out and I went up on stage I looked at the race organiser – Richard, and said “I told you I’d come back & win it”. He just smiled and said “congratulations Nick – well deserved…see you next year?”. “Maybe” I said.
After the prize presentation Suzy & I had lunch and headed back to the ferry for an overnight return trip to get her home before she had to start work at 9am on the Monday morning – and that was that – job done!
A few days later, after having a conversation with a guy called Roger – Cheryl’s (Suzy’s mum) husband, he told me of a friend of his that promised to do lots of things when he retired, he never made it..of sorts. He contracted MND – an absolutely horrible illness that attacks the central nervous system. All those promises of what the guys was going to do when he retired never happened and he’s now in a very bad way. Roger then went on to say “if you’re thinking of doing something, just do it, you never know what tomorrow brings”. And with that I booked a half-planned tour of Holland 10 days after we had got back from the country!
Day 1 was an afternoon ride down to Harwich, through Ipswich and the Essex countryside. I stopped at Framingham at the 221b cafe, about half-way – a cyclists stop ever since I started riding. From there I rode down through Ipswich and took a new route to the port – once I was there I had a few hours to kill so a rather large bucket of coffee at a Costa outlet and then when they were starting to close up I moved over to a Domino’s outlet before checking in and waiting to board the ship for the first time on a bike. Just as before, once on board I was straight into the Plus lounge to fill my face with calories by way go cakes, crisps and biscuits – totally healthy!
Day 2 I was kicked off the ship in light rain at 6:30am, having ridden dutch cycle lanes some 12 years ago I was a but fuzzy with the signs and it took about 30 minutes before I got into my groove and rode the dunes pathways all the way north through to Amsterdam via Zealand (Dutch F1 circuit) and then across to Almere – yep, the hotel where we had stayed a fortnight earlier for the race.
Day 3 was based around Almere, so I offloaded my bike luggage and rode a 100-mile route around MarkerMeer – a huge water inlet, in order to ride round it I had to ride on a pretty long bike path where it was the North Sea on one side and the Large inlet on the other with no building in sight for nearly 20 miles. Once back on land so-to-speak I headed back to Almere with a strong headwind for my 2nd night at the hotel.
Day 4 was a ride west to Eindhoven, through Arnhem and Nijmegen where I stopped at the infamous WW2 bridge and gathered my thoughts for those lost in this failed campaign many years ago. This was by far the hardest day – over 100 miles of a nagging north wind. At one point I was convinced I was close to my Eindhoven hotel but the next signpost I pasted told me I was still 20 miles away from the city. But I got there in a light drizzle and proceeded to get changed & get out to get a Burger King Burger meal and a huge cup of Starbucks coffee and cinnamon swirl to get some calories back in from a big day.
Day 5 was another “fight the headwind” through the Dutch, and then Belgian countryside along a shipping canal towards & through Antwerp. I got my first puncture and stopped on the canal path in the sun to change the tube at a leisurely pace. If it was raining I’m pretty sure I would’ve been a lot quicker. I went into Antwerp to find a bike shop to replace my spare tube (just in case). You would be surprised to find that some shops didn’t even have inner tubes for sale – they said they were all tubeless these days. I did ask what if the tyre was to damaged for the sealant to work – they just shrugged their shoulders and said “new tyre”! Not a great solution if you’re 50 miles from home is it?!!!!
Anyway, I eventually found a shop who had a tube (€9!) and after dodgy a few wintery showers I headed across the refineries in northern Antwerp port and went back into Holland getting to Middelburg for my next stop – an AirBNB that Suzy had found for me.
Day 6 after a healthy breakfast overseen by the AirBNB owner (a little too closely) I was heading north, along the dutch sluices towards Rotterdam & The Hook Of Holland for my return overnight ferry. Another unhealthy stop, this time at KFC killed an hour or so before heading to the ferry port to wait for boarding. And yes – more cakes, biscuits and crisps were consumed on board.
Day 7 was the ride home, retracing the route I took to get to the ferry. This time full thermal kit was worn, as compared to shorts and short sleeves the previous few days. As the weather had closed in and it was raining quite heavily and blowing a gale. Fortunately the wind was, on the whole, behind me and I managed to get home pretty quickly although being soaked through and glad to see Suzy’s face at the front door.
The whole trip was 1040km (640 miles) over the 7 days – safe to say my “undercarriage” knew it so application of some Sudocrem and some comfortable shorts were the order of the day for quite a few days!
No sooner had I arrived home, we were gearing up to go to Majorca 4 days later!
This majorca trip was cut into a few segments, the first week was with Cheryl – suzy’s mum and her sister, her daughter and her partner. We met them at Stanstead hotel the evening before – a thing we do now as Suzy’s not comfortable with getting up at 2am to get down to the airport for a 6am flight. This way we are already there and Jet2 – the airline we prefer to travel with, have a “Twighlight Check-In” which means we can dump the big suitcases (and bike bags) the night before and all we need to do is walk through security in the morning.
