2026 Sebring 24 Hours Non-Drafting Race Report (1/2)
Start of Season 2026 for me and many others was Sebring 24 hours again. I like the race because a large and very strong participation (29 racers – 5 recumbent and 24 upright bikes and total of 13 self-support – 2 recumbent and 11 upright bikes). A perfect way to see how well I am prepared. Downsides for the first race … I still did not have my van-based RV repaired so I slept in my regular van. I started getting back on road 2 weeks before the race and finally did get the race bike back a week before. No perfect way preparing. Night before race I had almost no sleep due to health issues. Start preparing one hour before race. Breakfast limited and water instead of coffee. I prepared potential food and water bottles to keep stops as short as possible. Started race about 7:10am. I focused on myself from beginning. First laps went well and as I knew my first few hours should be efficient. I had a nice average speed about 19-20 mph for first 3 hours. After that wind start picking up a bit more than I like but the short 3.67 miles lap gets all racers the same weather conditions. Once the wind picked up my speed dropped down to about 17-19 mph depending on wind directions. What’s my plan for water and nutrition supply? I had total of 3 bottles with water on the bike. I also had some carb-based Hammerhead tablets with me. My plan was first stop after about 5-5.5 hours. On first stop I had some soda and a banana to get some carbs. Plan was some jelly sandwich but I was not good enough preparing it before the race because I forgot jelly and eating the sandwich with nothing added may have been a bit dry. Back on the road and fighting the wind I decided to change plans for stops. I stopped around miles 130 and 165 in addition to planned stops about 100 miles. On those stops I only had some soda and refilled water bottles. My speed did suffer as expected. My first 100 miles was average about 19.8 mph while the second 100 was about 17.6 mph. I know … lack of carbs and most likely insufficient race preparation and training caused this. About mile 200 I had another stop eating a banana and had some soda. Also refilled everything. Back on the road I adjusted my stop strategy again a little bit. Next stop was about mile 255 and all I did was water refill and some soda for sugar intake. Back on road I was planning to stop at mile 300 again but ran into issues with some batteries … OK not issues as expected the rear derailleur battery was at red light, so I decided to stop about mile 280. Swapped battery and had the soda again and did refill all water bottles. Back on road again and admittedly experiencing as expected issues with my right arm and shoulder. An issue I have since mid 2025. Adjusted seating position to avoid pain. A bit change of plans made do only one more stop until end of the race. I stopped about mile 340 for a soda and water refill. No more food and decided worse case maybe another stop but planning to go until 24 hours are done. Speed was down to average about 17-17.5 mph. the 3rd 100 miles I had about 17.1 mph average. I knew with my arm issues I had to just fight through it. I was able to avoid another stop. Limited water intake (not recommended) due to cool temperatures. The last 2 laps I was able to speed up again. I remember crossing the start/finish line again about mile 422 and pushed as hard as possible for adding miles on the pro-rated lap getting the other 2 miles. Once done I admit pain in my legs due to lack of training and my arm was no cool. But I made it 424 official miles at the end and checking official results was cool. OK no cool is 7th from 29 racers (or 39 incl the drafting racers). Was no cool. Issue is that recumbent bikes have an advantage on flat land That’s all cool but its reality. Finishing 1st in age group 60-64 and more important 1st in self-supported (13 racers) incl recumbent bikes is an acceptable result.
