Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown, MA

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles next Monday, January 20, 2025 at 11:30am!

Seven Cycles is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and they build incredible bikes within their walls. There is no bike builder more focused on offering the best experience for each rider than Seven Cycles. There is also no frame designer with deeper knowledge of frame design and bike building materials than Seven. Few builders test their designs; Seven invests in testing to be sure what they build will withstand the demands of the most avid riders.

This deep interest in the riding experience and frame building knowledge translates to every single bike being the very best bike for each rider. We regularly receive comments from new bike owners who have been blown away by their bikes. Some of the countless rave reviews that we’ve received via email:

“I truly could not be happier with my new bike.  I am still trying to figure out how to describe the ride - the bike feels like it is floating or gliding over, rather than rolling on, the road.  The bike just soaks up bad road surfaces, and yet feels very responsive and agile.” - HH, Evergreen SL

“The bike feels magical. I'm in love.” - JM, Axiom S

“I love my bike…best bike ever!” - LC, Evergreen S

“Best money I have ever spent.” -AO, Treeline SL

Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See the steps of fabricating frames and watch how frames go from a Frame Specification to a complete frame ready to be built into a bike on this very informative tour. The tour is 45 minutes to an hour and includes time for questions and answers.

Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

Please RSVP below so we can email you directions and know how many to plan on attending.

We’ll email all who RSVP by 5pm the day before the tour with directions to Seven and parking information. There is ample free parking available near Seven.

RSVP here to attend & if you can’t make it, let us know so we let you know of future tours!

Fat Pursuit Workshop and Race Report: No excuses

Fat Pursuit is far more than an ultra endurance winter fat bike race in Idaho, in its 12th year. It’s a platform constructed by Jay Petervary to challenge everyone who arrives at the start line due to its length (119 miles), need to carry (and for most, use) sleeping gear, and be able to boil water to ensure survival in a snow-covered, harsh, remote winter environment. It draws people who love fat bike riding, who love big adventures, and those who want to stretch themselves, learn, and grow in the ways each person desires.

Racers at the start waiting for Jay to signal the start of what will be the longest, hardest race for many. Photo: Rob Vandermark.

45 hours on course leave a number of stories to be told. While I was determined to get to the finish line since I didn’t make it there 2 years ago, crossing the line didn’t come with the expected endorphin rush. I relished the experience and at no point did I wish it would be over, including at the finish. The small wins along the way have added up to a major victory and this is only a start, not a finish, to anything.

My first 200k Fat Pursuit was two years ago and a 33.5 hour race that ended at mile 75 when I didn’t feel I could continue. I’ve learned a lot since that race and having watched others finish at all hours that year, it was clear that it is possible for anyone who is properly prepared. Figuring out how to finish has been a journey of learning and digging in deep to discover exactly what it means to tap into mental strength. Having Fat Pursuit as a continual goal since taking on the 60km Covid edition of the race in 2021 has been a guiding light in my cycling life.

Around mile 77 coming out of checkpoint 2.

Fat Pursuit Workshop - a Game Changer

This year I made the best decision to attend the Fat Pursuit Workshop which was held Monday through Wednesday prior to Fat Pursuit which started Friday. This workshop had been recommended to me by serious athletes who have done nearly everything difficult that the sport offers. I have never been in such an environment where every single session was full of content, absolutely zero fluff (unless we were actually talking about the fill in a sleeping bag, ha), and hands-on. Fortunately, the temp got to -9 degrees Tuesday night when we had the opportunity to sleep under the stars somewhere far from home base. Such a treat. Besides having five instructors with deep knowledge of both Fat Pursuit and winter ultra endurance experience, 14 attendees all came from very different backgrounds with a lot of great knowledge and thoughtful questions.

Students and instructors on a ride Tuesday to get a little fresh air, boil water, and the scenery was outstanding! Photo by Jay Petervary.

Jay Petervary led the workshop, guided many of the conversations, but let each of the other instructors have the floor and share their expertise. Each session was deeply informative. Jay added what has worked for him that he’s learned over many years of testing, refining, racing, and teaching what works and why - and he started before anyone else was doing it. The workshop was a perfect balance of knowledge sharing and understanding why what works when and they encouraged questions. They explained the “whys” and what it means to “do your work.”

Jay Petervary, image from a video Jay took overlooking workshop students airing up all of our tires so we could feel various tire pressures and how those worked/didn’t on the snow.

I feel cold faster than most everyone and I’m afraid of being cold. My toes are cold as I’m writing this in my 70 degree home. FWIW: My toes didn’t get cold once during Fat Pursuit. I never want anyone to look at me and say anything about how I’m somehow tougher than others since the opposite is more likely true. To say I’m tough or special is simply an “out” for anyone who uses this as an excuse that I can do this but they cannot. Nothing we learned had anything to do with being tougher or stronger. Instruction focused on implementing systems to work for each of us as individuals. Turns out we’re not all that different. I can sleep comfortably at -9 degrees with the bivvy bag under my sleeping bag!

Photo by Perry Jewett, first night prepping camp and made some food. I learned it’s a good idea to eat before bivvying since calories = body heat!

The workshop started at 9am Monday and ended at 12pm on Wednesday, 2 days before Fat Pursuit. With sleeping outside being part of the workshop, it was continual instruction and practice for all of these hours. Focusing 100% without outside distraction means so much more learning and being fully present is a skill in itself.

Everyone had whatever fitness we already had, meaning that what we got out of the workshop was knowledge and tools for the mind. No one got stronger or more acclimatized to the cold in those 3 days. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is confidence. It all adds up to safety and more fun too.

Instructor Jason Hanson reviewed the stuff I would be bringing with me for Fat Pursuit and we talked through each piece of gear as to its usefulness and what should not make the trip. He has a great perspective from a normal person who chose to get into this winter endurance world even though he lives in Arizona!

One of the sessions dealt directly with the mental side of winter ultra racing. Jacob Hora, a 19-year-old ultra endurance athlete led this one. He has more endurance cycling experience and worldly perspective than most people 3x his age. This was a valuable session with a lot of interesting advice I’d not heard before and I used a lot of it during my Fat Pursuit race. I think people give the idea of mental strength a lot of lip service but don’t really take it to heart. I know I haven’t taken it seriously in the past. It’s one thing to think positive thoughts and another to completely believe those thoughts. One bit of advice they offered is to develop a mantra to use during the race.

The mantra that came to me early on in the race was “no excuses.” I hear a lot of excuses from people in the course of my work life and in leading group rides. I hope that after completing this, it’s proof that someone who has average fitness (I ride less than many of you reading this), but a sincere desire to take on a huge ride, can get into the right mindset to do the work, practice, practice, practice, and take it on!

The Race

The 60km race rollout is the same as the 200km, photo by Rob V.

The long Fat Pursuit course is 120 miles in length on wide snowmobile trails in the Yellowstone ecosystem and it’s a gorgeous route that offers a lot for the eyes to feast on. There is a 60km race for those who want a good taste of the event.

The route goes up a lot and when it’s going down, it's still often necessary to pedal to keep going. Snow conditions change a lot from hour to hour. Cold snow is fast. Warm, snowmobile-churned snow is usually a hike-a-bike. This year temps were in the 10-17 degree area most of the time and for only a few hours were ~27-28 degrees.

The start was at 7am, in pitch dark Island Park.

I was very deliberate to keep my heart rate low and in zone 2 (talking pace) for as much of the race as possible. This meant almost everyone was ahead right at the start. The effects of high altitude are far worse with an elevated heart rate. I had enough on my mind to manage without worrying about actually racing and trying to beat others. I am naturally competitive so I am thinking back now and wondering had I done this differently or that more efficiently, how would the results have turned out. These are thoughts I’ll use to fuel the next ultra effort, but I am not going to suggest that I could have been faster because that would have hurt me in other ways that could have led to not finishing.

The road leading over to Two Top is one of my favorite parts of the route. It’s beautiful and fun to ride. Usually there are others around on this road with whom to share the views and joy of being there.

Two Top mountain was raw with vicious winds and hardly any visibility. Snowmobile traffic was quite low the whole race, very pleasant! One snowmobiler stopped to tell me that “conditions are tricky” on Two Top before I got there. Nice to get this warning! I stopped, wrapped up my face, ate and drank, since this might not possible a few feet further up.

I was glad to get the Two Top experience since I’ve heard how windy and rough it can be, I wanted to see what that was all about. I was wondering what everyone else thought about that section. It’s a bit intimidating, but knowing others were out there in the same conditions was comforting.

Heading down Two Top, it didn’t take too long before getting nestled back into trees, the wind died down and it was a lovely day with perfect snow under the tires again.

This is when I met Ellen, the foot participant, who ended up taking the fastest time for everyone (men and women) in that category. I saw her quite often out there, keeping great time with very little mechanical advantage (sleds can sled down hills, but there were so few downhills on the course), otherwise, it’s walking/running for 119 miles. She was smiling the entire race.

The snow was perfect to ride. It was cold, fast, just fluffy enough to offer that addictive “first snow” feel. Of course, this area has many feet of snow on the ground at this point. The snow in this area is all dry powder.

Party at Checkpoint 1, Mile 28, ~2pm Friday

One of my favorite features of the course is that there’s an out and back to checkpoint 1 allowing riders heading in to CP1 and those headed out (hours ahead of those coming in often times) to see each other.

I like checkpoint 1 so much, I figured out how to spend something close to 2.5 hours there. Luckily, there was cell coverage so I could shoot off an “I’m okay” message to my parents who would be worried at this kind of a delay.

All participants can pack a 2-gallon bag full of food that the organizers take to the checkpoint so that everyone can get a selection of calories to take with them for the next stretch which is 50 miles. It’s a long stretch with a 24-hour cut-off time so it’s good to have a gazillion calories on the bike. I estimated I’d need 6,000 calories (more than I can eat). Sometimes it’s nice to have some variety since what one feels like eating can change. Somehow, my bag of food didn’t make it to this checkpoint. Thankfully, lots of nice people at the checkpoint (Mike, Joe, random people) donated their food to me. Billy is a mainstay volunteer of CP1 (I saw him there 2 years ago), he made sure I had all of the fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches I needed (those things are magic), water, soup, etc. There was a good crew working this checkpoint, but Billy is who I’d remembered fondly from my last Fat Pursuit and he hustles to take care of every rider.

I was worried since my stomach can get touchy with food hours into a ride and Skratch High-Carb powder definitely works…except Skratch didn’t seem to be part of people’s diets out there. Oh well, time to learn new foods! I know I need to work on eating more every ride and getting my stomach acclimated to various foods. It’s one of the hundreds of skills that are important for this race. It’s entirely on me that my stomach is as sensitive as it is. What do bikepackers do? One certainly doesn’t find fancy food in gas stations. Fat Pursuit teaches us about survival and even allowing food bags is a kind thing for them to do though shouldn’t be necessary.

When hydration goes badly

I’d taken two hydration bladders with me, one filled with 2L of water with LMNT salt and a 3L with 2.5 liters of Skratch High-Carb powder in it to start the race. Each pack had its own hose. I like the idea of redundancy and the option to drink one or the other. Really early on in the race, both hoses froze so I rearranged them, got them tucked beneath my base layers and was able to thaw the one to my 3L pack. Once that ran out, I just moved the hose over to the 2L and then drank it. Both were gone by the time I got to CP1. I was proud of myself for listening to to my Garmin alarm: every 15 minutes take a drink. Altitude sickness comes with dehydration and I think my teeth get sensitive with dehydration as well. Dehydration is bad for everything in a race!

I filled both bladders with warm water, loaded my USWE hydration pack with both, then figured I’d take a moment in the heated tent prior to heading back out on my bike. I’d only been there a few moments when I felt my backside get warm. Then my legs… The 2L hydration pouch had failed out the bottom spilling all 2L of water all over me! I was wearing a short sleeve base layer, long sleeve base layer, full-zip fleece, wind jacket, bib shorts, and 45NRTH heavier shell pants. Every single thing I was wearing was soaked. Why did it fail? I have some theories. I’ll be doing some testing in the coming days to see what I learn. Obviously, this will be something I’ll be paranoid about for the rest of my life.

Fortunately, the heated tent is heated via propane and forceful hot jets. I stood there and dried out the pants, fleece, and jacket until everything was almost dry. I left my wool base layers and soaked chamois alone. I debated whether it was smart to ride into the night with wet chamois, but figured it would be more risky to try all of those miles without it since I always ride with bib shorts. It was a good call, it didn’t bother me. Had this happened without the heated tent, I can’t say I know what I would have done. I instantly regretted not bringing my rain pants and rain jacket. Those paired with my (still dry) wool long underwear could have allowed me to ride out the wet pants and give them time to dry without causing me problems.

Finally, I got back on the bike and on the way out of CP1. Only 1 more person was due to arrive to the checkpoint (who knew he was going to scratch) so I was the last rider on course. This did not send me into a panic, it was fine. I knew I had plenty of time until the cut offs. This kind of setback would have sent me into a panic had this been 2 years ago with the mindset and lack of perspective I had back then.

