6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships Race Report

On November 4-5 I participated on a mixed 2-person relay team in the 24 hour race at the 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships (WTTC) in Borrego Springs, CA. This event has a special place in my heart as the 24 hour solo race was my first experience in ultracycling in 2017, and I’ve raced that event every year that it’s been held since then (it was canceled in 2020 during the pandemic). I started working with Pav about three months ago after a disappointing first half of the year and wasn’t sure what my fitness or motivation would look like by race day, so I switched from the solo division to a two-person relay for the first time and asked my friend Rich to join me. Rich hadn’t been doing much riding until I asked him to race with me, but he was excited to get back on his bike and see what he could do. His approach to training is almost the polar opposite to my own. He doesn’t work with a coach and his idea of training is to just go out and ride as hard as he can whenever he can and keep increasing the distance of his long rides while trying to hold a pace of at least 20 mph. When he joined me for some of my long base rides, he would sit on my wheel and tell me he understood what I was doing but that it was so hard mentally for him to be taking it so easy. Nevertheless, I think we were both feeling pretty confident about our fitness by race day. We had an outside goal of hitting 500 miles in 24 hours, which would have broken the course record for a relay team (which I believe is actually held by Rich and his brother, but is still less than the 24 hour solo course record), but I don’t think we really knew if we were capable of hitting that number and we also knew it would depend a lot on the weather come race day. Fortunately, as the day drew closer, the forecast was looking very favorable. The wind in Borrego Springs can be humbling, especially when it’s blowing from the west which results in a headwind on a long false flat on the southern end of the 18 mile loop. The wind forecast was minimal, daytime temps were reasonable, but we were bracing for some very cold overnight temperatures in the low 40’s.

We decided that I would take the first lap at the 5 pm start time, so I lined up for the 4th starting wave with the other relay teams and some of the lower tier solo racers. I was supposed to be pacing myself fairly easily for the first few laps, but I think we all know how that goes. In trying to separate myself from the other racers while also overtaking the solo racers who had started in front of me, I was well into my red zone for most of the first lap. It was almost a blessing that I got a front flat about 35 minutes in and had to take a few minutes to calm down while I changed it. Fortunately, I got back on the road within about five minutes and still finished the first lap in about 56 minutes for my slowest lap of the race. I passed off the timing chip to Rich and then headed to our RV to regroup and rest until I’d have to head back to the pit area to ride again. I had to spend a few extra minutes replacing my flat repair supplies, but otherwise tried to settle into a routine that became consistent over almost every break. I set a timer for 40 minutes as soon as I got off the bike, got a new bottle ready for the next lap, made sure to finish the bottle I had on my bike and keep sipping fluids in between, made sure lights were fresh for the next lap, drank an Ensure Plus, and then settled into lay flat on my back in the RV until the timer went off. I occasionally took in some solid food if I was feeling hungry, but tried to stick to a mostly liquid diet. I had one or two Rice Krispy treats and some M&M’s and I think I had a packet of peanut butter at one point. Towards the end I started taking in some Skratch chew and Clif Shot Bloks as well. I was using Skratch electrolyte mix for fluids.

Rich and I stuck to our plan to continue riding one lap each with a contingency plan to have someone take an extra lap if the other person needed a longer break. Fortunately that never happened. I was a little concerned that I went a little too hard on my first two laps and was starting to cramp up after my first 3-4 laps. My power did gradually drop over the course of the race, but not drastically, and my splits were impressively consistent. Most of my 18 mile laps were between about 52 and 56 minutes.

