Day 7, slowly fading away....

2015 KTM Rally, Crested Butte CO, (group leader on this day was Mike Lafferty--you either know who he is or you don't.....)

Since I last posted I have wrapped up my 2015 racing efforts with a local mtb race (sandbagged a 1st place in the old man cat 3 class) and a 9hr/28 min Ring-the-Peak run.  I have also gained my usual layer of winter fat , have done miles and miles of this:

and am now ready for hibernation till 2016.


Anyway before I totally forget my 2105 TDR ....onwards....

 

 

Day 7, 4:30am to 12:00pm, 141 miles

 

Overall I didn’t get much sleep, on Trackleaders there is no 4 hour tent dot…..but I didn’t feel overly tired on the morning of my 7^th day.  Maybe it was because I knew I would soon get some good resupply in Lima MT.  Also I knew the route between Lima and Island Park was basically flat.  Shortly after I got rolling, right on top the small 8000 ft pass, the one with the historical old Bannack Road sign I rode past Eddie Clark’s red truck.  He was still sleeping in the back so no photo op for this morning…..

After some pleasant early morning ‘cruising’ with a soft peddle stroke to save the knees I reached Lima at 9:30am.  I did some maintenance on bike and body and had one of my few sit down meals at Jan’s Café.  I ordered a big breakfast and asked for double order of bacon.  When my food arrived I realized an order for double bacon was way too much. I decided to have the leftovers wrapped up to go in some tinfoil.  I got on my way around 11:00am, a very time consuming stop but I probably needed it.

Now while riding my bike thru bear territory I wouldn’t normally pack a bunch of freshly fried bacon but the upcoming route wouldn’t be an issue and boy was that the best snacking, best for the entire TDR!!  I had bacon grease all over my face and hands as I poked along towards Island Park.  Soon after Lima Andres caught up to me, we had been in Lima at the same time but didn’t quite cross paths.  He was on a mission and after a few words was soon out of sight.  As he disappeared into the distance I really began to realize what a mistake it was to be running a 1X11 with a 32 tooth chainring.  Not that I could have hung with Andres’s pace but up till now it hadn’t truly set in just how much of a disadvantage I had put myself in with my gearing choice.  On the hills and climbs I was fine but on the flats or downhill sections I could only go fast if it was smooth enough to stay firmly seated and spin, and even then this took a bit extra focused energy to spin hard and fast.  Most of the route this combination of smooth + high energy wasn’t going to happen but on day 7 it was truly beginning to be noticed.

Shortly after Andres vanished my knees started to bother me (psychological? probably…).  The Achillies was also hurting and slowly getting worse.  Time for more ice therapy soaking in ditches and streams.  I would ride till I couldn’t stand it and then start watching for a good soaking spot.  I was now in a pattern, wake up, soft pedal for about 8 hours and then for the rest of the day stop every 2 to 3 hours for a 10-20 min ice water soak.  This probably cost me 1-2 hours of forward progress per day, say 10 to 20 miles but in retrospect allowed me to keep going.

Later in the day, while soaking away in a road side stream crossing it occurred to me that I needed to reach Island Park ‘before’ the store closed if I want to have an effective resupply for day 8.  Having done the TDR before I was pretty much winging my daily navigation and mile count.  So it took a while to figure out how may miles I had left to reach the store, how much time I had left till closing and what level of pace I would need to maintain to reach said store before closing.  Humm, seems I need to time trial the next 30 miles at my best pace and ‘maybe’ I can reach the store by 9:00pm.  And of course I did not know exactly when the store closed - 8, 9, 10 or something in between?  All I knew was I really needed to make it if I wanted a seamless resupply. Can you say adrenalin rush? At this point, after 7 days of hard effort, even a little uptick in adrenalin felt like a double red bull.  Game on…..

