Cannondale SuperX Review

There I was alone in what was a 110 mile gravel race, but for me it was now a 119 mile gravel race.  I was lost and alone in the middle of Kansas on gravel roads and I had not seen a car or a rider in over  2 hours, only rarely seeing a farm house in the distance.  It was just me and my Cannondale SuperX, grinding through the gravel wondering if I would ever get back on the race course.  I couldn’t help but think “how did I get here”. 

Kansas Gravel - Photo Credit Chuck Vohsen

Flashback

For almost a year I had been coveting my teammate, Chuck’s, adventure/gravel bike.  He had scoured the earth and found all the perfect parts and built a Salsa Vaya, he even blogged the whole build process.  As he built his bike, he kept telling me what a great time he was going to have competing in all upcoming gravel races.  I was not convinced that gravel racing could ever be fun.  I had done plenty of adventure races on a mountain bike riding gravel roads and it was never what I would call fun.  I said “I will never gravel race, EVER, I don’t care how many times you tell me it’s fun”. 

So the more Chuck rode and the more stories he told me, the more I thought, maybe I want to try this, but I did not want to waste a bunch of money on a gravel bike and find out that I hated gravel racing.  Oh, but then the light bulb in my brain went on.  I had been wanting to start riding a few cyclocross races and I realized that a gravel bike is really just a cyclocross bike with bigger tires.  In my mind I could justify maybe making a purchase of a cyclocross bike and using it as a gravel bike also. 

Now this meant that I would have to start researching bikes, because I’m not mechanically inclined like Chuck, so much so, that the bike shop guys tell me to never ever do my own maintenance.  I hate to admit it, but every time I have tried to do my own maintenance, it has turned into a disaster and I end up running into the bike shop yelling “code blue” because it always happens the day I’m leaving town for a race. 

So after looking at Trek, Felt, Giant and Cannondale, I had narrowed the search to two CX bikes that I could afford.  My number one choice was the Trek Cronus Pro and the Cannondale SuperX was my second choice.  Since I race for the Cyclery which is sponsored by Trek, I was pretty sure I would go with the Trek. Plus the Trek had tubeless ready wheels, which I thought I would really need, but it had Shimano 105 components, and I really wanted the next step up to Ultegra.  It also had the Bontrager Evoke saddle which I like and of course the frame was carbon and I wanted the lightest bike I could get.  

I compared it to the Cannondale which was also carbon and it had the upgrade to the Ultegra components, it was not tubeless ready, which at the time was a strike in my mind, because I knew how hard gravel can be on tires and I was afraid of constant flats with tubed wheels.  The saddle was a Fizik Tundra, which seemed to be a very expensive saddle, but I had never actually tried one before so I didn’t know if I would like it or not.

After all my research and thinking about it, and let me tell you, I thought about it for 6 months before I made the purchase, I made a trip to the Cyclery, where Andy, a master mechanic and coach, fitted me for both the Trek and the Cannondale.  Andy was also a Trek Cronus lover, but in the end, he said fit is everything, and the smallest Cronus made was a 50 cm, which he couldn’t in good conscience tell me would fit. However Cannondale came in smaller sizes and I could get a 47 which is what I needed.  The Cannondale was a bit out of my price range, but with some coordination between the Cyclery and Cannondale, I was able to get an affordable price.

Robin's Cannondale SuperX

I was still not a believer and was worried that I would get the bike and hate it, I had heard some bad stuff from fellow riders about Cannondales, and was worried that it may be true.  I did have one friend who is a great road racer and all he rides is Cannondale, he told me I would love it and not to worry.  I ordered the bike, while I was still recovering from tailbone and heart surgery, it came in just a week before I was going to be released to ride.  

I started thinking about what kind of tires I needed for gravel racing, the bike came with Schwalbe Rapid Rob’s in a 35C size.  Everyone told me that they would never hold up to the gravel.  My adventure racing team, ROCK Racing, is sponsored by Schwalbe and I happen to really like their tires, so I wasn’t really worried, but the Rapid Rob is not considered a tough tire, so I ordered Schwalbe Marathons, the toughest tires they make.  I had to stay with the 35c’s because the next size up in the Marathons was a 40c and I thought it would be too big for the bike.  Unfortunately, the tires would not arrive in time for my first ride or my first race.  

