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.