Russell Jones from Kingussie will talk about his Trans Am Cycle experience, which was an amazing achievement, at the Skye Camanachd Clubhouse on Friday 2 March 2018.
The evening starts at 7pm.
Admission is £3 and all proceeds go to Lucky2bhere.
So much happened during this amazing adventure and you can read and extract from Russell’s diary below to whet your appetite.
Pre-Race
In June 2017 I took part in the Trans America Bike Race, a coast to coast unsupported race that goes through ten States covering 4,267 miles. This distance is twice as long as the 2017 Tour de France and five times the length of Britain.
I had cycled the length of Britain, from Lands End to John O Groats, in August 2016. I had planned my route and booked all my accommodation in advance spaced out at roughly 90-100 mile intervals and although I loved the journey, I didn’t feel it had been particularly adventurous and I somehow had a feeling of anti-climax when I finished.
I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t a very good touring cyclist and almost immediately, I began to look for another bike challenge. That was when I discovered the Trans Am Bike Race.
There are no stages, the clock never stops. The longer you sleep, eat or do anything else off the bike the longer your race time will be.
There is no drafting allowed. Drafting is where one cyclist can follow another closely and not have to use as much energy as they will be in the other persons slipstream. If you are riding with anyone else on the Trans Am you must either be side by side or if in single file be far enough apart that you do not gain any advantage.
Competitors are not allowed any outside assistance unless it is commercially available to everybody so in other words there are no support teams allowed but you can use hotels, B&B’s, hostels, shops, diners etc. There is not always a hotel or hostel near where you might stop each night so you have to be kitted out to camp as well. Partly to save a bit of money and partly because I reckoned it would make it a bit more of an adventure I decided to camp out most nights in a bivvy bag.
Post-Race
I laughed, I cried (only a wee bit on the Blue Ridge Parkway), I was a bit scared sometimes, I was out of my comfort zone a lot of the time, I ate lots and lots of fatty and sugary food on gas station forecourts, drank gallons of Coke and Pepsi during the day and managed a few beers some evenings.
I'd slept in forests, parks, public toilets, behind churches, in shop doorways, hostels, a cabin and motels.
I'd had 6 showers in 4,300 - miles a ratio of 716 miles to the shower – I’m not particularly proud of that stat.
I cycled through four time zones, climbed 167,000 feet, did 4,267 race miles and at least another 50 miles off course because I'm an idiot.
I stopped the race clock at 27 days 11 hours and 42 minutes averaging 155 miles a day and was placed 32nd out of 131 starters. 53 people finished the race.
My body held up really well and I had no aches or pains and looked forward to getting back on the bike every day.