During the final 90 minutes of the race, they divert us to a smaller loop of about 5 miles. I came in from the last 18 mile loop with less than an hour on the clock. Rich took off to do two short loops with the plan that I would take over to finish off the remaining time on the clock. Rich’s brother Terry had been hanging out in the pit area for most of the race to help facilitate our exchanges. As we were waiting for Rich to come back in we started looking at how much time was left on the clock. I told him I figured it would be close, but I might be able to push it out to two more short loops. He said that would be a “pretty tall ask”, which I took as a challenge. With about 28 minutes left on the clock, I started at an aggressive pace with every intention of emptying the tank. I looked at my time as I came in from the first lap and saw about 13 ½ minutes and rolled through for a second loop. I kept looking at my watch knowing that I had until 5:03 pm to finish in order to get credit for the lap. When I rounded the final corner with a few minutes left, I knew I had it in the bag so I finished it off and we had our own little celebration at the finish. I hadn’t been bothering to check our stats or position in the race since the night before when I saw that another mixed relay team had at least one full loop of 18 miles on us. We were just racing our own race and having some fun in the process. We both left everything out on the course and were satisfied that we couldn’t have squeezed anymore out of ourselves that day.

Our final stats:
Total Distance: 469.2 miles (later downgraded to 464.4 miles because Rich missed the timing mat for one of his short loops)
2nd place overall in relay division and 2nd place in Mixed 2-person relay 50-59 age group
7th place out of 90 finishers overall (meaning that five solo racers completed more miles than Rich and I together)

I covered about 244 miles of our 469. I recorded my files separately and haven’t attempted to work out averages, but I would estimate that my power output averaged out around 200 W with my speed between 19-20 mph for most of my laps.

It was definitely a new experience to do this race on a relay team compared to racing it solo. In the last five years, I’ve spent so much time racing and training on this course that I arguably know it better than almost anyone in the world. It was strange riding it with a different mentality. When I race solo, I often take advantage of certain sections to allow myself to sit up and get a break from the aero position and to coast to let my legs rest to avoid fatigue later in the race. Doing the relay, I was doing my best to stay aero and pedal the entire time I was on the bike, knowing that I would be spending about half of the race resting in the RV. Thanks to the many hours of workouts on the smart trainer and long base rides on some bike trails, I was able to stay disciplined enough to hold my aero position throughout the race. It was also a fun experience being able to fly around the 18 mile loop at a faster pace than I’m used to riding it. I tend to mentally break the loop into sections and realized I was often coming up to landmarks on the course much more quickly than I anticipated because I was riding so fast.

I’m very thankful to Coach Pav for putting me on a training program that is so different from what I’ve been doing for the last few years. I went into this event with a new sense of confidence and the best fitness I’ve had in about two years now. I’m looking forward to some great races to come. I’ve mostly been a solo racer, but I’m kind of enjoying this relay mentality for now. Next up is two-person Race Across America in June 2023, so hopefully there will be another epic race report to come!

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This is amazing!! Massive kudos to you and your race partner @letsplaybikes!!

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Fantastic write up. Thank you. Sounds like an amazing race an event. Congratulations on your placing too.

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Wow!! Well done to you both!!

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Congrats! This is incredible - I look forward to following your next journey.

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Apart from @WattsUp was anyone else riding this year?
@WattsUp how did you get on?

I did the 12 hour time trial self-supported this year. I wasn’t feeling my best and managed about 186 miles.

I believe I saw that @WattsUp tallied just over 400 miles and was also planning to race self-supported. Very impressive!!!

Conditions were mostly ideal this year. It got a bit cold in the early morning, but it has been much worse. The wind conditions were perfect during the day but it did get a bit warm out there.

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Hi Jenn. Congrats on your result - tremendous especially if you weren’t feeling great. I managed 400.8 during the 24 - pulled the pin about 40 mins early because of right knee pain - for once in my life I made a sensible decision and did not carry on. I’ll post a full race report here once I’ve further digested. a few more thoughts. I found it cold at night - but I generally do - and was a little under-dressed (jacket a tad too light) and the heat of the day got to me a little in the mid-afternoon. I’ll be back next year I suspect - I think I can do better and learned a lot. More to come.
Steve

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Fantastic, and I can only echo the other comments.

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Great to hear your stories and looking forward to hearing more. Fantastic efforts to both of you. Special note to @WattsUp for something I read on insta, helping out a fellow competitor who had a mishap. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

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Hi all

What follows is my race-report for the 2023 24 Hour World Time Trial in Borrego Springs CA, 24-Hour Solo ( 50-59 AG). My first go at this one.

