First off, the weather this year was way more cooperative than last year. Last year was significantly wetter, especially the few days leading up to the breakdown which made the horse trails the consistency of peanut butter. It was nearly the end of me to finish the 60 miler last year in a decent time. This year, 70's all week and dry leading up to the event, and close to 90 yesterday, perfection. I likened the conditions to riding out west, it was that dusty. Knowing the conditions were going to be better, I set my sights on the 75 (and to a much lesser extent the 100).
After a quick packing up of our sag bags, and a quick word from the pres, we were off. Brad and I set out with the mentality of riding as much together as possible, and we stuck together for the first 27 miles. On the Pine Loop, we quickly found ourselves essentially alone, which is nice considering there were about 700 signed up for the ride. Before long, we were at the top of Hesitation Point, having ridden here and there with people that either caught us, or that we caught. More on single serving friends in a moment...
Limekiln/Walnut Junction:
The horse trails this year were in infinitely better shape than last year, after we got to the Hidden Cabin sag, I mentioned to Brad that I felt as though I didn't have to expend much energy between the campground and the cabin.
Untitled from Barry Stevenson on Vimeo.
After a quick fill up, we headed over to Nebo Ridge. About halfway through, Brad anounced that he was definitely doing the 60, and in the same breath he told me to go do the 75. So, in a situation reminiscent of last year, I grudgingly left my bro knowing that I wouldn't see him again until back at base camp. I hopped in with another single serving friend and we killed the rest of Nebo. At the Maumee sag, I grabbed a banana, some more water, and the contents of my bag and headed into Hickory.
The gravel into Hickory was cool, and made me more interested in the Gravel Grovel. One notable climb on the gravel heated me up with the sun bearing down on me.
Once onto the trails, I was totally alone. About halfway through the loop I caught up with Brad, formerly of Revolution Bike and Bean, and tagged along with him for a couple miles. There was some (brief) discussion between he and I of grabbing a burger and a brat at Maumee and heading back out for the 100, but some quick calculations made us come to the realization that we'd run out of light before we got back. I had been conserving energy to this point, not knowing what to expect from Hickory, but quickly realized that I was nearing the end of the loop, so I picked up the pace a bit knowing what lay ahead between Maumee and the Hidden Cabin.
The stretch between Maumee and the Hidden Cabin is some gravel and double track, then punctuated by a screaming downhill on the tailend of Nebo. I caught up with some more single serving friends that were locals and rode about half of this section with them. This stretch went by incredibly quickly, and I found myself wondering if I could have completed the 100 in time.
We refueled at the Hidden Cabin quickly and headed back on the horse trails. After a few miles with these guys, I wished them luck and picked up the pace again realizing that I was less than 15 miles from base camp. This is where I caught back up with my most memorable single serving friend of the day: Justin from Louisville.
Earlier in the day, we were riding in the same group and I heard him exclaim (about Limekiln) this is the best trail I've ridden, in my life! A few miles later, I caught back up with him after he had wrecked on one of the dusty horse trails. He was fine, just a bit funnyboned. We hadn't seen each other again until we were about 60ish miles into the ride. We chatted it up a bit on the campground road and back onto Limekiln. At this point, I was feeling like a champ knowing that the most fun section lay ahead. We said our goodbyes and I took off on Limekiln then Walnut. I snapped a quick photo at Hesitation Point, and then rocked down to finish off the ride.
I finished up in about 7 hours and 40 minutes, about 20 minutes faster than last year and having done 15 miles more than last year. I was pretty pleased with my performance. I didn't take the GPS, but if the calculations are correct it was about 75 miles with about 7k feet of climbing. A good day in the saddle, hope to see some of my ride buddies again next year! Thanks HMBA and company for putting on such a great event!
On a side note, yes, the post is lacking photos. I would like to beat my computer with a baseball bat...but I don't have one.
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