The next few hours flew by and luckily I walked into the store at 8:50pm and learned the store closed at 9:00pm.  Wow was I pleased with myself.  With only a few minutes to select my resupply, plus a ‘right now’ meal, plus a meal for ‘end of day’ I felt sort of dazed and confused.  I grabbed a hand basket and just walked up and down each aisle (this store is a small grocery store as well as ‘convenience’ store and has a bit of everything) I was basically tossing in this and that.  Right at 9:00 I place my overflowing basket on the checkout, not really sure what I had in it but knew it was more than enough.  I could hardly wait till I paid and got outside, I wanted to rip into ten different goodies drink or cram the contents into my mouth……

two plastic bags full of goodies on the seat to the right--and you may notice I started with some Aleve pills and a bottle of chocolate milk

While stuffing my face outside the store I watched at least 15 would be customers were turned away at the just locked doors, boy was I smug.  Also while I sat there eating a local police car pulled up next me, hum wonder were this is going… Turns out the officer had noticed I didn’t seem to have much light, I was using a miniature head lamp, and he asked if I would be ok riding in the dark.   I explained I had lots of riding lights and would soon be moving on down the trail—it was a nice polite way for him to investigate the dirty biker with food items spread all over a table under some trees.  Just as I was finishing up my meal and trying to figure out where to stuff all the now extra food I saw two bike lights approaching. It was Rob Davidson and I think Aaron Gardner.  What a downer to be caught like that, I had taken two hours when I could have easily taken just 30-40 min and accomplished the same thing.  Once again I was losing time and positions and didn’t like it but felt powerless to stop it.  Anyway they went off in search of food and I headed on down the trail looking for a likely camp spot.

Day 6, Splatter Day

I know I am taking a long time to get my write up done but frankly it torments a bit me each time I sit down and write about it.  I don’t like to think I may never do another TDR ..........

 

Fleecer Ridge, 2015

Day 6, 3:30am to 8:30pm to 1:30pm, 130 miles

Day 6 was an unusual day. Sort of like dropping a blob of paint on the sidewalk.  The results might be interesting to look at, perhaps even pretty, from one’s de-coupled inner artistic point of view but regardless of point of view in the end you wind up with a sticky mess that needs to be cleaned up……..

I had a nice warm, secure sleeping location but woke up before the alarm and rather than roll over and go back to sleep got up and was riding by 3:15 am……  The section from my camp down to I 15 brought back memories of my failed 2014 attempt.  Actually they were good memories as this section back in 2014 was one of the few enjoyable times I had and also in 2010 was one of my top ‘magic’ moments.

Side notes: For me a magic moment on the TDR is when it all comes together.  A writer like Jill Homer could describe what a TDR magic moment is, I won’t even try except to say pick the best segment of time you personally have had on a really long hard ride, IE: maybe your best ever and that was a magic moment.  Anyway, for me, at least once a day, sometimes many times a day, my mental state + surroundings = magic.  And it’s these special moments that makes fighting thru all the difficult times worth it.  Not everyone calls them magic moments but every TDR racer experiences this magic at some point, to some degree.  And if you have raced the TDR or read deeply about it then you understand, for most, TDR magic is special and leaves deep engrained impressions.

Well the day got off to a good start, the knees and Achilles were stiff and bothersome but it would be several hours before they would become more than a side issue.  I enjoyed the rising sun as I climbed towards Fleecer Ridge. 

I look so, so whatever--hey it was just the sun in my eyes...

Now to many Fleecer is sort of a check off spot, lots has been written about this rather minor section so its sort of on every racers radar.  Today would be my 3^rd time up and down it. 

Fleecer, 2010

 

Once in fresh 1 ft deep snow with no rear brake, once right after sunset but still ridable with no lights and today, my day 6, it would be early in the morning.  Don’t ask me why but once I got into the last steep pitch to the top, even with gimpy knees, I wanted to see if I could do the climb without walking, ya I did it, but probably one of the dumber things I did that day—think paint splat…. And then I wanted to descend without a dab but missed it by 1, oh and the on-the-fly re-clip into my one sided pedal was rather exciting, more splatter…

After Fleecer my magic for the day was all used up. 

The pavement section from the base of Fleecer to High Country Lodge was slow going.  Resupply and a meal at Wise River followed by several knee soaks in the river combined with a lethargic pace had me rolling into the lodge around 3:30pm.  I splurged in time spent for a meal, shower and laundry pit stop.  The stop/service was great but I felt guilty for the time spent and the places lost. 

Clean kit and smile on the outside, but not really doing that well by this time....

