Jonas Bohr - 200 km attempt - July 10, 2021 - World UltraCycling Association

Congratulations to Jonas Bohr for his 3 new WUCA World Records on 2021-07-10

Jonas broke all 3 existing records (100 km, 200 km, 100 miles) in the 50-59 age as well as in the “overall” category:

Distance Event Kilometers	Time	Avg Sp (Km)	Avg Sp (Miles)	Existing records 50-59 – Male – Standard bike	new record
100 Kilometer outdoor track	02:14:49.31	44.50	27.65	Peter Horton – 2020-10-17 2:29:10 24.99 mph	yes and overall
200 Kilometer outdoor track	04:37:42.45	43.21	26.85	Peter Horton – 2020-10-17 5:20:44 23.25 mph	yes and overall

Distance Event Miles	Time	Avg Sp (Miles)	Avg Sp (Km)	Existing records 50-59 – Male – Standard bike	new record
100 Mile outdoor track	03:41:05.95	27.14	43.67	Daniel McGehee 2020-07-28 4:07:14 24.27 mph	yes and overall

Record Attempt WUCA 9897 Outdoor Track Saturday 10 july location Volvo Proving Ground Hällered Sweden

I have been tempted to do a long TT soloride for a while and when i found the WUCA official records i decided to go for it and started to look for a suitable road. I then got a tip about this supercool testtrack Volvo has in the Swedish westcoast an oval speed track 4 lane motorway of length 6,2 k and curves of almost 2 k length. A dream for a TT cyclist. I had small hope when contacting them and was extremely delighted when they against all odds liked my idea and decided to let me do my attempt at their venue. This was kind of special and even more so when they informed on at testride 22 of may that this was the first time ever they lend their track for anything elese but their own cars. The track was built in 1972 so quite an honour. So grateful for Volvos support during this event.

Date however was just a one time chance since the course is almost used 24 / 7 for long testdriving. This was set to the 10 th of july late afternoon. This place of Swedens westcoast is somewhat ”infamous” for having quite a lot of rain and of course it poured down this day I was coming after a very nice summer week before. But I decided the days before that if bad weather occurs I will not lett hat affect my mood and positive energy around this whole journey. And on raceday temperature was nice around 17 degrees celsius so i didnt suffer that much from the rain except from less visibility from the helmet visor.

During the ride it was rain about half the time but the hardest thing was absolutely the wind that came cross on both straights and the very fast tailwind in the north curve and of course much worse headwind in the 2 km south curve that seemingly builded up with more strength from the 3 meter high walls in the outer nr 4 lane. I rode in lane nr 2 which is flat and one lap is 6 186 m and i was about to do 33 laps so here we go.

I started somewhat hard with adrenalin and a strong body, i landed on 310 w the first 2 laps and recorded the fastest 2 laps with av speed 46 kph. This was in very wet road but the wind was not as strong yet so the course felt superfast. Then a total nightmare comes. My Garming just shows blank reading for speed watt pulse etc and the average speed just goes down since it has no readings. After a few hundred meters it just autoshuts off. My thought are all over the place – This cant be true what is happening? Going for over 180 k now without data no pulse no watts no speed was not the thought i liked in my head after 15 minutes or riding. Luckily it autostarted after a minute or so and i could push start again (instead of save ride..) so from there i had my data correct again but around a quarter of a lap was missing in my Strava file.. but it didnt affect my ride from there.

According to plan i took my power down about 2 watts per lap after the start down to some 290 w and tried to level out there. Wind increased some and speed decreased. But after 1 hour i recorded 45.4 kph av speed and it felt really good. Good feeling over 100 k as cotinued, kept dropping some speed though but rode over the 100 k mark at 2 h 14 minutes and 44.7 kph at 291 w very satisfied with such a good buffer to existing record of all agegroup of 2.19.

However the wind started to take its toll some more out of me in the south curve and even if the north curve was superfast with speed every lap between 50-55 kph you all know as cyclists that you always net loose time in wind because you spend so much more time in the part of headwind. It started to wear me down slightly more than expected and couldnt hold my planned power of around 280-285 w and dropped down to around 260 w. However my timegap to existing records was very good and i had a supersupport from the following car with cheering and some energy intake.