Riding into the night

I love night riding so much! Add snow and this is my absolute favorite kind of riding. Night focuses one’s attention, it’s impossible to get distracted by anything so it’s time to think, get into a zone, simply ride the bike. And that’s what I did. It was snowing some so the fastest-ever conditions were becoming not-quite-as-fast and this section is a long, steady climb, but still it felt great.

I found Emma and Brian, shown above, on the ride out of the checkpoint. We got to know each other in the Fat Pursuit workshop, and being from Seattle, pretty new to fat bike riding with heavy bikes, they had additional challenges. Emma is effervescent, has a beautiful Italian accent, and she was always, always positive, pleasant, and warm. We’d ridden together earlier Friday in the race as well. This blog post is dedicated to her since she enjoyed the blog I’d posted from my first Fat Pursuit attempt and the morning of this race, she told me she’d read it all again. I know people enjoy reading too-long race reports, but hearing that it affected someone means A LOT.

After a little while, I parted ways with them, and wished them well. I thought about them for the rest of my race, hoping they would keep going no matter what.

I was following a bike track laid down by a rider in front of me. I hoped to find this person to say thank you for laying it down since he was riding on the fastest part of the trail and it made it easier. I finally found him, it was Joe, fellow Fat Pursuit workshop alum. We rode together for quite awhile.

Finally Joe found a nice place to bivvy (above photo) and he was wanting some serious sleep. I bid him farewell and kept riding.

Since I’d had what I thought to be altitude issues at the last Fat Pursuit, I wanted to get to the top of the climb and then descend from there prior to sleeping. I was feeling good and was keeping a nice rhythm. Once in such a place, it’s not good to stop!

On this climb during the last Fat Pursuit, I’d gotten in a dark place and called Rob, devoted husband, who was out there taking photos and generally being there to support me wherever “there” was (it’s not possible for someone in a car to get close to the course until checkpoint 2). This time, I was good. Part of being good had to do with knowing the climb and what to expect. I’ve replayed that climb so many times in my head it’s a comfortable place for me now.

It’s nice to pass people who are asleep in their bivvies and tents along the way. Just seeing signs of life is beneficial. They’re hours ahead of me, yet I’m riding past them. Love this kind of a “race.” !!

There was a skier up ahead moving very well. Turns out it was Mike (of Nan and Mike - everyone out there knows them), our hosts! I’d seen Nan hours before and figured she was ~3 hours ahead of me. Mike had never skied more than 30 miles prior to Fat Pursuit. Nevermind that both Nan and Mike spent tons of energy hosting, throwing social gatherings, and helping others all the way up until late the night before Fat Pursuit. They are both incredible athletes and the nicest ever people. I chatted with Mike for a few and decided that’s where I’d get some sleep. He continued on. I learned later that Nan was sleeping really close by! Dani was really close, too, and she told me she’d seen me at my camp & I remember seeing her pass by after she described when she went through.

Sleeping in the snow, 18 degrees, 3:30am-ish

To bivvy is a verb. I have learned to put the bivvy sack under my sleeping bag as that’s perfectly warm enough and far easier without the feeling of suffocation that I’ve felt a number of times when sleeping inside the bivvy. The concept of bivvying has been nearly life changing for me since I learned to do it at the last Fat Pursuit. Sleep anywhere! Or just stay safe. Once zipped up in that little bag, it can be -50 degrees outside and you’re safe and warm inside. It’ll all be okay. It’s light and easy to manage. Take it and a sleeping bag and now the entire world of cycling is available to you, no humans or infrastructure required.

I camped in deep snow under a tree. It took a fair amount of work to drag the bike through the snow to get to the spot I liked. A bit of stomping around and the hole for the sleeping pad was big enough. Took off my boots and liners, it wasn’t that cold so I figured my feet would be fine without the extra layers and complication of pulling the liners out of the boots.

I set the phone alarm for 90 minutes of sleep for one complete sleep cycle, figuring it’d take about 30 seconds to doze off. After hitting snooze a couple of times, I woke up refreshed and ready for the day. I was low on water so I melted enough snow to fill my 3L pack and finished up by boiling water for a pourover. I had pre-ground the beans, but this was something I had been looking forward to for awhile!

There is snow everywhere, it looks cold outside and the mug is obviously cold, yet the coffee was as hot as boiling water in the double-walled mug. I very successfully burned by tongue. It still hurts as I write this. Weirdly though, I didn’t realize I’d burned my tongue until many hours later.

Of all of the things I expected to hurt post-race, it was not my tongue. Earlier Friday, I’d let my lips get chapped (maybe on Two Top with the howling winds?) So between my lips and tongue, they take the win for damaged body parts. Everything else is fine. My legs are tired (not that I’m using them) and nothing else hurts. The USWE hydration pack was super comfy where other running vests I’ve tried have been a little lighter but they have cut off circulation to my hands with 3+ liters of water and stuff in them.

Saturday Morning

While it didn’t feel like it took a long time to melt water and make coffee, time was moving by quickly. Time has a different meaning out there. If something is going to take 2 hours, no big deal. But it can take this much time to move 5 miles. The sun was coming up when I pulled out of camp ready to set off for the day.

It took a little while to settle into moving again. The rhythm I’d been in the previous night was no longer. I’d take a few pedal strokes and remember I needed to do something. Put Dematone on face. Check. Rearrange hydration hose. Check. EAT gosh darn it! It’s breakfast time!! Check. Oooh it’s pretty, take photos. Check.

It was only another 10-mile stretch to get to checkpoint 2 so I didn’t need all of that water I’d made, but it was comforting to be able to drink without worrying about running out so I drank a lot and enjoyed the ride to the second checkpoint where pancakes and coffee awaited. I loved this part of the route. It was beautiful and fun riding. This was the part of the ride at the last Fat Pursuit where I was hurting badly and I didn’t feel I could go on. It felt great to know that I would be passing through checkpoint 2 with no concern about continuing.

It snowed 3” or more overnight which meant riding was harder now. Slower riders get to go even slower! I heard that people behind me had a lot more bike pushing. The fluff on flat terrain was okay, no complaints here!

Breakfast at Checkpoint 2, Mi 77, 11am - Still morning!

Nicki (sp?) runs checkpoint 2 and Jacob, Fat Pursuit Workshop instructor, was helping out there with riders and making sure the CP2 workers weren’t going to overdose on pancakes or pizza. Gotta keep the volunteers fed and cared for too!

Rob was able to drive to this checkpoint so I got to see him there! Sounds like he and Jacob had a lot of time to chat and Rob was having a good time seeing the racers. It was fun to hear from him what was going on with everyone else. Apparently he was driving all over and taking photos of riders all night. People told me he slept less than I did.

CP2 near Harriman State Park was a terrific stop. Nicki is a super pro with pulling people’s food bags when she sees them coming in and making pancakes (I ate 3) and when I put Skratch in my water (now that I had my checkpoint 2 bag of food) & it had clumps, she took that hydration pack and massaged out every single clump with vigor. Jacob was offering up coffee and hot chocolate, so naturally, I had a mocha. Yum!

I saw two foot participants there, Ellen, who was still smiling and doing really well and (I think) Gavin was looking good and seemed to be having a great race. Ellen is unmissable with her smile and pink tape and sometimes pink coat.

Mental Game

The next many miles are a blur. The riding was good, harder than Friday with the soft, new snow. Even though the course looked flat in spots or even down, it felt like this whole stretch was some kind of climb. The last big climb of the race hit at mile 85 and the top was around mile 89. This climb was hard to ride so pushing the bike was nearly as fast and felt like a good choice much of it. Snowmobiles had messed up the surface as well so it’s slow snow.

This was a new part of the course that I haven’t seen before. I started hearing my breath loudly, and it felt a lot like what I’d experienced last Fat Pursuit, when I was sure I had altitude sickness.

I had a very serious conversation with myself. It’s a new part of the course, but there is nothing scary about it, it’s the same as the first part of the course. It’s fine. The top will come soon enough, it’s okay. It worked! My breathing changed back to how it’d been before, and I felt fine again. All that I had been experiencing was anxiety at the newness of the terrain. The sun was dropping in the sky and preparing for a second night is intimidating especially on a part of new-to-me-course.

An hour or two later, my friend from Boston who came out for Fat Pursuit, Brian, sent me a Garmin In-Reach message on this climb. It was a positive “you got this” message. I am new at the Garmin In-Reach but was able to figure out how to send a pre-programmed message back. I told him “I’m having a great time.” Which wasn’t exactly true at that moment. But I set my mind to find all of the ways in which I really was having a great time. This advice came straight from Jacob’s session at the FP workshop. A positive mental disposition is extremely important. It’s one thing to talk positively to self and a whole other to actually believe what you say to yourself. I worked on it until I believed what I was saying.

Made it to the top of the last climb!

The top of this climb was beautiful and the sun was setting. I saw Ellen for the last time here and was elated she got to see this same scene at the perfect time. The fast people didn’t get this sunset. Of course, they did get a pretty sunrise with nice conditions on Two Top, so there’s that.

The descent was slow with the powder tossing me off the bike from time to time. It was a tree-filled mountain, really nice. Soon it was pitch black, I was still surrounded by trees and enjoying the ride. Hallucinations of elves in the trees started in this area. They weren’t too numerous and they were all of friendly creatures Lord of the Rings style. Totally fine. This comes with sleep deprivation and is not frightening.

The course meandered along and then it goes around Island Park Reservoir and parallels a river for miles and many hours of pedaling. The trees disappear and then there’s nothing on both sides of the course. The moon was bright and it was snowing for awhile - yes, even with the bright moon! Sometimes there was thick fog, that was a bit eerie. Off to the right looked to be mountains in the distance.

I heard howling of either coyotes or wolves coming from the mountains. They were loud and many of them were out there. Then I had a hallucination of some creature that was in front of me, also right out of a fantasy book, that was ready to pounce. Jay would not put us on a course where animals will eat us I kept thinking. The creature ended up being snow and shadows from my light in the snow. It was fine! Continuing on.

Eventually, the trail turned into a snow-covered paved road that was passing by massive ranches. I was still in the middle of nowhere, but I was making progress to checkpoint 3 (an unmanned trailer).

How to make a long ride much longer

After getting on the paved road, my loooow tire pressure was making everything quite a bit slower than it needed to be. I considered the risk of adding air and causing problems. Something I shouldn’t do, I thought. But then, I succumbed to the allure of a faster ride and tried to add air into my back tire. The cold pump which had worked fine all day Friday for adding air, was too cold for the seals to work and it was useless. I flatted my tire in the process. Was it really that cold? Back-up time! I had CO2 cartridges and an inflator. I put the inflator next to the Hot Hands chemical hand warmers I’d had in my gloves to warm it up. Alas, I didn’t do it long enough, the CO2 air went everywhere except in the tire, the on/off valve simply didn’t work at all.

Rob had been waiting for me near checkpoint 3 to take a good night shot of me riding by. After waiting for me for awhile and wondering why my dot had stopped, he showed up on this dark road in the middle of nowhere in the rental vehicle. Naturally, I was alarmed at this stranger and got on the bike, riding it with the flat to not look like a damsel in distress. Finally, he said something and came over and I realized it was him. Thank goodness! He tried to offer good advice for the flat and to just ride it, it should be okay. I rode the bike slowly while warming the pump in my jacket and then tried adding air after a few minutes. The pump was back to life and I got a lot of air in there! Now I was flying!

…except the rear tire went flat again. Oh no! I spiraled to believing the tire had a big problem and it was going to be flat forever so I’d be walking the rest of the time. When I went to add air, I realized I hadn’t tightened the valve stem. Do I know better? Of course. This is what happens when the brain is tired.

So I added air yet again and the valve core came off with the pump. All of the air escaped. It takes a lot of pumps to get a fat tire full! Did it once again after tightening the valve core in there, and this time it held just fine. Whew! It wasn’t far to the trailer and CP 3 at this point so I didn’t have far enough to get warm again.

The trailer had big water containers and it was time for more water. I filled my bladder with about 3/4 L of what I thought was water but it came out milky yellow…hmmm. Bone broth! Then I found what was actually water and filled the rest of the bladder with that. I haven’t ever had bone broth on a ride and it’s my new favorite food. I don’t eat meat but I have no problem with this savory, nutrient-rich, creamy substance. Oh and it was warm!

Pulling out of the trailer, it felt like a cold, dark, still night. There’s no bivvying allowed after this since the last 11 miles of the race are called “a victory lap.” 11 miles sounds like nothing until one is sleep deprived and the body is beyond being out there for too long. My lights and everything with a battery started to suffer. It’s weird since the AAA lithium batteries aren’t supposed to be affected by sub zero temps, but my small flashing front light died. My headlamp did, too, but it was fine once I put it in my pocket and warmed it up. The rechargeable headlight showed signs of being close to the end of its life so I turned it to pulsing rather than low to save it as much as possible. It’s annoying to ride to a pulsing light! After it died ~45 minutes later, I rode by the light of the moon for awhile. It was bright enough to see just well enough. Finally, I pulled out another small backup light that I’d been warming in my jacket and put that on, set to pulsing since it was the very last one that I had. (I couldn’t remember where I stashed the last battery for my powerful headlight and was worried I had forgotten to bring it.)

