Everybody Hurts: The 2022 Tour of Sufferlandria

What a week. It was both the most challenging week on the bike since I started on my cycling journey back in 2013 when I died after five miles. Maybe it was the lack of good training in the lead up? Maybe it was my lack of motivation since cyclocross season ended in November? Maybe it was just an indifferent outlook in life currently? Whatever it was, the first stage on Saturday was quite the rude awakening.

If you’re not familiar with the Tour of Sufferlandria, it is a weeklong event where you ride The Sufferfest workouts for 7-9 days straight while raising money for the Davis Phinney Foundation. My first one was in 2015 which was an absolute killer. And whether it was life or something else, just kind of stopped doing them for a while. Last year, I completed the tour and relit the fire on the bike which led to being faster, stronger and motivated to ride my bike.

If you saw my Instagram posts last week, there were all sorts of different posts about my journey. From surveying the 2 hour pro-ride, to wearing a dress shirt and tie while doing my best Blue Steel, to chatting with all sorts of random people all over the world doing the same crazy things, to hanging on on the final stage, it was just what I needed to get back some motivation to want to ride my bike and get stronger on the bike.

I am generally good at 1-2 minute efforts and this tour I think was dream for riders like me. Lots of attacking in all of the workouts. Lots of matches to be lit throughout the week. While my memory is a little fuzzy, looking at my load this year compared to last year, I definitely went faster, put out more power and generally feel pretty good today.

Oh yeah, and $284,843 was raised for the foundation (as of the time of writing). That is what counts more than anything. I am already looking forward to the 2023 tour and hope you all join. Stats below.