Andres on his FS rocket

 

Shortly after I arrived Andres Bonelli rolled in with the same plan.  Later on he caught up to me and paced with me as we talked up a storm.  Andres was the first racer since Banff whom I rode with enough to exchange more than a word or two. That evening we stopped at dude ranch with the idea to rent a cabin and escape the abundant mosquitos.   No one seemed to be around but finally we found a Spanish speaking ranch hand who told Andres we could sleep in the ‘main’ house as the owners were not home.  After we got set up on the floor of said main house I couldn’t sleep.   It was too early and I was uncomfortable crashing out in someone’s home on just the ok of their ranch hand.  Anyway after a while I quietly packed up and rode up the road till the sleep monster poked up his head.  I found a wide spot on the side of the road and broke out the bivy.  Drifted off into a sound sleep laughing at myself for being more comfortable on the side of a dirt road vs the warm floor of an empty ranch house…So overall day 6 was an unusual mix of smooth and rough going, some fast yet slow, three long stops, some good stuff, some bad thoughts, a little focus and a lot of confusion ie: sort of a big weird splatter of a day...........

Bonus Section:

Andres was one of the few racers on a full suspension race bike.  As we went along we discussed bikes and also TDR racers and strategies.  Andres reminded me there are 4 types of endurance racers, types A, B, C and D. 

Type A is fast and can ride for extended hours on little sleep/recovery. 

Type B is fast but uses lots of recovery time. 
Type C is not so fast but like type A can go on and on with less recovery. 
Type D is pretty slow and yet still uses a lot of recovery time. 

Andres felt he was mostly a type B racer while I have always felt I fit into the C category. 

 

If you plan to race the TDR and classify yourself per these general categories it quickly follows what type training and strategy you should focus on. All racers need the basics—route knowledge, solid gear choices, fitness, hopefully some multi-day race experience, real or simulated.  But depending where one falls on the go-fast/go-long curve, each racer should train and strategize to optimize their individual strengths while seeking to minimize their weaknesses.

Type A, you need to of course ‘maintain’ your fitness, but optimize your gear and mostly study and more study for route resupply options.  And pick the historic winning time splits you plan to meet or exceed. 

Type B racer you need to do the same as the A’s but train yourself to minimize your recovery time.  IE: you really need to prepare yourself to suffer a bit more than you are currently comfortable with.  Basically work on your mental game and get comfortable with the idea that if you have the innate speed you can run with the A racers if you just ‘choose’ to.

 

Type C racer needs to emulate type A but at a somewhat lower level.  IE optimize what you have to work with in terms of raw speed. Some local XC mountain bike races might help shore up your speed deficit. And perhaps better overall fitness and maybe some technical skill/work may also raise up your weak area.  Also you need to be sure you are not carrying too much gear.  Even though you may be running mid pack speed wise your ability to go long/hard can really pay off in the TDR.

Type D need to execute all the above but first should get naked in the bathroom and take a long look in the mirror.  Jump on the scale.  I am guessing most type D racers are packing a bit of extra change in body weight.  Work to reach you’re idealized ‘race weight’, it’s worth the effort on so many levels.  Fit and trim and you will enjoy your TDR regardless of speed or finish time.  If you drop the weight, by default you are also getting TDR race fit--and if you also cover the other mentioned basics you will automatically move to a C or B type racer.

 

As mentioned Andres was rocking a FS rig (eight overall at 17:05:18—with good recovery intervals most of the way)  He said FS gave him both speed and comfort.  And ‘wow’ could he really roll the flats what with his gearing and fast spin style of pedaling!  No way the FS was slowing him down to any noticeable degree.  Anyway, at the minimum I now believe virtually any racer, A, B, C, or D would achieve a faster finish with front suspension. There is just so much of the TDR route that could be attacked with a front suspension bike vs just 'survived' with ridged fork. And while I personally do not think FS would lower ones finish time by much if anything neither do I think it would detract from one’s finish time, at least not by any noticeable amount.   In the end a FS rig does have some gear space limitations and does add extra complexity, but if one is inclined to go FS these are not deal breakers by any means. Don't feel obligated to follow the pack in terms of suspension--most of us are just copying what others do, with no deep experience to back up our bike choices.

