Ross tests his kit - and himself - ahead of the GBDuro
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, at the beginning of August, Saint Piran rider, Ross Holland is tackling the GBDuro, a 2,000km unsupported, partially off-road race from Lands End to John O’ Groats. Last weekend, Ross made an overnight trip to test his setup and get a feel for the terrain he’ll be facing. Here’s his report.
I decided to ride part of the Welsh section of the route so I crossed the Severn Bridge with the intention of riding around 250-300km, camping out and then retracing my steps. But instead of riding roads I already knew, I opted to press on out of Wales and up to Manchester. The route I took wound through the Brecon Beacons and then turned north to Snowdonia, before coming back across North Wales, back into England and across to Manchester, where I boarded a train back home.
“On the first day I rode 260km on a wide variety of terrain, from road to rocky descents.”
There were sections that even a full suspension mountain bike might struggle on. I’m happy to report that my Colnago G3X coped very well, and any handling issues were down to me and the many kilos of stuff strapped to it, and not the bike!
I set off at 7am and didn’t set-up camp until 11pm. The terrain was incredibly slow going at many points, with a number of sections simply un-rideable. It’s very demoralising to watch your target average speed plummet, knowing you’ll have to make up the ground later. I think the key during the event itself will be to keep reminding myself that there are quicker sections ahead so it will all eventually balance out.
“Beautiful sunshine on the first day meant I had naïvely neglected to check the forecast.”
I was woken at around 4am by rain coming through the bivvy flynet, soaking my head. I was so uncomfortable that I just got up, packed and set off. After all I had a train to catch in Manchester later that evening and had no idea how long it was going to take me.
The weather and fatigued legs made the second day so much harder, with the first 100km taking me over seven hours. However, I could see on the profile that the route flattened off once I crossed back into England, so I kept plodding along in the hope that I’d make up the lost time in the second half, which I did. That’s not to say the second half of the day was easier. There were a few moments where I thought I’d run out of energy as I was low on food. But I took a 10-minute break, topped up my water and completed the final section into Manchester with time to spare before my train.
This overnight trip was incredibly beneficial in my preparations for the real thing. It enabled me to test everything under similar conditions to those I’ll face in the GBDuro and I feel much more prepared as a result.
“My equipment performed faultlessly throughout.”
I was still comfortable in my Castelli chamois after 36 hours of constant use. I didn’t get a single puncture thanks to my Hutchinson tubeless gravel tyres, which is incredibly impressive given the load I was carrying and the terrain I was crossing. The bags supplied by Straight Cut Design were incredible with their intuitive design and top-quality material and craftmanship.
“A couple of things that I will change before the real thing are my gearing and sleeping setup.“
My smallest gear was a 36/30t. This is small for road gear, but nowhere near enough for an exhausted rider lugging a fully laden bike up 20% off road sections. I’ll go down to around a 30 or 32t inner ring, with a 36 or bigger at the back. This should make more sections rideable, meaning I can spread my effort out more evenly over the day and hopefully save my knees.
I also am going to take a small one-man tent rather than a bivvy for the trip. A bivvy would be fine for an overnighter or a race where you are allowed in buildings. But since I will be spending just over a week completely outdoors, I think the extra shelter offered by a tent s, giving somewhere to get out the rain and get changed out of wet kit, could be the difference between finishing and not. The extra half kilo or so that I’ll have to carry is worth it in my eyes.
“Riding the route of the actual event was very important.”
It gave me a good idea of how many km it’s possible to do each day in the real thing. This means I can estimate how long the full thing will take me and therefore, crucially, how much food I’ll need to pack. The route is 2000km and at an average of 250km per day, I’m aiming to complete it in around eight days. For this test trip, I carried roughly 5,000 calories per day which means for the real thing I’ll be setting off with around 40,000 calories. Depending on what I bring, that will weigh up to 12 kg. For the real thing I will probably opt for a higher-fat diet than I used for the test, which given the low intensity of the riding should fuel me well, while the increased calorie density will bring the overall weight down.
In the coming days I will be refining my setup and resting in preparation for what I expect to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.