The following week consisted of us enjoying young Thea’s company and the warm temperatures on this island which were a lot higher than normal. Suzy’s sister is expecting her 2nd child so any major distance for a walk was cut short and buses or horse & cart rides were suitable replacements. She & her partner very rarely exercise so what we normally do in majorca with what they would do on holiday is like chalk & cheese. So, I would be sent off early morning to get my ride in before getting back to the hotel to do something as a family in the afternoon & evening.
A week later and we hired a car and drove the family back to Palma Airport to say our goodbyes and they headed home. We, on the other hand, were staying out here for another two weeks. Suzy was working 9-6pm (8-5 uk time) to fit in with her work demands. She used an office space about a 5min walk from the hotel at around €15 for the day where you get free unlimited tea & coffee, that and fibre optic wifi and Suzy’s change of scenery from the usual 2nd bedroom back home was barely noticed by her work colleagues. She had told them she was working abroad instead of “from home” and they were cool with that but it just goes to show we could go anywhere in the world and still function well as an employee.
Suzy would either go for a run or go to the gym early morning before breakfast & then work or go for a short 60-90min ride in the evening before our evening “all you can eat” buffet. Me on the other hand would just head out after saying goodbye to Suzy and crack on with my self-motivated 75 miles per day for the whole three weeks’ target – which I hit before us returning home.
There were so many highs from this 3-week trip to this island that there’s too many to mention. It’s safe to say that most roads were ridden, most climbs were climbed, the iconic climbs were ticked off one by one, an exorbitant amount of coffee was consumed along with several variations of apple cake. The inclusive buffet at breakfast, dinner & tea were offset by the riding – if it wasn’t it’s safe to say I would be at least 10kgs heavier on my return journey home. Instead, there was a measly two pounds weight difference on my first weigh-in a day after coming back to the uk.
I was spotted by the Sa Calobra training camp owner – Aurelian and Marc – the van driver on the islands’ roads several times throughout our trip and my return to the camp in March 2025 can’t come quick enough. I spotted a few professional riders out there too – maybe just winding down after a busy racing season or they just be ultra-keen for next year? A few of them acknowledged me riding in the opposite direction which was pretty cool. The fact the weather had held off for all but just one day in this whole period made riding a bike much more pleasurable as compared to the UK at this time of year and I’m looking to doing it more often than we already are moving forwards.
No sooner had we returned to the UK and settled back into the ‘humdrum” of daily life back home we were travelling back to Majorca for a whistle stop tour with friends Ben, Abi, Jenny & Graham.
Ben wanted to ride the Sa Calobra climb on his birthday so we all planned to travel to the island on the Thursday, check in to our AirBNB and get our rental bikes from Pro Cycle Hire in Pollenca. The following day we were straight into the “Queen Stage” by riding the flatlands to Inca, going up Sa Batalla to the petrol station where coffee and apple cake were order of the day. From there it was to the aqueduct (if you know you know) and then up the short climb to the top of Sa Calobra.
After a 10km descent on wet corners in places we gathered at the bottom to take the views in and contemplate the uphill bit – going back up what we had just plunged down.
Just for fun, I had worked out an estimation of each riders’ climbing time of this world-famous climb, this ranged from 38 minutes to 60, with the slowest going first and then riders being released one by one according to their expected time at the top. This way, we could all be at the top at the same time to save hanging around for too long & getting cold.
I was not included in this as I was sent off up the climb to get photos of the others’ as they got near to the top. One by one up they came with several pictures of each shared once we got back to the AirBNB. It was a very long day as the riding was stop/start quite a bit with various issues including flat Etap batteries and rusted pedal springs to name a few. But, at least we got it done.
The following day was a longish ride to Planet Cycling, arguably the best cycling cafe on the island. A chilled out affair and with a slight detour back to the AirBNB to see “The Gin Man’ at LLubi we were all in good spirits despite the fatigue experienced.
The last day was a “half-day” so we decided to ride to the other world-famous climb to the Lighthouse – Formentor. This ride was broken up into a couple of stops and a detour by the faster riders up to the fire tower on a disused road – the best views on the island (IMHO). With a little time to spare before returning the hire bikes and getting picked up by the taxi to get us back to the airport we ventured into Pollenca centre and Graham had his customary large ice cream and we had some coffee before heading back to the UK and home.
With that I’m kinda up-to-date with a bit of what I’ve been doing recently. When I say “kinda” I mean up to about 3 weeks ago. There’s been several things that have happened since and several trips away – I know right – my son can’t keep up with where we are from one day to the next!
The next blog, which I’ll do in the next week or so does take a bit of a nose-dive but for the time being, I’m really grateful to be able to travel so much and still be able to do so much despite my injury. That fateful day could’ve turned out so differently if I had been one second fast/slower or one inch more left or right on that road. It doesn’t bear thinking about – although I do quite often.
