Ultra Endurance Self Supported Race Reports
Multi Night Tours and Overnight’er Reports
Miami, Florida to Charleston, South Carolina
March 1, 2023: My 20 week training plan for the 2023 Indian Pacific Wheel Ride was running well behind schedule. I was skipping sessions all over the place due to injury and poor motivation. My left knee pain, recently diagnosed as bone on bone a* word (with bone...
Philadelphia to Connecticut to Long Island and NYC
Jan 15, 2023: A week before Christmas 2022 and 8 weeks into my 20 week training program for the 2023 Indian Pacific Wheel Ride . I was due to bang out a few consecutive days of high miles. Top of mind were 3 things: how fit am I? how will my arthritic knee hold up?...
2021 Crush the Commonwealth (Pitt to Philly)
Okey dokes, another crack at the Crush the Commonwealth as a dress rehearsal for the 2021 Trans Am. 2017 was a DNF so I was extra pumped to get all the way to the Liberthttps://www.mamilcyclist.com/5-lessons-learnt-crush-commonwealthy Bell on this occasion.The Route...
Philadelphia to Washington, DC to Gettysburg, Return
Sept 12, 2020: Summer 2020 had been an insane one to date: crazy weather, Covid and Race Riots. Even though I had just decided to divert my training efforts from the March 2021 Indian Pacific Wheel Ride to the June 2021 Trans Am, which gave me 3 extra months prep...
London to the Scottish Highlands
I had a totally life changing and life affirming experience during the 2017 Trans America Bike Race and despite falling into a physical and emotional heap after it, by the following summer I was ready for more! Training for, and participating in another big race...
2017 Crush The Commonwealth (Pitt to Philly): 5 Lessons Learned
The weekend just past I attempted the 620 kilometer (385 mile) bike race from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, which was to serve as a dress rehearsal for the Trans Am. I say attempted as 460 kilometers in my rear derailleur pretty much exploded thus ending my race prematurely. A week later I still have disappointment coursing through my veins but I am now able to focus clearly on some valuable lessons learnt from the experience.
First Ever Overnighter: Philadelphia to Yale University
Dec 12, 2016: I was about 8 weeks into training for my first ultra distance bikepacking race, the 2017 Trans America Bike Race . It was a magical, barrier smashing time of firsts on the bike. I had just completed my first 200k ride and our third Thanksgiving in the...
Epic Days on the Bike
2021 Scenic Schuylkill Century
Wednesday September 1, 2021: The summer of 2021 was a busy one for the Croker family, cycling-wise. I’d given the Trans Am another crack in June and as a family we participated in our first ever organized event, a Farm to Fork Fondo , in August. As we’d had so much...
2021 Farm to Fork Fondo: Amish Country
In quite the understatement this long distance cycling malarkey is rather solitary - hours training and recovering in addition to the actual event when I am away from my growing little family for weeks on end. So when I stumbled across the Farm to Fork Rides during my...
2017 L’Etape du Tour: Briancon to Col d’Izoard (Report)
The 2017 L’Etape du Tour, my 5th in 5 years was going to be an interesting one. I had only finished the 4,200 Trans America Bike Race 13 days previously and had bugger all time to recovery post the 27 and a half days of hard riding. For this 2017 edition I was either...
2016 Etape du Tour: Megève to Morzine (Race Report)
The 2016 Etape du Tour from Megeve to Morzine in the French Alps was my 4th Etape du Tour. In 2013 there were 4 of us, this year there were 11, including 6 first timers. A motley crew of Aussies, Irish, Scottish, French, American, Dutch and English. It was weird being the “seasoned” Etape veteran, one of the go to guys for info and tips. Weird as I still very much consider myself a novice cyclist and weird because, yes I may well have participated in 3 previous Etape du Tour’s but I actually hadn’t set an official time yet! A bloody disgrace if you ask me. How would this year go?
2016 Gran Fondo New York: Race Report
This was my second attempt at the Gran Fondo New York having first completed the 100 mile (160km) race in 2014. It was my 6th Sportive yet the first one where I had actually gone into the event with a competitive mindset. I was after a decent time rather than being satisfied with just finishing. My goal time was rather ambitious……….but the question is, was it realistic?!
2015 L’Etape du Tour: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to La Toussuire (Report)
The route for each years Tour de France is usually announced in late October the previous year and soon after the route for the L’Etape du Tour is selected from a mountain stage of that race. It is usually the ‘Queen Stage’, being the toughest, most challenging and...
2015 Festive 500
I am a long time user of Strava, a relatively recent adopter of Rapha clobber and a perinial slob in the week between Christmas and New Year and so when I stumbled over the “Rapha Festive 500” Strava challenge to ride 500km between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve I thought I’d give it a red hot go.
2014 L’Etape du Tour: Pau to Hautacam (Race Report)
The setting for my second L’Etape du Tour was in the Pyrenees, a part of the world where Melissa and I had road tripped in the early Spring of 2011. Although that trip had been all about gastronomy, we got a good feel for the often inclement weather in the mountains,...
2014 Gran Fondo New York: Race Report
I actually registered for this ride when we were still living in the UK thinking that it would be way to hit the ground riding once we had moved to Philadelphia, USA in April 2014. Having been back riding for a few years, cycling was a big part of my life, and...
2013 L’Etape du Tour: Annecy to Annecy-Semnoz (Race Report)
The 2013 Etape du Tour is my favourite Gran Fondo to date. There were four of us that did it and as we had never attempted such an event before it really felt like a great adventure at the time that we would all conquer together. They say you never forget your first….
The Making of a MAMIL
I cycled as a kid as most kids do. It’s a right of passage, a first taste of freedom, independence and adventure but like a lot of cool stuff you used to do in childhood, you grow up and you don’t do it anymore. Fast forward 30 odd years and cycling has re-entered my life…..with avengeance you could well say and has led to some pretty crazy antics. Freedom and adventure are back in Middle-Age baby!! My journey back into cycling….into MAMILhood is a pretty decent story I reckon. Here goes….