IVCA Dirty Mudd'r Race Recap

The Dirty Mudd'r was one of the best gravel rides I've been a part of so far.

The IVCA people rock. The course was challenging, signed well and their cue sheet was spot on too. They had homemade cookies at the rest stops, homemade pulled pork sandwiches at the finish as well as baked potatoes and homebrew beer. Everyone who drank the beer said it was stellar. There was a guy there, Kevin, who looked like Uncle Sy from the Duck Dynasty show. He said a conservative estimate of the beer's alcohol content was 7.5%. They really put on a fantastic event.

I had a rough morning coming into the event. I overslept, got ready & loaded the car, then FORGOT MY BIKE and had to turn around and get it before picking up Ross to head down. We gassed up the car and headed out. As we chit chatted we missed our exit & drove 10 miles farther then planned. We doubled back & still got to the park 30 minutes before the race. I was able to spend time with Yeti & TS1, say hi to all the fast guys, & grab my packet.

Rob and Byron had directional challenges as well & rolled up just the race started. We all rolled out and the pace began ramping up. We quickly lost everyone fast & our pack consisted of Byron, Jeff, Ross & myself. We kept together for the most part until the split. Byron and I kept on going & hooked up with some dudes from Bloomington. The conversation was good and the pace was good too.

My main problem with this ride was that I overdid it. I was worried about getting a low avg speed so I kept hitting it hard throughout the ride. I was rocking 16+mph speeds a lot. I was pretty spent by the last few miles and it took all I had to roll back in. I'm glad that I did as well as I did. I'd do better if I could learn to no yo-yo as much.

Here's the ride report I posted after the 2012 NCC Gravel Grovel:

So, here's the deal. I almost died. OK, maybe that's not quite true, but it sure felt like it was going that way for a minute there. I got to P&S & picked up Ashton and the other two guys who came up with us, Eric & Paul. We arrived at NCC around 8:30, signed in and got ready to ride. I was feeling fine at that point & had no concerns about how hot it was. It was cool to see Steve and Brent, Jon, and Rick (the other guys that knew would be there). We all lined up & got ready to roll. I thought I was OK as we did the 5ish mile roll out to the start of the gravel, but in hindsight I realize I was already pushing it a bit considering the heat. I was riding with Ashton & Jon, but started to slow down. Ashton rode fixed gear (he runs dingle) and stopped to drop to the lower gear. I stuck with him and we were soon passed by all the folks we knew. At that point we settled in and pedaled while thinking we'd be OK even though the heat was insane. We stopped to rest & eat three times before the first checkpoint. When we got there, we heard that several people had already dropped out. We were offered water, but didn't take any because we thought we were good. We almost rode in the wrong direction but were flagged by the checkpoint people and we got back on track. Sadly, we made another short error in reading the cue sheet & went a short way off the route. We doubled back & saw another guy doing the same thing. We hollered at him & he turned around and joined us. Turns out he was on a road bike with 23s & had already flatted four times. 23s on gravel roads = pinch flat city. After a little more riding we stopped in the shade of a tree in a farmer's yard. Ashton realized than he had finished his entire 70oz pack of water & I had finished a third to half of my three liters. I was already starting to get the shakes so I ate some more and Ashton gave me some electrolyte powder to mix in a water bottle I drank down some of that & we were starting to plan our return to the shop. Right at that moment the Half Acre crew from the checkpoint drove up and asked if we were OK. I was dazed & said we were cool, but Ashton told them we needed water. The girls were happy to oblige. They saved us. They also told us that it was very likely that the folks at the third checkpoint might be gone by the time we got that far into the ride. They made sure we had our cuesheet & were off. Ashton and I rode further and finally decided to turn back. We got directions back to shop on our phones & headed back. At one point I was so hot that we found more shade, I got off the bike, took off my gloves, helmet, & shoes so I could rest. At this point I was dreaming of a gas station & a bottle of Gatorade. We turned back toward the shop around the 25 mile mark & had a 13 mile ride back. We limped home & stopped at a BP station where I drank some Gatorade & ate some cookies. While sitting there Ashton texted with Paul & I shot texts to everyone else letting them know were alive, but had quit since I blew up. After getting back to the shop, we hosed off and changed clothes. It took a while, but I started recovering. We chilled there and I ate a McDonald's ice cream cone as we waited for everyone else to roll in. Jon was the first to get back, then Eric & Paul later on. Rick rolled in just as we were heading to the bar for grub, free beer, & swag. Steve & Brent came over to the bar & met with us. My head still ached, but I was getting in food and trying to recover. The day was done. I drove back to Pedal & Spoke & dropped the guys off, then went home and chilled with the family. I slept well, but had to wake up early so Eli and I could walk in the Memorial Day parade with our Cub Scout pack. I actually forced him to wear his Camelbak & I also wore my hydration pack too. I wasn't about to let us both get dehydrated on that walk. What a weekend.

Gravel (Cont.)

OK. The Gravel Grovel is in the books. I cut the course short & got in 40ish miles. DNF.


The Barry Roubaix is done. I finished & didn't end it dead last.


Now the for the NCC Gravel Metric. This ought to be good, even though I haven't ridden a bike in ages.

Chicago Area Trail Conditions Mobile Site

Andrew Demey has created a cool mobile formated site that scrapes the CAMBr trail conditions off the front page & makes the info easily available on a mobile phone. Bookmark this, put it on your first homescreen & check it often. Also, send some love to Andrew for making such a cool tool.

http://cambrstatus.andrewdemey.com/

Gravel.

I'm hoping to participate in some longer gravel rides in the next year. You guys know that my plans always fall through, but let's hope I can make at least one or two of these.

First off, we've got the Gravel Grovel on Thanksgiving weekend

The Sub-9 Death March on 03/09/12

Barry Roubaix on March 24th, 2012

Don't forget about the Gravel Metric in Dekalb, that'll happen around Memorial day

OK, I know that Chad is salivating. Let's do this!

Take a Kid Mountain Biking day 2011

Today was the 8th annual Take a Kid Mountain Biking day. IMBA proposed it a few years back & folks have taken advantage of the opportunity to introduce their kids to the sport. Eli had been riding singletrack at Knoch Knolls a couple of times and I thought it was time to bring him out to Palos for the first time.

Everything went great. We had about 13 kids show up with their parents, uncles, or aunts. The kids rode Roadkill & Cemetary Hill. We came back to the Maple Lake lot and had a picnic lunch. Many thanks to everyone who brought out great food to share. Also, I want to thank all the folks who came out and made it a fun time. I could tell that all the kids had a blast. What's important to me is that several of the kids are anxious to get back on singletrack. That's awesome. Thanks to Nancy Fallon for taking pictures of the event & sharing them so quickly.

Let's just skip to Summer shall we?

This crappy wet weather even make the multicrap, ummm... crappy. Dirt. I need to ride on it.