October 30/24 17:25 pm - Canadian Wins Psycho48 24 Hour TT

Posted by Editoress on 10/30/24
 

Canadian Ben Sweet won the fourth edition of the Psycho48 time trial on October 18-20, held in North Carolina. Sweet covered a staggering 793 kilometres, winning the North American Ultra race championships, and qualifying for RAAM.

Ben Sweet tells us about his ride in his own words:

The Psycho48 was a mass start 24 hour race on a flat 57 kilometre loop. There were 40 competitors and it was a no draft event, meaning there was no physical advantage to being behind another rider. The event went from 8:15 Saturday morning to the same time Sunday and had some drastic temperature swings from ~25 degrees during the heat of the day down to a cold and wet 6 degrees overnight.

I came into the race with the goal of winning and was aiming for 500 miles or 805km. Knowing that the winning distance the year prior was only 475 miles, I knew this would put me in a very good position to be competitive and fight for the win. I was aiming to average 35kph while riding, as I needed an average speed of 33.6kph with my stopped time to meet my 500 mile goal and this would give me some leeway for the minimal stop time I would need for equipment changes into the night.

The race started and I went to the front from Mile 1 and started to put the pressure on the other competitors early. I quickly gained an advantage and sat between 15-20 minutes ahead of who I thought was second from Hour 5 on. My girlfriend was acting as my support team, giving me feeds and time updates on my gap to the other competitors as the race went on. However, the second place rider on the trackers was actually in third, and the true second place rider was having chip issues, meaning I had no way of knowing where he was on course. This came to light at 3:00 AM after I had slowed for a pee break and to plug in a light I was having issues with. This is when second place rode up next to me.

We exchanged some words, enough to establish that we were both in the same category and not some of the other riders we had been lapping all day and that the race for first was on. Any fatigue and pain I felt leading into this moment was complete gone and I felt as if I had just started again. I slowed to take a feed shortly after this and he chose to press on, opening a small advantage while I replaced my bottles.

I promptly made my way back up to him and knew he must be tired after bridging whatever gap I had, so I launched an attack with five hours left in the race. I quickly distanced him and could no longer see his light behind me, but I had no way of knowing how far back he was or how fast he was going, so I had no choice but to ride the last five hours all out to ensure I would win.

Those last five hours were incredibly painful, as I just wrung myself inside out to keep my advantage, and it ended up paying off. In the end I finished with a distance of 793 kilometres, opening a 20 kilometre gap to second place and nearly went a full lap up on third. I won the North American Championships, winning the right to wear the Championship jersey for the next year, setting a course record and qualifying for RAAM in my first Ultra Race at 20 years old.

I could hardly walk the three days following the race, having utterly emptied the tank, but I gained great experience for my upcoming goals in 2025. This event was a great training race ahead of my Trans Canada FKT attempt in 2025, as well as my other Ultra racing goals in Gravel and other 24 hour races. I'm looking forward to continuing this momentum into 2025 and solidifying my name in the Ultra Cycling world.

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