Day One of the Race

I slept well—under the table, in my sleeping bag, on the terrace of the organisers. Earplugs and eye mask helped.

Woke up at 5 a.m.—stretch, a bit of this and that, then breakfast and tea. Packed (or rather, repacked) the bike, picked up a tracker, got some last instructions, and then it was time to start.

I only fully decided what to take with me about half an hour before the start. I wanted my bike as light as possible, but still with all the essentials—sleeping kit and warm clothes in case it got cold at night. I managed to fit everything neatly into saddle bag.

We started at 8 a.m, me from last place, as usual. The route followed the Morava river, which marked the border with Austria, until we reached another border with Czechia—a three-country border point. Funny moment: I stopped there with some other riders, saw a cyclist on the Czech side, and shouted, “Hello there! How’s the other side?” Pretty funny at the time.

This section along the river was flat—about 100 km, quite fast. I think the pace was unnecessarily high, but okay, it split the group. We reached the town of Skalica. Some riders had lunch there, others grabbed their first food. For me, it was just resupply—I’d already been eating regularly, but decided not to carry too much for the first part.

I popped into a gas station and asked for a shopping basket. The two people behind the till looked at me like, “This is a gas station, mate.” 🤷‍♂️ So I started making a pile near the till: 2× 1.5L bottles of water (already drank that much), then a Coke, another cold drink, two Calippos to cool down, asked guy to make me coffee and a hot panini (while piling up more food), some fruit bars (which I’d been eating while riding in Slovakia), a baguette, 4 croissants and some other bits. The staff looked at me—and the rider who stopped with me—like I was insane. But hey, I’m a scientist, I know what I’m doing, trust me.

The whole stop took 20 minutes—fitting everything in, mixing drinks, while eating the panini, drinking the coffee and one cold drink. After that I was set—with some bars i had, no need to resupply until the next day, except for water.

After Skalica, I was alone—most others stopped for lunch. Apart from one rider whose tracker wasn’t working. I caught him, then passed him. On the map he looked like he was riding drunk, zig-zagging all over—his Garmin was rerouting him instead of following the uploaded course. He wasn’t the only one with Garmin issues, apparently.

The views were stunning. Riding through forests was fun. I nearly ran out of water and wanted to buy a drink. Stopped at a food truck, but the prices shocked me: €20, €15, €30 for drinks! Then I realised—ah, Czech koruna. Actually very reasonable. But since I didn’t have Czech cash, no drink for me.

Met the organiser with a photographer, had a chat. Apparently, I was in first place. Nice. Left them, went to a village to finally get some drinks, then caught up with the rider who was in front now. His Garmin was still sending him on wild detours. I told him to turn off rerouting, then he couldn’t do anything with garmin until rejoined Garmin’s chosen course. So he stuck with me for a while.

We rode together for a bit, met another race photographer on the Czech side, and reached a wooden lookout on top of a hill. There was a food truck that accepted cards—so I finally had a cold drink. Chatted with a hiker on a two-week trek, sorted a few work emails, chilled a bit.

Another rider caught up, had a drink, then left with my companion. So I was alone again.

The riding was good—ups, downs, and rolling terrain. I was already thinking about the night. The spots I had marked were too far to reach, and I was sweaty and tired. I also realised I’d been wearing the same cycling clothes for three days straight (including the ride to the race start). I really needed to wash them.

So, after passing through a big town, I checked some hotels. Found one, called the owner, got the code for the key safe, and checked in. I washed my clothes, ate the food I had with me, and tried to sleep.

Good night.