Rapid Rob vs. Marathon

After a week of looking at the bike, I rode it one time on some gravel roads in the Busch Wildlife area, in Missouri.  It was only a 50 mile ride, but the bike felt pretty good, except for the saddle. 

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

Then six days later I took the bike to Herman Missouri and competed in Tour of Herman Gravel Race.  If you know anything about Herman Missouri, you know that it is crazy hilly. 

Hills of Herman - Photo Credit Dan Singer

So I’m on a new bike, rolling down steep hills at 40 mph in deep river gravel. I was more than a little scared and I was riding a race tire, instead of a tough tire. Guess what!  It was all good, not one flat tire, and I only fish tailed to the point of hysteria one time.  After finishing 68 miles of tortuous hills and heavy gravel, I decided that I really liked my SuperX.  The only thing I really hated about the entire bike was the saddle, it was not made for a butt the size of mine.  I knew I would be swapping it out for one of my favorite saddles before my next ride.

Saddle from Hell - Photo Credit Dan Singer

I left Herman, still as out of shape as ever, but feeling good, I mean for the shape I was in, I should have been sore from being rattled to death over the gravel and hills, but I really felt good and I felt good the next two days too with no residual back aches. So the bike did a great job handling the some of the roughest roads in the Midwest. 

Fast Forward

Just a few weeks after the Tour of Herman, and not very many rides on my SuperX, I found myself in Kansas racing in the Dirty Kanza.  

The Epic Gravel Race

As far as the course went, it was all hills, but not the steep grueling hills of Herman, mostly long climbs with one after the next and the gravel of course was much tougher than the Herman gravel.  I had to constantly find a line left from previous riders to follow. Yes, I was scared a couple times, but I was able to keep both wheels on the road. 

Who said Kansas was flat

Oh and I was riding the half pint race of 110 miles, but since I got lost once, I ended up riding 119 miles.  Never once did I curse the bike, or feel like it was killing me on the rough roads. I had put on the Schwalbe Marathon tires and they were really working well.  I never felt like crying or like I wasn’t going to make it, I never wanted to throw my bike in the gravel and walk away.  I have to give credit to my SuperX, it was so comfortable, so light, and so freaking awesome, that I was even smiling when I crossed the finish line and I finished it faster than I had expected even with the extra nine miles. 

119 miles later

Now if I were my teammate Chuck, I would have given you a more technical review of the bike, but Chuck thinks like a engineer and he is a guy, so all the mechanical stuff means something to him.  For me though, the icing on the cake was finishing a Dirty Kanza and thinking, well I might just do this again.  Well it actually took a couple days before I really thought that.

So next up, I will be putting the Schwalbe Rapid Robs back on and racing some cyclocross and I have no doubt that I will love the SuperX just as much, when I’m racing a cyclocross course.

Dirty Kanza - The Half Pint Edition

A year ago, if you would have asked me if I would ever gravel race, I would have told you, “there is no way in hell, I will ever gravel race”.  I guess those are some of my most famous last words.

Here’s the thing, my teammate Chuck built a gravel bike and he was having all kinds of fun on it, and having the fun without me.  I did some adventure riding with him, but on my mountain bike, and it’s no fun trying to keep up with a gravel bike when riding a mountain bike with fat tires and weighing about two tons.

I started thinking, I would like to do some CX races this year, so maybe I could get a CX bike that could double as a gravel bike. The more I thought about it the more I liked the idea, but I would not be doing any gravel racing, I would just use it as an adventure bike to ride with Chuck for training purposes.  More famous last words, I guess. 

 

Chuck and I also work together, so when it was bonus time at our company, Chuck encouraged me to take my bonus and use it to purchase a gravel bike.  I did research for months and had my choices down to two bikes, the Trek Cronus and the Cannondale SuperX.  I ended up choosing the Cannondale SuperX, more to come later on the bike, I will be posting a review, but let me just say right now, I made the right choice. 

