Tour De France Le’Tap 145kms race report 15th May 2022

After being in Phuket for two weeks, my coach mentioned a cycling event and asked if I wanted to participate. Without hesitation, I agreed to ride 145 kilometres as a training run, and as the race approached, I prepared a mini taper to ensure I could give it my all. The race was held about 100 kilometres north of the island in Khoe Lak. To be honest, there wasn’t much going on. I drove up on Friday hoping to explore some new places, but there were none. I slept in a great hotel and met a few different international individuals.

I got up early on race day, had a wonderful breakfast, organized my nutrition bottles, and proceeded out the front of the motel to where I assumed the race would begin? “OH SHIT” what did I miss, I thought, because there were no bikes in sight. I asked the security guard, “BANJAKAYARN YOU TEEN NAI” which means where is the bike riding, and he gave me a blank look and said, “MARLOO” which means I don’t know, ok, so I panicked a little, but I put my thinking cap on and checked the starting location on the race map and matched it with my GPS, wholly shit 10 km up the roads, the race was on before it started, But gosh, it was a great warm-up; I was dripping wet when I arrived at the starting point 5 minutes before 7 a.m. Time for a quick photo and then go.

I started at the back of the first wave, but they gathered us all into a bunch just before a slight incline; the first 20 kilometers were relatively easy, with only a few breakaways that no one could hold for very long before returning to the group; during a steep decline and a sharp right turn, someone ran it off the road, then came back almost taking me out and others; about 45 kilometers the first hill and I was dropped fast, but I was left with a group of five We worked hard to catch up to the main group just before the second hill, but dropped man these hills were so hard I wasn’t conditioned to them at all, give me a flat 90kms any day of the week, so me and another guy rode the next 20-30kms alone, changing on the front every 30 secs until the second group caught up to my relief, because at the 90kms mark I was done, sitting at the back for a while getting some recovery in I had already drank all my I had already consumed all of my nutrition, but luckily the motorbikes were passing out bottles of water and electrolytes, which I believe I drank about 5, the heat at the time was so hot and humid that it felt like 40 degrees, no one last hill and OMG this was a monster I tried to attack it but my legs were cramping WTF on this hill I had to change down to small chain ring to get up it.

on the decline the officials were telling me to slow down for a good reason the roads got really bad with my hand slipping off the bars over a bump at one stage, at the bottom of the hill there were only a few riders around with only flat roads to go, with a truck slowly passing me I decided to tuck in and get some draft getting up to some 60km p/h for about 5 km was a great advantage to get me to finish line quicker, the last 20kms to go wasn’t very fast but we managed to form another group to get us home.

overall what a great racing experience truly grateful to be able to compete here.

I didn’t have an official time due to my late entry, which seemed a bit dodgy on the day, but unofficial was around 4:12-4:15sec for the 145kms

Thanks for reading

Aaron Buchan