The remainder of the first 48 miles of the race prior to checkpoint 1 went really well. I was able to stick with the lead group, and I felt quite great doing it. I was being really diligent about my nutrition, and trying to avoid doing as much work as possible. This wasn't hard since there were a few guys who had the urge to stay on the front and even pull away from time to time. Nobody in the group seemed to mind since we knew a 150+ mile time trial wasn't going to be realistic. I pulled when I needed to to avoid being a total bum, and things were going smoothly in general. It was also really cool to be riding in a group with pros like Ted King and Tim Johnson. It turns out they are just normal dudes who are just as easy to talk to as anyone else.
I pulled into checkpoint 1 in second place overall since I was one of the first in the group to not blow by the turn heading into the checkpoint. Everyone else lined up behind me, so I pulled into the stop in second place (the aforementioned TT guy had pulled in a few seconds earlier after putting in a big effort to get there first for some reason). I essentially hosed my chain down with spray lube just to make sure I had enough, swapped out my bottles and food, ate a banana and an 8oz Coke as quickly as possible, and off I went. The group had spread out a little bit from people taking differing amounts of time with the stop, but we were together for the most part quite quickly.
Not long into the second leg of the race we encountered some pretty sticky mud. This was odd since my weather stalking during the previous week told me this part of the course didn't get much, if any, rain for several days. I did my best to avoid the thick stuff, but my bike got bogged down quite badly! I was forced to stop multiple times just to clear mud and allow my tires to keep turning, and I dropped my chain between my spokes and largest sprocket multiple times, as well. Somehow other riders in the group managed to get through it quickly and disappeared. I finally got through it and was able to ride without repeated stops, and my drivetrain was making some pretty awful sounds. I assumed it was just my chain needing lube, so I hit every puddle I could find in order to give it temporary respite. I slowly picked off some guys while cringing at the sound of my drivetrain. It seemed to get worse when I would put the chain into larger cogs. I pressed on, and things were going OK for the most part aside from me worrying. I also wasted some precious water periodically when the sound got really bad since getting it wet was seemingly helping. On the infamous Texaco Hill, my chain again fell off between the largest cog and my spokes. Texaco Hill isn't a massive climb, but it also is nothing to write off as easy. Restarting in the middle of it was less than ideal, but I managed.
Soon after I caught up with last year's champion, Yuri Hauswald, and another guy that I'm not familiar with. Yuri had flatted at some point after checkpoint 1, so he was also dropped from the lead group. While just riding my pace I pulled away from them, but not long after that Yuri came back alone while I was catching another rider. The three of us rode together briefly before catching up to Tim Johnson. Our party stuck together for a while before it was just Tim, Yuri, and myself. We rode together for a while until Yuri once again flatted (he would later DNF at mile 115 due to additional mechanical issues), which left me riding alone with Tim Johnson. I've always thought he was pretty cool simply for the reason that he is a Cannondale sponsored rider, so this was a fun time for me. We chatted about random different stuff about our lives and stuck together for a good hour or more. He was having some serious cramping issues and his Garmin had died, so I stayed with him since I was having fun with it and frankly to help him avoid getting lost. I'm not trying to say I'm awesome and faster than he is because that is not at all true. Cramps can really crush your ability to pedal, so he was dealing with that. We pulled into checkpoint 2 together still talking, and someone yelled "this isn't a fun ride - it's a race!" at us. Once again, I was less than concerned since I was having a good time talking with him. Tim eventually pulled out at roughly mile 143 due to his severe cramps. Note him barely in the photo on the far right side of the photo below.