The last section was really fun terrain and I liked it! I wish I could have been there in the daylight.

My derailleur stopped shifting. I was sure it was just too cold to work. Again, tired brain talking here. I had another full backup battery which I knew was with me and ready to go, but it didn’t occur to me to try it out. I just saw the snowy rear derailleur and decided it had frozen up. This is crazy to think since my bike worked absolutely fine at -9 degrees after a night of sleeping outside with me so of course at 6 to 9 degrees, the battery is going to be fine. So there I was stuck in my 42 tooth cog paired with the 26t chainring for the rest of the race on a course that had almost no climbs left. I really enjoy finishing races strong, coming in fast (er, relatively fast) so the super spinning I was doing didn’t cut it and I couldn’t speed to the finish line even though my legs told me they still had something left to give. How much? Will never know!

For those who are thinking I’m not so smart for having an electronic shifting bike, I saw plenty of people have issues with mechanical shifting bikes when things freeze in both the shifter and derailleur so all systems will have issues in the cold. I was just too tired to do the logical thing that I would have advised any group rider to do on a typical ride.

It was about two hours prior to the finish (43 hours in) that I started to feel pressure on my saddle, my shoulders got sore from the weight of the hydration pack, and knees felt a bit creaky. Going this long without any physical discomfort was a major win. Everything is much more dialed now than 2 years ago.

The finish (4:05am Sunday) was the best! Rob was there taking photos and there to welcome me back. I am so lucky he was there, his presence and support means the world.

Jay and a volunteer were there to proctor the water boil test and it looked like they had been out there for the entire night. Jay was there for every single finisher. And because he had the water boil at the end, that meant he interacted and had conversations with everyone who had energy left to chat. It was the best way to end the race and be able to say THANK YOU to Jay.

No excuses

Throughout the race, I was repeating and reviewing this mantra. I came up with others as well surrounding the concept of being prepared and never needing to end a ride if one brings the right stuff. No excuses. One makes one’s own luck. Things go wrong, it’s just a matter of managing whatever it is with a clear head, leaning on experience. Preparation and practice lead to efficiency and speed in all facets of this race or any endeavor one takes on.

There are countless reasons why getting to the starting line is impossible. Another thousand or so why getting to the finish line is impossible.

Crossing the finish is not a finish, it’s a mark in time. Photo above: water boil test just prior to the finish line. The learning of the past week will stay with me forever, as will the memories of the people, the conversations, the smiles, the hugs, and high fives. There is so much more to be learned, but the foundation is solidly in place to build on and I intend to attempt to impart what I have gained with everyone with whom I ride and interact.

I left my fear of cold behind. I learned how to talk myself out of dangerous breathing. I feel capable of taking on anything. I want to keep improving, be more efficient, do my work more quickly and proactively on the bike, constantly being on top of doing the right stuff at every moment on every ride.

Thank you

Thank yous can’t be properly expressed in words for the experiences I’ve had this past week. The instructors at Fat Pursuit camp: Perry Jewett, Jason Hanson, Jennifer Hanson, Jacob Hora, Jay Petervary were each fantastic. Jay for being the visionary behind it all and for being truly interested in growing each person who comes out to both the workshop and race. He does it for important reasons so far beyond “just” wanting to run a race. Tracey Petervary does a ton of organization and heavy lifting to make everything run smoothly while also managing all of the pre-race logistics. She is a force making so much happen that is not obvious. ALL of the volunteers, photo below, who support the racers at Fat Pursuit tirelessly and still have these smiles to share at the 12:00pm toast on Sunday.

Hosts Nan and Mike who made sure Rob and I had the full community experience the whole time and made sure we ate well and offered advice and guidance throughout. Friend Brian who came out from Boston for Fat Pursuit and who was so enthusiastic about it, that helped me stay on it where it came to training and proper prep prior to heading out to Idaho. Rob who supports me and the things I want to do in all of the ways, and his presence was good for other riders also.

Everyone who watched my dot and sent encouraging messages along in email, social media, txt, etc: your notes meant the world to me! I felt you watching me out there and it felt incredible to get “congrats” notes after I finished before I had even woken up in the morning after finishing!

The value of people near and far is highlighted in special ways with an event like Fat Pursuit. This is a world-class race that has reached “holiday week” status for many, and it’s run exceptionally well with riders’ safety a top priority. I recommend it to everyone, especially to those whose first reaction is to call it “crazy.”

Open the door to having Fat Pursuit as a goal for next year, and enjoy the journey that lies ahead.

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown, MA

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles next Friday, October 18, 2024 at 11:00am!

Seven Cycles is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and they build incredible bikes within their walls. There is no bike builder more focused on offering the best experience for each rider than Seven Cycles. There is also no frame designer with deeper knowledge of frame design and bike building materials than Seven. Few builders test their designs; Seven invests in testing to be sure what they build will withstand the demands of the most avid riders.

This deep interest in the riding experience and frame building knowledge translates to every single bike being the very best bike for each rider. We regularly receive comments from new bike owners who have been blown away by their bikes. Some of the countless rave reviews that we’ve received via email:

“The bike is stiffer and more comfortable. This blows my mind.” - JC, Axiom SL

“I truly could not be happier with my new bike.  I am still trying to figure out how to describe the ride - the bike feels like it is floating or gliding over, rather than rolling on, the road.  The bike just soaks up bad road surfaces, and yet feels very responsive and agile.” - HH, Evergreen SL

“The bike feels magical. I'm in love.” - JM, Axiom S

“Best money I have ever spent.” -AO, Treeline SL

Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See the steps of fabricating frames and watch how frames go from a Frame Specification to a complete frame ready to be built into a bike on this very informative tour. The tour is 45 minutes to an hour and includes time for questions and answers.

Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

Please RSVP below so we can email you directions and know how many to plan on attending.

We’ll email all who RSVP by 5pm the day before the tour with directions to Seven and parking information. There is ample free parking available near Seven.

RSVP here to attend & if you can’t make it, let us know so we let you know of future tours!

What it's like to race the MOAT Mountain 24 Hours of Great Glen and why you should go next year

24-hour mountain bike races are few and far between and are some of the most special events out there. They aren’t well known so if you’re hearing about it for the first time here, you’re in the vast majority. 24 hour races involve a full weekend of being a tight-knit community living together in a pop-up tent city next to the course. Families and friends of racers come join in the weekend festivities to support and be part of the party, and there is a huge crew of volunteers and staff who make this whole little city run smoothly for the whole weekend. People start arriving the minute organizers say that the camping areas are open so as to stake out their space, pitch tents, assemble complicated outdoor kitchens for their team.

Before I dive into this event and the details that I can remember, first a massive THANK YOU to the promoters of the MOAT Mountain 24 Hours of Great Glen, (#24HOGG), the volunteers, and every single person who had a kind word to say. I’m leaving out some special moments and people in this post, but it’s already too long and I can’t remember everything right now. Every single person made the difference out there throughout the weekend! It was the best of cycling community and positive vibe from the very beginning until we rolled out of the field we’d called home for the weekend.

NEER’s home base was comfortable with lots of tents, tables, trees, and lights around a pop-up for night time hanging out. The big, red van was hiding behind its large awning. We wanted to be ready for both the sun and rain, and we really hoped predicted thunderstorms didn’t materialize (they didn’t).

Starting at 12pm noon on Saturday, racers battle the course, the conditions, the heat of the day, the dark of night, the wet of the rain, and all of the challenges together. Everyone shares the same course no matter one’s race category, men and women, junior racers to seasoned racing veterans. I love being part of a mixed field of people. Racing is not the reason I’m there, yet this aspect played into my overall good feelings of the weekend which I’ll get into later. The top organized race events of my life have all been an everyone-races-together scenario. Great examples: Unbound and Fat Pursuit. Every group ride I ever do falls into this category too, but right now, I’m talking about racing.

There are a lot of rules and interesting things that surround what a 24-hour race is and how it’s run. I’ll highlight some in this race report. Most racers participate on a team of 2 people, 4 or 5 people. In this race, 72 out of the 456 entrants were 24-hour solo racers. There are 12-hour categories as well. Some multi-person categories are women-only categories, some delineated by age, others are mixed so men and women can be on the same team. For the teams, one team member races at a time, then at the end of the lap, that person taps out to the next team member who races the next lap of the course. The promoters keep track of all of the data surrounding each lap for each person and team. It’s an impressive task to keep track of everyone’s timing, what lap each racer is on, who is on which team, all of that good stuff.

It’s certainly fun to see the stats afterward: how many laps were done at night, what the fastest lap was, who had the most overtakes, the statistics are endless.

I went with a group of people who are part of the New England Expedition Riders AKA NEER. My original intent was to be on a team of 4 others for the shared experience. To make a very long story short, we ended up with 5 people wanting to be on the team so I kicked myself off of it, electing for a solo 24-hour category a couple of weeks ago. This is something I had never, ever considered doing. But once I did it, I couldn’t not get excited about the prospect of racing for 24 hours. Besides, I need to be training for Fat Pursuit and this is ideal.

NEER friends Ben, Mike and I did a course recon ride on Friday evening to see what we’d be in store for during the race. Our other NEER teammate, arrived later at camp so she wasn’t there for the pre-ride.

20 years ago, I attended the 24 Hours at Moab mountain bike race only as a volunteer. It’s one of the first things I ever did as a new cyclist and it introduced me to good friends who I then got into road cycling with. When I was in Moab, I saw pro-level men crack in the middle of the night and quit. My impression was that 24 hours of mountain bike racing is impossible. Fortunately, there’s no rule that you can’t stop at any time, you still get to be in the results. Some 24 hour races have different rules about being on the course near the end, this one didn’t have anything like that.

It’s taken me 20 years to do my first 24-hour race and this is my second mountain bike race ever. Never too late to start. I highly recommend volunteering for one of these races because the camaraderie and community vibe is so great, much of the fun simply has to do with being part of the whole thing.

This is Heidi, she and I happened to sit next to each other at the racer meeting held just before race time. She and I were in the same category, it was fun to meet her and chat with her before the meeting started. She last raced here solo 16 years ago! It was neat to see her on course and know the person behind the helmet.

On the podium with Jessica Nankman and Lauri Webber. All fresh as daisies at least in this moment for the camera!

Winning the race: my top secret strategy

Work has been out-of-control bonkers with lots of new bikes being ordered (and tax-free weekend is coming up in a few days!) I didn’t have a plan hashed out and hadn’t thought much about the race itself. I was more worried over the logistics surrounding the organization of the 4-person team.

I won my age group (women 41 and over) and was 2nd overall woman. I logged 16 laps. To add credibility to this result (there aren’t a lot of women participants but those who were there took it seriously), the 6th place man under 41 yrs old logged 16 laps as did the 4th place man 41+ years old. In case it’s not obvious from my other race reports (where I’ve come in mid-pack or further back), doing well here had absolutely nothing to do with the experience and my happiness at having done it. But it’s a fun story to tell!

My strategy: go steady and just keep moving. My transitions (time in between laps) could have been faster, but they were a lot faster than I thought they would be. Originally, I thought there would be time to get back to the team campsite, make a sandwich, fill a water bottle, change into a clean/dry jersey and bibs, mosey back to course every other lap. My husband, Rob, was there and he was a saint to meet me at the race tent after every single lap to give me a full water bottle of High Carb Skratch mix (400 calories per bottle), a 1/2 bottle of plain water, and whatever else I might need. He may have slept for 40 minutes total all night. That’s much harder than racing.

I knew I didn’t want to sleep, that was something I wanted to avoid if at all possible. I think I may have shut my eyes for 5-10 minutes during one transition break while sitting up in a chair, but I don’t know if I actually fell asleep during the full almost 25 hours of the race. Yeah, I made a long race longer. Keep reading.

The idea of going back to camp even once flew out the window the moment the gun went off and I realized that this is a race and the competitive part of my brain turned on and I had to at least try to race, and give it my best.

NEER friends Mike, Ben, and I at camp Friday evening. I wondered what was happening here when I was out racing and knew if I returned, I’d never leave to continue racing.

I’m not a technical mountain biker, and I knew other people would beat me in the techy parts of the course. My level of mountain bike riding confidence went up from the pre-ride to the end of the race but I’m still not going to race on boardwalks or wet rocks. I know I have the ability to ride for hours and climb reasonably well so I made sure to take advantage of the carriage road portions, get off of the brakes on descents, and move as quickly through the parts that were above my ability level either by riding slowly or getting off of the bike and walking over/around whatever it was.

Seeing other people out there walking their bikes in places was comforting. No one is doing this thing perfectly, everyone is having their difficulties, and no one seemed to be judging anyone else. All I saw all day and night were kind people being nice to each other and fast guys saying “thank you” when I’d move out of their way so they could keep moving. The fast guys were really fast, it was fun to see them fly. There were fast women and some very strong junior girls out there passing me, too, riding with tremendous confidence.