Day 5, (mental break down commences)

Day 5, 3:30am-11:00pm, 130 miles

I had a good night sleeping under a huge pine tree right next to the trail.  I had picked a warm and dry location and by the 4^th night I had a routine going.  Once I stopped I would take a quick glance at my ‘miles for the day’ on the GPS, reset the trip meter and shut it down.  Next I would shut off the Spot, maybe eat and drink a bit, take any meds and then go to work on body maintenance.  Brush teeth, wipe down with a wipe packet or two and then slip on my warm puffy jacket and then rain gear.  I always tried to time it so before I put on extra layers I had dried off a bit but had not yet cooled down to the point of being cold. The rain gear was part of my sleep system, it added a bit of warmth but also kept me protected from the inevitable condensation of my warm but 100% non-breathable Blizzard Emergency bivy bag . One I had all the essentials done I would unroll the Blizzard, fluff it up and inflate the sleeping pad that I kept rolled up inside.  If my timing was good I would still have some, but not to much, body heat going as I crawled into the bivy.  At this point my next major decision point was ‘leave on or take off’ my shoes.  Sometimes I would just leave them on, mostly if it was cold or I expected the morning to be cold.  I had extra pair of warm thick wool socks but I don’t think I used them one time.  All in all it would take me about 30 min to be double checking the alarm and closing the eyes for the last time....

 

Anyway it had been a good night under that ol tree and I woke up ready to get on to Helena.  I got a little cold on some of the down hills sections into Helena but all in all it was a pleasant ride with the sun coming up and all.  Once in Helena I re-supplied and at the same time was spot stalked by a inquisitive future TDR racer.  Next I then went looking for a place to buy myself a USB power pack.  Since my recharging system was not working I now needed a way to recharge ‘on-the-go’ my helmet light and if needed power my smartphone, IE: my back up GPS system.  This became my new power management strategy.  I would re-charge as much as I could when stopped for a meal or hotel but some days I would just buy another power pack.  Ha, after a while I was giving away depleted power packs. 

 

 

After Helena there is a long climb topped off with some fun double track.  On the long climb up to the double track my knees and Achilles were once again screaming in protest.  It was at this point, a few miles past Helena that I quit racing.  I transitioned into what I can only describe as a semi self-pity fest coupled with a vague, rather undefined plan to continue.  Two parts of my rather vague plan at continuing were first; don’t over medicate on pain pills and second; ice down every 20 or 30 miles in a stream.  Gurrr…..I knew each time I stopped to time ice down in a stream I would be giving up hard won time but felt it was the only way to continue. 

 

Needless to say this mode of operation began to drive me batty; soon I was constantly looking over my shoulder, waiting for the inevitable. …….  

After several ice it down stops, just before 7pm I finally rolled into Butte.  I resupplied at a great ‘we have almost everything’ convenience store (including a huge Ms Fields cookie ice cream sandwich) and was ready to leave when I discovered I had lost my chamois cream.  

It was to soon to break out my back up tube--so a quick detour to the local Walgreens had me back in business.

 

It was now 8:30, too early for a hotel, way too late to make Wise River. In a sort of lost state of mind I soft pedaled out of town and leisurely climbed up and past outlying homes and back into national forest lands. 

Around 10:30 and I was now thinking about a place to stop for the night.  Just up ahead I saw a set of car lights stop and then slowly start up again.  As they were approaching me the lights slowed down and I could tell they were going to stop next to me.  This was the first car in several hours and we were on a lonely forest service road, it was late and dark.  My instincts hit overdrive and I began to think this might be trouble of some type.  A pickup slowed and stopped with driver rolling down the window to talk.  I stopped and put my hand my hand over my helmet light so as not to blind the driver.  I could only see a dim silhouette of the driver and passenger in the dark, humm I wonder where this is going...... 

 

In a rather serious voice the driver’s first words to me were “are you from around here”.  I answered 'no' but said I was familiar with the area (true as this was my third time up this particular MT forest road).  The driver then informed me that just up ahead, up where I had seen his lights pause, that four wolves had crossed in front of him, apparently following some elk he had seen a bit further up the road.  Wow, I was a bit taken aback to think I was within ¼ mile of four hungry wolfs. 

 

Suddenly, sleeping under the stars lost all of its appeal.  I sort of remembered a trail head or campground of some type near were we were and verified with the driver, yes there was a block toilet house just up the hill.  I gave a thanks to the driver for his info and joked I would soon be sleeping in a Montana Hilton for the night.  He got a chuckle from my response and wished me luck.

 

Needless to say, just a couple miles up the road, I was quite happy to find said outhouse with its mostly clean floor and locking door.  

 

Looking back, day 5 was not that bad of a day but at the time all I could think was I was no longer in race mode, in many ways tomorrow would be the start of a different TDR.  Mentally the runaway slide to despondency had now truly begun and was building momentum. 

