The day I met Jens Voigt
A couple of months ago, I happened to do a charity ride supported by Jens Voigt. I was excited, I planned it quite badly (and paid for it) but in the end it was all worth it. Let’s take it from the top, though, otherwise this post will seem badly planned, too.
It all started around the time that Jens did the Hour Record. He posted this on FB:
So, I emailed Stuart and I signed up for the charity ride. I was really busy during that time with work commitments and the word “forest” was in mind, so for some reason or other I assumed that the ride would be in Forrest Hill, South London, instead of New Forrest, Hampshire. Another assumption I made was that it would be around 30-35 miles with 1-2 stops. You know what they say about assumptions, right? Well, the ride was 50 miles with no stops. I had only one bottle of water with me and hardly any food. Oh, yes, did I mention that I hadn’t ridden for 4 weeks?
Anyway, the previous day I realised that I would have to drive to New Forrest, but that didn’t make me think twice, it was all for a good cause and I would get to ride with Jens. The other thing is that by the time I came back home from work, had dinner, sorted out the bike (I hadn’t ridden for a month, remember?), checked the weather forecast and got ready to go to bed it was quite late. The result is that I had slept for less than 4 hours! But it didn’t matter because it was supposed to be just a short ride.
The following morning when I arrived there and went to the briefing I heard that we will be covering 50 miles (80 km) through New Forrest, fairly flat with a couple of hills. I was a bit surprised about the distance but I thought that it would be OK. Once I asked about the number of water/food stops then I started getting worried. Untrained, with only 1 bottle of water, hardly any food, I started thinking that I would suffer a bit. OK, maybe a bit more than “a bit”. Then Jens came on stage to say a few words and I almost forgot about the lack of preparation.
We got divided into groups of 10 starting every few minutes with the stronger riders ahead and the slower ones following. I assume that they wanted to prevent faster riders overtaking slower ones and cause unnecessary traffic.
We started the ride; I was in the last group (I don’t want to see any nasty comments here, OK?) and we were doing a speed of around 24km/h. We had some guides who were local and they new the route; they were quite helpful. I got to ride with some really nice guys; Matt, Tom, Rob and Darren. Now, Darren is none other than Darren Kenny the 13-gold-medal Paralympian.
I was aware of the fact that I needed to save water, so I was not drinking as much as I should. Then at some point, in the middle of nowhere I saw an ice-cream van. So I stopped to get some water to refill my bottle. While I was fumbling with gloved hands to get money in and out of pockets, Darren snapped this photo and put it all over twitter. Thank God he didn’t know my twitter handle. He misspelled my name, too but we let him get away with it. When I win 13 golds I will be allowed to misspell peoples’ names, too, I hope.
Later on somebody said that they though I had bought an ice-cream! Truth is that my energy levels were running low but I wouldn’t buy an ice-cream. I was given a bottle with electrolytes which helped somehow. Anyway, we carried on and during the last few kilometers Jens joined our group. It was only 3 days after he did the Hour Record and although he was still tired from it, he was riding leisurely at about 30km/h. By that time I was getting cramps and the small hills of New Forest were giving me loads of pain.
The guys were really good and they slowed down and waited for me, so I carried on grunting and puffing.
Matt, Darren and yours truly (l-r)
Eventually, I managed to get to the finish where I consumed loads of water, coffee and cake! There was loads of stuff that Jens had brought that people could buy (Trek Team kit, his shoes from the Hour Record attempt, helmets, and so on). All the money, obviously, went to the two charities; the Epilepsy Society and the Oakhaven Hospice. There were plenty photos that you could get for a small donation and Jens could sign them. At some point people started asking Jens all sorts of different questions. It was an impromptu Q&A session right at the entranceway of the hall that the whole affair was taking place. Most of his answers were funny but we were getting an insight into his professional, personal and family life. Some of the bits I remember are:
- Now, that he is retired he will go to this restaurant which is near his house and will drink lots of beer and eat loads of spare ribs.
- He has a contract with Trek for one year where he will do all sorts of things. He will be doing PR like he did at the Manchester Cycle Show back in September, he will be going to races assisting the DS and other roles, press days, etc.
- When asked why is it that after the 2013 Tour de France he had said that it was his last Tour, he still raced on the 2014 Tour, he said: In 2013 the chances of him making the selection for the Tour where 50-50 because of his age. But he still made the Tour team. In 2014 his chances were 40-60 against him. Still, though, from the 27 riders that the team has in its roster they chose him to ride the Tour due to his consistency. Maybe the young riders don’t have a strong will to ride the Tour. He characteristically said that when he was in his 20’s there was no way that a 42-year old would make it to the Tour and he wouldn’t. He would ride as hard as he could to prove that he is worthy of a place in the Tour.
- For the Hour Record he said that he knew in advance that he could make it. Nobody goes forward with such an attempt if they don’t have a good chance of making it. Obviously, Bradley [Wiggins], Fabian [Cancellara], Tony [Martin] and the likes will definitely better his time. At the end of the day he is an all-rounder and not a time-trialist like those guys. He knew he could do it, though and he wanted to have a go at it as his last victory. As it turns out he was right because a few weeks later Matthias Brändle bettered Jens’ distance on the Hour Record.
All in all it was a great day, a fantastic ride, I met a few, nice, like-minded people and I met two cycling legends: Jens Voigt and Darren Kenny. Oh yeah, I suffered quite a lot, too. I also learned a lesson: I should always take with me enough water and food.