I watch pro mountain bike racing all of the time on tv. They show the top few riders the whole time, the difficulties people have, even at the top of the sport, rarely get shown on tv. Those courses are so much more gnarly than this course. I think others would agree this ~9.1 mile course was really well designed with a perfect mix of elements and fun spots, whoop-dee-doos, let-er-rip descents. The climbs were hard, the course required nearly constant attention and both hands on the handlebars, thus not many opportunities to take a drink. It was also very beautiful. I have no pictures from the course. This is one time I put my phone away and didn’t look at it for over 24 hours. It was like being on another planet.

Race bike setup FTW

I raced my Seven Cycles Treeline fat bike with 27.5 / 2.8” tires which is also my winter fat bike with a different set of wheels and fork swap. I got compliments on the bike during the race from guys who wished they weren’t hauling the weight of their dual suspension bikes. I doubt any of them could tell I was on a fat bike since the bike doesn’t look fat when mountain bike wheels are on it. The course was ideal for a titanium hardtail since there weren’t any jumps or huge features that favor a dual suspension bike, but staying planted on the wet roots, rocks, and boardwalks was important which the titanium participates in beautifully. With a little over 1,030 feet of climbing per lap, having a light bike that transfers all of my energy into the forward motion of the bike was important. Being in a perfect position and protected by the smoothness of the titanium added to my comfort. I didn’t have any pain from being on the bike for a total rolling time of 21.5 hours. My thumb got sore from shifting the electronic shifter since I was shifting so much. Imagine if it were mechanical shifting! And one of my toes got sore. I have no idea where that came from. No saddle pain, back pain, or any of the other pains showed up that are likely causes of people hanging up their mountain bike for the day.

Race bike set up with its 29” wheels. I took off the extra mount on the handlebars where I usually keep the 360 camera because the steep hills require getting close to the bars to stay balanced. Chompy, the adventurous dinosaur joined in on every lap in my handlebar feedbag.

Gearing: 30t chainring, 10-52 cassette. SRAM Eagle AXS. I was in the 30-52 low gear plenty, especially on Blueberry Hill. That hill is long, steep and the sun baked riders on it since it’s paved. Cruelty. But another reason to love the night laps!

I had debated 29” wheels and 27.5” wheels and decided that since I’ve spent more time on the plumper 27.5”/2.8” tires, those would be my race setup. The 29” wheels are great and very light, but they were new to me 2 days before the race and riding unfamiliar wheels on unfamiliar terrain isn’t smart.

Two of my NEER friends who were at the race have very similar bike setups: Seven Cycles Treeline bikes that are designed for dual wheelsets and both fat tires and this kind of mountain bike riding. Versatility and easy-to-manage bikes that do this kind of thing very well, offer balanced control, confidence, and comfort with all necessary speed. If it weren’t for the confidence my bike gives me, I would not be mountain bike riding, it’s that simple.

Gaining a new identity: Number 9

With my big yellow number, everyone knew I was a solo rider. The whole race I heard “great job solo rider!” And that was so nice to have this constant encouragement and positive vibe from all of these other racers and spectators out there. Most of the other racers were faster than me and they were being so darn nice. I exchanged stories and a few broken sentences with a number of people.

Best story: I met a woman who was doing the race with her husband as a 2-person team. They were trading laps and caring for their 1-year-old! LOVE these stories! I hope that worked out for both of them and their kiddo.

I was still clean on the first lap. This and the other pro photos taken by Rob Vandermark.

There’s so much camaraderie out there across all riders, and there’s even more shared by solo riders. The amount of camaraderie seemed to increase as the race went on as well. At the beginning, I didn’t trust I could do it or that I would want to go past 2 laps. A compliment from someone early on wasn’t anything I felt I deserved because anyone can register for a big ride. I’d just laugh and say, “Let’s just see where I’m at tomorrow morning.” After getting through enough laps, at some point, I could accept that I’d taken on a challenge that wasn’t too big or scary.

One of the volunteers told me really nice things when I passed through the tent in the middle of the night: “You’re having a great race, Number 9.” The way he delivered his messages, he made me feel like I was doing something special. I wish I could have said “thank you” to him at the end of the race. Words matter and in the middle of the night, there aren’t many of them. All of the volunteers were nice and many were part-time cheerleaders too. Number 9 was my name throughout the race and I loved it.

How the race began: Making mountain bikers run!

I’m not a runner. But here we gooooo!!

Many 24-hour races start by having the first person from each team run to their bike. It’s called a Le Mans start. This keeps the start safer since everyone runs at a different pace and bikes are placed at various positions. We are cyclists NOT necessarily runners. I don’t know how to run in my bike shoes! The solo racers plodded their way to their bikes and though it’s been basically forever since I’ve gone on a real run, I felt like it got my whole body moving nicely, blood flowing, nerves shook out on this little run that was probably all of 5 minutes or less to lap the pond and grab the bike.

Racers ran past their bikes, around the lake, then back to where the bike is sitting and then it’s time to find the bike and ride!

The lap blow by blow

I’m not going to bore you with details of every lap. Mostly because it’s a blur now. Here are the highlights of what I can remember:

Lap 1 - 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

• Trying to suss out who’s who in the field as we were standing around waiting for the starting cannon to go off. There are too many racers to see all of the women in my field and figure out who looks serious.

• Once we started on the bike, I saw some go ahead of me, and I saw plenty of 24-hour solo men going around my pace. I was very careful to stay steady, smooth, resist any temptation to go hard. I watched my heart rate trying to stay in zone 2 (endurance, talking pace) as much as is possible without falling over on a climb.

• The first trail section started and people got jammed up. Lots of people hadn’t pre-ridden the course so it was a surprise to them. Most people were patient with the traffic jam.

• The course was warm, dry in most places, and sketchy descents were a little better since there had been some rain overnight.

Lap 2 - 1:23 PM - 2:38 PM

• The fastest laps of the day for me. Dry trails, confidence, freshness.

• At one point, I was trying to get off my bike and instead slipped and fell. Immediately I got two very serious cramps, one in each leg and I couldn’t move. Two guys (solo riders I think) were there and wanted to help. I explained that all was well, I just needed to get the cramps to go away. I’ve never cramped on the bike before so that was a little unnerving, but after pulling my feet back, the cramps went away and I got back on the bike. All of that drama must not have taken much time given the speed of this lap compared with my others! 1 hour 14 minutes for those of you wondering. And no, this is not fast compared with the fastest lap of the day which was sub 40 minutes. The fastest solo man had a 45 minute fastest lap and 1 hour 7 minute slowest lap. He did 25 total laps. Fastest lap for any woman solo 24-hr was 1 hour 5 minutes.

Lap 3 - 2:47 PM - 4:08 PM

• I think this is when I got up the nerve to ride the floating bridge. The entrance to the bridge is a bit intimidating and I was certain I’d ride right into the pond which, with the high temps and humidity, would not have been unwelcome. As I started onto the bridge, I heard someone encouraging me to just roll onto it. Turns out it was NEER friend Dave who was also doing a 24-hour solo race riding right behind me!

Riding the bridge makes for great photos. Only problem is that photographer and my super supporter husband couldn’t do both things since the start/finish and bridge are too close together. I was glad he figured out how to capture this crossing!

Lap 4-5 - 4:09 PM - 5:24 PM & 5:42 PM - 6:57 PM

Feast of tortilla and nutella. Great combo except my stomach started refusing food not all that long after this was taken.

• No memory of these laps except that at the end of lap 5, I felt like I really needed to eat something and few things sounded digestible. Skratch Labs in my bottles and Honey Stingers gummy chews were all I could eat. I tried some fake chicken salad and it went down easily. I think there were some pickles in it. I was craving pickles but hadn’t thought to pack any. DOH!

• The sun went down somewhere in this time, all racers are required to have 2 headlights starting at 7pm. It’s racer’s choice as to when they are turned on. It’s dark early in the woods!

Lap 6 - 7:11 PM - 8:31 PM

• Got into the transition area with no problem, got bottles, drank, the usual.

• Made it about 200 yards into lap 6 when I felt like I was going to vomit. Got off the bike and quickly dispensed of all stomach contents next to the pond. No more fake chicken salad in stomach. But I needed those calories in there. A nice guy who was camping on the course near where I was getting sick came over to offer water and anything I needed. He must be a dad, he asked me if I felt better or worse. The answer was “I think better.” Except I knew I would miss the calories and wondered if my race was over.

• Found I could continue to drink the Skratch bottle and plain water tasted much better. So I fueled the lap and made it to lap 7.

At dusk it was still bright enough out but under the trees, bright lights were necessary to see anything.

Laps 7-10 - 8:42 PM - 3:18 AM

Eating half of a s’more and staring at the fire. Good scene at Temptation corner!

• All night laps, all good. I loved the quiet of night, that there were fewer racers on course because the 12-hour racers were done by 1:15am, and so many people were sleeping. The race tent that had been buzzing with activity was quite and subdued in the middle of the night with many fewer racers coming in and out.

• This was my chance to make up for time lost, I was in 2nd place with 3rd and 4th places not far behind. And it looked like they might be sleeping. It was hard to know. Just keep moving.

• At some point, it started to rain, I think that might be lap 8 around midnight? (Memory is so foggy). The temps cooled when the sun went down and the rain felt great. Everything got slipperier and the mucky, previously slimy sections got slimier.

• I just kept thinking about how much I love night riding and was remembering some of the many pleasant times I’ve had on Full Moon rides and other night rides with friends. I find trails easier to ride at night and no, I don’t ride faster (everyone goes slower), but lights focus your attention on the trail, there are no distractions, it’s quiet and peaceful.

• From 7pm-11pm the promoters had a fire on the far side of the course, and were serving up bacon and s’mores. Rob met me here for a s’more. I ate half and couldn’t get down the rest. At least I tried!

Lap 11-12 - 3:30 AM - 5:06 AM & 5:55 AM - 7:19 AM

• At this point, I was getting ahead of the others in my race probably because they were sleeping. They probably figured I would, too. Technically, if everyone else is cracked, then I could stop here and get a finish time that ends up with a podium spot. Sounds good to me. I got tired and with the rain, it was chilly after stopping for too long. I was shivering (even with a jacket), and I closed my eyes. Not sure if there was sleep there, but those few minutes of closed eyes was good. I was stopped for 49 minutes and that was almost too much. Rob told me it was time to either go back to the tent to sleep or go back to the race. I knew if I laid down on the (very comfy) air mattress in the tent, I would never wake up. Time to race!

• Dawn started at the beginning of lap 12 and I never felt even a wink of tiredness after that point.

Lap 13 - 7:25:29 AM - 8:48:55 AM

• I think I told the judges I hoped this would be the last lap. I’d know when I returned if the other women had woken up and started racing again or if they were done.

• Not long into this lap (I think it was this lap!), I spied a woman with a yellow number passing me when I was dealing with stuffing my rain jacket into my pocket for too much time. I didn’t know what lap she was on or anything, I just knew that it was close between me and at least 2 others so I couldn’t mess around any longer.

• Game ON!

Lap 14 - 8:55:28 AM - 10:13:48 AM

• Up to this point, I was mostly riding to see how long I could stay on the bike and try to make it to noon Sunday. Suddenly, the feeling of racing started, the feeling of chasing and being chased. What a great feeling! What’s going to happen, how will this play out? Time to shift mindset from finishing to how to finish, how to win this thing, if that’s possible.

• Everyone is awake and racing, maybe they’re fresh, maybe they’re dealing with what I saw in some of the men: 2-hour sleeps are brutal. Wake up to feel worse than before the sleep.

• I’m trying to do the math on how to make this work. The rule is this: if you come through the finish line before 12pm, you can do another lap. The race ends at 12pm so if you arrive just after this time, that’s your lap count. If competitors have the same lap count, the fastest time wins the race. If you leave for your last lap prior to 12pm, you have to finish before 1:15pm or that lap doesn’t count.

• With my lap times right around 1 hr 15 minutes, I’d need to get through the next lap with enough time before 12pm to give me time for yet another lap. Not that I wanted to do two more laps, but there was a race happening now and I am here to race!

Lap 15 - 8:55 AM - 10:13 AM

• Gotta keep moving! Rain stopped somewhere before this I think. Hopefully the sun stays away. The sun was absolutely brutal Saturday and I didn’t want to try to reapply sunscreen.

• I saw another woman with a yellow number on her bike across the course on the first half of this lap. My heart jumped, I was certain this was the woman who was in 2nd who would be hunting me down. I couldn’t see her number, I just knew the chances were good I was going to have to stay ahead of her in this section since she would get me on the technical portions of the technical part of the lap a little later on. Also, if I saw her at this point, we couldn’t have been that far away from each other on the course. YIKES! RACE!

• Now I’m trying to move faster and I’m passing by people who are on their last lap and happy to be done. The fast guys were really fast (just like at night) and the slower guys were getting chatty. It was sweet, but I was now trying to race and I was running out of energy to talk in general. Funny change in things from a bit earlier when I was more in that chatty mode.

