How important is fitness? How hard is it to set up an endurance bike? Has the endurance scene changed a lot since you started? Is racing much harder at night? Do you sleep much during a 24 hour race? You can’t really get much sleep, but you have to try as hard as you can. After I’ve switched with 41“It’s a whole different world. Yes, you still have to ride a bike for long periods and cross the line first, but the types of bike and the attitude towards the race have moved on a lot. I remember when I first started doing endurance and it was all about economy; you had to manage your tyres and fuel so carefully, or you would not make it to the end of the race. The bikes were a lot slower too, and the geometry of the machines was very different, plus there were no real electronics. The K5 GSX-R1000 I won my first championship on in 2005 was more like an armchair, but today’s bike feels so much more focused. The challenge gets greater and greater every year.” “It takes on a different challenge. Most of the tracks we ride are illuminated, and our bikes also have lights, but you still can’t see things like you can in the day. It’s a bit edgier, and passing at night is really difficult. The lap-times are typically the same as in the day, but everything feels so much faster. For me, it is the best time to go racing. I like it very much.” a team-mate, I take my leathers off and get out of the garage. Staying awake for 24 hours is very difficult even without a bike to race; tiredness is such a danger. It’s also quite hard to just wake up and get back in the zone, so you need to be awake in plenty of time before you’re back out on track. That’s the time to grab some food and drink to keep your energy up.”“I train every single day. I swim, run, cycle, ski and lift weights. It’s not all about cardio – you also need to be strong. Fitness can make the difference between winning and losing, so you need to put all the effort in. Lap times at the end of a 24-hour race should be as quick as the first hour’s, so there’s a responsibility on the riders. After a race the exhaustion hits you. Sometimes it can take a whole week to get over the tiredness, and your body will ache for several days. It’s hard work.” “It’s quite a tough process because so much changes over the race, and I don’t just mean that it goes from day to night. The weather can change quite drastically, getting much cooler or even wet. We don’t have time to keep changing the bike’s set-up, so it’s a case of having to find the best foundation for it during the race’s practice and qualifying sessions. A bike’s set-up is always a compromise between the team’s three riders, and it’s typical that we’ll work it towards the slowest rider’s preferences. This is because the faster riders are more capable of riding around the problems and still setting a fast pace, but the whole team is always within one second in lap times; we have to be if we want to win.” Having joined the SERT team back in 2003, Vincent Philippe is its longest-serving rider, achieving 10 world titles during that period…Season Review #2
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