John Budnik – New York S-N – Self-supported attempt – June 24-26, 2024

Congratulations to John Budnik for setting the record for the New York S-N in the following categories: Male, 60-69, Self-Supported, Standard Upright bike.

Record Attempt: NY S-N, Unsupported 

Rider: John Budnik 

Start Location: 1 American Ln, Greenwich, CT 

Start Date & Time: 06/24/24, 9:30pm 

Finish Location: US Customs & Border Protection, 19 St Johns Hwy, Rouses Point, NY Finish Date & Time: 06/26/24, 10:56am 

At the start of the ride, from 9:30pm till approximately 2:00am, there was a 15mph headwind  with gusts of 30mph which was bringing down a fair amount of tree branches. This along with  it being dark and having very poor road conditions slowed things significantly. Even still, I  managed to make my first scheduled stop at 114km on time. Unfortunately, I ended up with my  normalised power being 20 watts higher than I had planned. After 2am the gusts subsided and  I was left with just a normal headwind. According to MyWindsock.com, 89% of the entire ride  was into a headwind.  

The route, topographically, is very hilly and sometimes steep for the first 55km. It then flattens  out for the next 257km, where it returns to steep & very hilly for the next 125km. Then, for  63km, it’s flat to the end.  

At 312km, the start of the second hilly section, everything started going south. It was sunny  and the temperature as recorded by my Garmin, hit 90F around noon and didn’t drop below  that until 3:30pm. Between those times, it hovered around 100F, hitting a high of 111F. You  gotta love riding on black tarmac in the sun! This was just the start of the problems. There was  limited opportunities to refill my bottles, I was running short even though I carried 3 bottles with  me. Additionally, my right knee swelled, so I was having difficulty peddling and to top it off,  there was single lane road construction with flag people stopping traffic for 1/4 to 1/2 mile  stretches over about a 10 mile section of the hills. This meant I spent my time either standing in  the sun using up my limited liquids or I was racing up the hills trying to get through the one  lane sections before the traffic opened in the other direction. This with a swelled knee.  

At my planned 365km rest stop I could hardly turn the peddles over because of knee pain. I  was considering calling it a day but decided to rest first. Other than the knee I was in pretty  good shape. Legs felt relatively fresh and the heat didn’t take much of a toll. As every good  randonneur knows, you should only concentrate on making it to the next control. Don’t worry  

about the finish, that will take care of itself. So, I got back on the bike doing what I could to  protect my knee and to keep moving forward. My next planned rest was at 437km which  coincided with the end of the last hilly section. 

I had reserved a hotel in Plattsburgh for the return ride, but given the condition of my knee and  that it would be getting dark soon in a fairly remote area, I decided it wasn’t prudent to make  the 85km round trip ride to the finish and back to the hotel. I decided to first stop at the hotel  and rest my knee, then resume the ride in the morning. 

The next morning, 06/26/24 at around 9:30am, I started riding to Rouses Point. My knee didn’t  feel much better at all but the road was flat and since it was daytime I didn’t have to worry as  much about being stranded. I hobbled up to the Customs & Border Protection booth at  10:56am and met an extremely nice border guard who signed my witness log and gave me  suggestions for places to eat. BTW, the Best Friends Diner right by the border is fantastic.  Great food! 

During the ride, I ate about 6500-7000 calories. 3500 liquid in the bottles, 2000 for meals,  which I tried to keep my normal meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and 1000 for Banana Nut  Muffins my wife made specifically for this ride. The solid food was really there just to stave off any GI issues. Seemed to work well, but eating on long rides is always a work in progress.

For equipment, I rode a Trek Checkpoint gravel bike with Mavic 65mm road wheels and Pirelli  PZero Race tires (26mm front/30mm rear). Profile Design Aerobars, Tailfin aerorack and  Apidura frame/toptube/aerobar bags. During the cooler portions of the day/night, I wore a  Castelli skin suit with a NoPinz aero base layer, NoPinz aero overshoes and a POC TT helmet.  During the hotter points of the day I removed the base layer & overshoes and switched to a  POC road helmet. Yes I brought 2 helmets, carried one in the Tailfin rack bag and this was  definitely the right decision. In testing, carrying the second helmet made no discernible  difference in aerodynamics but wearing a TT helmet when I could, really brought down the  required power output.  

The hardest part of this ride was around dusk. I had been riding for quite a while with an injured  knee, so I was moving slowly. I hit a gravel road with a long steep incline, so my pace dropped  to almost nothing. This is where I learned about black flies! They swarmed and bit me, drawing  

blood. The worst part of these flies is that they seem to not be afraid, nor do they care that I  had on insect repellent. They would bite and not let go until I physically smacked them. I’m  sure that section of road is one of Dante’s circles of hell.  

The best part, besides getting away from the black flies, was the easy ride in the morning to  the finish and talking with the border guard. It was a beautiful morning with beautiful scenery,  perfect for a ride. Another high point was stopping for breakfast north of Albany and meeting  the Major Taylor Cycling Club out of Newark. It’s was great hearing about their trip to Montreal  and telling them about mine to Rouses Point. Very nice crowd. 

My reason for the record attempt was that I’ve always wanted to ride solo across New York  and I felt this record would be an achievement that would show my kids and grandchildren  what can be done with preparation and a drive to execute.  

BTW, I have to thank Bob Skerritt for bringing me to the start of the ride. I contacted him at the  last minute and he was kind enough to drop everything and spend the evening delivering me 2  hours away to the start and then driving home. Thanks Bob!