CIRREM

Cirrem is like the finest microbrew. Not mass produced, doesn’t appeal to everyone but to those that love it’s flavor, it’s dope! Here are my race highlights from 2014.

1. Getting in. I screwed around and it filled before I registered. Fortunately they have a waiting list and I rose to the top of it.

2. My new ride. I took my Salsa Mamasita and converted her to a light and lithe gravel monster.

3. A speeding ticket. Less than and hour into my 10 hour trip home!!! More on that later.

4. Breakfast burritos. I believe every mountain bike race should include pre-race breakfast burritos, Cirrem, you’ve set the bar.

5. Old friends. I got to catch up with the Fritzenator before the race and on the way back to the car to prep my bike, heard someone cry “Beernuts!” Only DePenning calls me that.

6. Crazy people. Lots of them at this race but I’m thinking of the kid with the totally tricked out Surly Ogre that had used it for off-road touring in Alaska. I bet his bike started out around 40 lbs. ice and frozen mud would have pushed it to over 50 by the end.

7. Fat bikes. Lots of them this year. Sorry, I don’t get it, it’s a race. Why start on something that’s heavy and slow. Might as well ride on flat tires.

8. Missing the start. About 1 minute before the start I realized I had forgotten my race number in the car. After a mad dash to the car and sticking myself twice with the pins, I rolled out only a few seconds behind the pack.

About the time I freaked because I forgot my number.

9. The first 15 miles. They were dry.

Pace lines work when the road’s dry!

10. The cookies at the top of half way hill. I almost turned around and went back for seconds. I passed on the PBR’s.

11. Broken spoke about mile 40. A chunk of frozen mud must have fallen off and taken it out. I heard a metallic snap and hoped it wasn’t my frame. The sexy curve in my rear rim told me it was a spoke.

12. The steady loss of gears. At mile 30 I had maybe 4 or 5 I could use. I was down to a single speed by mile 45.

13. Always racing. After riding totally by myself for miles I heard voices behind me with 5 miles to go. I glanced back and saw two riders closing in. I could have let them catch me and chatted with them while we road in together. We were all just in survival mode anyway at that point. Instead I put the hammer down and dropped them again on the last hills. I also passed a guy 1/4 mile from the finish. In fairness, I did tell him, ” come on, let’s finish this mother!” And tried to get him to pick up his pace a little and ride with me but he was toast.

Typical section.

14. Finishing!

15. Post race. Tacos and beer for racers, need I say more? Korean chicken and wasabi brisket from Tacopocolypse were my flavors of choice. Caught up with Squirrel (creator of the race awards), DePenning and the race organizers, Kent and Jed.

16. Inspiration.Chuck, aka the Fritzinator, broke his derailleur with 13 miles to go (I saw two other broken rear d’s and two broken chains). He decided to walk the rest of the race pushing his mud encrusted bike with him. He said he did not want a DNF.

17. Bike maintenance included two washings, once at a car wash to get the concrete like frozen mud off the bike and once by hand at home to finish it up.

This was all frozen as hard as a rock.

Look at this thing, why was it still going!? I replaced the broken spoke and put on a new chain. Surprisingly it still shifts. Headset needed to taken apart and cleaned out, too.

18. I checked out the spot where I got my speeding ticket on the way home. The two signs giving you a heads up about the reduced speed were both blown parallel to the highway by the wind. You couldn’t see them at all, especially in the dark. I took pictures and I will be vindicated! See you in court sucker.

Cirrem 2014…another memorable batch!

Leadville 100 – 2013

She did one of those slow motion tip overs about two people in front of me. It probably hurt but it wasn’t serious. She started to cry and I heard her say through her tears, “I don’t want to do this anymore!”

I thought, you nailed it sister, I don’t want to do this anymore either! The guy in front of me stopped to help her. I slowed and asked them if there was anything I could do, was told nope so kept grinding up. 

