TCRNo11 Day 1 // Spontaneous Combustion: a Fiery Warm-up

Words by Jake Thorpe

Photos by Matt Grayson & Tomás Montes

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Glittering, glistening.

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As the last of the light drained from the evening sky, seeping into the silky waters of the abnormally subdued Atlantic, riders carved along the coastline, a blur of fluorescence and flashlights. Their destination? Fisterra. The edge of a continent; once the end of the world.

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With day swiftly making way for night, a typical Galician sea mist drew in. Riders, caught in the headlights of Control Car 1, glistened – spray and sweat mingling in a thin film on foreheads and forearms. As the race’s pioneers, led by André Bachmann (005), swung into the sweeping beam of the Faro de Fisterra – a squat octagonal beacon perched on a western spit – they spun, volte-face, to cast off for their voyage east.

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A Two-pronged Approach

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Just north of Dumbria, in inland Galicia, riders divided. Some – led by Nicolas Chatelet (046), closely followed by Abdullah Zeinab (004) – traced a northern prong, while a second pack – tipped by Bachmann and contested by boy-wonder Victor Bosoni (232) speared south. Bosoni had been in high spirits at rider briefing, citing overland travel as a basis for his buoyancy. Marin de Saint-Exupéry (010) – a fellow contestant of the Green Leaderboard – seemed strengthened by the same tonic. Poking out his tongue for the camera at Fisterra, he followed Bosoni south into the Spanish night.

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By daybreak, the leading riders had filed on to the rugged coastal cliffs of Asturias. Among them, Jana Kesenheimer (001) – a former surfer whose pursuit of Europe’s best waves often took her to the coast of Northern Spain – was enjoying retracing the steps of her youth, now in pursuit of a different challenge. The pack, led by three relatively unknown entities in the world of the Transcontinental – two TCR novices, Nicolas Chatelet (046) and Martin Moritz (297), and Veit Fiedler (146) making his first reprise – made light work of Spain’s northern seaboard, despite the best efforts of a persistent north-easterly nudging them back towards Santiago. Great for Jana’s surfing, no doubt, but less choice weather when it comes to cycling.  

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Nicolas Chatelet (046), who races ultras in tandem with his seasons riding in the French division nationale, is fresh off the back of a commanding win at the Race Across Spain in April. He has made some distinctive routing decisions since Fisterra – happily breaking from the pack to plough his own furrow. Taking an inland diversion through more mountainous terrain from Luarca, he gained a slim advantage over his chasers to take the race’s first stamp.

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The Race’s First Control

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Control Point 1, a stone refuge nestled on the shoulder of one of Asturias’ famously precipitous outcrops, is accessed by a single road. Unfortunately for riders, this road is a cascade of concertinaed curves – 11 to be precise – which, at their apex, reach gradients of more than 20 percent. It’s a dramatic entrée.

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Arriving at the summit, a dead end, drenched in the effort of the climb, race leader Nicolas had a bone to pick with Race Director, Andrew Phillips – the architect of his pain. We expect this to be a common sentiment.

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A Spanish Warm-up

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TCR veteran Christoph Strasser (002) shared his own perspective of the breakneck start from the saddle. “The race”, he reasoned, “is more of a warm-up in Spain”. He predicts that, as riders enter France and Italy, things will intensify. One thought will preoccupy all minds from there. The Adriatic. Margins for ferry crossings will be slight and the sanction for miscalculation could be severe.

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For his part, Christoph – despite having covered nearly 600 km in the first 24 hours, remains just outside the top 15. It’s testament, he admits, to the strength of the field, but he also suggests we suspend any disbelief. “Let’s see how everyone can sustain their performance”, was his parting counsel. The leading trio did indeed look drained as they scrambled to snatch bites of pocket pizza between liberal applications of chamois cream.

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Fifth to CP1, Victor arrived in characteristically good humour; despite, in the words of Andrew Phillips, “sweating from his eyeballs”. He expressed little besides total awe at the sublime scale of the mountains unfolding around him; his parting words — “ah je suis mort!” — the only acknowledgment of the relentless effort of the last 24 hours.

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Another rider not to mince his words was André Bachmann (005) who, after a blistering start, could only smile at the sadism of the day’s conclusion. “That was an asshole”, he panted, hauling himself up and over the final switchback.

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Recovering from Rest

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Further back, dampened by the mizzly conditions of their first night on the road, many in the middle of the race chose to break up their onward charge with short naps by the roadside. Sleep was, reportedly, patchy. In the early hours of Monday morning, many a Galician ditch housed a temporary tenant. Some riders, however, sought less conventional accommodation. Ragna Roth (331), for instance, spent her night tucked up in a graveyard toilet – a disturbing collaboration of unsavoury quarters.

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Unsurprisingly, the bulk of those who opted for informal accommodation were spotted later that morning hunched over bocadillos, and cradling café con leches in an attempt to recover from their alleged rest. Air-dried by the Asturian breeze, however, and with the clouds swiftly parting, spirits soon began to lift.

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It’s Almost Always a Good Idea to be Vedangi

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A rider who had instead opted to push through til dawn, two-time global circumnavigator, Vedangi Kulkarni (243), spent her night experiencing the tribulations associated with forcing a bike to return from early retirement. Having not been ridden since April, her steed appeared to be taking some time to warm up. Ghosts in the machine of her electronic shifting forced her to dismount and change gear manually for a time, while a distinct lack of spacers on her aerobars render them, at present, redundant. Mechanicals are always tough, but they’re notably tougher when served with a helping of celebrity. Having been passed by a stream of riders during a forced stop, all of whom recognised her from her other two-wheeled exploits, Vedangi admitted that, at that moment, she wondered whether being Vedangi was at all helpful in the pursuit of forward progress.

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By the morning, things were looking brighter. After all, the Inverness-based, Indian ultra-cyclist is no stranger to adversity on the road. She has proven time and time again that, whatever the scale of the challenge, being Vedangi is almost always the perfect solution.

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The First Departures

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But the morning didn’t hold indiscriminate respite. Holding back tears, Joe Bagel (045) – the race’s first scratch – explained the reason for his untimely departure. Having arrived at the race with a partially herniated disc, he knew all too soon that his journey would not take him to the shores of the Black Sea. Endeavouring to savour what he could of the experience, Joe opened the taps on the Start Parcours, riding for a while with Christoph Strasser.  While together, the road inclined and Joe picked up into a sprint. Minutes later, Strasser caught up, asking, “Why sprint now, when there’s so much race to go?” Joe, already conscious of his deteriorating condition, replied, “I don’t think I’ll be making it all that way, so I’m having fun while I still can.” Sharing the road with one of the sport’s icons has, for Joe, left an indelible mark. He was in no doubt, when we spoke, that his race, however short, had been worth it.

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Just as we were leaving Joe, news reached Control Car 1 of a second scratch. Abdullah Zeinab (004), another icon of the sport, had withdrawn due to ill health. Upon hearing of Abdullah’s scratch, Joe appeared even more concerned than he had been about his own. “He’s a bit of a hero of mine”, he admitted. Having raced the Trans Am last year – a course for which Abdullah still holds the record – Joe cites the Australian-Palestinian rider as his inspiration.

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We hope Abdullah knows that his influence in the sport stretches far beyond the results of his latest race. His energy at the sharp end will be sorely missed.

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*Manuel Fraga (025) has also scratched after a crash on Monday morning. Having seen a doctor he has been advised not to continue.

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