About the energy plan i rode with a 2 l Camelbak with high concentrated sports drink (selfmade) inside the TT suit on my stomach. Its a little bit uncomfy but worth the timesaving and keeping of aero position which make it possible to drink often in small zips. In total during the event i consumed one banana as the only non fluid and about 3 liters of drinks and 7 energy gels and of course a couple of doses of my own brand Cellexir Endurance (a super formula with lots of ingredience that supports mental and physical power, no energy though).

I made two big mistakes. One i did all drinking with my right arm and this made my left arm more and more numb and suffering from the 100% of time in the TT position. This almost caused a crash just 2 laps from home when i took the last drink with my rihgt arm the left just couldnt hold the bar anymore and i dropped over it and the bike turned some 40 degrees left in the curve and it was really a close call and just by luck manage control back in the last second. The second mistake was to take support in the headwind curve we should of course done this in the other fast curve not loosing that much time to get up to speed again and our thought of getting some shelter these few seconds did not work out at all. But all in all most of the ride was just great. So rewarding to see family and friends and Volvo staff cheering like mad every lap i passed. Due to Covid restrictions there were just around 25 people allowed at the course but boy did they make some noise when i passed. And from facebook live we had live coverage from the car with over 500 person watching at the same time and over 5 k in total. So cool and the team Robin Niller driver Peter Hugod mechanic official and support together with commentary Pär Edgren did a superior job.

After some quite tough laps beetween 120-150 k the rain started pouring down again and at that time it almost made me stronger because i almost felt the course beeing faster in wet conditions and it was also nice to have some kind of shift and somethings happening. Now it was almost 160 k and 100 mile mark which was of course a delight. To be able to tick off nr 2 around 3.41 and 43.6 kph was a great feeling.

Now it was less than an hour left and i was sure to make it (if i just could cope with my left arm). The pulse was supersteady the full ride with a flat 143 average which is for me around 86% of max. Legs was also reasonably ok but i can clearly see that the last 2 hours i loose my postion too much on the bike and drops far to much in cadence started with some 83 cadence as planned but drops second half too much ending at 79. Watts keeps dropping as well no collapse but flat around 250-260 last 90 minutes averaging 271 w or the full ride at 178 cm and 74 kg.

With the long awaited 200 k mark in sight it was such a joy and i could increase the speed some agian the last couple of laps. That incredible feeling when i first rode pass the 200 k mark at around 4.37 and 43.3 kph approx 7 minutes faster than 18-49 y agegroup and then with overwhelming joy finally reach 33 laps (some 3 k extra) and mission was completed. I was so happy but at the same time more or less exhausted and when getting off the bike it was hard to just stand up for a while and even more so lifting my arms. But oh so sweet victory champagne and all hugs from family and friends almost made me cry. And finishing this quite extensive project with such a success was was really emotional. I started cycling quite late in life around 11 years ago at 43-44. After some 10 years of continuos good quality training and coming back after three very severe accidents 2015 2016 with around 15 broken bones to be able to progress and achieve this effort at 54 is almost like a fairytale. Its never too late

Equipment

Bike Trek Speed Concept

Zipp Super 9 Disc Pirelli P Zero TT23 mm with latextube

FFWD Falcon 2 spoke wheel Pirelli TT 23 mm latex

Giro Aerohead helmet

Endura TT suit

Full Ceramic Speed kit with large pulley wheel bearings in wheels bottom bracket and UFO chain

All the best Jonas Bohr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCLnaW-4P9Y a 1 minute video from the event

https://jonasbohr.com/ my webpage for the project

https://www.globalcyclingnetwork.com/video/the-biggest-disappointments-in-cycling-the-gcn-show-ep-444 GCN show reporing 11 min 40 s in the episode

https://www.tv4play.se/program/sporten/jonas-bohr-web/13349329 TV 4 interview one week before