Robin's Cannondale SuperX

Now I had a gravel bike, but unfortunately, I also had a broken tailbone and a heart problem, so I was not able to ride it yet.  As soon as I got released to ride, I got on the bike and tried it out.  Problem was I didn’t have a lot of time, so I rode it twice, then I rode the Tour of Herman gravel race with Chuck, it was only my 3^rd time on the bike.  Remember a few paragraphs back when I said, I would not be gravel racing, well that didn’t last long, but I was mainly doing TOH for a training ride, not a real race.  Well we finished the first two legs of TOH and missed the cut off to start the 3^rd lap by 30 seconds, but that was ok, the hills almost killed me on the first two legs and I wasn’t all that ready to go out for a third.  After the TOH, I was wondering why in the world I signed up for the DK half pint race.  I had heard that the hills at DK were worse than TOH.  Once again Chuck talked me into doing something I knew better than to do. He had decided to do DK200 and I said no way, I won’t be doing it, but when he said Lori was doing the Half Pint 100, which was really 110, and for me 119, more on that later, I thought well, I will do that, not really race it, just ride it for training. Of course I had already signed up for DK before I actually rode TOH, so hide sight is always 20/20. 

Next on the list was to ride Cedar Cross as a training ride, but I had decided to sell my house and to my surprise it sold in 24 hours and I had little time to find a new house and needed Cedar Cross weekend to look for a house, so I had to skip CC.  Now I had a total of 3 training rides on my gravel bike, with the longest ride being the TOH at 67 miles.  But hey, being prepared is overrated.  I mean who needs to train after having tailbone surgery and heart surgery in the last 4 months. 

As DK neared my reluctance grew, I had no training in, I didn’t even start doing anything until March and here it was the 1^st of June and I was going to ride 110 miles of gravel in the Flint Hills of Kansas.  What was I thinking, how could I be this stupid. So 4 days before the race, I got the ok from my heart doctor to go back to normal workouts, I wonder if I should have mentioned that I planned on a 110 mile gravel race on the next Saturday.  Maybe it’s better I didn’t mention it. 

My life had been crazy for the last couple months, my youngest daughter China was graduating from high school, and I was planning a big BBQ, plus my house was sold, so I had a million house things to do, and to top it off my planned support crew, which was China, had to back out because of her best friends graduation party being on the same day.  Now, I had no support crew, was feeling overwhelmed with life and had no real training under my belt, again what was I thinking, I should have backed out, but I didn’t. 

When Chuck figured out a schedule so his boys could support both him, Lori and I, I thought it must be a sign that I should go to the race.  

Now with only two weeks to go befor the race, I decided that the tires on my bike would not do well in this race, so Chuck ordered me some Schwalbe Marathons, Schwalbe is ROCK Racing’s tire of choice.  They came just 3 days before the race and I tried to put them on, which was a mistake, I ended up taking them to my favorite bike shop, the Cyclery and had the guys there put them on, since I really sucked at it. 

Friday morning came, I loaded up the adventure van and took off for Kansas, all the way there my reluctance grew more and more.  The ride seemed too lonely, I called my daughter China 4 times, just to talk to her, she was getting really sick of me.  I drove through a few storms, thinking, well maybe it will storm and the race will be cancelled then I won’t have to ride it or back out.  I was kind of praying for that.  

I checked in at the hotel, then Chuck called and said they were at the theater checking in, so I drove over and met them. As I parked the adventure van, I saw Emma, who is always smiling, it just made me feel better to see a happy person, of course Kyle and Derrick were there also and some other adventure racing friends.  I got checked in and still wasn’t feeling like I wanted to do this. Oh and somehow my entry said I needed a large shirt instead of a medium so, I was feeling like, I won’t even be able to wear this shirt because it’s too big, but I guess since I didn’t think I would finish, it didn’t really matter. 

DK Check-In

Plus, I was calling home trying to line up stuff for the new house financing, and feeling like I should be home doing that and not be spending a weekend at a race.  

The pre-race meeting went well, and I bought a DK beer glass that said crew, I figured that might be the only way I was going to get a glass, I knew for certain there was no way I would be making the cut off times. I figured it would be legal since after I got tossed from the race, I would be crewing for Chuck. 