• Doing the math figuring out if I’d need to do another lap or not. I didn’t drink my full Skratch bottle since I figured it’d need to last 2 laps. Rob wouldn’t necessarily have more clarity than me on the situation and I’d need to make the next transition very fast.

• This lap was within seconds of my fastest lap of the day. By playing it safe all of this time, I had more to give to this race…

This is Jessica Nankman from PA on her first lap. Turns out (thanks to Google that I am just now employing to learn who everyone was out there), she is an experienced 24-hour and endurance mtb racer. I’m sure she gambled that I would sleep and that would have made the difference. The odds were in her favor. Rob got this great photo of her that I’m just now seeing! Now that I see this photo, I think I may have seen her on course. One of the people who you look at and you know they have it all together.

Lap 16 - 11:32 AM - 12:49 PM

• I thought I’d be passing through the tent later than 11:30am, but this timing allowed me a much longer last lap to still get credit for completing this last lap before 1:15pm, the race time cut off.

• The problem with not doing a last lap is that if the woman who I am sure is right on my heels chasing me crosses the line before 12pm, she gets 1 more lap. That would put us on the same lap and in an actual race during the entire lap for the win. Again, I am pretty sure she’s faster than me, so I can’t let this happen.

• I have a 46 second transition, I don’t try to find Rob, hope he’s not too confused as to why I didn’t come find him in the race tent like on every other lap, and I take off on this last lap with zest. I’m still sure I’m being chased and am not sticking around to find out the details. I debate whether I’ll pick up my phone if he calls me. He could be calling to say she didn’t make the 12pm time cut so I could stop racing and come back.

• This last lap is 1 hr 16 minutes, so not far off from my fastest lap. I inquired (without being too annoying or hoped this to be the case) with people I saw on course. as to whether they’d just passed a woman with yellow number. No one had seen anyone. Still, not leaving things to chance, I completed the lap and finished feeling great. And yes, this is how a 24-hour race stretched to almost 25 hours.

The Finish

I was smiling at everyone standing at the end cheering, so nice to see a bunch of people there at the end!!! I felt good and was satisfied with the effort and my race.

The end of the story is that the woman, Jessica, who was the actual person who was chasing was just far enough back that she wasn’t able to take the last lap. Thus, I didn’t have to ride that last lap after all. I don’t remember seeing her out there once the whole race, same with the woman who came in third. So all of the people who were freaking me out who I thought were chasing weren’t the ones to worry about! But having them there and feeling that “being chased” feeling added to the fun.

Jessica was super friendly and said a few things on the podium about the time she slept and I really wanted to spend a whole lot more time digging into the details with her and Lauri who took 3rd to hear their stories of what they’d been through, how long they’d slept, what their races had involved. Pretty sure I wasn’t capable of conversation now being hours since eating anything and a total of 31 hours since sleeping. It was time to rest.

Everyone scattered post-podium and I headed straight for that air mattress for a good, long 2-3 hour nap before breaking down camp and heading home.

Moments after the race, I took a few deep breaths then joined NEER friend Ben in the river just a few yards away to clean up and feel like a new person for the awards ceremony at 2pm. There wasn’t much time to decompress and I didn’t eat anything though I knew food was necessary, it just wasn’t going to happen yet. Cold seltzer water did go down and hit the spot!

What I learned & what I hope you take from this

• 24 hour races are for EVERYONE. Racers, people who ride mountain bikes but don’t consider themselves “racers,” non-riders, young and old. Sign up for the races, they’re not expensive when you consider it’s a full weekend of camping (10am Friday until 10am Monday), well organized, there’s a t-shirt… it costs promoters a LOT to run something like this on this scale. Keep them in business! Volunteer if you’re not a racer. Take your kids to the kids’ race and kids activities.

• I felt I had an advantage with my age (46 at the time of the race, 47 at the time of this writing) and experience of being a cyclist despite my major lack of mountain bike-specific experience. I knew how to keep my heart rate low. I don’t know that younger people can tolerate the lack of sleep as well. The point is to race your strengths, give yourself grace on your weaknesses, and just keep moving forward. Everyone is having some trouble out there, you’re never alone.

• Fuel the ride and go in with a plan and back-up plan with your team/support people & communicate. Practice eating on long rides and make sure to keep the calories coming in however you can tolerate them. I should have had ice cream and pickles at the ready since these foods work well for me when I’m deep into a ride. Next time.

• Having a bucket of ice to just put on my skin or wash off with would have felt great. If it’s feasible, that’s a treat in between laps.

• Get to the venue as soon as they say it’s open. Getting in late doesn’t give you enough time to prep everything and get decent sleep prior to the race start. 12pm is EARLY, it is not as late as it sounds given the amount of pre-race prep is necessary.

• Pre-ride the course before the race so you know what to expect and have a chance to practice anything you’re not certain of prior to needing to race it.

• Twist your friends’ arms, it’s a good time to spend together. Like the promoters of this race said: Tell your employer you’ll be sick Monday after the race. Truth. It was nearly impossible to think enough to get any work done today. Take time to recover, replenish, and reflect on the event. A whole heck of a lot happens in that 24 hours as well as the many days before it starts.

Savor the experience, grow from it, realize just how much more you’re capable of than you ever thought possible, and make plans to return the following year!

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown, MA

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles next Wednesday, July 31, 2024 at 11:00am!

Seven Cycles is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and they build incredible bikes within their walls. There is no bike builder more focused on offering the best experience for each rider than Seven Cycles. There is also no frame designer with deeper knowledge of frame design and bike building materials than Seven. Few builders test their designs; Seven invests in testing to be sure what they build will withstand the demands of the most avid riders.

This deep interest in the riding experience and frame building knowledge translates to every single bike being the very best bike for each rider. We regularly receive comments from new bike owners who have been blown away by their bikes. Some of the countless rave reviews that we’ve received via email:

“I truly could not be happier with my new bike.  I am still trying to figure out how to describe the ride - the bike feels like it is floating or gliding over, rather than rolling on, the road.  The bike just soaks up bad road surfaces, and yet feels very responsive and agile.” - HH, Evergreen SL

“The bike feels magical. I'm in love.” - JM, Axiom S

“I love my bike…best bike ever!” - LC, Evergreen S

“Best money I have ever spent.” -AO, Treeline SL

Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See the steps of fabricating frames and watch how frames go from a Frame Specification to a complete frame ready to be built into a bike on this very informative tour. The tour is 45 minutes to an hour and includes time for questions and answers.

Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

Please RSVP below so we can email you directions and know how many to plan on attending.

We’ll email all who RSVP by 5pm the day before the tour with directions to Seven and parking information. There is ample free parking available near Seven.

RSVP here to attend & if you can’t make it, let us know so we let you know of future tours!

Clinic: Fixing a broken chain & drivetrain issues. Saturday, June 29, 3:00-3:45pm, Arlington Reservoir

After a rider’s derailleur hanger broke, everyone pitched in to turn the bike into a single speed. This clinic gives you the know-how to deal with this and many other common drivetrain issues.

Do you know how to fix a chain on the road or trail? It is fairly common to need to deal with a broken chain on a ride or shorten the chain in case of a broken rear derailleur.

• Overview of drivetrain issues that happen on rides

• How to use a chain breaker to take out bad links in a chain

• How to put the chain back together, what power links are all about & compatibilities

• Proper tools to use and what you should carry with you in your saddle bag

• Mitigating other issues commonly experienced with the drivetrain

• Hands on practice is included! We’ll have an old chain that can be taken apart and put back together.

• Q&A

Location

Arlington Reservoir - 250 Lowell St. This is a parking lot, we’ll be in a grassy area near the lot. Look for our big, red van!

Time

We’ll begin promptly at 3pm & wrap up by 3:45pm. We’ll stick around for additional questions.

RSVP here so we know to expect you!

What we sell to help you on the road and the trail to fix your chain issues:

Chain Fixing Kit

$54.00

All of the tools you need to fix your drivetrain on any bike that pack away nicely in a saddle bag. The Lezyne chain tool includes chain pliers, chain breaker, rotor alignment tool, and core remover.

The kit includes 3 sets of Power Links if you have a SRAM chain and 2 sets if you have a Shimano chain.

Quantity:

Add To Cart

Tubeless Tire Clinic, Saturday, June 8 3-3:45pm, Arlington Reservoir

Do you ride tubeless tires or are considering going tubeless? Come out to learn all about tubeless in road, gravel & mtn tires. We’ll cover these topics:

• Why go tubeless - advantages and considerations

• Maintaining a tubeless setup, what to do throughout the life of your tires

• What can go wrong and how to manage problems

• If you ride tubeless and have tubeless fixing tools such as bacon, plugs, darts, etc., bring what you use. We’ll supply a tire that we’ll practice fixing together.

• Sealant types & management of it, how often to add sealant, when to clean out your tires.

• Q&A

Location

Arlington Reservoir - 250 Lowell St. This is a parking lot, we’ll be in a grassy area near the lot. Look for our big, red van!

Time

We’ll begin promptly at 3pm & wrap up by 3:45pm. We’ll stick around for additional questions.

RSVP below so we know to expect you!

Why it's important for you to ride a bike built with you in mind

Ride HQ’s Founder, Patria, recently worked with Jay Petervary on this new Evergreen XX gravel bike. Jay is a legend in the gravel, endurance, and bikepacking world, winning numerous summer and winter endurance events. He’s ridden a lot of performance carbon and titanium bikes. Of his Seven Evergreen, he says: “It’s the nicest bike and nicest riding bike I have ever owned.

He also frequently mentions how much the bike makes him smile when he’s riding it.

Photo by @dhughes101

Riding a well-built bike, made for the riding you want to do, built out of the right materials and the right size is not a luxury, it’s important to allow you to get what you want out of the time you spend riding. In most cases, safety and health are at the heart of the conversation also.

Safety comes in many forms. A safe bike is one that offers the lowest risk of leaving you by the side of the trail needing to call for a ride. It offers control in all situations from descending to staying upright when accidentally hitting a pothole.

Health comes in many forms. When your bike wants you to ride it, you ride it. A comfortable ride encourages longer rides. A bike that keeps up with friends encourages you to get out there on the group rides. Riding translates to physical well being. Riding is also mental health and a social outlet for many. Riding a bike that is harsh, too stiff, makes noises, isn’t confidence inspiring, is the wrong size or fit means you’re less likely to want to ride.

“I love this bike so much.” -EK on his Seven Evergreen. He’s put a year of hard gravel and mixed terrain riding on this bike.

There are the obvious things people come to us saying they want such as:

• I want a road bike with disc brakes and new components (such as electronic shifting).

• I want to get into gravel.

• It’s time to upgrade my gravel bike, I’ve proven to myself that I want to spend more time riding gravel/mixed terrain.

• I want to travel with my bike and need something I can depend on and something that will hold up to the rigors of travel, TSA, and have parts accessible in other corners of the world.

• I want to get a bike that fits right/want to alleviate some obvious discomfort.

• I want to gift my loved one a bike that I know they’ll enjoy.

• I want a bike that will do everything from road riding to gravel riding.

• Insert event name here, I want a bike for this event. More than once, we’ve heard: I am doing Leadville, I want the best mountain bike for this race. I am doing Unbound, I want the best gravel bike for this race.

Being able to forget about your bike and just know that it’ll work and feel good under you allows you to focus on where you’re at, the nature you’re traversing, the people you’re riding with. Photo by NEER.

Then there are the things people don’t ask for since they don’t know to ask, but probably should:

• I want to be able to ride a bike that doesn’t require proprietary parts to keep it running.

• I want to know my frame will withstand all of my riding and not have anything happen mid-ride such as the derailleur hanger bending/breaking, front derailleur mount pulling out, frame wearing a hole if the bike is ridden in thick mud.

• I want to be able to service my bike myself or have it done quickly & inexpensively at a local shop.

• I want the bike to ride quietly and smoothly.

• I want the bike to fit right now, and I want to be able to modify my position as I ride and need a different position (older riders need a less aggressive position, less experienced riders often need a more aggressive position).

• I want to be able to standover the bike comfortably and/or I don’t want toe overlap.

• I want to get rid of hand numbness (it’s amazing how many people think that numb hands is just something they need to contend with).

I want to be able to keep up with my friends.

A road rider came to us looking for a bike that would allow her the ability to keep up on climbs with her friends. Once in awhile, she’d like to do some gravel riding as well. She says of her bike: “[It] is fast, easy to pick up the pace on the hills and feels well balanced and safe. I am so grateful to your team.” 

• We discuss what you want, how your friends ride, where you ride, and what you think is holding you back.

• We look at the gearing you have on your current bike and suggest gearing that makes sense for your riding. Most people need lower gearing (for easier spinning on hills). We do the math from what you’re riding now to what you’re searching for in terms of higher, lower, or a wider range of gears.

• Seven Cycles builds frames that offer some of the very best power transfer from pedals to the rear wheel on the market. Need to go super fast? We’ll spec stiff chainstays to translate your power directly to the rear wheel.

