Race report from Joe LeSage on his record breaking ride in the:-
ECCA 100 – 26th June 2019.

High expectations. The ECCA is THE fast 100 – as the event approached, conditions looked good and the time trialling forum was full of predictions of just how fast could Marcin go? Sub 3 hours 10 minutes was mooted as a possibility. 31.57mph for 100 miles and over 7 minutes better the current comp record.

I was off 16 minutes ahead of Marcin Bialoblocki, and was hoping to hold him off to halfway, and in the process go somewhere around 3:45. I was off at the back end of the field, with a 6am start (slept in the van at the HQ but still needed a 3:30am alarm call).

There’s not a lot to report about riding a 100. Don’t start too fast and just endure the rising discomfort and try not to think about the final 45 minutes or so that are pure purgatory.

Anyway, I wasn’t going as fast as I’d hoped, and a pb looked very unlikely at one-third distnce. Stay positive and keep pushing. Halfway came and went, and no sign of Marcin. Two-thirds distance, temperature and speed rising, it started to look as though things were coming together. Still no Marcin.

As expected, the final hour was awful. I managed to push on to hit my pb speed with 10 miles to go. Touch and go. Off the final turn, just over 4 miles to go, and 9 .5 minutes to do it in… couldn’t do the maths, but it seemed feasible.

Finished with 3:46:12, to skim 24 seconds off my pb and the club record. And still no Marcin… he went off course and probably ended up in Norwich just in time for breakfast.