At some point this summer I’ve managed to fall behind in my updates. A friend of mine told me about a two day gravel stage race in Tennessee this coming April, so since we were making a trip to TN this summer I figured I’d take a bike and give it a spin in the mountains. I was able to get three nice rides in while there including one from our cabin all the way to Cade’s cove. After a lap around Cade’s cove I took the gravel pass out the back of the park and over to Tail of the Dragon. It was an amazing ride.
BT Epic is always a highlight of my year and this year was no exception. Trisha and I headed out on Thursday night in order to spend the night in St. Louis. After breakfast on Friday we made our normal stop at REI to pick up an order and maybe a few other things. After a grocery stop our path turned toward Steelville.
Our campsite was very near several other central Illinois friends. We had camp all set well before the sun began to fall from the sky. This year we had three different friends who were here to take on BTE for the first time. We used our remaining daylight to run to the top of the hill and do a quick lap on the last 8 miles of the course to help get them an idea of what awaited them in the morning.
Saturday dawned and the business of race morning began with a traditional pancake breakfast followed by a big bowl of Cinamon Toast Crunch. In an attempt to reach the elusive 4:30 time I opted to start with the pro wave this year. Wow, what a difference! Our initial roll out was so much more sanely paced as we climbed the gravel hill up to the single track. Drew and I were both able to climb the first single track climb without being bogged down by traffic. For that matter, we spent the first hour or more mostly alone on the trail. As we rode into the aid station at the Berryman campground we were just beginning to see the leaders of the first wave of the non-pros. Our stop was very short and rehearsed. We were out of there within 15 seconds. As we jumped onto the gravel section before the 3 sisters Drew began to pull away. I wanted to go, but my legs just didn’t respond. Once I began the climb of the first sister my legs responded…..with cramps. They weren’t bad enough that I was forced to dismount, but I certainly had to slow way down. After completing the sisters and rolling back into Bass River I was no longer cramping, but I wasn’t feeling great. Drew was only 3 minutes ahead of me. The road climb and the last 8 miles of singletrack were uneventful, but I was unable to make up any ground. While I was not able to even come close to my dream of 4:30 I still finished under the 5 hour mark.
Since I finished early enough I was able to watch and cheer on many of our friends as they crossed the finish line. Three friends were making their first attempt at the race. All of them finished! Most of them even decided they would return next year to attempt to better their times.
Some damage to a buddies wheel suffered during the race. I has just built the wheel a couple weeks earlier.
Since a 55 mile race isn’t quite enough Steve and I spent the following Saturday completing the Mug Of Dirt challenge by doing another 74 miles of singletrack in one day as we completed all 8 of our local trail sytems in a single day. What did we get for this great feat? A mug…..and it wasn’t even full of dirt.
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