Day 1 // It’s Like Rain On Your Racing Day

Words by Athlyn Cathcart-Keays

Photos by Liz Seabrook and Sam Dugon

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Isn’t it ironic?

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You come to Spain expecting sun, and it pours from dawn to dusk. The car dashboard reads 7°C as we find Anna Richter (071) around 08:30CEST emerging from the mist of the Galician valleys and crossing into Portugal. The speed at which they were powering uphill had all of us in the control car in awe.

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When they reached CP1 in Bragança around 3 hours later, they headed straight off. Amazingly, Anna’s tracker is showing zero minutes of stopping time (meaning no stops longer than 5 minutes) – that’s a solid 16h45m of riding through heinous conditions. An incredible effort from the German rider, and two-time TCR finisher.

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At this point, front riders have completed the obligatory parcours and are on their own routes. But still, they converge in the roadside town of A Gudiña at every ultra-riders’ favourite refuel stop — the petrol station. Here, we find Jeanne LePoix (086) looking for waterproof gloves. She has ridden through the night, and is looking somewhat rattled as a result. “It was non-stop rain. Everything is soaked. My hands…”, she gestures with her pruned fingers as she browses accommodation options on Booking.com. “I think I look for a hotel tonight”.

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Just as she leaves, Nicky Shaw (092) turns up looking equally as soggy. Other than to put on more layers — she’s wearing all but one when we meet — she hasn’t stopped either. “I have like major dozies this morning. This is the first time I’ve come inside”, she tells me as she tries to revive her phone which stopped charging overnight. Unable to check the tracking or book hotels en route without a phone, she’s worried about how it might affect her strategy. “My original plan was to do it [the race] in three days – 430km per day. And that’s my target for today, and then I will stop tonight”.

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A little while later, Finnish rider Susanna Markoff (122) arrives in high spirits. She’s speaking Spanish with the petrol station staff, and making them all laugh. Joining me at the table with two bags of Haribo, two cokes and a tuna sandwich, she seems full of beans. “We have races in Finland in October when the weather is bad. But this…”, she gestures at the state of herself, waterproofs shining.

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The Borderlands

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Leaving the lush valleys of Galicia behind, riders gradually climbed towards the Portuguese border through a landscape still bearing the scars of the wildfires that swept through the region last year. Among the vivid green hillsides, blackened trees stood in stark contrast to the fresh spring growth reclaiming the ash-covered forest floor. Crossing into Portugal – and back in time one hour – the subtle signs of a new country were found in narrowed roads sometimes turning to cobble, winding through small villages where the reminders of a long history of subsistence living were clear. 

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The route soon rose into Montesinho Natural Park, known for its wild landscapes, rich biodiversity and vast chestnut forests. Higher up, the landscape opened into moorland scattered with yellow broom and vivid purple wildflowers. Olive groves clung to steep terraces along the hillsides, while lemon trees, grape vines and almond farms revealed a landscape where almost every inch of earth is used to grow something. 

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Earlier this morning and further back in the pack, Sophie finds Manja Borchert (001) walking uphill with her phone out. “I’m watching Netflix. It keeps me awake because I didn’t sleep well last night because it was too cold”. She had spent a few hours in a bus stop, unable to get warm when everything was wet.

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Others found shelter wherever they could. Rosa ter Kuile (101) found a 4* bivvy spot – an ATM booth with a door that closed, and luckily no-one seeking out late-night cash. The hostel in Rodeiro hosted the inaugural Lost Dot 101 pyjama party, with many riders showing up late evening for a decent sleep indoors.

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Waking up on Monday morning, Susannah Kirk (010) was rolling again by 04:00CEST. She’d normally be headed to her office, but today she was riding towards CP1 with a weather-dependent bivvy plan, delighted by the swapping of priorities. 

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Control Point 1 – Bragança, Portugal

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When the first parcours ends, riders take their own routes — following the lines they have diligently planned ahead of the race. We see them fan out across tiny roads heading south towards the Portuguese border, where they will converge once again at CP1 in Bragança.

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Arriving at various points throughout the day, each rider is welcomed by friendly CP volunteers and a slice of Dutch apple cake from Suzanne — a volunteer whose daughter is also out on the course.

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We arrive at CP1 just as Elise Sauvinet (128) comes through at 11:54WEST. After riding through the night, she says she plans to stop 100KM beyond to get some sleep indoors. Two hours before, Anna Richter (071) rolled through in the lead. Their plan going forward? “Nothing to do but ride”.

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An hour after Anna, Amrei Kuhne (034) pulled in at 10:59CWEST looking a little worse for wear. She had crashed about 60KM into the race on Sunday night, and was sporting some serious road rash on her thigh. Patching herself up, she plugged her GPS in to charge, only to have it pop and get very hot before it died completely. Undeterred, she pushed on with her phone to navigate.

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Larissa Unsinn (103), Jeanne LePoix (086) and Nicky Shaw (092) arrived shortly after the first bunch with only a few minutes between one another. After meeting Nicky and Jeanne in a frigid, frazzled state earlier this morning, it was a relief to see them both looking brighter and buoyed up by the warmth of the sun they’re now riding with. 

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Jetske van den Berg (051) was the 7th rider through. Between coming from the Netherlands and a recent stint in Ghana for her masters’ research, she’s finding the hills quite tough: “I barely trained this year because I went to Africa and I got back on the 1 April. So since then, I started cycling again”.

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Others coming through told stories of mechanicals, crashes, dodgy stomachs and race plans thwarted by inclement weather. “But plans are just suggestions though, aren’t they?”, Igu Schwab Hoyer (024) reminds us.

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Nightfall On The Douro

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Onto the next parcours (A), riders turn off the paved road and ride out to a lookout point above the Douro river where vultures soar in the gorge below. Here, the parcours begins – the first section an out-and-back – and they’ll descend to ride into the gorge before climbing out through olive groves to reach the hillside town of Freixo de Espada a Cinta.

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We catch the front riders at the lookout point, but no-one has time to stop to walk down to the cliff’s edge. There are thundery clouds on the horizon, and they push on again, more steep climbing ahead.

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Jumping in the car again, we race towards the mountain-side town of Linhares to catch Anna Richter (071) as they reached CP2. It was a close call, and we arrived just 5 minutes before they topped the steep climb and rolled into the stamping station at 22:47WEST. Anna has been stopping only to remove layers, and carrying enough food (“too much”, they said) to not have to resupply. That explains the zero minutes of stopped time then.

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Anna went off to sleep indoors for a few hours. Let’s see how that big time gap changes overnight.

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Scratch Report

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(107) Manju Varkey – Rider scratched 22:12CEST 11/05 via WhatsApp due to tiredness/weather

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(015) Insa Koschnitzke – Rider scratched at 14:34CEST 11/5 via iMessage due to fatigue

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(127) Lucile Ottoloni – Rider scratched at 22:48 CEST via whatsapp due to mechanical

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