You’re pretty trashed when you hit the base of the Pipe Line climb, at approximately mile 70, and you see this rutted steep monster ahead of you. You know what’s it’s going to be like because you bombed down it several hours ago. Very few people can ride the first section. Most trudge up it pushing their bikes. At this point in the race, it’s pretty quiet. No one has much to say and everyone’s suffering. The spectators tell us all we’re doing a good job even though we’re moving at about .2 mph. I guess just to be moving is an accomplishment.

You jump on your bike, descend a bit on some rocky double track and then climb again. At least it’s rideable. Ah, you can see the top, keep the pedals turning and you’ll make it. Crap, a false summit, you get a brief break and a short descent and then climb again. Repeat this cycle a couple more times and you’ll be right where the young lady I mentioned earlier crashed.

Leadville is about extremes. It starts at 10,152 feet and climbs to 12,424. It attracts pros and ultra fast racers who finish in 6 hours and some change. It lures people trying to overcome huge obstacles who fight with everything they have to beat the 12 hour cutoff and earn their buckle. It starts in the cold and dark and finishes in the heat and beating sun. The course ranges from two-lane highway to single track and you’ll ride in tight packs where you can’t move 6″ off your line without wiping someone out and all by yourself with only the monster peaks as company.

But the biggest extreme will be in your head and at some point, no matter who you are or how fast you are, you’ll want to cry and say, I don’t want to do this anymore!

Me and 900 of My Friends – Almanzo 2013

That’s what Almanzo feels like to me. If you read anyone’s post or article about the Almanzo races, it’s what everyone talks about. Chris Skogan, the race creator and organizer has created a special event where you feel welcomed and appreciated from the moment you walk up to registration. It’s a great life lesson, make people feel welcome and appreciated and they’ll like what you’re doing…duh!

For me it started when I registered on Saturday morning before the race. As I walked down main street to the community building where it was happening, I passed at least three volunteers who all said hi or good morning and welcomed me. The girl at registration was enthusiastic, told me to have a good race and gave me a water bottle. The volunteer at the door asked me if I was all set when I left. I went to the town’s only motel and met my teammates. After final prep, we rode back to the start line and joined the crowd.

Hey look, there’s Andrea from Trans Iowa, so we chatted with her. The guy beside me had an interesting bike so I asked him about it and we traded some racing stories. Mad Ox spotted someone he knew so he went to wish them good luck. Skogen welcomed the nearly 1,000 riders and was overcome with emotion when he tried to express how special it was that the vision he had in 2007 when it all started had come to pass. His dad took over for him and told us all what this event meant and how Chris poured his heart and soul into it. Then we sang happy birthday to Chris’ son. Is this a race?

Yes it is, and we were off for 100 miles of beautiful scenery, great roads and nearly perfect weather. Here’s what the start looked like, Almanzo Start Line. This was my third Almanzo so I knew what to expect. The first section to Preston would be pretty fast and pace lines would form, dissolve, reform, breakup and come together again. I settled into a good group and enjoyed the scenery.

Coming around a corner I passed Dr. Dan the optometrist from Michigan I met at Cirrem in February. We rode together for awhile and caught up on each others racing activity. As we got closer to Preston, we got into the first real series of hills which splintered the 15 bike pace line I had been riding in. I ended up with two other guys, one about my age on a Salsa Warbird and a younger guy on a cross bike. The Warbird looks like an awesome machine. It’s owner told me he had 7 bikes and it was his favorite. 20 lbs, disk brakes, carbon fork, I want one.

The Warbird fell off and it was down to two as we pulled into Preston. I felt like I was on Survivor when my partner started talking about riding together for the rest of the race so we could work together. Too early in the game for alliances. I told him things would break up as we went through Preston and we’d see what happened. My wife was along the route in Preston so I refilled a water bottle and made a little detour to get the electrolyte caps I had forgotten in the car. The new water crossing outside of Preston created a traffic jam as everyone lined up to get across. Sure enough I lost sight of my pre-Preston partner.