It was at checkpoint 2 that I realized I wasn't feeling the best. I wasn't carrying an excess of water beyond what I knew what I would need, and I suspect spraying my chain with at least 12oz was not the best choice from a hydration standpoint during the second leg. Joe Fox was there (he had snapped his derailleur and bent his chainrings at mile 4 in the mud, so he took on a support role) and he grabbed my bike to whip it back into shape after a rough 50+ miles. He told me my derailleur wasn't looking pretty, and I should probably avoid the large rings as much as possible to avoid stressing my bent cage. It had somehow gotten bent up quite badly while clogged with mud. In all honesty it looked as if I had crashed, but that never happened. So I'm guessing a rock within the mud may have gotten lodged between the jockey wheel and the cage and wreaked havoc since the lower jockey wheel was also pretty wobbly. I repeated my checkpoint activities from above, and off I went again. It didn't take long for me to start feeling worse and worse. This isn't abnormal for an ultra endurance event in my experience, but it was getting bad quickly. That coupled with the fact that my bike was starting to make worse and worse noises really started to take my head out of the game.
My confidence that my bike was even going to make it to the end was quickly eroding, and so was my ability to produce power. I stopped and texted my wife that she might have to come get me in the very near future. She did the right thing and tried to talk me into pressing on, so I did for another hour or so while not exactly crushing it. The creaking/grinding sounds finally got bad enough from my chain/rear derailleur that I decided to pull the plug. Mind you this is a really difficult decision to make. Months of focus and preparation and hundreds of hours on the bike to prepare for this day were going to be wasted to some extent. However, my jockey wheel was getting really wobbly, and I was quite confident it wasn't going to go another 80+ miles. I hated to pull out, and converting it to a SS wasn't something I was ready to mess with. Thus, I pulled out at mile 124 with much disappointment. Once again, I feel like there was some unrealized potential here since I think I could have done quite well overall. This could serve as good fuel for next year's event!
After my wife picked me up we had to drive the course for a few miles to get back to the main road, and we encountered several suffering riders. Most were actually on their bikes, but one was sitting in the shade of a tree on the side of the road and looking pretty poor. We stopped and asked how he was doing. He asked if we had water, and I told him all we had was Gatorade since I had consumed all my water (or sprayed it on my chain). He said he already had that, but just couldn't stomach drinking more of it or eating food. These are classic signs that you are at or approaching the point of no return in this type of event. He also looked really terrible, so we asked if he needed a ride since we were driving to the next checkpoint. It didn't take him long to decide that would be a good idea! In the car he was clearly still feeling very bad, and he commented that his hearing wasn't so good at the moment. Michelle quipped that loss of hearing is a sign of heat stroke, so I kept an eye on him! We got to the checkpoint, he thanked us for the ride, and then went to find his people. I saw him later looking much better, so we were happy to see that.
The rest of the day was a glimpse into the life of a support crew, which actually makes me appreciate what they do even more than I already did. There isn't always much going on aside from the few minutes that their rider rolls through, so it can be a mundane time. We all talked and had a nice time, though, and now I know what they go through while people like me are out on our bikes. There were also other riders from my team there in the same position I was in after their bikes had failed them for various reasons (another broken derailleur, snapped carbon handlebars, etc). All in all it was a rough day, and less than half the field even finished. Ted King pulled away from the front and won the overall race in 11:50, which surprised me. I thought the winner would be under 11 hours for sure, and my goal was to be under 12. But the stiff headwind that comprised most of the last 100 miles badly hampered progress, so times were longer than I had imagined.
It was once again a great event that I'll almost certainly do again. I was asked multiple times if I had wished I did SS again, and the answer is mixed. Of course I would have liked the chance to defend my title and avoid any potential derailleur issues, but I really wanted to push myself and see what I could do in the main field. I think a top 10 wouldn't have been out of the question, and it gives me some good food for thought for future renditions. I'm not sure what the rest of the year has in the cards for me, but I'll do some thinking on that soon. Gravel Worlds is lurking in August (on my birthday this year), so I'll be strongly considering that before cross starts. In the meantime, we will be moving to Iowa at the end of the month for Michelle's 1 year fellowship, and beyond that we don't yet know. More to come in the future, and I'll wrap up with my DK trading card pictured below.
