About 1000 kilometers separate Montreal from Percé, in Gaspésie. This distance was covered by bike four times by Pierre-Yves Robert in less than two weeks during a race in Europe, without really taking a break.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
On August 6, the Montrealer finished at 38e rank of 8e Transcontinental Race (TCR), a renowned race in the field of endurance cycling. To do this, he drove the approximately 4200 km which separate Geraardsbergen, in Belgium, from Burgas, in Bulgaria, in 12 days, 18 hours and 51 minutes.
It’s there that The Press joined him for an interview punctuated by applause, on the occasion of the arrival of a new runner. ” There is a party on arrival, at 15e day, and my goal was to be there for the party “, he rejoiced, at the end of the line, after having been able to recover for two days.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY PIERRE-YVES ROBERT
Pierre-Yves Robert, in Burgas, Bulgaria, after finishing the Transcontinental Race
Far from the stereotype of the professional cyclist, this native of Mont-Saint-Hilaire, in Montérégie, discovered a passion for endurance cycling later on during his cycling trips. Already, it looped daily up to 150 kilometers.
“I realized that every time I arrived in a city, I didn’t visit the city. I ate something, I drank a coffee, then I wanted to leave, ”says the electrical engineer by training.
He then discovered TCR and ultra-endurance racing in 2018, through a simple video suggested on YouTube.
Ride a lot and sleep little
The following year, he registered for another well-known race, the Trans Am Bike Race, a course of approximately 7000 km which crosses the United States, from Oregon to Virginia.
He finishes at 27e rank, in 26 days and 5 hours, at a slower pace than in Europe, all things considered. “I was often stopped eating pizza in a restaurant while in Europe [pendant la TCR]I was eating a sandwich on my bike instead,” he says.
Because to cross the Old Continent in 12 days, you have to pedal a lot, for a long time, and above all, sleep little. In addition to his short nights, between one and two hours, often in bus shelters, a place of choice to hide from the rain, Pierre-Yves Robert was content with “micro-naps” during the day.
PHOTO FROM PIERRE-YVES ROBERT’S INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
An overview of the paths that Pierre-Yves Robert sometimes had to take during his crossing of Europe. Here, somewhere between the Parâng Mountains, in Romania, and Burgas, in Bulgaria.
“As soon as I felt that my eyes were closing, I put my alarm clock, about six minutes later, and I stopped like that in each village, especially towards the end”, he says, specifying, for those who worry, that he “still bears the lack of sleep well”.
As the TCR is a race conducted in autonomy, that is to say without any assistance other than what is commercially available for all the participants, the latter must themselves supply themselves and find places to sleep, an additional challenge where the resourcefulness of some allows them to distinguish themselves.
If it’s easy to ask a good Samaritan on the edge of the 132 to fill his water bottles with his garden hose, it’s another story in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Besides, what do you take in your luggage to cycle 4200 km in less than two weeks? Not much, says Pierre-Yves Robert.
To sleep: a floor mat, a sleeping bag, his own “little luxury”; an inflatable pillow, two pairs of cycling shorts, one of which has seen little use, the rider shyly admits, and a few changes of clothes. Add to that a few spare parts for his bike in case of breakage, and the account is there.
PHOTO FROM BIKEPACKING.COM WEBSITE
The bike and all the panniers used by Pierre-Yves Robert to cross Europe during the Transcontinental Race
Biggest eater contest
On such a long journey, food becomes central. This year’s winner, Austrian Christoph Strasser — an ultra-distance cycling luminary and holder of the 24-hour cycling distance record (1026 km, for numbers lovers) — was on his first experience autonomy.
He carried around with him a box of salt that he poured into his hand from time to time before swallowing it, his own little trick to recover the minerals lost by sweating during the hot days in Eastern Europe.
“It’s a race of speed and performance, yes, but it’s also a race of who is able to eat as efficiently as possible. […]a competition for the biggest eater,” laughs Pierre-Yves Robert.
What’s more, the TCR does not have a defined path. The only obligation: to pass through four predefined points where the runners receive a stamp as proof of their journey through the Old Continent.
PHOTO FROM PIERRE-YVES ROBERT’S INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
Participants in the Transcontinental Race must pass through checkpoints where they receive stamps as proof of their journey. Pierre-Yves Robert’s notebook shows when he reached these checkpoints.
Thus, Pierre-Yves Robert took two weeks to develop the route he was going to take, with long sessions on the Google Maps application. “I’ve been through a lot of roads that just happened to be not very passable. If I had to do it again, I would probably use busier segments,” he says.
Now that he has finished the race, Pierre-Yves Robert intends to take advantage of the next few weeks to visit Europe by bike before taking his return flight from Lyon, France, which he obviously intends to join from Bulgaria… by pedaling .