We started bright and early at 6:00 AM, which meant I was up super early in order to eat and ride the few miles to the start. It was a much more festive start than the previous two years, and it is pretty obvious this event is turning in to a pretty big deal! There were some pretty heavy hitters toeing the line with gears, including Brian Jensen (2014 DK overall winner), Yuri Hauswald (2015 DK winner), Dan Hughes (winner of several DKs), and Rebecca Rusch (aka the Queen of Pain). There were also a couple of SS guys I had my eye on, including the infamous Peat Henry and Rafal Doloto. I suspected there would probably be other fast SS guys, but I didn't know who they were.
The race started with a blistering pace through the dark Nebraska morning. There was quickly a gap between the front group and the rest of the field, and I was forcing myself to crush it to stick with it. This required a crazy fast cadence at times on my SS, but I made it happen. Very early on I noticed Peat and I were the only SS guys up there. Unfortunately, he flatted only a handful of miles in and I never saw him again. Rumor has it that was the first of at least two flats, so I felt pretty bad for him. Nonetheless, knowing I was the only SS guy in the front group from then on was not something to celebrate about. Frankly, I didn't have time to think about it too much since I was forced to crush it repeatedly to stick with the geared guys racing down hills.
About 30 miles in Brian Jenson put in a monster attack, and only Neil Shirley went with him. These two would never be seen again the entire day, with Neil winning and Brian coming in second. About 10 miles later the lead group (less the two attackers off the front) crushed it down a big hill and there was nothing I could do as I spun out and watched them drift away. We were just over 2 hours in to the race and had already completed 40 miles, so that is a testament to the fast pace. For the next 10 miles I rode solo into a south headwind that was easily 20-30 mph until I hit a checkpoint at around mile 50. I refilled my bottles and got out of there as quickly as I could since I had no idea how close the next SS guy would be.
I met up with Brian Bradley at the checkpoint and we rode together for a while. I rode with him at the Hermann Gravel Challenge and the Farmhouse Classic this year, so it was fun to meet up again. At about mile 60 we came upon Yuri, who was not having his best day with the wind and heat that he isn't used to. The three of us rode together while working for each other as much as possible, but it seemed like we were all starting to show hints of suffering. Brian dropped off at mile 70 or 80, and Yuri and I rode and talked until about mile 100. I knew he was the winner of DK this year, but that was about it. It turns out he is a super cool guy and it was fun riding with him.
It was at mile 100 that we came upon another geared rider in a small Nebraska town, and the two of them used their gears and pulled away from me on a paved section. I was 100 miles into the race and I was starting to feel the effects of that first two hours. The strong headwind in the previous 60 miles didn't do me any favors, either. The next 35-40 miles were primarily assisted by a tailwind, but I was cooked and never really felt like it was helping. But I knew I was in the lead and didn't want to give up my SS throne easily!
With about 10-15 miles to go the course turned back to the west, which made it evident that we were on the way back to the start/finish area. However, the strong sidewind mixed with non-stop rolling hills made it pretty brutal. A couple riders caught up to me in this section, including Rebecca Rusch, and it was pretty obvious that she was feeling the effects of the tough day. This made me feel a bit better, but it didn't help the pain. With 5 or so miles left we turned back south directly into the stiff headwind to get to the finish line. This was a brutal section, but I managed to crawl my way through it while checking behind me periodically to ensure I didn't see anyone coming. I'm not sure if I would have had the energy to respond if another SS would have been approaching, but my curiosity made me look.
Turning on to the paved road leading to the finish was such a relief. I thought it would never come! One quick peek behind me and I knew all was well and I was going to win barring something extremely weird. I came to the finish line and saw that my time was something around 9:09, which was good but a bit of a disappointment since I was targeting 9:00. Nonetheless, it beat my time from last year by over 30 minutes and the year before by well over an hour. I had defended my SS Gravel Worlds title, but I was in no shape to celebrate it. I sprawled out on some grass near Dan, Yuri, and Rebecca and took a few minutes to start feeling normal again. It came rather quickly, and Michelle was there to help me out! I was stoked to win the pink jersey and a really cool trophy.
Now that Gravel Worlds is complete my focus is now on cyclocross. It has been a tough transition mentally from riding out long rides to short, intense work, but I think it will be a nice change for a few months. Next year I'll definitely be starting at least the first half of the year with endurance events, so I'll likely be involved in the Hermann gravel event and DK for sure. Beyond that I'm not too sure since I don't even know where I will live. Michelle will be starting a fellowship in July, so it all depends on where that is. It could be anywhere from Denver to St. Louis to Iowa City, so there are a lot of question marks right now. I'm also leaning toward using gears for most events next year to see how I can compete. I did pretty well on a SS against geared people this year, so theoretically I should be able to be relatively strong. I suspect I will have to do what I can to defend my Gravel Worlds title on a SS, but everything else will probably be geared.
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