"I'm giving up cycling..."

"I'm giving up cycling... I'm not going to race Croatia, nor Sweden."

That is what I was thinking in the most painful, exhausted, hallucinatory times of the Giro.  After finishing, I decided I wasn't going to do Hard Cro, in Croatia, as I was too shattered, mentally and physically, too sore, completely unmotivated to ride.  However, as I've been recovering from my Italian rigours, I've decided that I might as well race Hard Cro as the race entry fee, flights, and pre-race B&B, have all been paid for and it's too late to get my money back.  Plus, why give up the opportunity for an adventure?

Recovering? Fresh-ish?
Today, having ridden less than 50 miles in the last week (all commutes), rather than my typical 300mi+, and last weekend's closest encounter with pedals being an ice cream bike/trike, at my brother-in-law's 40th birthday party (I had three ice creams!  I was still falling asleep sat upright), the "fresh" and "in-form" sensations have started to return.  I still have a tender undercarriage, but I wasn't falling asleep at my desk today and only had a limited caffeine intake of two coffees and some Pepsi Max!  Maybe my body's scraped something of the three daily protein shakes I've poured into myself, as well as protein bars, and every other kind of food.  Un-coincidentally, Golden Cheetah tells me that my TSB has returned to +26 so, tonight, I'm packing for Hard Cro, after reflecting on what went well and what needs to be changed for my next adventure. 

What needs improving:
(1) Waterproofs!  Most importantly, I need to take waterproof socks, overshoes & gloves, to prevent the physical damage and time loss in case of torrential rain, as well as a few proper dry bags to protect kit.  The weather forecast for Croatia next week is Scorchio with a chance of thunder, so I'm hopeful not to need the heavy-duty Gore-Tex gloves and dry bags, which I've just bought, nor or all the other waterproof kit that I already own (and, crucially need to take with me).

(2) Keep Going!  I stopped too much for food and fettling, so I need to fettle less and carry more food - to solve this, I've bought couple of good value Alpkit stem bags to give me greater, and more accessible, food capacity, or just to carry a 1L bottle of full-fat coke (mmmm caffeine and sugar).  However, I need to stop to sleep when the hallucinations arrive, rather than suffering-overly, mentally, and consequently riding slowly.
(3) Music!  However, in direct contravention of Rule #62, I'm taking earphones & music on my 'phone, to fend-off those prostitutes and beggars in the dark nights.  I claim special dispensation from the Velominati due to the spades of adherence to Rule #5.  Suggestions for anti-hallucination music and illicit files welcome! Current ideas range from Bach's Brandenburg concertos to Rage Against The Machine.
(4) Lights!  My Gemini Xera 800 and 950 lumen lights were fantastic - bright, compact and light (~50g), but I need to suck-up the weight of heavier-duty batteries to power my lights in order to see further and ride faster when it's pitch-black.
(5) No Breaking Rule #7 - nuff sed, see "The Damage".
(6) Creaky wheels - Dave, at Mitchells, is overhauling my bike, including the finicky Extralite Cyber SPD wheelset.  Finicky, but oh-so-light @1160g, smooth, and not a single spoke pinged in the Giro.  Hopefuly Dave can somehow fix the Extralite pre-load caps, and/or rebuild my second choice DT Swiss 180 wheelset so that I don't kill 2 spokes a ride on them.  Either way, I'm running out of time to road test them properly.  Before I left for Italy, I made myself a crude (but light @8g) 19mm carbon fibre spanner to adjust the Extralite hubs' pre-load cap, out of some 2mm carbon fibre sheet, rather than carry a 200g drop-forged heavy duty chrome-plated steel jobby, which worked really well.  I was quite proud of my construction, admittedly nowhere near a work of art, made with a small disc cutter and now I'm wondering what else I can make out of my small sheet of carbon fibre.

Differences
There are some differences between the way the Giro and Hard Cro are run.  While they are both unsupported, solo races, only Hard Cro forbids drafting, although because of the amount of climbing required (~56,000ft, or 2x Everests) over a shorter distance (1,500km vs 2,200km), this rule is probably of limited effect.  May the best endurance climber win!  Some notable differences between the Giro and Hard Cro are:

(1) Wild Animals! Apparently, there are bears and wolves in Croatia (especially in one area, Lika, I'll be passing through) so I'll be taking a dog whistle and keeping it close to hand (and mouth).  I recently tried an ultrasonic-shooting Dog Dazer on some local, bad dogs (caged by their owners) and, to my surprise, they shut up instantly, cocking their heads to one side in bemusement, but I'm not sure that the Dog Dazer would work on a bear or a wolf, and needing to point my little plastic gadget powered by AAA batteries at a rampant, toothy wild beast doesn't inspire me with confidence.  Hopefully my little dog whistle will work, if at all needed, or just maybe the hungry carnivores will have a preference for a familiar, local Croat (rider) taste.  As prey, they should be fatter, which will make them slower and more appetising than myself, an unfamiliar, exotic, but bland, relatively low meat/fat content.  All this talk of meat is making me hungry.

(2) Manned Check Points - Hard Cro has 2 manned check points (at ~430mi and ~670mi) between the start and finish, with an 18L drop box per check point, which means I can plan my own resupply at these critical points, eg: food, hydration pack refills, clothing, batteries, lube, waterproofs (hopefully not necessary), sun-tan lotion
(3) Choice of route between Start, Check Points, and Finish - I've just managed to reduce the amount of climbing on my route by 2,000ft.  Obviously, less climbing is faster, as are straighter, wider, smoother roads.  This may come with a compromise of being busier with motor vehicles, but essential for night riding.  The number of tiny, crappy roads I had to descend in the Giro gave plenty of brown-bibshorts moments.  Also, my Napoli trauma experience has hardened me to my busy, local traffic, so I'm not worried about Croatian drivers, although I'm going to try to avoid urban areas as much as possible, due to their congestion and delaying traffic systems (in Hard Cro, jumping a red light results in disqualification, whereas in Italy, Green means "go", Amber means "go" and Red also means "go", as one Milanese rider taught me).  Anyway, for the first leg of 430mi, I've plotted a coastal route and a less-climby inland route.  Here's Hard Cro's approximate route around Croatia:

 

Next: Bike, Kit, Equipment, and how it all worked in the Giro.  Or not.  I hope it works in Hard Cro.