 

 

 

Bonus Section: Saddle Sores

Some of you may know that in 2010 TDR I suffered with appalling saddle sores.  To the point I was never going to do the TDR again unless I could resolve this problem.  As long as I have been biking I would always develop saddle sores on extended rides.  My particular problem revolved mostly around easily ingrown hairs. On a 2-5 day event it was a livable issue--but after 5 days would become almost intolerable.  

Knock on wood but I finally seem to have put this long term issue behind me.  Zero saddle sores during this TDR!!

So what did I do? 

First, in the run up to my 2014 TDR attempt I had some laser/permeant hair removal in two embarrassing but “strategic” locations.  I feel this is the main factor in eliminating my saddle sores. 

Second (after trying with mixed results going totally without a chamois) I switched to a ‘outer chamois” short design. http://www.groundeffect.co.nz/products/exocets-nylon-lycra-premium-bike-shorts?variant=1640998915  I recommend these to anyone looking for a different approach. I consider them to be a major factor in elimination of saddle sores.  They are not ‘perfect’ but the external chamois design really is a game changer imo.

Third for multi-day rides I have quit using the typical oil based chamois creams and now use a dimethicone based anti-friction cream.  This is quite amazing on the longer multi-day rides as it not only eliminates most heat from friction but also takes a lot longer (say about 2-4 days) for one’s riding shorts to become totally filthy.  In addition a little bit goes along ways.  I would apply it in the morning and then 2-3 times thru the day—and used less that two 1 oz tubes for the entire TDR.

Forth would have to be the saddle itself.  I am using a $35 dollar el-basic gel saddle from  performance Bike.  http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1166795_-1_400267__400267

Nothing special about it except the width fits the up-right TDR position and it offers good flex/comfort on a hardtail.  The real key here is not the saddle itself but moving to a wider saddle to match the more up-right position I favor for multi-day races.

 

 

Day 4 (recovery speed)

Day 4, 5:00am-11:00pm, 130 miles

I have to admit it seemed the alarm went off to soon on the morning of the fourth day.  I was camped out at the base of Richmond Peak and knew I had a long slow climb to start the day.  I have been over this pass three times now.  The first time it was truly dangerous with the snow forcing a real exposure factor.  The second time the snow was just a minor hindrance with no real exposure.  This time there was no snow whatsoever and once on top it was just a rather fun section of single track.  No snow or rain also meant the descent was relatively warm and fast.

I rolled into Ovando just after 11:00 am, got the mandatory picture plus the warm welcome and information that I was running in the top 10. 

coming into Ovando

Frankly I didn’t believe that was possible and had very mixed emotions about it.  I was quite pleased that I was that far up the ladder but knew with my knee there was only disappointment waiting for me. Funny but this bit of ‘good’ news had quite a negative impact on me.  But at least even with my relatively minor knee issues I was still in the game, Connor O'Leary was sitting outside in the sun and explained how his knee unexpectedly blew out while just pedaling along.  Blew out as in he felt it ‘pop’ as something inside broke lose.  I wonder if he will be back next year?

One of the reasons I didn’t have a clue as to where I was in terms of other racers was my hub driven recharging system was down and out for the count.  My hub driven handlebar light was good to go but I could not re-charge my helmet light or smartphone.  Later on I stopped for a while outside of Lincoln and tested different ideas in the hopes of fixing it but soon gave up on the idea.

Shortly after Lincoln the inevitable began to happen, on the first long climb I was caught and passed by stronger riders.  I think the first three were Joe Fox leading Greg Galway and his apparently eternal TDR team mate Evan.  

They were faster up the climbs and also down the descents.  Ha, and to top it off they stopped for the night at my pre-planned camp spot.  I rode on past just a few miles before I called it a day as I figured four racers together were no longer quite ‘stealth’.

Basically from Ovando on, almost all the way to New Mexico, every time someone would catch and pass me I would get down on myself.  Sort of silly in hindsight but at the time I was just so totally frustrated that I could no longer give it 100%.  Actually if I am honest with myself I am still frustrated about it.  Overall I had a pretty good run but there were so many little things that kept nagging away at me. I didn’t handle it nearly as well as I could have then and I still get upset if I think too much about it.

Day 3 (ok lets get things back on track...)

