Jason Black starts his 2018 endurance cycling season by joining the first ever self-supported ultra-cycling race in the middle east, hoping to experience spectacular scenery and pleasant temperatures! The Race starts in Muscat (capital city of Oman) on February 25th at 3am local time (11pm Saturday 24th February Irish time). It covers 1,000km and 9,000m of elevation in the south-east Arabian Peninsula to include the Hajar Mountains, the spectacular Jebel Shams Pass, the Ash Sharqiyah Desert and Arabian Seaside Roads.

The end result is to arrive back in Muscat in under 120 hours/5 days. This will be Jason’s first attempt at a solo un-supported race so it will be even more exciting to see how he will cope without the support of his usual back-up team. Preparation will be key for this race and clever packing of supplies will be crucial to success. All food/hydration/medication/clothing etc will need to be carried on the bike or bought along the route where necessary.

Jason has trained super hard all Winter in preparation for this race to include turbo training sessions in a room fitted with heat lamps to simulate the high temperatures he is expecting in this race. He has worked relentlessly day in day out and the unfavorable Winter weather months experienced in Donegal this year only added extra difficulty to this. He is looking forward to a little heat on this occasion!!

You can follow Jason’s progress on this tracker which will become live once the race starts:

https://bikingman.com/en/livetracking/

Special word of thanks to the main sponsors of Voodoo Performance who make these races possible:

KN Group www.kngroup.com

Renault Ireland – Highland Motors www.highlandrenault.com

Parkinn Radisson Muscat www.parkinn.com/Hotel/Muscat

UB-Cool www.ub-cool.com