The middle part of the race is not quite as scenic and you settle into whatever pace makes sense to you and just grind it out. Somewhere in that section I passed Nick from Iowa City and rode with him into Forestville State Park. He pulled off to fill his water bottles and I started the climb out of the part by myself. After the park, the hills start up again and keep coming until the end of the race. It’s also time to look forward to the water crossing! At mile 80 you cross a creek. It’s pretty cool, you start by heading down a minimum maintenance dirt road into a pretty valley. At the bottom is the stream. At my first Almanzo, there was a little water in it but we were already soaked and freezing so walking through some water was no big deal. It was dry as a bone during my second year but this I’d read it had about 18″ of water in it and it sounded like fun.

As I rolled up I saw a guy in the middle of the stream hanging onto his totally submerged bike while someone on the other side was trying to help him extricate himself and machine from the rushing water. The rain from the previous day or two had brought the water level up to about 36″ and it was moving. If your bike wheels got in it, the extra drag made it really tough to stay on your feet. This is what it looked like water crossing. A tow strap stretched between two trees helped but it was still a little exciting. Shortly after I crossed they rerouted the course and took the crossing out which was the right thing to do. It was a little too dangerous.

Shortly after the crossing I met up with Joe who works for QBP in Minneapolis. I told him every bike I lust for is made by his company. I pumped him for details on the Krampus and the Broadaxe because I want one of each. At 90 miles you have to climb the steepest, longest hill on the course. It is a (insert expletive here)! I stayed on my bike for the whole climb which was my goal. It helped that my Fargo has a triple and I unashamedly used the small ring.

I crossed the line with three other guys. We had formed a little pace line to help each other for the last 4 or 5 miles. Brad, one of the teammates rolled across shortly after me and while we were waiting for the third Wrecked’em on the 100 to come in, Derrick, our Trans Iowa buddy showed up! Brad, Derrick and rode the last 100 on TI together. It was great to see him and hear what he thought of his first Almanzo. Jeff rolled in and it was off for showers, beers and pizza. Matt, another Wrecked’em brother rode the Royal 162 and we ran into him at the pizza place so all the Wrecked’ems were accounted for.

Thanks to Mr. Skogan for a chance to hang out with my friends!

Race Weekend!

Almanzo is this weekend which means big fun on bikes. It’s one of the best run races I’ve participated in anywhere, which is especially amazing because the race is 100% free. Almanzo was created by a pretty cool guy named Chris Skogen who got the idea to organize a 100 mile unsupported free race in 2007. There were 25 registered racers at the first Almanzo. In 2013, 1,316 riders signed up. I can only image the number of volunteers required to put I all together and make it run as smoothly as it runs.

Check out the website for more info, cool merch or to make a donation. This year there are three bike races, the Almanzo 100, the Royal 162 and the new Alexander which is 380 some miles. There are also foot races on Sunday.

The other cool thing, since 2010, it takes place in Spring Valley, MN a town of just under 2,500 souls. I’m guessing that all the riders, volunteers, family and support must nearly double the population of Spring Valley for the weekend. Spring Valley seems to enjoy the event though and everyone there has been great. I’ve done this race the prior two years and managed to snag a room in Spring Valley both years. Couldn’t make that work again this year so am staying about 30 miles away.

My stuff’s all packed and loaded, the weather looks perfect and I’m feeling good. I’ll post some post race updates and hopefully some photos.

32 Hours, Tales from TI9 – Checkpoint 2

A couple of weeks before the start of Trans Iowa, Matt told us a couple of interesting things. One, he wanted to finish by 11:00 am on Sunday so he could attend an award ceremony for his daughter and two, it was prom so his daughter and her date were going to try to meet him, in their prom finery somewhere on the course so he could see them. Matt was the only one of us with previous ultra distance running race experience so while I didn’t doubt this was all possible, I really thought…no way.

