10km into the race a large peloton weighed down with bikepacking gear was winding at high speed along the Mediterranean coast of Llança. Two cyclist touch wheels and go down hard right in front of me, my bike flips over and I land on my back, bike parts flying. 40min later I’ve ducktaped most of my parts together and headed off to the start the 1,100km TP. A friendly dutchie offered me his pain meds (lower back), and I rode for the next 27hrs straight trying to catch up to the front groups without burning all my matches. I felt great. 13hrs in, the VMO on my left knee suddenly went into excruciating pain and my average power dropped from 220 to 130. At that lower power the RPM is near 30. The pain was so bad by the end of “day 1” I was totally convinced I’d have to “scratch” the next morning. Made it over to France, a hotel, and slept until I woke up. Weather had turned from sun to just above freezing, rain and lightening and stayed that way for 24hrs. Day 2 I tested the rested knee, tried to drop a few kg from my bike weight and knocked out four more cols. Day 3 started climbing the Tourmalet at sunrise, feeling stronger with each amazing col. I had thought to just continue riding through the night for a 440km+ 24hr… then on the Somport climb my knee Vmo came back, my speed dropped by 65%, and I was basically cycling w one leg due to the pain in the left. I CRAWLED over the border to Spain and barely made it to a hotel last night. Couldn’t walk. All kitchens closed, so enjoyed a nice gas station meal, slept for 3.5hrs and headed out at 3am. Testing the knee, it began to feel better as the day drew on. For some reason my appetite has been suppressed during this race - I was able to just keep steady, not much futz time. Then with the last three cols in sight went full gas. It felt like I had fresh legs - the knee pain of the last 48hrs effectively kept me in zone 1… scenery across the entire amazing route was breathtaking. Ended the race 18/179 overall. Stats: - 23k meters / 75k ft - XX hours pushing 15kg of bike at XX rpm - Rain pants (bought mid race). Are now my second favorite kit - Puffy jacket for descending my first favorite