We recently asked Sabine to describe her process in claiming victory across the inaugural Revolve 24hr solo race. Not surprisingly Sabine spoke most often about the support she received from others, as opposed to her own incredible grit and determination. Sabine refers to the race, as ‘our race’ as opposed to ‘hers’. This is a real indication of the incredible collective nature of this individual who is always first to offer support to others regardless of the situation (racing, community event, or participation). Read more about Sabine’s experience below:

I recently completed the inaugural Revolve24 race in Adelaide with over 600 km of riding in 24 hours. This helped me qualify for the pinnacle race of all endurance events: The Solo Race Across America (RAAM), the worlds toughest bike race.

Revolve24 riders raced on a brand new car racing track that was surrounded by sand beds, fully exposed to the wind and sun in every direction. Right from the start, strong winds with up to 65 km/h at times were hitting us riders for hours combined with plenty of sand and dust piercing the skin at high speed. The wind made it hard to form groups that could work together as riders were holding on tightly to the handle bars, contracting every possible muscle in order to stay on track and not be blown over. Needless to say, that our race plan had become useless very early in the race, and we would have to replan my time off the bike and my nutrition due to increased early exertion levels in the race.

At all times, my support crew (John and Shannon) read the race, kept me motivated, put food together in anticipation, and made sure my bike was always in proper working order and shiny condition. John and Shannon have become the masters of all support crews in a 24-hour endurance race! It was definitely one of my personal highlights to see how the experience we have gathered as a team in previous races have shaped such a well-functioning, creative and fully reliable support crew!

Riding 24 hour races always hurt. There is no way out of it. But I learnt that pain is only relative and when it got too distracting in the past I was able to switch it off for long enough so that it would get me through a race – Revolve24 was another example, in which this mental game worked well particularly towards the later stages of the race.

One of my biggest issues in 24-hour races is nutrition. Whilst I dare to say that I am not an overly difficult person to deal with during endurance races in general, I’m far from cooperative when it comes to eating plans. Admittedly, I haven’t eaten adequate amounts this time but John and Shannon did their very best to encourage me to eat enough to get me through this race with decent energy levels, which even helped me increase my average lap time by over 10% in the final 2 hours of the race!

In order to deal with the challenges of a multi-day endurance race of epic proportions (i.e. RAAM), a lot of work needs to be tackled to prepare my body physiologically and mentally. I look forward to a real – so far unmatched – challenge with adventurous, like-minded people as my support crew. This challenge is going to be epic!