My goal was just to finish. We hadn’t yet talked to a first time TI racer that had finished and I knew the attrition rate at best was about 60%.  So adding an earlier deadline seemed crazy to me but normal for Matt. We decided we would all try to work together and ride at an 11:00 am finish pace but if we got split up, so be it.

Guitar Ted and gone over the number of convenience stores we’d come across but it was all a little fuzzy. We thought there was one about 20 miles from Checkpoint 1 and that’s where we planned to reconnect with Matt. Sure enough, about 20 miles later we’re just west of Melbourne, Iowa and there’s a convenience store about ½ mile off course. GT said don’t pass one by so we didn’t. Brad and I rolled up to it a few minutes after Matt arrived; the three amigos are back together!

The other patrons ask us what the heck we’re doing and have the typical reaction when we explain, “that’s crazy, 300 miles?!”. I bought a couple of salted nut rolls, mixed another bottle, lubed my butt and my bike. Matt took off ahead of us again with the same plan, we’d catch him on the course. We never see him again.

At this point in the race, we start seeing the same people we’ll run into over and over again. That’s one of the fun and interesting part of the race. You can’t push yourself like you would in say a 100 miler or you’ll blow up and not be able to finish. So you can easily chat with other riders as you pass them or they pass you. You also leap frog each other depending on the amount of time you spend at the convenience stores, fixing a flat, changing clothes or performing a bodily function.

Here’s the cast of characters we rode with off and on;

Single speed guy from Ames. We met this kid at the first convenience store. The funny thing to me about him is he witnessed both of our wrong turns. The first one about 3 miles after the store, the second one about 60 miles later and no we were not riding with him in between those two incidents. He was just coincidently at both of them.

Andrea who talks to herself. At about 100 miles we pulled onto a highway for a 50 yards to get across a bridge. We stopped for traffic and up rolls Andrea from Iowa City. She reminds me a little of my daughter Sarah. She was a bike commuter and delivery girl in Iowa City who had gotten into racing. I had trouble hearing what she was asking me and had to keep saying, huh? I finally figured out she talked to herself almost non-stop. I guess she was more interesting than we were. She was a cool girl and a strong rider. We pulled away from her shortly after the bridge but would see a lot of her.

Portland Chick. Christina is originally from Romania and now lives in Portland. She’s travelled to Iowa for this race because, “I love to ride gravel.” She becomes the tortoise to our hare although it’s hard to call the pace we were riding hare like. Every time we see her, she looks exactly the same. Her vest is unzipped and flapping behind her like a cape and she always is wearing exactly the same stuff. She’s grinding this out on a single speed and goes on to become the first women to finish on one.

British guy. Cresting a hill we see a rider pull out of a farmyard. Turns out to be one of the guys from the UK we meet on Friday. His accent reminds me of a ridiculous ATM in Newton where the woman has a British accent…stupid. The guy’s great, he’d just stopped at a random farmhouse for water. He wasn’t used to the heat because it’s always chilly and rainy back home. I felt for him. No gravel roads in England but good mountain biking trails in the forests. He found out about this race from FB friends and decided it was weird enough that he had to try it.

Tony’s friend Brian. A co-worker told me about a buddy of his that was trying it for his second time. He was described to me as having an enormous head. A guy pulls up beside me and asks, do you work at Vernon in Newton? It’s Brian. His head turns out to be normal size.

Busted pedal dude. We pass a kid who greets us with, “do either of you have a spare pedal?” One of his Egg Beater’s lost the nut on the end of the spindle so the pedal would slide off. The other interesting thing is, he’s shirtless which will be even more interesting later.

We’re coming to a town, which means, convenience store! We roll through Eldora and pass up a Fareway and a HyVee for Casey’s Pizza. Two slices, a big chocolate chip cookie, Gatorade and another salted nut roll make their way into my shopping cart. Andrea roll’s in so we all sit in the sun on the curb and eat the best pizza we’ve ever had. We fiddle around restocking and getting bodies and bikes ready and then the three of us roll out.

