By Nora 
Normally you would read texts like this one from winners. About people who have pulled something through with an iron will until the last second! This is not one of those texts, but I would still like to take you on my race across 4 out of 5 Canary Islands. On the journey to the letters that no one who competes in such a race wants to see behind their name: DNF. And yet, they occur on nearly any race for reasons!
Who am I? I’m Nora, 28 years old, from Vienna – and I’ve been riding a road bike (and also a gravel bike) for almost 6 years. I started quite early with classic bike marathons and crits, but I have never done anything that lasted longer than 24 hours. And where you are alone on the road! While Corona isolated some people, it meant for me that I was almost always surrounded by other people: co-working at home-office, get-togethers at the office…. I really longed to just be completely out of this world for a few days. Just my bike and me, and the road.
And what is the race? The Gran Guanche Audax Road Race is a single stage unsupported race with 600KM and 14,000 metres of altitude over 5 Canary Islands – always on the relentless hunt for the next ferry. There is also a gravel version of the Audax and a trail version with “a bit” more altitude. I became aware of the race because I’m very busy in my job and usually can’t take time off in the summer, when most ultra races take place. I also suffer mentally from the blanket of fog that covers Vienna for 6 months in winter. And with 600km and a fixed course, the race represents a “soft” entry into what is arguably the most extreme of all road races!
My plan? Lanzarote & Fuerteventura on day 1, Gran Canaria and the foot of Teide in Teneriffa on day 2, Teide and a bit of La Gomera on day 3 and then a relaxed finish at midday on day 4. In the weeks before, I was crawling the whole internet for any piece of content I could read to get a glimpse of what’s awaiting me at this race. This is also why I’m writing a quite detailed day-to-day blog about this race.
Read the whole blog on the Fizik website
Nora
Nora works full-time in digital marketing and has incidentally raised one of the most successful personal road cycling Instagram accounts & blogs in the DACH area. She also writes and photographs for magazines, newspapers and brands.