An EPIC Almanzo!!!

(a water bottle to be saved for next year!)

This post is not about our much lesser, Sogn Valley Gravel training rides, but about The Big Show - Almanzo. Dan, Paul and I headed down Friday night, stopped in Rochester to pick up our race packet and got into Spring Valley at 9:05. Five minutes after A&W closed, bummer no pre-race root beer float. Let me say something about the race packet, I'm pretty confident you will not receive anything like it in any other race, even the one's you pay for. Simply amazed at what Chris puts into this event and how personal he makes it.

So, the weather forecast looks iffy for the ride, temp around 50 with 30-50% showers. Let's just say the weather forecasters and I woke up SA realizing our errors, it was raining and I had left the rear fender at home. Dan headed out shortly before 7AM for the start of the Royal 162, yes 162 miles on gravel. The mind and body cannot fathom the level of pain it would take to do that. Paul and I started at 9AM with the 100 group, sizable but it looked like a good number decided not to show up. The 100 started and rolled slowly out of town and hit the first piece of gravel. Clearly, fenders would have been nice. Gravel was soaked and soft, and gravel spray was bad! Paul and I worked our way to some open gravel and started to set our tempo for the long haul. We rolled into the Forestville State Park checkpoint at ~63miles in good shape. Downed a coke and salted nut roll. Later find out Paul took a couple of Ibuprofen, huh is that legal? :) We left the checkpoint cold but the hills out of park are probably the toughest of the course to that point. With a little tailwind, we climbed out of the Forestville valley to find ourselves high on the farm fields and facing stiff north winds as we worked our way west and then back north. At mile 80, there was a stream crossing that was not rideable, so some early season cross shouldering was in order. Through the stream and a climb back up to the open farm fields and more north wind in the face. The two biggest challenges in my mind were the hills and wind. The rain was an inconvenience, and having a rear fender would have kept the rear a little drier.



The last ~10mile had some major hills starting with Oriole Rd. Fifty feet riding up that on the SS was all I could muster, it was time to walk. Paul and I hoofed it up, got back on and the legs were like, "hey, do we really need to ride again?". "Hell yeah" I responded and off we went. Another couple of hard climbs and we were up on the plains heading back to Spring Valley with a nice tailwind pushing us there.

As we rolled into the parking lot, we were met with cheers from Chris and his crew, wow. What was interesting about the last forty miles, is that I think we say one or two other riders and that was it. As we got closer to Spring Valley, the number of wheel tracks seemed to be few. While it would be cool to finish in the top 100, I was doubtful that there were that many ahead of us. Not that it mattered, finishing was the only goal anyways. So, we roll in to find out we were somewhere in the low 30s.

We rode back to the hotel and tried to quickly change in the parking lot, but pulling off wet clothes in the rain and wind was an event in itself. Paul and I could only start laughing. We were doing okay. Dry, warm clothes on, we hung out for a while before heading over to a much earned double burger at A&W. Good times!!

So, back we went to the hotel lobby which was becoming the base station for Dan's Royal 162 feat. The cell phones were on, signal strength checked, no messages from Dan. I asked Dan if he wanted a key to the car in case he bailed and we were still out on the 100. I don't know why I even asked that question, as his response was like "are you kidding me?". We calculated how long it would take Dan, 44x18 gearing with an estimated MPH, with number of stops, etc. Paul was close with 7:30 but Dan rolled in sometime after 8. That's ~13hours on the bike. Simply unbelievable. Again, I canno fathom this. Dan walked in and the look on his said everything but the fact that he just finished 162 miles, only four weeks after getting broadsided by a Lexus and busting the windshield and walking away battered. A mental fortitude that I could only dream of.

Another visit to A&W before heading out of Spring Valley. See ya next year!!

(discharge from washing machine)