Background
I don’t consider myself a proper ultra-cyclist, yet. In my mind - and this is obviously personal -I will consider myself one when when I’ve done about 10 events. My only prior ‘ultra’ experience to this event was the Garmin Gravel Worlds event in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2022 (304 miles all on Gravel - 23 hours and change for me; hot, humid, rolling ALL the way, 16K of elevation change) and the Natchez Trace 444 - 444 miles from Nashville TN to Natchez Mississippi. I did the NT444 this year, on Friday 29th September into Sat Sept 30th, so about a month prior to Worlds. NT444 took me 25.25 hours for 6th overall. . A very different race - point to point on rolling terrain. This race required a follow-car (vs Worlds with a ‘pit stop’ area) and unlike World’s with a 5pm sort, my start time for NT444 was 6:45am. I learned start-time is a real factor (imho). Worlds is an 18 mile rectangular loop which switched to a 4.7 mile loop with about 90 mins to go. Only complete laps finished within the 24 hours time-limit count.

Going into World’s, Jenn Orr kindly spent some time early on a Sunday morning to answer some silly questions I had - thanks Jenn. This was very helpful.

With the NT444 about a month before, the consequent fatigue + two weeks of work travel in October, my training pre-Worlds was very light. Despite NT444 in the legs, I did feel a bit undercooked going in, but I am trusting the process (i.e. Pav !) a lot more these days. I left NY to travel to San Diego on the afternoon of the Wednesday pre (Friday) race day. I arrived 8pm and had a two hour drive to my Air BnB in Borrego Springs, arriving about 11:30pm and quite tired after a pit-stop to get groceries - options in Borrego Springs are limited.

Traveling with a bike is always a bit stressful - will it get there and will it be in one piece. It did. However, when I opened up my case on Thursday am I faced a bit of a challenge with my tubules set up. I had been given conflicting advice on whether to let some pressure out of the tires before loading onto the plane or not. Strangely enough, I did remember to let some air out of the rear, but not the front - I just forgot - but on arrival the rear had basically exploded. In hindsight I should not have let air out as the tire just became unseated I think. I literally spent the whole of Thursday am trying to re-seat the tubules tire - with the aid of a Shimano Certified mechanic who was crewing for a friend and I - and until we found a helpful samaritan with an air compressor and some new rim tape, we just couldn’t get the thing to inflate. It was an annoyance - and a time consuming one, but at the back of my mind I always knew I could go with a tube. I persevered with the tubules because the roads were not that smooth and over this distance I wanted to have some comfort - so 30mm tires and tubules was the set up. For the record I rode a Cadex TT bike on HED Vanquish 80mm deep wheels front and back. I was pondering going with my HED disc on the rear, but being able to take one rear wheel only I opted for an 80mm deep rim front and back in case the notorious winds picked up - if they had I’d have been fighting the bike. As it turns out out, winds were low and a disc would have been the preferred wheel, but what can you do. I then ran into a ‘forgotten’ part issue but managed a work around for that.
Thursday involved heading into Borrego Springs to check the course, see where the pit area was, get ice, go out for dinner and get stuff ready for Friday. I sleep so-so Thursday night, not great, but woke with what I would describe as a light head cold - annoyingly congested and a bit flat, but nothing bad. I did not feel 100% at all, but it’s a case of accepting the reality and playing there cards you have. I popped into town Friday for some non-drowsy decongestants which helped.
Starting at 5pm was not ideal, but we all had the same issue. It’s a day of sitting around, trying to take it easy, feeling nervous energy develop, trying to stay out of the sun and just chill.

I had a friend, Dan Hartley, who was doing the race and he had arranged for Shane (the mechanic), to help us both with bike stuff and refuelling throughout. Shane has crewed RAAM twice so knew what he was doing and was extremely calm. Crew play a massive part in these events, so this was key as the day went on.

