A Tale of Two Races (the first race)

Oh yeah, gravel

We picked up the race packets the night before, which by the way were excellent. It was the first indication that this race was much more than anticipated. Chris Skogen, the excellent race director, runs a very professional race. I only wish all the events that I enter were even half as well run. The most incredible thing is that the entry fee was $0. I could go on, but won't; just be sure I'll be back to enjoy Chris's attention to detail and his obvious love of cycling.

The night went by quickly. I'm sure the busy week contributed to me sleeping so well. We were up and off for some coffee and breakfast. We decided to pass on the pancakes that Chris was cooking up at his place (I know Dad, turning down pancakes is hard to believe). We got back to the hotel, ate breakfast and started to get things together for the race start at 8:00. I won't go into the details except we didn't cross the start line, just the two of us, until 8:10 or so. It involved leaking Camelbak bladders, tough to fit gear, and a broken seatbag I'm proud to say we were able to patch back together with a zip-tie.

Big D enjoying the ride

The tulip notes got us through town without incident and soon we were on what we came for - the gravel. The course started with a prelude to the hills we would see later in the day. It was a relatively steep, long, and steady climb out of town. It was the first time of many that day when I would see 5mph on my cycling computer.

On the gravel and enjoying it (yes, it says 7 mph)

Once we were on top of the climb we felt what would turn out to be the good and the bad of the rest of the day: the wind. It was sustained in the mid to upper 20's mph with gusts up to the upper 30's mph, all from the NW. We knew what we were going to be in for on the return leg. All cyclists, runners, and cross-country skiers know that if you have a choice, you choose to start into the wind and enjoy the tailwind on the return leg. Unfortunately, we had no choice today so we decided to forget about the wind and enjoy the ride.

We enjoyed the wind all the way to St. Charles and then on to Chatfield. The bike set-up worked well and once again I can't say enough about the Crosshairs. It was comfortable, fast, efficient, and fun.

Big D climbing out of one of many valleys

We slowly reeled in small groups of riders, but our goal was simple: we just wanted to finish our first gravel hundo. Because of that, we tried to conserve our energy and continued to remember to enjoy ourselves. But we weren't ignorant to the fact that once we turned back towards Rochester, the sh*t would hit the fan.

Enjoying the ride

We started to get a taste of what was to come with the Westerly turn out of Chatfield. A little appetizer, so to speak. We were about 40 miles into this little adventure of ours and knew that the last 60+ miles would take a much bigger bite out of us physically. What we didn't count on was how big the bite would be on us mentally.

JRA

Scott S.