five-oooooooo

Labor Day weekend, that means trip to Spearfish of Dakota 50. The race did fill up to nice 500 people. I believe there was at 20 + people from good old Eastern Nebraska International representing. Megan and I jumped in car around 7 am and drove drove towards are destination. After lunch stop we finally rolled in to Spearfish campground around 4:00 pm local time. Rest of the crew went to ride the course, I elected to setup our campsite. Plus riding after 9 hours in car doesn’t sound like great idea.  The routine was established some dinner, one drink some talk and early bed time. Man that first night was cold  low of 41 which I was believe for most of the folk from Omaha was distant distant memory.

Next day time to make some breakfast and coffee and go preride the course, everyone kitted up and we went out for some miles.  Nothing to crazy just  enough to warm up the bones, 7 miles uphill 7 miles downhill.  The talk of the camp was about the most epic match in history of man made wheels. In one corner it was Ryan Feagan in another one Mike Miles. Oh the tension, I’m sure they those guys just started at each other for hours. Measuring each other, scheming their 50 miles plans.  I was pretty mum about  the race just sit in and see where the chips will fall.

Sunday morning was brisk and cold, made a lot of coffee  ate some food. Time to kit up and  warm up. Get an okay spot  and wait. Jeremy, Wolff sandwich and I were all together. I wished MOD good luck and smokey waves us off with his fuzzy paw. Off we went to  cloud of dust.

The next part is really my only educational part for newer cyclists. We steer with our hands not our heads, okay? I didn’t know it was possible to crash your bike on gravel uphill going 11 mph, but guess what? If someone turn their head to talk to you and pulls the whole bike towards you, you will crash. Some kid pretty much ran into me as I asked him a question. Awesome buddy thanks….  So remember when you turn your head you shouldn’t be turning your bike…. mmmmmmkay

After that little duster I got on Jeremy’s wheel and we went up the single track, nice steady pace we road with Dennis for longest time, He was riding a bike with gears and suspension and was in pretty good spirits.   We finally caught up  with Mike Miles, he said something about not having good day. So trio of us just rocked out a consistent pace to checkpoint 2.

Ladies of Omaha were there with fresh bottles and beer handouts how awesome is that? No time wasted. Quick stop, two fresh bottles and I was off. Jeremy followed and so did Mike eventually. The next section is pretty much all downhill, I figured our trio was still together. But once the terrain leveled out  I was by myself.  Checkpoint 3 appeared  and I had to go. Cross dismount and run to the bushes, much to amusement of locals manning the station.

During some of the descents I have noticed my rear being a bit squirmy, I looked down and it seemed like the pressure was super low but considering checkpoint 3 and 4 are close together and it’s mostly gravel descent I decided to roll to that checkpoint and see what is what.

Last checkpoint was great, I yelled if anyone had floor pump. This lady not only had it she pumped up my tire, yes it was low 15 psi. Another lady filled up my bottles and gave me some orange slices and I was ready to go. Mike Miles finally caught  me  and was looking pretty good. We both made to the next part which is pretty ridiculous climb to top of the Tinton ridge.  It starts out as fire road then switches to double track and then finally to single track. Top of the  ridge is the bacon station and the hooligans that man it. Some dude yelled “I love U.S.A.” and “I love your Stache” and with those words I summit the ridge. The look back is awesome you get to see the valley below.  At that point I pulled away from Mike and was just having good times.   The descent down the ridge was awesome you are riding on top of the single track that might be 3 ft in width total with 300-400 ft drops on both side… Epic.

After the descent there is only one gravel road and the downhill starts well so did the cramps. Miles passed me and pulled away quite quickly, i was trying to eat and drink everything i had in my pockets and chase it down with electrolytes.  That kind of worked. I felt good enough to chase  down Miles only to have him pull away from me on the descent, damm you hardtail

But that was that I rolled in two minutes behind him.  28 minutes faster than last year. MOD crush it, channel his inner Lance Amstrong and road on semi flat tire for last  couple of miles.

Aftermath was beer, beer beer scotch smores beer  9 hour of driving home.  The rear tires is pretty much toast couple of bubble have formed, considering it’s pretty new  with less than 1000 miles on it I’m hoping for replacement.  So yeah everyone had good times, even Lucas who’s bike snapped like chicken wishbone… 366 days to next year. The bet between RF and Miles didn’t materialized the bar ran out of waffle fries… bastards.