After the meeting we headed to the Pizza Ranch, one of the volunteers recommended it.  When we got there, we ran smack into Team Virtus and their crew, we said our Hi’s and started chowing down, the pizza was extremely good, but of course I ate way too much. 

Since we had to be out the door of the hotel by 5 am we headed off to bed, of course I could’nt sleep, I think I may have slept 3 hours that night. So to pass the time I went through everything in my race packet and found instructions on safety for the DK200.  It was not what I would have thought the safety tips would be.

All about Kansas Snakes

Soon, it was 5 am and we were off to the race, we found a good parking spot, moved my gear into Lori’s van, got our bikes ready and were set for the start. 

ROCK Racing

While talking with Team Virtus, I ended up in one of their group shots, I guess I kind of photo bombed them.

Photo Credit: Team Virtus

The 200 took off and Chuck was gone, Lori and I lined up with a Virtus friend, Jessica,  ready to roll out for the half pint race.  Lori checked her tires and realized that her back tire was low, but here we were with just 9 minutes to the start and we can’t figure out how to use the frame pump.  Emma, sprinted down to her car and brought back a floor pump and we put air in Lori’s tire.  Once again Emma saves the day!

Race start from the back of the pack

The Gun went off and Lori, Jessica and I rolled out only to see a train crossing the tracks ahead, but by the time we rolled up, it was gone and we just kept rolling out. I kept thinking that I may have to pull over and puke, but my stomach finally calmed down after a few miles.  The pace wasn’t bad and I was just rolling along listening to all the conversations around me.  We fell into a nice comfortable pace and the rolling hills were not too bad.  We came to a muddy section of road and had to do some bike trekking, but it really wasn’t that bad. 

Photo Credit: Chuck Vohsen

I had lost Lori somewhere just before the muddy road, so after I made it to the top of the next hill, I pulled out my camera and started taking some photos, while I waited for Lori.  Jessica was gone, I didn’t think we would see her again.  As I was goofing around with the camera, a few groups passed me, I thought I saw Lori, so I put my camera in my pocket and chased for a while to catch up, to my surprise, when I caught up, it wasn’t Lori.  Now I had no idea where she was, in front of me or in back of me, so I just kept riding. 

Many long hills ahead

I kept moving along, just taking in the beauty of Kansas, when I came across some free range cows, one was at the side of the road, and doing a little dance, like he just might bolt in front of me.  As I rode by him, he just kind of gave me the evil eye, like get out of my yard. 

He was not happy to see us

After passing the cow there was a steep incline, as I was riding up, I could see everyone walking their bikes, so I figured I would have to walk too, but surprisingly it wasn’t too bad and I rode to the top, just as I crested the hill, I saw Team Virtus take off, I thought about trying to get on back, but then I knew we were close to the 110/200 split, so there was no real reason to chase. I watched them about 100 yards in front of me until we came to the split and they went one direction while I went another.

At the bottom of a steep gravel hill, there was a crash, a girl with a bloody face was on the ground and a guy was holding her head up telling her to just stay still. There was a guy in a truck there to pick her up, so I rolled on.  Soon I came to the 200 split off from the 110 and I kept riding, right through a couple of creeks, and I made it through them without taking a swim. Some guys riding in front of me got off and walked through, I’m not sure why, it was easy ride through, the water was only about a foot deep. 

I rode a few more miles and caught up with Jessica, we talked for a while, then I stopped to get some food out.  I really had to pee, but there is no place to  hide in the middle of Kansas, so Jessica said there was no one in the distance, so we just moved to the side of the road, dropped our shorts and pee’d.   I felt so much better then, but I could already feel some chaffing in places that no girl should ever be chaffed, I would have to deal with that for the rest of the race. 

Photo Credit: Chuck Vohsen

The wind just kept howling and there was nowhere to hide from it, no trees to break it, no valleys that blocked it, so what’s a girl to do, my thought was just keep moving forward, maybe it would die down soon.  Finally I got a break the route turned and I got a tailwind and some pavement with a downhill to boot.  As I hit the pavement a rock blasted me in the face and hit my xx2i sunglasses, it hit so hard I’m surprised my glasses didn’t break, but they did a great job protecting my eyes, had those glasses not done such a good job, my race would have been over right there. After shaking off the thought of losing my eye, I just coasted for 3 miles into the checkpoint.

