BRM400 «Polissya»'2018

I 🚲 BRM400 «Polissya»'2018 — my first 400k. The photos below have been made by Kirill. I took them because I've lost mine.

I've trained for this one, rode intervals before work. That helped, but it hadn't been enough. The hopes of 27kph avg speed have been broken near the 130 km mark. There have been two parts that my ride consisted of:

We saw 🌅 near Liutizh.

My training had held me in the group for 130 km only. We'd hanged too long in the front with Denys. At that point I felt that I could fall and take the group out, and decided to wave everyone goodbye, continuing alone and in a 👴 tempo.

The better audax cyclists rode behind the horizon, where they've eaten all the 🍲 in a roadside eatery near 🏙️Ivankiv.

Little did I know that I passed them solo while they've been eating. It was a surprise to me when they appeared from behind when I was sending the tracking SMS from checkpoint 2. They came, and they went. I did not try to keep up with them. They have shattered my self-esteem by dropping me and then passing me one more time.

I felt as a muscle-less jelly 🧸 from that point and forth. It was with a heavy heart that my sad had reached the Dytyatky checkpoint.

The midday heat had hit soon. I had to diverge a bit to ask villagers for water, and they gave me some from a garden hose. I started to meet the quick guys who were already returning. Unbelievably, the local GOAT had been dethroned this time — Sashko had dropped Bohdan Stasiuk 😱.

Demoralized by my own weakness, 🐌 I somehow moved ahead.

I even reached Poliske somehow. Stood there for a couple minutes and began the journey back.

Soon I saw the gruppetto of those who believed that an audax is not a race, — all of them 😊 in contrast to the 😰 me. I was only so much ahead of them.

And I have even caught someone ahead around the 300 km mark! It was Kirill, and he was simply eating trash food from a village shop. From there, we rode together.

It was also in Liutizh that we saw 🌇.

We finished in the 🌙 dark. The organizers fed us boiled buckwheat.

Well, at least, it took me less than 24 hours. Relatively good job!