Carpatia Divide - Final Thoughts

Carpatia Divide – Final Thoughts

We manage to finish the race in 176h 35min. Despite the fact many circumstances, like breaking bikes and lack of previous experience in such adventures I think that finishing this race was success. There were many crisis situations, and we could definitely prepare for it much better, epsecially shape-wise. Every more demanding uphill verified that clearly :) When it comes to our bikes, we could prepare them better or at least test them much better. I bought mine (GT Marathon Team) only one month before the race, definitely not enough time to test it in hard conditions day after day. When I think about it, my preparation bike (Yeti AS-X) could handle it much better, but on the other hand entire race would take much longer (3 kg difference between them on GT advantage). When it comes to Tomo Cannondale Scalpel 2008, it also didn't finish without scars, because one part of rear triangle got disengaged about 2 days before finish, and thankfully it didn't brake entirely. We didn't encounter much more problems beside that (just 2 flat tyres and skipping chain). If someone would take some advise into consideretion, I would say this – know your bike as best as you can, but also it's limitations, epsecially what your bike would not handle. Pushing your bike up to the limits it's not the best idea for this kind of race. Besides our defects, we met people with different accidents, like broken frame, or brake rotor which snapped into pieces (very good brand). One conslusion would be – lighter doesn't necessary mean better :) There were people, who finished race on all-mountain bikes weighed ~16kg, but bear in mind that's for people with really good shape and are taking another challenge :) When it comes to race itself, below you can find good and bad sides:

Bad Sides:

1. Track could be more precise, without fragments which literally cannot be ridden [see: Rycerzowa].

2. GPS track would stray away several times. It doesn't cause problem when there is only one road, but become problematic when roads are crossing constantly and there is a night.

3. Last meal at finish line was served at 7PM, which organizers forgot to mention at start [lot's of people finished later than 7 PM]

Good Sides:

1. Race is very demanding, especially shape-wise, but not only, because there is plenty of fragments very technical demanding. There is all variety of dificulty through the entire race

2. Lots of civilization along the way, which helps a lot to survive this race

3. People were always helpful and nice, especially kids

4. Great views, for which you can forgive a lot :)

5. Race shows great colors and variety of Polish mountains (at least these ones which are covered by the race).