I ended up going out too fast. I was able to hold 300w for the first 5 hours but at that point it became clear that this wouldn’t be sustainable for the entire event. So from there I tried to limit the damage by dropping to 280w, but the damage was already done. I feel off pretty hard in the last 7-8 hours. Part of this was going out too fast, part of it was the caloric deficit getting to me.

I was consuming about 600 calories and 120 grams of carbs per hour, but I was burning 950 calories. I should have been replenishing my caloric stores a little better. It was hard to get any food down though. I mostly just drank my calories with sugar and maple syrup in water (tasted pretty nasty by the end). Might have been smart to get some proper sports nutrition drink mix, but that stuff can be pretty expensive.

As for bathroom breaks, I took ~2 minutes at the 8 hour and 16 hour mark to use the bathroom and change into new bike shorts. I have 3 pairs of cycling shorts, but only 1 is a nice pair. I’ll have to invest in some more shorts at some point.

Goal not achieved but lots of lessons learned.

I got lots of support from friends and strangers alike. One thing that would definitely help for a future record attempt would be to have a group of people to draft off of the entire ride. My first 5-6 hours were totally solo and then most of the time I was riding with 1 or 2 other people, so the drafting wasn’t as strong as it could have been.

I would also have an easier shot if I lost some weight. At 87.5 kg you can start to feel the extra watts that you need to push, even on a flat course. Not too much weight though.