We headed into town and parked up in the pit area at about 3:30pm. Mandatory racer meeting at 4pm, and in the subsequent hour just prepping bike. I literally did not change into bike kit and shoes until 4:45pm. For the record I wore a long sleeve skin suit for the whole race, aero socks and shoe covers. Helmet choice was also something I went back and forth on - the POC Tempor TT helmet is one of if not the fastest lid on the market but it is hardly vented and with the expected heat in the day, and being prone to headaches in the heat, I did not want to risk it, so I went with and Ekoi Aero 16. Ideally I would have switch between the two but it was just a question of having too much stuff to take what with everything else - like 40 gels, bars, drink mixes, etc., etc. Compared to the NT444 - where I drove with my crew and could take everything - including two bikes - I had to be more selective for Worlds.
My strategy for the race was to start conservatively (I appear incapable of actually doing this however) and focus on feeding and refuelling. As with the NT444 event, I deliberately did NOT keep looking at my Garmin to watch the miles tick off. That said - I kept a log of how many laps I was racking up and as I like to do to keep me buy during races, started doing all kinds of mental math calculating distance, average speed, potential number of laps, etc - all of which I hear you say is easily readable on my Garmin, but it takes longer to do the math and think about things than to look at a screen where it’s all done for you, and it helps the time go by. I honestly have no idea when I clicked over the 100/200/300 mile marks for example - I just knew directionally I was going to be approx 400-ish plus or minus.
My initial goal was to ride 3 loops before pitting - did that and then did, I think 2 more 3-loop pit stops and intended a 4th but pitted after 2 loops because of the cold. When a former multiple-finisher like Jenn Orr tells you it can get really cold, bloody well listen to her !! I will say I took and wore winter gloves, two extra layers and a light Volley Winter Jacket. I was still cold. I should have taken a heavier jacket - lesson learned. The problem with pitting to put more layers on and drinking coffee is that you lose heat and the subsequent lap is a cold one. This went on til about 9:30am when finally I started to feel warm and peeled off layers.