As I rounded the corner, I could see my crew, Sam and Jacob, they were cheering me on.  I asked if Lori had come in and they said no, so I headed to the tent to check in, got my new map and headed to the van to refuel. 

The boys were a great crew, they filled my bottles and pack, got my food out, washed the salt off my glasses, and got my bike ready to go again.  They gave me a report on how everyone was doing and who had already gone out.  I made a mad dash for the Johnny, then took a look at the map and headed out. 

 

Leaving CP 1

I was really worried about getting lost because I’m a terrible navigator.  I hoped someone would be on the road in front of me to follow, but no such luck.  I was looking at the map and knew there was a turn at 63 miles, but I totally missed it. This is where things went wrong.  I kept riding seeing no one, finally I hit W road, and knew I had gone too far.  I rode back, stopped and asked a lady mowing her grass where I was, she said I missed the turn and pointed me in the right direction.  Of course I made another wrong turn and hit W road again, I knew it was wrong so once again I rode back, saw another lady mowing, she sent me through her driveway, to another road, where I made another wrong turn and hit W road again.  I turned around and by now I was really get frustrated, plus I had already added on an hour riding in circles.  Finally after an hour and twenty minutes I found V road and got back on course.  At this point I was so frustrated and worried about missing the cutoff time, that I really considered calling my crew for a ride.  I just kept thinking, by the time they got there, I would have probably had time to ride another 10 miles, so I should probably just keep riding. I thought finishing over the time limit would probably be better than not finishing at all.

I figured by now I was the last one on the course, but to my surprise, I started seeing people and passing people.  I was talking to them as I rode by and I asked one guy what his mileage was, that is when I realize that I had added an extra 9 miles to my route.  Just what I needed, I signed up for 100 miles that turned into 110 miles and would end up riding 119 miles if I finished. All this riding on 3 training rides, the longest one being only 67 miles.  I just wondered how I got myself in these situations.

For the next 4 hours I would ride past people and when I would stop to grab food out of my pack, they would ride back past me.  I was starting to get cramps in my legs, my back hurt and I felt like I was going to puke.  I made a new plan, to stop every hour, take an enduralyte and eat while standing still instead of doing it while riding. This way I could stretch my legs and back out.  I was able to get peach cups and cans of V-8 energy drink down and keep it down, so that’s was I kept eating, good thing I had put enough in my pack.  When I ran out of those, I started eating the KIND bars in my pack and was able to keep them down also. I really needed some salt and the dark chocolate sea salt flavor worked perfectly. 

Riding into the last town before Emporia there were 5 riders somewhat together.  With just 12 miles to go we started to break up, but one guy who I had talked to earlier in the day, came upon me.  He told me there was one last hill before the finish line.  He also had a big bubble in his tire and was just praying he made it to the finish line before it blew.  As we rode though the campus of Emporia State University, another guy caught us and the 3 of us rode to the finish together.  We knew we were going to miss the cutoff time, but by just a few minutes and we were all talking about all we wanted was that stupid finisher glass and we hoped that we would still get it, even if we were a little late. 

We rode under the finish banner and into the chute where people were high fiving us, and cheering, and one guy was handing out beers.  

Photo Credit: Lori Vohsen

It almost had the same feel as the Finish at the Ironman race, except it was hundreds of people, instead of thousands.  At the end of the chute, we were handed a glass and congratulated on our finish.  

Ahhhh, the coveted glass

I was all smiles then and the guys I was riding with were the same, we held our glasses up to each other because we had finished an epic gravel race just to get that 2 dollar glass, and it was all worth it.