We’re still feeling good and well on the way to checkpoint 2. Feels like we’ve been heading north forever and we’ve got a small tailwind.  We know we will pay for this. We turn to the east and start making some longer, straight runs.

Up ahead, I watch dogs run out from a farmhouse and harass a couple of riders as they make a corner. I figure we’ll be in for the same treatment. Turns out to be four snapping, snarling mutts who sure seem like they want a piece of us. We hear at then end that two people were bitten. I wonder if it happened here, why didn’t I bring my dog spray, I’d love to blast those bastards.

Feels like a grind to get to CP2, which turns out to be two guys in a rural cemetery. The only info they would give us was a convenience store was coming up in 10 miles. We grab the last set of cue cards and roll on.

32 Hours, Tales from TIV9 – Cue Sheet Deck 1

I’m in bed by 9:30 Friday night, good! I toss and turn until 10:30 or so, bad. The alarm goes off at 2:00 am Saturday morning, more bad! I haven’t been this nervous for a race in a long time, hmmm I wonder why, race length is three times longer than my longest ride, maybe that’s why.

I’ve got an hour to make my final clothing choices, drink some coffee and try to get something to eat. I like my coffee first so I get that taken care and then stick my head outside to get a read on the temperature. I go with knee warmers, arm warmers a vest and a light jacket. I’ve got a winter weight cap and a light skull-cap, full finger light gloves and cheapo fleece ones to pull over those at night. There’s a wool t-shirt and a light rain jacket in my tail bag just in case.

Brad picks me up right at 3, we grab Matt and we’re in Grinnell about 20 minutes before the start. Racers stream in, unload and take up spots in the street. Guitar Ted has a couple of last minute announcements and we’re off…to the slowest start in a race I’ve ever experienced. Granted it’s a paced roll out behind GT’s truck with no name but it’s pretty slow. We’re almost out of Grinnell when the first casualty of the day happens and a rider goes down. For those of you that don’t race, this is typical. Someone gets a little too anxious, makes a stupid mistake and bam they’re down. You don’t want to be that guy. I think it was about that time too when I saw someone stopped messing with a tire. This is another staple of racing called, the premature punctuation. You don’t want to be that guy either.

We cross the highway and hit our first gravel and the race is officially on. The ride to the first checkpoint was pretty uneventful after that. Since I live in this area, I knew what to expect…hills. There were plenty of them. The biggest challenge on this first leg was sticking with the plan and not riding too fast or pushing too hard. We watched a beautiful sunrise over our shoulders and road some very familiar roads as we passed by Newton.

Checkpoints in Trans Iowa are pretty low key. A few people getting your number and handing out new sets of cue cards, that’s it. Guitar Ted told everyone at the pre race meeting that the first checkpoint was in Ira so two of the wives came over to say hi and wish us well. Matt took off while we were saying goodbye to the ladies with the thought that we would catch him at the upcoming convenience store.

We hop on the bikes and head up the hill to cover the 120 miles of gravel between us and checkpoint 2.

32 Hours, Tales from TIV9 – Prologue

I’ll start with the end. I did it! I managed to pedal my bike over 323 miles of Iowa gravel roads in under 34 hours to become an official Trans Iowa finisher. At 4 am on Saturday morning on April 27, 2013 I lined up with 90 other starters on the street outside Bikes To You in Grinnell, Iowa. At 12:08 pm on Sunday April 28, 2013, I rolled across the finish line just outside Grinnell with my long time riding and racing buddy Brad Patty and our companion for the last 100 miles Derek Weider. One of 36 riders to finish the race this year.

You can’t be a serious off-road rider in Iowa and not have heard of this race. We’d talked about it for years because it sounded like such a bitch. Who would even want to tackle this monster! Not me, doesn’t sound like any fun at all. Then in December or January, Brad sends an email, I think, and says, maybe we should do TI this year and I immediately answer, I’m in. What the #@*&! Not sure where that came from but the race was on as they say.

