What impact did Mike’s death have on your preparations and motivation for the event?

I was motivated to do the event justice and honour Mike. It’s his race, so what else do I do but turn up to his race and do my best?

What is that draws you to ultra-distance cycling?

Several things – I like to see places, and go to new places and obviously this does that. I also really like to race my bicycle, I’m really competitive and I have a lot of energy and it’s a good way to tire me out really.

What are the biggest challenges you face on the road? A lot of people mention the loneliness…

It’s interesting that people say that. It’s not something I’ve ever experienced really. I’m quite happy by myself and I don’t get lonely really. I think the biggest challenge depends on who you are, and what point you are at – whether it’s your fifth race or your first race, or whether you are at the end of the race or the start.

At the start you are nervous and excited, but when you set off the reality of what you have taken on sinks in. You just have a moment where you’re like ‘crap, this is monumental’ but then you have the first night and you settle into it and it becomes quite exciting. But then you have the daily issues from then on – when I am going to get food, where am I going to sleep, what’s the weather going to be like.

As you become more experienced, the issues become less and less, because you have dealt with them before so you know how to deal with everything.

“You have to learn to be flexible and fluid out of the road. If you’ve got a tailwind, don’t go to sleep”

How much of what you do on the road – eating, sleeping – is planned beforehand, and how much is it a case of winging it?

It’s an interesting question. Some people try to plan everything to the nth degree and you often find they are people who haven’t done the race before. It’s their way of dealing with the scale of the challenge.

But for me, I’ve learned from experience that things like a little rainstorm can knock your distance off by 50-100km in one day. If you’ve got a set plan where you have to be here or there, it becomes unobtainable and that can cause a lot of stress.

I do look along my route at where things are, but really you’re always going to be able to find something so I plan a bit and I do research, but I don’t have a fixed plan. You have to learn to be flexible and fluid out of the road. If you’ve got a tailwind, don’t go to sleep. Things like that.

And taking the opposite view, were there any low points or moments when the self-doubt crept in?

Not really. The last day for me is horrific. By that point, you’re trying to get everything out that you can, you don’t want to finish with any energy left because you want to get there as quickly as possible, but at the same time you still have to get there.

You still have 400km to go but your body is starting to shut down, you are so tired and wrecked. You want to arrive at the finish line done, completely spent, so the last day is horrific. You just want it to be over but it’s so stressful.

I had Bjorn Lenhard chasing me and knew if anything goes wrong, he’s going to be on top of me and quickly ahead. You can lose six hours like that, it’s so simple.

The last day is really tough, mentally and physically, and also because you know the end is so close it just drags, so long. It’s not a low point, but it’s a tough point. But I think having finished last year, and it having been hard, I knew what to expect. I was able to draw on that experience, and I knew how it would end.

I was going to ask that – how different was this year’s race, as a more experienced rider, compared to the first time you did Transcontinental?

It allows you to go faster. Obviously experience counts for everything in life. The more you learn, the more you should be able to improve. If you don’t learn those lessons, it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you aren’t going to get better.

How did you plan your route? How much work goes into choosing the ‘right’ route?

A 100 hours of my time! I added it up and it’s like four weeks of a full-time job. If you don’t have a good route – or a perfect route – you won’t be able to win. You have to the right route, there is no way around it. People come every year and probably don’t spend enough time planning the route, choose some really bad roads and lose a lot of time.

How is the current ultra-distance scene evolving?

It’s growing, it’s getting more popular, there are more races popping up, and that will continue to happen. There are lots of other people really invested in it.

It’s just going to keep growing basically, and hopefully it keeps going in the right direction and stays true to how it started.