Day 3 3:30am-12:00pm, 209 miles

Only 2 days in and already I felt things slipping away.  The need to get back on track was the theme for day 3.  I rode away from my room by 4am and rolled the pavement out of town.  Along the way I saw Mark Caminiti sleeping on the side of the road just before crossing Hwy 93.  Almost stopped and woke him up but decided he might not appreciate that. As the sun came up I started the first climb of the day.

I did not stop to take any pictures on Day 3 but here is one from Day 3 of my aborted 2014 attempt. As you can see the conditions were a wee bit different.  For a whole bunch of reasons I only made Eureka to Whitefish on that particular day.  93 miles in 17 hours in 2014 vs 209 miles in 20 hours in 2015  Wow quite a difference.

The day was another ‘picture perfect’ day weather wise and other than a few tinges in the left knee everything felt good as the miles rolled past. Going up the climb to Red Meadow pass I tried to catch up to Greg and Evan, never did which confirmed once again all the riders around me were as strong or stronger.  Once over the pass I caught Greg and Evan on the decent and the three of us play raced all the way into Whitefish.  I had a blast spinning out trying to stay ahead but was missing some bigger gears, not for the last time. 

I resupplied at the first convenience store and as they had ‘hot’ food considered this my main meal stop for the day.  Rolling on to Columbia Falls I did a quick top off of my supplies and ate a big ice cream sandwich.  Now I began to think about where I might wind up for the day.  The route from Whitefish to Ferndale is paved and fast and I now had supplies to see me to Ovando the following morning.

Along the pavement to Ferndale I caught up to a rider but every time I tried to join him for some conversation he would use his higher gearing and accelerate away.  I would soon be spun out but later would catch up again.  He would never let me quite join him.  Basically he was acting like there was a finish line just up ahead.  I was sort of laughing yet at the same time a bit put off by his strange antics.  He rode off route at Ferndale to resupply and I dropped it down a notch and soft pedaled on up the climbs along Swan Lake towards Hollend Lake.  Later the same rider, plus Greg and Evan pulled up behind me.  Once again this other racer played silly ‘its-a-race’ games and accelerated by me like he was trying to ‘stick’ his pass without so much as a hi.  I simply did not understand why a fellow TDR racer would be so unwilling to a least say hi.  Frankly it pissed me off just enough to make me start ‘racing’ back.  I deliberately caught up and forced him to acknowledge my presence. At some point it occurred to me, perhaps this racer didn’t speak English?  Well sort of but still.....

Anyway this little back and forth racing pulled me all the way to Holland Lake where I ended my day at 209 miles.  It had been a good day, some fun play racing even when totally spun out and I was more than a bit surprised at the total miles. And I was back on plan distance wise but knew as I crashed into my bivy I was in serious trouble from a knee/achillies point of view.  My left knee was starting to noticeably swell, by morning the left knee was about twice the size as the right. 

Day 2 (all does not go well.........)

Sunny day, eat, remove plastic bags, dry out the soaked shoes and try in vain once again to fix my shifting problem..........

 

 

Day 2, 4:00am to 11:00pm, 110 miles, 5 hrs sleep that night

The big ‘plan’ for day 2 was to make Eureka early enough in the day to resupply and knock out another 30 to 50 miles.  As always happens in a multi-day plans go awry. 

The day started without incident, up and moving within 30 minutes of plan.  On to the hike-a-bike water sections.  Soon I reached Butts cabin, around 7:40am and talked with a few riders still breaking their camp.  I have to admit I was a bit taken aback as to why a racer would press on to Butts cabin on night 1, yet still be there by the time I arrived.

The day was nice, no rain lots of sun, the legs felt good and climbs were falling behind one by one.  All in all it should have been a 'according-to-plan’ day but that was not the case.  On the first climb my rear derailleur started to miss shifts (always from large to smaller cogs).  As the day went on it got progressively worse to the point by the end of the day I was reaching back with my right foot and manually sifting the derailleur with some foot pressure. 

I think I stopped 15 or more times to attempt repairs.  At first I tried small trim adjustments to the upper and lower stop screws.  Next I tried a drop of oil on the pivot points. This went on and on, between each repair attempt I would ponder what could cause the derailleur to act as it its return spring was ½ strength??.  I removed the rear wheel several times and ‘actuated’ the derailleur by hand, both by pressing directly on the shift cable and by manipulating the shifter.  With the wheel removed the derailleur moved thru its entire motion/arc in a smooth normal manner.  I was 100% stumped.   I would tell myself quit stopping and just keep riding, just make some miles.  Then I would flounder up the next rise and stop and have another go at it.  I was having a hard time maintaining a ‘clam’ outlook.

