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This story started almost a year ago. Being a cyclist in Sweden means you have to do a lap around a very big lake at least once. So we said, let’s gather friends and friends of friends and do it together. As our cycling community in Stockholm, @hi.friendswithbikes, is ‘By women, for all – as long as you’re friendly and put the team>ego’, we wanted to have a mixed team. But flipping the script by being a majority of women. Something that we hadn’t seen before.
Said and done, two teams were formed: a Friendly FAST team, racing with a ‘sub 9.5 everything below 10 is great’ goal, and a Friendly FUN team, focusing on getting everyone around the lake for the first time. Sub-10 did feel fast and we knew right away it would entail an intense spring with a lot of effort - both physically and mentally. So everyone in the team was assigned a buddy; a friend, to push each other in training and do regular mental check-ins.
It’s January, February, March, April. The season of base miles and indoor sessions, as the thermometer seems to never reach above the zero line. Aside from the hours on the wattbikes, there were a lot of things to learn to ride this fast in a safe way and a lot of things we didn’t know. Instead of trying to know it all, we asked some experienced cyclists and experts to teach us things like – How to structure and periodise the training? How much fuel and nutrition is needed to be able to train at this volume and keep going for 10 hours straight? How to be an efficient and effective peloton of 20 people? What are the ‘what ifs’ that we as a team need to prepare for?
By the time of our first team weekend 20-21th of April, it was 0° outside and our initial outdoor plans of two longrides had to change accordingly. The only thing we dreamt about was less than three layers of clothes and not freezing our faces off. A FTP test, short outdoor 30k peloton training, team dinner and 90 min indoor session the day after was better than nothin. We were building up our strength and team spirit but it was starting to feel like a fight against time with less than 6 weeks to race day.
Indoor Training Season
It’s Tuesday with four days to go. We have three late dropouts because of injuries and illness and one late joiner. We gathered the team one last time to talk through logistics, safety and preparations. The physical work is done but how do we prepare mentally and practically? What obstacles could we meet and how will hour 7 or 8 on the bike actually feel?
We listed situations that could occur ranging from flats to stomach issues and even a crash. We tried to have a game plan for everything. How the buddies should look after eachother and make sure that the other person eats, rests (well, as much as you can do in a peloton going 34.5 km/h) and holds on. How the co-captains have the last say for all decisions during the race – a difficult responsibility since we had to prepare for the unknown.
Training, preparing and training
It’s 04:24 AM in the small town on the northeast corner of the lake Vättern. We’re 11 women and 6 men standing at the starting line with 2 minutes to go. All bikes are race ready with start number bibs and a time plan taped to the handlebar. The toploader bags and jerseys are fully packed with enough energy to last 10 hours. One deep breath, a nervous laughter and we roll off.
The first 30 minutes we spend in almost complete silence, just signaling when needed. We’re constantly in the left lane, overtaking hundreds and hundreds of cyclists. Then all of the sudden, Jennifer drops back, and we hear those words we don’t want to hear – flat. We all stop on the opposite side of the road, the flat team takes on the mission quickly, Franziska tracks each minute we have to catch up later and everyone else is forced to pee even though they don’t have to as our first break just got canceled. A few minutes later, we’re rolling again. Shortly after, her pressure is low again and we lose her out of sight on a hill with hundred people riding behind our peloton. We stop at the next safe place, call her and with no answer we make the tough decision to keep going – and this is where our race report part ways.
Race Day: Plans Derailed, but the Spirit Endured
I stop on the side of the road amidst all the cyclists. I can’t see the team. With my phone on silent mode, I can’t hear them calling and all I can think about is how to solve the flat with a leaking valve and no more spare tube. Five minutes later, three guys scream and ask if I have everything I need and I tell them no. It ended up with me cycling with them for the whole race, at another pace than planned but still going. Luckily enough, I’m a ‘Nature has it’s own way’-person and if I had put too much energy into being frustrated, I would probably not have made it around the lake. I’m proud of switching my mindset so quickly. Thank you, meditation.
- Jennifer
We have 270k left and we’re already 10+ min behind our time plan. The start has left us with stressed and we push up the pace closer to 36-38 km/h where possible. At 133k it’s time to pee and fill up the water bottles and with just a few kilometers left, we have a fall in the peloton. We brush off our friends and their ripped jerseys, check the bikes and decide to keep on going – with the ones that were involved starting out behind the peloton. From here on, it’s mindset and motion in duality. At times, we’re just 5 people in the rotation and the rest in the cafe. Left leg, right leg. Pedal stroke after pedal stroke. 200k pass. 250k pass. 300k pass. And then, the last km sign on our right side. Friends, are we there yet?
