Cargo Bike
In August Alan Shaw became the first person to race and complete the Silk Road Mountain Race on a cargo bike.
Yes, you read that right.
In his own words, Alan describes the experience of the 1,880 km (1,168 mile) race covering 30,000 meters (98,400 ft) of climbing across the mountains of central Asia.
[The Silk Road Mountain Race] a race famed for its remoteness, its stunning views and extreme terrain.
It’s true that I raised a lot of eyebrows when we announced I was racing this year on my Omnium Cargo, for a variety of reasons. People who were excited to see it, and people who thought I must be mad. Many people didn’t believe it would be possible, but everyone wanted to see me try.
I was willing to admit that it was ambitious, but I refused to admit that it would be all that much harder, and anything but impossible.
Photos immediately above and below taken by Quinda Verheul
In the days before start and at registration I was both excited and very nervous. Everytime I heard a strange noise from the bike I panicked, called my mechanic in Copenhagen and asked for tiny details. I realised then just how important succeeding was to me, and that I felt a little bit of pressure and eyes on me. But that feeling came from knowing clearly that this bike could do this, so I desperately wanted to be the one to prove it. So many years in the making, so much thinking about it.
The first few days were actually amazing, because I was doing it, with every kilometre down I was showing it could be done. In the early days everything is tight, fresh and smooth, both mechanically and physically. It’s important to remember over such a long distance that things will not stay that way forever, and to be ready for when things start to unravel, which it inevitably will.
Every notably hard section we made it over (Jukku Pass at 3670m, Moldo Pass at 3230m, Kegeti Pass at 3750m or innumerable others) I felt a mixture of feelings of dread and huge excitement to get up it, get it over with and get it behind me. One more challenge ticked off and one less to worry about going forward. I had not completed the whole race yet, but I had made it over some impressive sections of course on this bike.
I had plenty of failures but many successes, and on balance everything went pretty smoothly for most of the race. None of my problems bothered me so much and I came up with easy going solutions as I went, courier-style. At some point I made a conscious effort to dial down my pace a bit. I was keeping a pace that could have had me finish in around the ten day mark, which would have been incredible, but running your engine so hard for so long and you run the risk of overheating, and I knew how important just the finish was to me, and really didn't want to risk that. So I opted for slightly longer sleeps and breaks, lower mileages but much better recoveries.
Photos immediately below by Quinda Verheul
As many people saw and heard, I had a little crash barely 150 km from the finish, after a small wobble on a loose gravel descent I couldn't correct in time and was going fast. But fortunately I was very close to a main road, barely 1.5 hours from Bishkek, the capital, and had 4 more days left to finish. So, despite being desperate to get to the end, I did the right thing, used the time and the access I had and went to a hospital in the capital to get checked out.
After 24 hours away from my bike I arrived back cleaned up, bandaged up and so determined to make it to the finish no matter what. And after many hours battling up over the last brutal pass, I crossed the finish line in 12 days 14 hours and 30 minutes.
Photos immediately below by Quinda Verheul
