August 27th 2022 will definitely become one of the most outstanding life memories, both for Jens-Christian and for Adam – Eryk’s small-but-gritty cycling team.
We took part in MS Challenge – a 754-kilometre-long cycling event spanning the entire Denmark, from the northern-most tip in Skagen down to Roskilde near the capital. The purpose of the race was to let the participants challenge themselves in an extreme situation but also to fight for a world without multiple sclerosis – to promote awareness of the condition, to support the research and medical care over patients with MS. Eryk donated DKK 15.000 for the cause.
Plan A was to complete the whole distance of 750km in 30h – it turned out that neither of us had the legs or the head to achieve this, even though we dreamed that we could do it. Plan B was to ride on Saturday and also during the night and then stop just before the Big Belt bridge at km #600. Plan C was to ride about 400km and quit when entering Fyn island. We ended up realizing plan D 🙂
We managed to complete (only?) 1/3 of the distance and we decided to call it a day at 20:00 on Saturday, just before the nightfall, to avoid riding on the dark, cold, windy, hilly, twisting roads of Mid Jutland- the prospect simply seemed scary and we knew that we would only get more drowsy, more tired and more unfocused in the night hours.
The big MS Challenge adventure ended for us at km #287, after 11 hours of riding.
Arguable, we can still be very proud of ourselves for doing that, and actually, at good speed, in quite a good style, but our appetites were way bigger and we feel a bit unsatisfied.
The lesson to take is: “stay humble.” There’s a ton more work to be done, physically and mentally, if we are to tackle such distances.
Win or lose, the participation in MS Challenge has definitely cemented the team, perhaps inspired others to get on their bikes and we hope that in 2023 we can take on even bigger and better adventures.
August 27th 2022 will definitely become one of the most outstanding life memories, both for Jens-Christian and for Adam – Eryk’s small-but-gritty cycling team.