A key moment happened about 145 miles in during the night when I pitted. My friend Dan was in the pit and just walking around when I arrived which I thought was odd but assumed he was taking a longer break. As I got closer it was clear he was visibly upset and had been in tears. Turns out he had been in the pit about 30 mins trying to gather himself - he had been clipped very hard by a minivan on the course with the vans wing mirror clipping his back/shoulder and then head area which pushed him into the road shoulder and off the bike. He rode the rest of the lap back but was very, very shaken up. Despite the number of participants, 18 miles is long enough for things to spread and it was very dark indeed, so a difficult loop for him to say the least. At this point I was going very very well, logging 54 minute laps (first one was 44 mins but we won’t talk about that stupid pacing decision) and I was raring to go. When I saw how upset Dan was there was no question but to talk to him, listen and see what I could do. He was leaning heavily towards pulling out. Knowing how much work and prep he had put in, how much he wanted 400+ miles, that he is on course to do RAAM and a very capable cyclist (he also did NT444 with me and has done RAW and the SS-508) selfishly I could not bear to see him pull out so suggested to him he come out with me for a loop that we soft pedal and talk our way around to see if he could get his head back in the game. After a while and very gentle cajoling I asked him to give me just one loop and he agreed. I “lost” about 20 mins here I’d say, but I don’t consider this a loss - it was the right thing to do. I’m not a pro and wasn’t chasing purse money. Perhaps I’m not hard-nosed enough but for me it was the right thing to do. So, we headed out and soft pedaled the lap, talked a lot - Dan just needed to vent and get it off his chest - and at the end of the loop he decided he did not want to continue - he was still very shaken up. I respect his decision. So, it was time to head back out and get my race-face on.
The next few hours were about staying warm and fuelled and reminding myself how good it would feel when the sun came up and what this natural caffeine gel feels like to ultra racers - it’s truly a primal feeling to see the sun come up and energy levels rise. And that they did. Before I knew it, I was back to the skin suit and asking for ice and cold drinks every pit stop. By this stage I was forcing myself to do a 2 laps before stopping; 2 laps is only 36 miles but the heat of the day meant that by the end of 2 laps I was dry as a bone and empty of fluids.
The course was interesting - a rectangle - not especially challenging - the “challenges” being a poor-ish surface (I live in NY so road surface is relative and I didn’t find this too bad but there were plenty of seams in the road) and one long false flat at about 3%-4% grade - this was a 9 min “climb” for me. Ordinarily this is the kind of terrain I do very, very well on - I like climbing and am quite good on the hills, but towards the end - I’d say the last 6 loops, I was absolutely crawling up this. During the heat of the day, but the time I had reached the start of this “climb” I took to stopping on the corner and emptying the then-melted bags of ice I was carrying over my head and skin suit to cool off. This became a carrot for me, but looking back it was also wasted time - but after 300 miles you start to negotiate with yourself in different ways. During the night my carrot was a hot cup of coffee - during the day it was ice and getting cool.
After the mid-morning it was all about ticking off those 2-laps, stopping and hitting it again. From early am on Saturday the 12 hour racers started their event and it was both fun and soul-destroying to see them fly by !!
Doing the math in my head I could still figure in my foggy brain that I had a very good chance to tick over 400 miles which was my pre-race goal. On the penultimate lap I started to feel some pain in my right knee, medial side, that just came from nowhere and got much more painful very quickly. I had a similar experience at the NT444 but the pain was on the lateral side and excruciating to the point where I could not stand up to pedal and when starting from stand-still had to push my knee down with my hand to get it moving. This was at the back of my mind as a potential issue when I started Worlds but the ‘out of nowhere’ onset took me by surprise vs NT444 where it was gradual - and on a different side to my knee. Anyway, I did one more long lap and knew that a short loop would literally get me over 400 - 400.8 to be precise, so I did that loop at an absolutely crawl. I pulled into the pit after the short lap - there were 40-ish mins to go and I had a choice - keep going to get another 4.7 miles, maybe 9.4 or call it quits and manage my knee. Ultimately I chose the latter and pulled the pin. At my stage in life - I am 56 in December - I am playing the long game and want to keep doing this for decades more. Injuries and recovery now take a lot longer to complete and putting aside the tiredness, I bargained with myself that looking after the knee was the right thing to do. Post race, if I had done even one more lap I would have moved up 2 places. Such is life. But again, the long game…
Which leads me to the off season: for the longer events I need to work on improving my foundation and doing more strength training to make my musculature stronger and more durable. I have probably neglected this in the past and it’s now biting me in the butt. Something discuss with Pav, but twice now I have had high knee issues around the 400 mile mark. I want to do longer events and not have this at the back of my mind.
I will definitely do worlds again next year because I know I can do better and go farther. On the plane journey home I had already started making a list of areas I can improve upon. If I work on those in the next year and taking into uccountthe stop and slow loop for Dan, I think 450+ is in my grasp - so this is my goal, notwithstanding how weather may play a part of course.
Finally, the fact that Pav has gradually morphed me into a noobie-ultra rider in the space of 2 years is testament to his training and insight and I am really excited to be in this place and explore the world that is Ultra-Racing with Pav in the coming years. I simply would not have reenable to do two ultras this year without Pav’s guidance.
I think Jenn remains the go-to resource for questions and advice on this race in this forum, but if anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer.
Hope everyone has a good off season and build for 2024 !

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Thanks for the brilliant write up. Sounds like you did amazingly! Good luck with building your winter base.

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Great write up @WattsUp and great for supporting your mate and still achieving an amazing goal. For me you did the right thing staying with Dan and that is far better than the “what if”. While your knee played up if you hadn’t had the slow lap who knows it could have come on sooner and my be you didn’t get the 400.

You killed it on all fronts for me. Chapeau

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@kevstorr - I appreciate the feedback and kind words very much indeed - thanks for taking the time. I think you are right t- the slow lap may have been a blessing in disguise. Thanks again. Steve.

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Excellent write up @WattsUp - well done to you and @letsplaybikes :slight_smile:

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Absolutely incredible. 400 is astounding. Well done top you both.

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