• We discuss the terrain and what you’re riding with your friends. Your tires might need to be wider, knobbier, tire pressure different than what you’re running. We figure this out with you.

• Every bike we sell includes a professional fitting at no charge. To be riding your fastest, you need to be sitting on the bike in an optimal position.

I want to be more confident on gravel rides.

After 3 months of owning this Axiom built for road and gravel, EC says of her bike: “I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE MY BIKE!!!! You guys are genius!

I look forward to every ride watching the weather, juggling my work schedule, moving meeting times ... oh, it's definitely an addiction!

I am getting faster, stronger, even younger and enjoying each ride.”

• We discuss what about your current bike is keeping you from being confident.

• A frame that allows the wheels to stick to the ground is a bike that feels more sure-footed and is confidence inspiring. Bikes that are too stiff not only aren’t comfortable to ride on rough surfaces, they also aren’t confidence inspiring to their riders.

• A frame that is properly designed with you being centered over both wheels is going to handle more predictably than one that has the wrong length/angle stem or saddle in the wrong location (too far back or too far forward).

• We figure out what size tires will help you navigate where you ride. Seven Cycles will build your frame with the tire clearances you desire, no compromises are necessary.

• You might be reaching too far to your brake levers, there are other component factors that could be at play that are keeping you from feeling confident. We look at all of these.

I want to have a fun new gravel bike and I might bikepack or do a big trip on this bike someday.

YM knew bikepacking and big, gravel adventure rides were in store for this Evergreen! It’s S&S coupled so it goes on vacations out of the area too.

• We’ll discuss your future plans and keep the door open for the tires you’re likely to want to ride when bikepacking, if different from your gravel riding.

• We’ll likely spec your bike to carry fork cages and/or hold a rear rack. You’ll get to see what the options are on this front.

• We’ll discuss handlebar real estate and discuss using a frame bag, and see what might be right (or very wrong) for you. Some solutions are good for big people that might not be good at all for smaller people. Frame bags are a good example of something that are good for some and not good for others.

I want to be more comfortable when I ride. And I still want to be fast!

This Axiom XX road bike resulted from a rider coming to us saying his very high-end carbon bike was just harsh and he wanted better ride qualities for his fast 30-mile solo and group rides.

His response to this bike, HH says: “[…it’s] everything I would expect with one major surprise.  Boom 1 inch chain stays, power transfer is just awesome.  Road feel is smooooth!!! So as advertised compliant but stiff where it needs to be.  

• Raw speed comes from power transfer, your position, weight of the bike when going up steep hills (weight has little to do with speed on flats and helps on descents), and aerodynamics.

• It’s not necessary to trade speed for comfort on a well-built bike as long as we leave aerodynamics out of the equation. The biggest aerodynamic gains come with the use of aerobars, aero helmet, aero position, and rider profile. Most cyclists would much prefer to be in a comfortable position and wear comfortable clothes, rather than be in the most aerodynamic position with skin-tight clothes.

• Seven manages this better than most any other bike on the market. The lighter the tubeset and the more aggressively each tube is butted, the more plushness and smoothness the rider will feel the ride to be. With each tubeset selected for each rider’s desire for smoothness and the rider’s weight, every person receives the best ride qualities. Seven Cycles is able to achieve the lightest frames for the expected length of use (many years). Most other frames on the market - the very lightest ones - trade frame longevity for maybe ~500 grams of weight savings. With this weight savings often translating to a harsh ride that leaves riders feeling disconnected with the road and feeling less confidence on all but the smoothest roads.

What do YOU want? Shoot us an email (connect@rideheadquarters.com) and tell us! We’ll go from there together!

Live Webinar of the Benefits of an S&S Coupled Bike including a complete packing demonstration

If you’re interested in what it takes to pack and unpack an S&S coupled bike, we’re hosting a very informative live webinar on Wednesday, April 26 at 7pm EST.

S&S coupled bikes can be decoupled to fit in a travel case that checks as a regular bag on a flight and is small enough to fit in small European taxi cabs.

This is what it looks like when a bike is in its Co-Motion Co-Pilot case, without the protective padding wrapped on all of the tubes of the frame.

We’re walking through the process of packing and unpacking S&S bikes and discussing considerations for component selection, and how to manage the process.

There will be time for Q&A for those who have a travel bike with questions and those who are considering purchasing a travel bike and want to know more about whether S&S couplers on their new frame is right for them.

Webinar Agenda 7pm-8:30pm EST

• The mechanics of taking a bike apart and how to put a bike back together at a level for anyone who is not a bike mechanic to understand

• The tools and supplies necessary

• Tips and Tricks to making the process faster

• Thoughts on component selection and frame features that make the process easier and faster

• Q&A for you to ask questions whether you own an S&S coupled bike or if you are considering the purchase of a new S&S coupled bike.

Please RSVP below! We’ll send you connection details no later than 5pm Wednesday, April 26. This session will be hosted over Zoom.

RSVP to Attend

If you won’t be able to attend, please RSVP and add a comment in the text area letting us know so we can share the recording with you when it’s available.

Riding the Paris Roubaix and How You Can Feel the Cobbles for Yourself

The Paris Roubaix women’s race happened yesterday and today is the men’s race. It’s always an exciting race and it’s got an incredible history. We wanted to share one person’s story of visiting the Paris Roubaix both as a participant of the amateur version of the race and as a spectator of the pro race to highlight the opportunity open to everyone to be part of a future edition of this whole experience!

Patria and Rob of Ride Headquarters attended the 2015 edition of the race. This is Patria’s account, in her words:

The cobbles of the Paris Roubaix are punishing but very special, all 30+ miles of them as Patria discovered via participating in the Paris-Roubaix Challenge.

Rob and I decided that it would be really neat to see a spring classics pro race and it didn’t take us long to choose this one to attend. Might as well start with they say is the hardest, toughest, and the one with the richest history. I wanted to get to know this race, and the people who make it what it is, for the first time. I got so much more than I ever expected in two days.

A close-up of a typical cobbled sector.

The Paris-Roubaix Challenge works like this: ~4,500 people from all over the world, nothing required skill-wise to compete, get to ride most of the same roads the pros do, just a day before the men’s pro race. Now that there’s a women’s version, the amateur event starts earlier than the women’s race so the riders are done prior to the women’s finish enabling riders to watch the pro women come into the finish if they wish.

Amateur riders bump over each of the 27 sectors of pavé just like the pros. The amateur ride is ~100 km shorter than the pro race at 105 miles total. The pro race begins in Compiégne, not actually Paris. The first ~113 km of the pro race are all or mostly smooth tarmac, so amateurs don’t miss out on the pro pavé experience.

The whole experience began Friday, the day before the Paris Roubaix Challenge, when we took a train from Paris to the modern town of Lille, France. There we me the head La Fuga Cycling guide, Richard, who was quick to greet us, and make introductions all around. He loaded all of us in vans (there were quite a few who'd arrived around time we did) and shuttled us the 1+ hour drive to Saint-Quentin.  

The guys were friendly and it quickly became apparent that I was the only woman in the 18-person group. That wasn’t particularly surprising considering the nature of the trip, nor was it an issue for me or any of the guys. Rob and I got our bikes assembled in 30 minutes and went out for a quick warm-up/shake-down ride in Saint Quentin.

My Seven Evergreen moments after I assembled it in Saint Quentin. Its travel case is small, easy to fit in small European taxi cabs and roll onto trains and down rough roads. I paid nothing to the airlines to fly my luggage for this trip.

We traveled with our bikes because our they are practically made for the Paris Roubaix with its typical conditions of mud, rain, and rough riding. This is what our Seven Evergreens handle best, and they are fast for normal road riding conditions, too.

For the record, we were riding full titanium frames with carbon disc forks, one layer of Fizik performance bar tape, I was on 28c Continental Grand Prix 4-Season slick tires, Rob rode 27c Challenge Paris-Roubaix open tubular clincher tires. I initially set my tire pressure to 75 psi but let some air out of the front tire after I discovered how slick and ride-threatening wet cobbles are. 

At a McDonalds stop during the Paris Roubaix Challenge. Where else to go for a clean bathroom in the beautiful french countryside?

Saturday morning, the day of the Challenge came fast. Having other people deal with the bikes and our stuff took away the tiredness that, had we had to worry about the logistics, would have threatened me having the energy to complete the ride. After two perfectly sunny, 70 degree days in France, the day of our Paris-Roubaix came as a proper Paris-Roubaix should: it started raining on the drive to the start in Busigny and the air temperature was chilly: in the low 40s. The weather forecast had called for <1mm of rain to fall in the early morning only. It turned out to be wrong.

The amateurs start early, around 7am. A timing chip was employed to keep track of each rider’s overall time and the time for three cobbled sections that were timed separately. Out of the 4,500 riders, very few were competing for the win, but few riders took it easy out there.

The morning light was soft and everything was just a little obscured from the light rain that was falling. The mood was calm among participants, if a bit muted from quiet nervousness. 

The route is ~13 km of smooth pavement, then the sectors begin at fairly even intervals, for usually ~.5 to 2.5km distances each. In between sectors is silky smooth pavement that I felt was the carrot getting me through the cobbles. Feeling the immediate relief offered by the smoothness all but took away any discomfort left in my body from the previous cobbled section.  

This was the smoothest cobbled road of the day!

The roughest and most difficult sector for my body was the first one. My feet instantly went numb and I was wondering if shaken baby syndrome applies for adults riding the Paris Roubaix. Is that like getting a million little concussions in a day? If it was, it was worth whatever brain cells had to be sacrificed for the experience. Fortunately, my feet came back to life within a few kilometers and were fine for the rest of the ride. Some believed that everything was harder and more painful before relaxing on the pavé. I’m sure that makes a big difference. Don’t steer too much, just let the bike do its thing – but hang onto the bars so they don’t get thrown from your control. It’s a careful balance that requires relaxing. Since it’s important to power through the cobbles, standing up and relieving saddle pressure isn’t much of an option.

A random rider out there during the Challenge.

I didn’t end up with any other physical pain aside from leg tiredness by the end and a little sit-bone discomfort. I had doubled up my bike shorts because I didn’t want to risk a bad day due to saddle issues.

After the ride, a quick survey of the tour group reveled one guy had a blister the size of half of his palm and most people felt they'd aged by a few decades in a single day. 

Throughout each sector, I passed people who’d flatted on that section. Once the cobbles met up with the smooth road, there was always a group of people on the tarmac – some awaiting their friends so they could re-group, but there were often 10 or more people involved in changing their flat tires or sorting out some kind of mechanical issue with their bikes.

Rob flying over the cobbles, he’s a classics rider through and through.

Neither Rob nor I had a flat all day. Most flats happened from pinch flats, and, dare I make a big assumption based on stories that I heard: most of the tires that experienced flats were narrower than 28mm because they were more susceptible to pinching since they had to be run at lower pressures so as to keep as much rubber on the road as possible. Wider tires can be run at lower pressures without risking the pinch so that’s what makes them safer in a Paris Roubaix situation. Of course, I’m not talking about the pro race where the speeds are so much higher on those pointy rocks.

Someone described each sector as having its own personality. It’s true. Some cobbles looked easy to ride because they looked smooth but turned out to be very rough and extremely challenging. On other roads, the crown – or the high center of the road that’s typically smoother than the rest of the road, was as smooth and easy as it looked. But sometimes the crown turned into a tiny point that felt impossible to keep the bike teetered on while being jarred through the sector.

When the cobbles are wet, they are slick. Some feel just like smooth ice. The slickness may have been some kind of organic slime. Or it's just that the mud is made up of very fine dirt. It took quite a few sectors to know how to ride the cobbles. The moment a rider would feel comfortable, the next sector would throw a curve ball proving any theories the rider had developed up to that point as being perfectly flawed.

Most of the dirt, mud, and dust on the route was a high percentage of animal manure considering farms border much of the route. Ewwww. We saw the pros breathing in large dust clouds when they were racing the next day which was warm and dry with their speeds and close proximity to each other. I heard that the pro racers tend to be sick for a day or two after a dry day on the cobbles. That is a lot of nasty dust they end up ingesting.

Weather

Throughout the day I found the temperature to be quite comfortable. There were three distinct rains that hit during the day, interspersed with strong winds at times, and even sun at the very end of the ride. I stayed comfortable with a wind vest that I kept on the whole ride and a rain jacket – that I took on and off at least 3 times. I’m certain the only conditions I couldn’t have handled as well would have been a hot, sunny day. That would have been hard.

Hell of the North

Paris Roubaix isn’t called the “Hell of the North” because it’s such a grueling day on the bike. That name came from a scouting trip post-World War I that took Paris-Roubaix race organizers through battlefields that were heavily scarred from the war. Hell refers to the war and what happened there.

One such battlefield in the race (I'm not sure if it was a battlefield in World War I, it was a mining area) is the Arenberg Forest otherwise known as the Tranchée d’Arenberg. I understand the road was originally built by Napoleon. This is the most anxiously anticipated sector by racers. It can make or break one’s day. It comes at ~63 km in our ride (so ~163km for pros) which means there are still many sectors and ~100 km to go after it’s done. But a crash or mechanical is likely to take a contender and have him turn into a chaser for the rest of the long day. The cobbles are more irregular in this sector and there is no gutter.