The thing starts with the mandatory Meat Up on Friday night before the race. It’s at the Grinnell Steakhouse so most of the riders and their friends and family come out, grill up some meat and get their race packets. We show up a little after 5 and the very first thing we notice is the number of Honda Elements in the parking lot. Mine must have made 5. We walked in and as racers do, immediately start sizing up the participants. Look at that guy, he looks fast, is that guy doing it, he won’t make 20 miles.

There are three Wrecked’em’s attempting this thing myself, Brad and Matt. We’re all there of course along with my wife and Brad’s wife. Matt’s got younger kids and his wife was off at one of their activities. Another riding buddy, Shawna, and her husband JJ joined us, too. Side note, JJ had sliced the top of his finger open the day before when the lock on his knife blade failed. We were very impressed with the 2″ gash and the lovely stitches. We chow down and head into the pre-race briefing.

Guitar Ted, the race organizer, is a cool guy. Laid back but unwavering in the rules and regulations of the race. Absolutely no outside support, you can’t even have fans meet you anywhere along the route because he won’t tell you what towns you roll through. Cutoff times at the checkpoints are absolute, make them or be done. Check points will have no water and no food and none of the volunteers will help you. If you have a problem or need to get pulled off the course, you’ve got to do it yourself, period. There’s the potential for 5 convenience stores, I think, but you better be able to go 100 miles on your own and pass a convenience store without restocking at your own peril.

They call the racers up one by one to get their packets starting with previous winners, then finishers, then veterans, then rookies. Sitting behind me are two guys from the UK that have come just for this event. One of them had his wheel destroyed on the flight over and had to borrow one somewhere. Do these Brits know what they’re getting themselves into? I have no idea but how cool is it that this crazy little Iowa race is attracting riders from overseas.

Packets in hand we head home for final prep and to try to get a little sleep.

CIRREM 2013

Best race I’ve experienced? CIRREM, no question. Why? The organizers Kent and Jed have figured out how to combine all of the components that bikers and racers love into a single package.

First, it’s an adventure. It’s early season so people are working on their fitness levels and not usually up to full racing trim. It’s in February and the weather can be anything. This year turned out to be the best one yet as far as road and weather. We got 4-6 inches of snow a couple of days before the race but it was off the road for the most part on Saturday. It was sunny and not too windy, and the temperature was high 20’s.

It’s in a cool location. The Cumming Tap in Cumming, Iowa sits right on a major bike trail about 15 miles south of Des Moines. It’s one of the most biker friendly bars around. Bob, the owner, is a biker and rolls out the red carpet for the race. The finish line is actually in the bar and you’ve got a 50/50 chance of someone handing you a beer as you check in.

They deliver more than you expect. The entry fee is minimal and this year it including build-your-own breakfast burritos, cookies and beer at the halfway point, post-race tacos, post-race beer, a sweet t-shirt and, bonus, a bar style bottle opener.

The bar is packed with happy bikers before and after the race, there are a ton of volunteers making food, pouring beer, handing out swag, awards and congrats. There are serious awards for the winners and great swag from the sponsors.

The course was fast this year. A new course record  was set by the winner and I turned in my best time. Not sure what my place was yet, I’m curious. Fargo with aero bars this year. The fast guys are all on cross bikes and cross single speeds. Two  Wrecked’em’s competed this year, me and my buddy Chuck. The race was itself was pretty uneventful. My Camelbak didn’t freeze but my Cliff bar did. I got gel all over my lobster gloves. I had some great cookies at the halfway checkin but passed on the beer. I met some interesting people including the optometrist from Milwaukee, the guy from Missouri with diarrhea and Dan from Des Moines who’d ridden his bike to the race so he could make it a 100 mile day. Turns out Dan is doing Trans Iowa this year too and has one previous attempt under his belt.