Lori and the boys were waiting for me at the end of the chute and they grabbed, my bike and all my gear.  We headed to the van, loaded stuff up, I got changed, then we went and got a burger before heading to the CP 3 for Chuck.  At the CP we talked to other crews and watched friends come in and go out, next thing we knew, Chuck was in and looking relatively good and in good spirits.  He sat down and ate some salty chips while the crew went to work getting him ready to go out again.  We told him that we had found out a lot of our friends had abandoned the race just past the 100 miles mark, so he was really doing great.  I told Chuck where I missed the turn at, and warned him to make sure he didn’t miss it to.  Not like he would, he is the world’s best navigator, but he was tired so I thought it was good to mention.  A group of 6 guys went out and Chuck jumped on his bike in hopes of getting on the back of that train for a while. We all yelled our goodbyes and good lucks, then we headed back to the finish.  Since we had some time we decided to go back to the hotel and take showers then go watch Chuck finish. We got to the finish line at about 1:30 am.  We cheered for every rider, hoping that every head light we saw in the distance was Chuck. 

The race organizers started taking down banners and people started leaving, it made me sad to know that Chuck would finish to no fanfare.  I mean we would be cheering as loud as we could, but it would be like finishing in a deserted city.  At about 3 am, we saw three headlights in the distance and one of them belonged to Chuck.

Chuck crossed the finish line

He rode in under the finish banner as we cheered, as soon as he got his glass the finish banner was coming down.  We quickly headed Chuck over to it and the guys taking it down pulled it back up so we could get a picture of Chuck under the banner. 

One last finish picture

The race was over, Chuck had the coveted DK200 pint glass in hand, the crew was beat and we all headed back to the hotel.  

QUESTION: Will I ever do this again, well at the end of the race, I said “never, ever, ever, ever”, but now, I’m thinking I might do the half pint again, hopefully without getting lost. I mean looking at my time with the extra mileage added on, well I would have had a pretty decent time, had I stayed on course. 

The best part of the entire race, I mean besides the glass, was that I finished on hardly any training, with a good ride time average and I really never felt like I was going to die, I really never even felt like crying.  I was frustrated over getting lost, but I was never on the verge of tears.  I hope this means that I’m making a comeback, that my heart issues are over and my tailbone is fixed and in time I will be fast again. 

This was a happy finish

Tour of Hermann Gravel Race 2013

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

Gravel racing seems to be a quickly growing bike racing event.  Just a couple years ago, I had never heard of gravel racing, now these races are popping up all over the place.  Being an adventure racer, this type of racing caught my eye, because in adventure races, we do a lot of gravel riding.

 

Chuck and I had been watching this sport grow from the sidelines, but last summer Chuck started building a gravel bike, you might have seen his gravel bike build posts.  Well, as soon as he finished his bike, I of course did not want to be left out, so I started shopping for a gravel bike. Chuck built a true adventure bike, so it’s a bit heavy, and like a tank, it can go anywhere.  Me on the other hand, I was thinking about trying some cyclocross this year, so I went with a gravel/cyclocross bike.  It’s much lighter than Chuck’s, and since I’m not as strong as him, it helps me keep up.

Chuck and I showed up about an hour before race time, did all our pre-race rituals, checked-in and picked up our schwag.  We both got a bottle of wine, Chuck picked red and I chose the sparkling grape juice.  I don’t drink much wine.  We also got a jar to fill with gravel, which was kind of cool.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

We rode over the bridge and out of town, and then turned on to the Katy Trail.  For a few short miles we were on the flat trail, and everyone just took off, I on the other hand hung back, I was almost last at that point, but I knew it was going to be a long day and I just didn’t have it in me to ride fast that early.  I have to warm up for a long time, I’m more of the endurance rider and less of the sprinter.  Chuck was pretty far in front of me, but when I made it to the turn on a paved road section he was waiting for me.  I told him not to let me ruin his race, so drop me and go on, but he said this was just training for him, not to worry.  I do worry though, I don’t want anyone holding back just so I can stay on.  He stuck with me though, the good thing was as the day went on I got stronger, so I didn’t slow him down as much as I thought I would. 