After I rode Arenberg, I took photos of others trying to get through it in tact.

It wasn’t raining when I entered Arenberg, but the cobbles were drenched and the slickest feeling cobbles of the whole day – by a lot. People were crashing left and right. An ambulance was attending to a rider just 50 feet or less into the sector when I started riding into it.

I found my bike slipping around underneath me. At first, I was unnerved and slowed waaaay down. Then, as I realized the only option was to ride it, I got more daring and pedaled faster. By the end, it was obvious that letting the bike slip around, staying off the brakes completely, and keeping the pedals going around evenly was the secret to staying upright. The worst part was worrying about the others who were crashing or riding the line I wanted.

That was the only frightening part of the day. The next hardest pavé sector was sector 4, I believe this is Carrefour de l'Arbre. That was the last timed sector and one of the longest, if not the longest. This one is where it felt like everything came together. At that point, finishing was likely and I wanted to leave all of my energy on the route. I rode it the hardest of any of them and it felt quite good to come out the other end, greeted by the smooth tarmac.

Elevation

The route was relatively flat at ~2,000 ft of elevation gain for the whole day. There is no way we could ride that far in Massachusetts and not log at least 4,000 ft. It's hard to describe the pleasantness of the silky-smooth roads that gradually twisted and turned through many small towns, past lucky homes who get front-row seats and through countless fields. I was delighted to see so many towns and even be greeted by locals who had come out to cheer for those of us doing the amateur race. Women riders got extra loud cheers, it was cool.

The conclusion of the Paris Roubaix Challenge, like the pro race, ends in a lap around the Roubaix Velodrome. How awesome to finish such a long, hard day in such a place – and, amazingly, in the warm sun of France, too. This velodrome has hosted a long history of cycling superstars racing in it; it's played the host to the end of the Paris Roubaix since 1942.

One can’t ride this velodrome without feeling cold chills throughout the entire lap. This is me finishing my ride, feeling so great from the whole experience.

The showers are something everyone makes a big deal about and I was more than ready for a good, hot shower. After looking for them and inquiring as to where the women’s showers were to be found, I was educated on French tradition/culture/whatever you want to call it: there were no separate women’s showers.

The fabled showers. Photo courtesy of Inrng.com

The large cement room with partial cement walls – with no doors or curtains – full of showering men, was where I was going to have to shower if I wanted one.

I couldn’t get the “American” out of me to suck it up and go in. There are ample photos of the showers on the internet. I wonder if I missed something by not going in, but I’m also perfectly okay with having enjoyed a hot shower back in the hotel after our hour drive to return there from Roubaix.

Though I thought the day was over at that point, little did I know what awaited us. We arrived late to join the group at dinner at 9pm (my hot, not-rushed shower took priority over everything).

We inhaled our food. I found myself eating an admittedly tasty slab of meat because there were no protein options for vegetarians; I had to have protein after a carb-rich day at the feed stations. The French don’t understand vegetarianism similar to most Italians, and I don’t expect them to. I had to stray from a veggie diet a few times in France for the sake of my sanity.

It’s at this point that the day had a twist thrown in so unexpected and wonderful, it made for the ideal ending that we couldn’t have ever imagined.

While we were eating, we looked up and two gentlemen were standing in the doorway to our private room in the restaurant. They both seemed confident, I assumed one of them was likely the owner of La Fuga. But who was this other guy? A couple of people at the table looked shocked, but I didn’t know why. Both of the gentlemen  left for a moment – long enough for us to learn that Magnus Backstedt was joining us for dinner!

I’ve heard enough about Magnus to know that he was one of the top riders in the sport when he’d retired. He commanded respect from the peloton and from fans. He also won Paris-Roubaix in 2004.

Conversation with Magnus Backstedt, quite the surprise right on the heels of feeling the cobbles for ourselves. Photo by La Fuga guide, Fabrizio.

Since we were the last ones to dinner, we sat on the side with all of the open chairs. This meant the opportunity to talk with Magnus about the Paris-Roubaix. I got to ask him many questions and hear how he did it. Had we been at dinner with him the previous day, before doing the Paris Roubaix Challenge, the conversation would have had different meaning. Being fresh off of the cobbles and hearing what it was like to win the Paris-Roubaix and how he did it, made for very rich, interesting conversation.

It was awesome to see both of Magnus’ daughters out there racing Paris Roubaix’s women’s pro race yesterday! Back when I did this challenge, a women’s Paris Roubaix race didn’t exist.

Magnus was down-to-earth. He really wanted to talk about his days of pro racing, he wanted to offer complete answers to our questions. He loves bike racing, and it’s pretty obvious he’s smart. He knows that winning comes down to being the best prepared on race day which means months and years of product testing, riding the cobbles many times in advance, thinking about every aspect of the race. There’s a fair amount of luck that influences the final result, especially with a crash-marred, unplannable race like Paris Roubaix. However, Magnus maximized his chances.

He told us of how he would train: he motopaced into the infamous Arenberg Forest hitting the cobbles at 60-70km per hour (much higher than race pace) in order to discover the best line to take. The best line shows up more obviously at that break-neck speed.

He told us of how he worked with a bike manufacturer to build a full-titanium bike with oversized tubes in order to have the ideal ride qualities. It was nice to hear him say that he felt that it was obvious that titanium was the best material for the task: that it would most effectively damp the vibrations of the road while being stiff enough to propel him to victory. He showed me a photo of the bike: it was painted to look like a Bianchi, but underneath was titanium. I believe he said it’s now in a museum somewhere.

This is Magnus’ Paris Roubaix winning bike. Photo courtesy of Bianchiusa.com.

He discussed how many different forks he tested out in training to select the right one. He studied each sector of the route so he’d know each one and the best line for each well going in to the race. The time and energy he spent working with his sponsors and trying to push the standards of the time led him to be the first racer to ride wider tires in the race: 27c , to be exact. He said he was flatting frequently with the narrower ones, but the 27c tires survived the punishment of the race. I asked him about tire width, I had to know.

Another question I had was about bar tape. Many people doubled up the bar tape on their handlebars to protect their hands. His answer to keep his hands in tact so as to be able to lift the large cobble trophy that the winner receives: pipe insulation placed at just the right spots and bar tape went over that.

Magnus was a 207 lb rider, and he stands 6’ 4" tall. The perfect product tester! He learned how to increase his power without reducing his weight since losing weight yielded hits to his power output.

Here is “Big Maggy” discussing his Paris-Roubaix win.

A moment after I stopped recording is when he concluded by saying, “The race win was special – very special.” He paused to allow a moment of reflection and his eyes glistened with the emotion that his win 11 years ago still conjures within him.

Magnus was interested in how the day had gone for us and was an excellent speaker. He’s featured as a commentator on EuroSport and had just covered a race in the Basque country earlier in the day. He’s the real deal; we got to chat with him at the perfect time in the most ideal circumstances.

That was the day. Awake at 5am, asleep by midnight. More ride experiences squeezed into a single day than any other day of my life up to that point. Then the next day we watched the pros show us how they did it in the dusty, dry conditions under the sun. It was awesome to get to be part of thousands of fans out there, see the speeds of the pros, the mud on their sweaty faces from the dust, and watch cycling history being made.

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown, MA

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles next Friday, February 10, 2023 at 2:00pm!

Seven Cycles is located in Watertown, Massachusetts and they build incredible bikes within their walls. There is no bike builder more focused on offering the best experience for each rider than Seven Cycles on the planet. There is also no frame designer with deeper knowledge of frame design and bike building materials than Seven. Few builders test their designs, Seven invests in testing to be sure what they build will withstand the demands of the most avid riders.

This deep interest in the riding experience and frame building knowledge translates to every single bike being the very best bike for each rider. We regularly receive comments from new bike owners who have been blown away by their bikes. These some of the countless rave reviews that we’ve received via email just in the past few weeks:

“I truly could not be happier with my new bike.  I am still trying to figure out how to describe the ride - the bike feels like it is floating or gliding over, rather than rolling on, the road.  The bike just soaks up bad road surfaces, and yet feels very responsive and agile.” - HH, Evergreen SL

“The bike feels magical. I'm in love.” - JM, Axiom S

“I love my bike…best bike ever!” - LC, Evergreen S

“Best money I have ever spent.” -AO, Treeline SL

Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See the steps of fabricating frames and watch how frames go from a Frame Specification to a complete frame ready to be built into a bike on this very informative tour. The tour is 45 minutes to an hour and includes time for questions and answers.

Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

Please RSVP below so we can email you directions! We’ll email all who RSVP by 5pm the day before the tour with directions to Seven and parking information. There is ample free parking available near Seven.

RSVP here to attend & if you can’t make it, let us know so we let you know of future tours!

Race Report: Fat Pursuit 200km

by Patria Vandermark

It’s a shift in thinking that my “A” race for 2023 has already happened this year with my participation in the Fat Pursuit in Island Park, Idaho. While it’s raining and dreary outside in Massachusetts at this moment, I’m still on a post-race high, feeling healthier than I can ever remember feeling and my heart is full.

Considering it’s a mess of a weekend and there’s too much to tell, I’m offering my full story and invite you to read the part you have time to enjoy. Or just look at the photos!

This is the winter wonderland where Fat Pursuit is based in Island Park, Idaho. It’s part of the Yellowstone Ecosystem. Photo by Rob Vandermark. Most photos contained here have been provided by Rob.

The Fat Pursuit is an ultra endurance winter race in its 10th year. There are two routes: a 60k and 200km route. They run through a remote area that gets feet of snow in December every year. The promoters, renowned life-long ultra-endurance racers and advocates, Jay Petervary and Tracy Petervary, have created this event as a challenge and learning opportunity to all from those new to this world to the very best, most experienced ultra and winter athletes.

On paper, I look like an unlikely participant at Fat Pursuit. I get cold faster than most people (I’m sitting in a 70 degree house right now feeling cold, my toes are nearly numb) and I find perfect contentment with riding my gravel and road bikes. I don’t feel I need to prove anything to myself or to others, that doesn’t drive me. Why would I go to a cold, seemingly harsh environment to take on my first-ever ultra endurance event that involves making water from snow to stay hydrated and sleeping in the snow?!

As ready as I could be the night before the Fat Pursuit start.

I’m always overly anxious for Boston to get snow since it’s my very favorite landscape to ride, so traveling to an already-made winter wonderland is a nice solution to scratch my snow itch! Riding on snow makes me smile, and it is pure joy for me. Riding relatively slowly while pedaling fairly hard is warm, it’s a chance to chat with other riders, see a world blanketed in pristine flakes is always pure peace and beauty, and when I crash it means falling into a snow pile like a kid. I always giggle, even when I’m alone, when I fall into the snow. It’s simple fun without anyone taking themselves too seriously and I certainly don’t take myself seriously. A longer event means doing what I love for longer. More snow!

A good substitute for snow riding is beach riding! We’ve had to make this sub when the trails are too wet to ride, it’s allowed for quality Fat Pursuit training near Boston.

I need to be driven to train. Work has taken precedence in my life for the past 11 years. Working in the bike industry running a bike shop doesn’t allow more time on a bike, only more time near bikes. I’ve traded fitness for work, it’s the easy thing to do. I love my job so it’s simpler to work hard than train hard. The older I get, the more obvious the importance of keeping these two balanced for maintaining health into later life. Work and fulfillment from that also has a good place in there. Balance is the key.

Ride Headquarters hosted a Brutiful 100-mile fat bike ride in November which served as a great training ride and pretty spectacular day on the bike on the Cape.

I’ve learned that with some level of efficiency, one can train plenty for a huge event like this while not sacrificing work and other life commitments. I’ve found so much joy in training since these rides involve time with friends and good people, every single ride makes me feel great with after-ride endorphins, and I’ve stopped making excuses for not going out or getting on the trainer since fear of not being fit enough to get through this race is just enough motivation to get over myself when it’d be too easy to let other things distract me.

Fat Pursuit kindly helped me feel new to cycling again in a welcome way while absolutely terrifying me with its challenge.

I couldn’t believe just how much I had to learn and how many opportunities for optimization there are. Being fit is a small part of the “success” equation. Sure, the person who wins the race is very fit, but if that person brought the wrong gear, there’s no way they’re making it to the finish line. Here’s how the race went down for those at the pointy end of the competition.

Edyn, 13, was the youngest rider at Fat Pursuit. This is Edyn coming in to checkpoint 2 smiling and not all that many hours later, finish in 8th place overall. It was awesome to see him right at home at the pre-race meeting and taking on the challenge by training hard, likely better prepared than many of the adults.

As I got into researching the right gear to take, how to dress, how to bivy in the winter (sleeping in a sleeping bag contained in a bivy bag which is smaller than a tent), where to pack my stuff on the bike, etc. the more I got into it. I’ve never winter camped so there was a lot that was new for me. The research was fun! There’s no one right answer on almost any single topic. Each person gets to figure out the proper setup with no way to know what’s “right” until race day.