As I neared Eureka I was dealing with two issues.  The first problem was my knees were more than a little sore from all the climbing in the wrong gear.  Thru out the day I had been ‘over’ shifting during the approach to a climb and then clicking down into the right gear.  This only worked about 1/3 of the time, the other times I would either miss-time the over shift or the slope would change mid climb and force me to power thru in to large or too small a gear.  The second more immediate problem was how to restore my shifting.  I really was at a total loss.  I checked my smartphone for Whitefish bike shop hours of operation, all showed closed on Sunday.  Plus I really did not know what the problem was, by this time I was thinking the derailleur itself was somehow defective  Of course this didn’t make sense as it was basically new, had not been crashed and had performed perfectly in 2-3 hundred miles of training runs.

 

I was so off balance and in a bit of a daze from wondering what to do.  Do I press on and hope to reach Whitefish early enough on Sunday and then ‘hope’ to find someone to help?  Would it hold out that long, what if I sucked it into the wheel? Or do I keep trying to fix the problem myself even though I was at a loss as to what I might try next. I simply did not know what to ‘do next’ so once I rolled into the first re-supply point in Eureka I simply went thru the motions of re-suppling as if all was still on plan. 

First I ordered 2 subway sandwiches, one to eat right away and one to pack away.  Then I shopped the store and gathered up all the needed carry-away food items to get me on to Whitefish. Still not sure what to do and was just going thru the pre-planned motions.  My mind was sort stuck in a loop with no clear path out.  While in line to check out a racer in front of me was arranging to get a room for the night.  When it was my turn to pay for my items, almost out of the blue, I said I wanted a room.  Just like that a plan was born, get a room, strip off the derailleur, wash all the accumulated oil and gunk from the pivot points in a soapy sink, inspect for it for visible issues and reassemble and try to make it work.

By this time there was a nice crowd of TD racers eating resupplying and either settling in for the evening or moving on.  To no avail I asked around if anyone knew any Sram XX1 derailleur secrets.

Anyway long story short as soon as I removed the shift cable I discovered the problem.  The shift cable rides on small semi sealed pulley.  This pulley forces the cable around a rather tight bending radius and the pulley’s housing is a perfect trap for small grit and dirt particals.  What had happed is on day 1 the grit had worked into the pulley housing and combined with the tight bend radius delaminated the Teflon coating.  There were little balled up bits and pieces of the Teflon gumming up the smooth ‘flow’ of the cable over the pulley.  The only way to 'find the problem' was to actually remove the cable from the derailleur, ahh.....pull hair.....

 

It took a while to install my spare cable (also a Teflon coated version, its still on the bike as I write this and working like a charm bty).  My bike has an internal cable routing so I have to ‘play’ with the cable to get it thru the frame yada yada yada.  I finally got everything back together and tested ‘good’ in the hotel parking lot right before dark.  

spread it all out, tear it down, make it work--ahh what a mess by the time I had it fixed....but finally it was working again...

 

I was a bit tempted to pack up and go but was just to emotionally spent to leave a nice, already paid for room with shower etc. 

 

Such a small small thing, just a tiny bit of balled up Teflon......  But it started my knees on a disastrous downward spiral, especially the reconstructed left one and my tight race focus was now in complete tatters.

 

 

Day One (all goes well.....)

Pre-race

The ride up to Banff was provided by Mike Schlichtman and truck, Mark Caminiti joined us. 

I did not know it but my fork must of got twisted on the dive up when we hit a sharp bump.  I rode several days before I realized my handlebars were cockeyed about 5/8 of an inch.  Funny how soon my knee issues cleared up once the bars were back to straight.....

 

The three of us talked TDR stuff nonstop almost the entire ride up.  I brought my work laptop and phone and did my best to stay on top of last minute items and make a smooth transition from the real world to the TDR world.

Mark and I did a 60 mile warm up loop. 

60 mile Pre-Ride, all is clean and pretty...

After this last ride I fine-tuned my bike but almost exclusively hung out in my hotel room getting caught up on last minute work emails and mentally prep'ed for the start.

I had a very specific race plan for days one and two, a hope for days three and four and a general idea of what I wanted to accomplish each day thereafter. Like all TDR race plans mine quickly fell apart, by day two I was already into serious contingency strategies.