 

We soon hit all the gravel roads, the rock on the first lap, was mostly small and only deep in spots, most of the time we could pick a line that wasn’t too bad.  The hills on the other hand, SUCKED, they were so steep and so long, but every hill we rode up we would see someone walking, I would think to myself, “you will not walk this hill, even if this bike falls over, you will not walk this hill”, and I didn’t.  Chuck of course made it up all the hills too, there were even a couple hills I beat Chuck up, not many, but a couple.  The down hills were probably more treacherous than the uphills.  They were so steep and the gravel made it really sketchy coming down.  My max speed on the downhills was 40 mph and Chucks was over 41 mph.  On one hills we both hit some deep gravel and started fish tailing.  I think my life was passing before my eyes at that time, but somehow, both of us kept our wheels on the road.  I was so scared that I was shaking at the bottom of the hill, but not to worry, there was another uphill right in front of us, so I was quickly in oxygen debt again and didn’t have time to start crying. 

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

I wish I could explain how big these hills were, the pictures just don’t do them justice.  I was thinking, that riding hills is much easier in the dark because you can’t see how big the hill are, you just keep grinding away until you come to the top.  Chuck and I discussed how we had ridden to the top of the LaSalle Mountains in Utah during the CPT National Adventure race championships, it took us over 6 hours and it was uphill the entire time, but we did most of it in the dark and I think that is what helped us make it to the top. 

We finished the first lap, and refueled at the Adventure Jeep, we probably wasted a little time, we were taking off layers, eating, filling water bottle and packing our pockets with food.  We headed back out for loop two which had longer steeper hills and deeper bigger gravel than lap one.  

Lap 2

I felt pretty good though and I think Chuck was in good shape too.  We were somewhat worried because we thought the cutoff to start lap 3 was at 3:30, but at the start of the race, the race director said it was 2:30, I was thinking he probably just said that in error, but we knew we wouldn’t make it back by 2:30. 

Right from the start of the lap, it was uphill and it seemed to last forever, but it was a paved section of road so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about spinning tires.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

After the first hill the roads turned to gravel and it was a chunkier, thicker gravel than what was on lap one.  It reminded me of the gravel that you see in a river bottom.

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

The gravel went on and on, the downhills were getting tougher and tougher, plus I was so tired from the uphills, I just didn’t have the strength needed to really control my bike, so I just started loosening my grip and hoped the bike would take me where I wanted to go.  We stopped at the top of a hill where we rode through a small town, and grabbed some food from our pockets, and took off more clothes.  The day was getting warmer, but the wind was making it cool on the downhills. It was really a hard day to dress for. We looked at our watches and the mileage, and knew that we would not make it back by 2:30, but maybe we could be there by 3:30.  We hoped that 3:30 was the cutoff for the third lap. 

Photo Credit - Dan Singer

Once we were back on the road we started passing people, some were just slowing down, others were having mechanical problems. No one needed help, so we just kept riding. As we rode into Hermann, I knew it was going to be really close to the cutoff, but didn’t know just how close.  We made the turn to ride the last hill into the chute and as we were just about to the top we heard the announcer say, “we have just reached the cutoff time”.  We finished in 6:30:30, just 30 seconds too late to start the third lap. 

 

On one hand I was upset because I wanted to do the full 3 laps, on the other hand I was secretly glad because I was so tired that the last lap would have been brutal.  The good thing was, when we rode back to the jeep there were racers everywhere who did not go out on the third lap, so we didn’t feel like real losers at all.  We stopped and talked to our friend Wendy, who is in great shape and she made the decision not to do the third lap, so now we felt a lot better.  Chuck made a good point too, we could still walk after the ride and we had a really fun time with good memories, so maybe not riding the third lap was a way of keeping the memories good because I know I would not have finished that last lap with any good memories.

Photo Credit - Wendy Davis

So our first gravel race went really well, we both want to do more.  I do need to have my brakes looked at and Chuck needs to learn that it’s ok to drop me, but all in all, it was a beautiful day, spent riding bikes with good friends, you really can’t ask for more than that.  

Oh, and one last thing, I love my new Cannondale SuperX, I will have a bike review coming soon. 

Thanks to the race sponsors for having this race, and having such great support out on the course, I think I saw the race truck about 50 times, it was always around when someone needed help.  Like the guy on the ground that looked like he broke his collarbone. See neither Chuck nor I broke anything and we didn’t have any mechanical problems, well Chuck dropped his chain once, but I don’t think that counts.