After the race I had a couple of beers and more than my share of tacos from Tacopocalypse. I did not win any of the schwag, bummer, then went home opened another beer with my CIRREM bottle opener and wore my new sweet t-shirt out for dinner with my wife.

That my friends, is a perfect day!

• Mileage: 63 miles, 100% gravel, Fargo / aero bars
• Weather: high 20′s, 10+ mph SSW wind, sunny
• Route: CIRREM race course

Winter Racing

Tomorrow morning is one of my favorite races. CIRREM, Central Iowa Rock Road Endurance Metric or something like that. It’s got the best vibe of any race I’ve done. It’s hosted by and staged out of, the Cumming Tap. Yes, that really is the name of the town and the bar. I’ll leave the t-shirt options to your imagination.

For a small entry fee you get breakfast, 100km of gravel road racing, and some satisfying post race beverages. Everyone’s there for a good time, the volunteers are amazing and the hospitality of the organizers warms your biking soul.

I remember the first year I did it. My hydration pack’s hose froze up solid and all my calories were in it. I had grabbed a package of GU Chomps at the registration table and stuck them in my pocket. As I started bonking at mile something or other, I dug those out and managed to perk up enough to finish but I was dehydrated and hungry! When I get like that, nothing tastes good or sits well. I plowed through some BBQ and a beer after the race and then felt like crap. How can food look so good and then feel so bad?

Last year was my best performance when I got second in the single speed class. I’d be going that route again this year if I still had a SS gravel bike. This year I’m on my Fargo. I’m running full fenders which could be great or could be a problem. We got about 6″ of snow last night. If it stays frozen, the fenders should be good and will be appreciated. If it warms up enough to soften up the gravel and get muddy, the fenders will clog up and be a problem. I ran them last year and it all worked out so we’ll see.

I’ll post a race report with some pix this weekend. I’m interested in the new, halfway hoppy check-in station.

77 Days Till Trans Iowa

Without any careful thought, I signed up for something I said I would never do. Trans Iowa, the mega-mother of endurance gravel road bike races. Now I’m staring down the barrel of a loaded gun that’s taking aim straight at me in 77 days. 323 unsupported miles on Iowa gravel roads with a 34 hour cutoff to get an official finishing time.

How do you train for something like this? Ride as much as you can, as often as you can is the only plan I’ve got. Setting some sort of pace right from the beginning will be an interesting challenge. I’ve done a lot of racing and basically you set your pace at, “as fast as I can go for the distance of this race”. I’ve done some long races, Leadville 100, Almanzo, Buffalo 105 and one 12 hour solo but not anything near this long. So, what’s my, “as fast as I can go for 323 miles” pace? I have no idea but I’ll find out.

My training ride today consisted of heading into the wind for 29 miles of gravel and reversing. It turned out to be colder than I thought, I think the air temp was in the high 20’s or low 30’s but the 10+ mph wind chill bit, literally. My feet got pretty cold and I waited, too long to put in some calories so got a little bonky towards the end. Average speed ended up at 12.9 mph, not great.

My TI ride is a Salsa Fargo which is still pretty new to me. I tested two things on it today. Aero bars and a homemade cyclometer mount. Aero bars on what will be 30 lbs of bike sounds like an oxymoron but my seat of the pants efficiency gain heading into the wind was 15%. Is that worth the extra weight of the bars, I think so. With the aero bars, I had no where to put my cyclometer or the on-bike light I’m going to use for TI so I made a little PVC mount for both that zip ties to the aero bars. It worked and seemed pretty stable.

• 

  Nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live here.

  

  Look what you can do with a little PVC and grill paint.

• Mileage: 58 miles, 95% gravel, Fargo w/ aero bars and computer mount
• Weather: high 20’s, 10+ mph SSE wind, overcast
• Route: prison road, Killduff, Sully, then south