May 27, 2021

Can a motivated Anna turn an Ultra Cycling Goal into an Ultra Cycling World Record?

Keeping your cycling mojo burning strong is not always an easy task, especially during a global pandemic. Everyone has their own strategies to find motivation and one of those ways as we have discussed in our latest article on cycling motivation is setting personal goals.

For those of you who don't already know Anna, she usually takes the bull by the horns. She completed the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur race in 2019 and set a new goal straight afterwards to ride 600 km in 24 hrs.

In Anna's own words:

"When the fantastic Elin Starup from Denmark set a new world record for 24 hour ultracycling on an outdoor track, cycling 559.79 km, I decided it was time to try and achieve my goal.

I have been looking for suitable courses since last winter but did not find any until I came in contact with Volvo Cars Proving Ground in Hällered, Sweden. Volvo cars were positive but there was only one window of opportunity during the whole summer for me to have the track to myself for a whole 24 hours as the track is normally used 24/7. Everything happened fast. Almost too fast, but when the chance came, I really wanted to take it. My coach Richard said: "Awesome! of course you should do it!". And I'm inclined to agree with him. I have nothing to lose regardless of the result. The application and track data were quickly submitted to WUCA / USA.

Christian Behre who was previously my Crew Chief (and also Sweden's most experienced Team Manager in Ultracycling) agreed to lead me through an extreme cycling event. My team is now complete (5 in addition to Christian). There will also be three "officials" employed via WUCA who will be making sure we follow the rules. We are now planning everyone's duties, areas of responsibility, logistics, food and other details so
that the record attempt will be as successful as possible.

The record attempt is a "24 H Timed record" which means that I will cycle as far as possible in 24 hours on a WUCA approved track. No one else is allowed to cycle with me during the attempt. During those 24 hours,
I will also try to take the world record for 300 miles and 500 km cycling (ie two distance records). The course is about 6.2 km and I will have a support car supplied by Volvo along with an official making sure rules are followed. The team will supply me with food and drink and anything else I need from the side of the track. The bike will need to have lights on during the hours of darkness.

This weekend, I did my last really long workout (42 miles) before the attempt. A few high-intensity sessions and the odd long-distance training ride are all that is left until attempt day.
From Wednesday next week, I will go into hibernation. No contact. Just focus on the task at hand. Sleep, eat and rest.

I have cycled for 24 hours before and know what a huge strain it is both physically and mentally.

On the 5th of June in the evening at about six o'clock, the adventure of my life will begin."