Day One:

160 miles, 6:30am-12:00pm, 3.5 hours sleep night one

I slept pretty good Thursday night  all things considered and was up around 6:30am .  In the morning I only had to dress and go grab some breakfast and wait for the roll out. My head was in a good place, focused but relaxed.  I had my food for days 1 & 2 planned out down to a T and packed and all was ready. I deliberately worked hard to ignore most of the other racers, crazy Larry and all the comings and goings. 

I snapped off some random pictures but that was the extent of my pre-race goings on. Basically I wanted to stay calm, focused and just get to it and execute my day one strategy. I knew I would have time to chat up the ones that were similar in pace later in the day and that I would see some of them over and over.

The plan for day one was simple, carry enough on-the-bike food for days 1 & 2, skip the store at mile 60, do a fast resupply in Elkford (including picking up something for a camp ‘dinner’ in case I did not make Sparwood before things closed up) and regardless of weather ride to the end of the pavement, camp up there (around mile 160), sleep for about 3 hours and start day 2. Why stop at mile 160?  Several reasons but several key reasons were:

1.       That last section of pavement is always going to be easy/warm riding at the end of the 1st day, rainy or dry and always cold if starting in the morning from Sparwood.

2.       Unless day 1 was a unexpected ‘problem day’ I knew my energy level would still be near peak levels by the time I hit Sparwood--why waste it by stopping early?

3.       I am not fast enough to reach Butts cabin in a ‘reasonable’ amount of time on day 1

4.        I knew I could make a warm/dry camp at the end of the pavement no matter the weather...

5.       I could have gone just a bit farther on day 1 but did not want to camp cold or hit the notorious hike-a-bike water crossings in the dark.  I planned (and did) hit them right at first light on day 2 and had also slipped on knee high plastic bags that morning to keep my socks dry and feet warm—worked to perfection bty.  After the many water crossings I just rode till my shoes were mostly dry and then removed/stored the bags for later use if needed (never were).

The start was actually pretty relaxed for such a large group, easy roll out followed by several hours of smooth, hard pacing for 60 miles.  Everyone around me was as strong or stronger on the climbs so I knew I was going as hard as I could/should yet was still going at my all-day pace. The riding from Elkford to Sparwood was cold, wet and gritty.  The mud/grit played havoc with my frame bag zippers and though I did not know it at the time also damaged the Teflon coating on my shift cable.  Latter on this minor cable damage would impact my entire race and haunt me all the way to the finish at Antelope Wells. 

I got to Sparwood at 9pm (my ‘hoped for’ time but frankly earlier than expected) with plenty of time to eat a chocolate shake and hamburger, wash off my bike and soft pedal the last 20 miles of pavement in the fading sunlight. 

I reached my intended camp area at 11:30 pm and hunted around a bit for the ‘perfect’ camp spot.  Later I was willing to crash out just about anywhere but on this 1^st night I took some time and found a nice sheltered (warm & dry if it rained) spot in some dense pine trees.  As I was setting up camp I played light tag with some glowing eyes.  My small camp light would show the eyes but not the animal.  Every time I looked away it kept coming closer and closer rather than moving away.  Finally I said enough of this cat & mouse and hit it with my helmet light—it was a big ol badger.  Once I spot lighted him he went on about his business and I went to sleep. Somehow I miss-set my alarm but woke up on my own within 30 min of my planned wake up. 

Day one was a text book execution of my race plan and I was quite pleased with myself.  Ha, if only I knew as it was also the last day that would go according to plan till I was almost to New Mexico………..

Bonus Section (I will add a little gear tidbit for each day)

·         I used Shower Pass Rain Gloves (https://www.showerspass.com/products/mens-crosspoint-hardshell-wp-glove) and have to say they worked very well.  It did not rain much on me but they stayed dry when it did and I used them each morning for the cold and many nights as part of my sleep system.

·         I did not bring a sleeping bag but was very happy with my all-weather blizzard survival bag. http://www.blizzardsurvival.com/product.php/100/blizzard-survival-bag It does condense up after about 3 -4 hours, which was about all the longer I was sleeping most camp nights anyway.  I would turn it inside out most nights so as to start with a dry surface.  With my Neoair sleep pad and rain gear I slept warm and quite well each time I used it. Also it was very fast set-up and pack up, saving me lots of time each camp-up.