Ok so I entered another gravel ride/race today. I will say this much after riding in Kansas in the Pony Express that has kind of spoiled me on rides ridden here on the East Coast. This ride/course was a surprise course ride. You showed up last night at 7 PM at the Wagon Wheel to get your cue sheet/attend the riders meeting/sign the waiver. Failure to do so even if you paid for the ride and you weren't going to be able to ride the ride as it had the only starting location info.
After the meeting went back to the motel which was only 3 miles from the start at Litiz Pa. I had some lasgna that I brought with me that took forever to heat up in the microwave. Early to bed for me around 10 pm. The alarm clock never went off nor did the wake call phone ring. Luckily I did get awake around 5:30 AM and finally out of bed at 6 AM. Back to the microwave to nuke(took forever once again) a homemade breakfast burrito that I brought with me. Breakfast at the hotel didn't start until 7:30 AM and think they only had danish and that was it. Not that I had the pre race jitters or anything but I had the car about packed out and locked myself out of the room with some stuff still in the room. The owner/manager sleeps on site and didn't look too happy when I woke him up. Oh well
Drive down to the start line which was at a little park. It really seemed cold out at 55 deg. F. I carried way too much food and water with me after last weekend's 93 deg. F ride and running out of water and bonking. I rode with an old cycling friend who knew almost all of the course and had 3 friends with him. Good thing they knew the course as when we were in the mts. and doing single track they were crazy signs and turns. No GPS allowed. I think I stopped 3-4 times during the ride for the nature breaks. You had to reach the 29-30 mile mark by a certain cut off time to get the 2nd cue sheet to continue the ride. We made it there with either 30 or 45 minutes to spare.
Right after the rest stop we came into some techy sections. I haven't had a chance to ride the Tamland very much yet in this kind of stuff due to some major medical problems I have had. Diagnosed in May with Shingles no you don't have that and major nerve pain in my collar bone which comes and goes at a moments notice. Back to the bike ride. There was a techy section on a short climb with a big tree root sticking out. I didn't make it and did a slow speed crash on my ride side. No major injuries just a scratched up right arm. Here is where I noticed a big difference between roadies and mt bikers/gravel racers. When a roadie crashes the first thing they ask is "How is the bike?" When a gravel racer crashes they pretty much know sooner or later you are going to trash your bike. They ask "Any blood?" When I showed mine everybody had a hoot. :thumb Either at this point or a short time after when I was in the wrong gear and mashed on the gears the front derailer got bent. I could only ride in the bottom 10 gears and the chain wouldn't stay on the front high ring. Not too much exciting happened anymore on the ride for me and I kind of played the mind game after 40 miles doing 5 mile segments in my head. One of the things that worked for me of the 5 riders I was kind of mid pack of them. On the uphills it was a struggle for me but then I could soft pedal for the riders behind to catch up. Bikes on the ride
Surly fat bike Niner Salsa Fargo Cannondale something My Tamland My bike was probably still 5 lbs heavier than I would have liked on the climbs today but maybe that was because of 2 lbs. of excess food in my big trunk bag. lol
The fatbike and my Tamland was the only ones that had the wider tires on so we could let them rip on the rough stuff. After last weekend and the roadie course I decided to pump my tires up for road riding. 50 lbs. rear and 40 lbs front. So yeah the rough stuff beat me up a little bit but wasn't enough to worry me too much.
stats miles 64:03 time 5:14:45 total time sub 6 hrs. avg. 12.21 mph elevation gain 5,040 ft
Temps never reached higher than 63 deg. f. I drank a bottle of water, part of the 2nd bottle of Hammer head 5-6 fig bars granola bar and another bar. Way too much fun Zman