I ran out of time practicing bivy sleeping before the trip so I set it all up in our room in the lodge and spent the night before the Fat Pursuit began. Maybe I was just really tired, but I did sleep exceptionally well.

Preparation got progressively more fun as I learned more and this caused me more curiosity as to what other people would be using for their setups. I watched MANY YouTube videos on winter camping, winter bikepacking, people’s previous Fat Pursuit and Ididerod experiences.

I am grateful to have been able to ask questions of a number of people who have done the race before and who are winter campers. They were very helpful with all kinds of recommendations such as which bike grips to use and how to expedite melting snow over the stove. Nan Pugh spent an hour and a half with me on the phone allowing me to pick her brain a couple of months in advance of Fat Pursuit. She didn’t know me from Adam prior to that call.

I have a huge Google spreadsheet full of notes of advice, many tabs for all of the aspects. Food, clothes, gear, bags, sleeping system, water boiling system, hydration, eye wear, bike setup, the list goes on and on. It’s still growing. I now have a “what to do differently next time” tab.

For example, there are numerous camp stoves out there. Some that work well in the summer won’t boil water in a sub-zero situation. Everything needs to be as lightweight as possible. Since there is so much gear, the grams add up fast. This is a good time to be a weight weenie on the small stuff, but don’t freak out when the scale tips at ~30-50 lbs of gear/water/food!

I practiced turning snow into water when we got to Idaho, a test I couldn’t do back home. I discovered that the trowel I’d been gifted from doing the virtual 60k Fat Pursuit Covid edition a couple of years ago (where I rode near home all day), worked great in getting snow into the pot!

Also pictured: I’m wearing both puffy jackets and puffy pants to stay warm for this test. Neither the red puffy nor the pants needed to come out during the race, it only got down to 20 degrees which was warm.

I figured that when I was fully loaded, and if I did what I needed to do eating-wise going into the event, I totaled ~220-230 lbs of person, bike, water, and gear at the starting line. I was trying to eat more going into the event too. Yes, I would take less stuff next time. BUT next time could be colder, so it’s not possible to know what I would do next time.

One of the most stressful decisions I made in optimizing my gear was which puffy jacket to buy. Yes, stressful. I ended up with two puffy jackets: a thin one that I wore during the ride and one stayed in reserve if it was a very cold situation and would be used for stops. Both are size XL so a hydration pack can fit under.

Upsizing everything except for my chainring which I downsized was critically important. I usually wear size 42 winter boots. The boots I ended up in are size 46 and that was a perfect choice. My feet literally stayed warm the entire race for the 33.5 hours I was out there in the elements. My number one fear of getting cold feet was never realized! Nor did my knees have any complaints about the largeness of the boots or anything. The only thing I don’t recommend about this: due to the number of cold days we had in Boston, I didn’t realize I needed to go bigger on my boots until a week prior to traveling. So my first ride in the new boots was on the shakedown the day before the race. That’s a big no-no. Don’t test anything that close to the real event!

I like the idea of being self-sufficient. There’s a freedom that comes from being able to keep going without the help of anyone else. Winter riding is safer in my opinion too. My logic is this: bears are hibernating and anyone out to harm anyone else is not venturing out on a cold, snowy day, nor would anyone expect to find someone out riding her bike on the snow. It’s possible to dress warmly enough for even the harshest conditions. Should something bad happen, one can jump in the bivy and stay warm for hours until help arrives.

This leads me to my #2 fear: animals that don’t hibernate such as bison and moose. Since social media reads my mind and decided to add to my growing list of reasons to be anxious going into this race, this image of a snow-covered bison popped up on my Facebook feed days before the event. I haven’t been able to get this out of my head since:

I’ll fast forward to the end of the story since you’re sitting on the edge of your seat. There was not a sound out there for hours upon hours. The night riding, something I had been very much looking forward to for the purposes of overcoming yet another fear of being alone at night, was silent and magical. Darkness started around 5:30pm and the sun rose lazily around 8am. I never saw a single hoof print, no pterodactyls swinging from the branches, nothing. There were snowmobiles passing during the day at fairly regular intervals on day 1, but other than this, nada. The largest living non-human creature I saw from the time I started the race until the finish was a teeny tiny bug. Fear #2 never materialized. Jay had said not to be worried about any animals out there when I’d emailed him about this, so that offered me some comfort going in as well.

Getting to Park Island, Idaho

My husband, Rob, and I flew into Bozeman, Montana Tuesday prior to the Fat Pursuit which was going to start 7am that Friday. I am thankful we gave ourselves 2.5 days prior to the event starting. Less time would have been stressful in order to do everything that needed to be done before Friday morning. Not many people flew in, most drove from nearby states. Every year, some roads get closed with weather so anyone who really wants to be there should consider making a vacation out of it and arrive as early as possible.

I shipped all of my gear and bike to the lodge where we were staying a week in advance. Didn’t want to have to rely on our stuff being checked at the airport and making a connecting flight. Any one bag missing would be potentially race-threatening.

West Yellowstone is probably a crazy-busy tourist town in summer, but it’s a cozy town full of snowmobiles in the winter.

There was a lot to do to get ready for Friday. We took advantage of the sweet snow-filled town of West Yellowstone for their coffee shop, food shopping, finding white gas for the camp stove, (learning that Coleman fuel is the same as white gas, available at the hardware store and some gas stations), and all of the little odds and ends we needed for the week and race. Three grocery store visits were necessary to accumulate the food I’d need for my race for the two drop bags we were allowed along with the stuff I’d be starting with.

West Yellowstone has more snowmobiles driving on the snow-covered streets than cars. Some businesses that are closed for the season had 11 foot snow drifts in front of their doors!

Shake Down Ride

Thursday morning was the first day I’d ridden my bike since a nice, shortish group ride on December 28. Between then and January 5 was a lot of preparing and my bike had shipped so I couldn’t worry about not riding it. I felt good at this point and quite well rested, too. I met up with a friend, Art O’Connor, who has been doing Fat Pursuit for at least 4 years.

I met Art at the Tour of the Gila back in 2006 - 16 years ago! He offered space at a host house he was staying in to a teammate of mine and me having no idea who I was and only just having met my teammate. My teammate hardly knew me either. The host family couldn’t have been more welcoming to their home. One of the best parts about racing is meeting people and host families. I am seeing this is true for people who tour on their bikes, too. I have heard so many stories of people opening their doors to cyclists across the country. I include this story because the connections in this cycling world are pretty special and they are not to be taken for granted! I was new-ish to the cycling world back then, jumping head-first into road racing, and I am new to the ultra cycling world now. There’s so much growth to be had in this sport and it’s all made possible by good, generous people in so many aspects that make it all happen.

Art gave me lots of advice and shared stories of his previous Pursuits during our shake-down ride the day before the race.

Ride Headquarters and I worked with Art to spec a new Seven Cycles Treeline SL for the Fat Pursuit this fall.

Art’s Treeline SL frame is in the hands of some of the outstanding Seven Cycles frame builders who made his frame. From left: Kirk, George, and Stef.

It was incredibly fulfilling to see Art take on Fat Pursuit on his new bike and see him all smiles after coming in Top Ten with a really fast time.

Art was happy with his successful Pursuit.

Gear Check and Pre-Ride Meeting

Thursday, the day before the race, there was an afternoon gear check for each racer and a pre-ride meeting for all that evening.

After the gear check and race number pick up Thursday, I was feeling ready and excited to get going!

The gear check was comprehensive and even educational. The friendly gear checker asked me where I had all of the required equipment and wanted to see most of it. When he saw my thermos, he suggested to me to be sure the liquid was warm in there and to watch out for the lid freezing. That advice came in handy during the race. He also asked if I had a mascot. He’d seen Chompy on the fork! A high-five from the gear checker, I’d passed that first test. Time to get my number plate and swag including a nice sweatshirt for showing up.

One of the themes that ran throughout the Fat Pursuit weekend was taking the race very seriously but not taking anybody or anything particularly seriously at all. Chompy fit right in to the fun that everyone was having.

Chompy’s Support Crew: that’s me!

Rob and I take Chompy on our bike riding adventures and we share photos of Chompy out there with our little 3- and 5- year old niece and nephew. We want to expose them to the world and let them see the joy bikes bring us. We hope that Chompy being in the photos and participating in the adventures is a nice way for us to share all of this with them. I admit that when I’m riding with Chompy and I see that grin of his, it picks me up, makes me smile, and I feel less alone. Chompy even has his own Instagram feed. My team name was Chompy’s Support Crew when I took on the 60k Covid Edition Fat Pursuit near home two years ago. Here we were for the real thing!

Jay Petervary discussed the important details at the pre-race meeting.

Mind Over Matter

One of the speakers at this meeting said that everyone there could finish Fat Pursuit. Anyone is allowed to register for it so this is somewhat of a bold statement. Likely because of the event website, people all seem to come to Island Park taking their preparation seriously. It’s awesome one can make this their foray into winter ultra cycling. I feel like I couldn’t have picked a better event for my intro into this whole community and what felt like being enveloped into a microcosm of what is good in the cycling world.

I, too, believe that everyone has the capacity and ability to finish this race. The more I learn about people who take on ultra-distance events, the more I believe what is humanly possible with sheer will. I have spent a significant amount of energy telling people that they can do anything on a bike as long as you keep eating to fuel the ride.

The resumes of many of the participants are deeply impressive, but there’s no need to get intimidated. No one was flexing out there, everyone was there for their own reasons (so many “I love riding on snow” comments). Impressing the world at large isn’t generally one of the reasons considering most of the people with the fanciest resumes have done less hard things* that have gotten more press.

*Hard can be defined in a lot of ways. Is it harder to carry 40 pounds of stuff on you & your fat bike, average 5.8mph for 22 hours or take on a stage of the Tour de France that involves a light bike, extremely fast smooth roads, warm temperatures, is approximately the same total mileage, and is over in 5 hours? Commence the debate.

I saw a lot of Ididerod Trail Invitational finisher coats on people. The Ididerod is as serious and hard as it gets, though I heard enough people say that the snow of Island Park is more challenging to ride than the snow of Alaska. The conditions of Alaska appear to me to be far scarier than those presented in Island Park just based on what I heard from others.

It was interesting listening in to numerous conversations about Ididerod experiences, who is headed there this year, all kinds of stuff about it. That’s a conversation that I never hear in New England. And this area is full of exceptional cyclists. Alaska and the Ididerod just doesn’t appear to me to be part of our world view yet.

After it was over, Nan, Erika, and I shared stories from our Pursuits. Nan, left, was the 3rd woman to finish and she’s headed to the Ididerod this winter.

I went in believing that I would be a finisher this year. However, on my list of goals for this year, finishing was further down the list. My goals were:

• Ride in the night alone

• Boil water and make snow into water during the event

• Get the full Fat Pursuit experience (turns out this conflicted with the goal of finishing)

• Get Chompy to the finish line with that silly grin still on his face

Commence the Race

Friday morning finally arrived and 7am was the start time! I was awake an hour and a half early to eat a hearty breakfast and get dressed.

Standing on the start line, this was a rare opportunity for me to start a race with friends, the fastest, the funnest, oldest and youngest. One of the young riders was wondering out loud about not having facial hair considering how many participants out there had more protected faces. I joked that it was totally okay, considering how much I have.

Jay Petervary high fived many riders before the start, here he is wishing Jacob a good race. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos with Jay and Jacob (still a teenager and eventual 4th place in this race!) talking about their experiences racing together, their gear, etc. So cool to see them in person together!

It was a really good scene. I finally met Jay Petervary as I was standing there, when he had too much going on, he took a moment to come over to say hello. What do you say to someone you respect, who you’ve heard about for years, and who is a legend in the bikepacking/ultra/winter world? Introduce him to the dinosaur who is along for the ride on your fork leg, of course.

Jay said some really nice stuff to me and thanked me for being there. I was impressed that in a busy moment, he had the presence of mind to chat and tell me that he appreciated me being there. But that’s what I’m feeling: I was so thankful for this event and that I could be there even more so since I almost didn’t get to be there. I didn’t say any of that, I was too distracted being so excited about the whole thing!

Moments before the race started. I’m wearing a golden colored jacket standing at the front looking like a hunchback with my 3L hydration pack filled to the gills. I felt no nerves, only the thrill of being able to be there.

There were a total of 8 women racing their bikes and 45 men. There were also 4 men and 2 women out there on their feet pulling a sled behind them. I just cannot fathom walking/running that distance. Those racers would have used snowshoes instead of regular shoes if the conditions had warranted it.

Watch this video of the start, it was the very best start of any race I’ve ever done. It was adrenaline filled, people were falling off their bikes left and right, some people went off course, and it was just gorgeous getting to see the large full moon looking down on us riding out into the great unknown. Turn on the volume for the audio of what was going through my head most of the day.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Patria Vandermark (@skinnytires)

The Queen song “Don’t Stop Me Now” was running through my mind throughout most of day 1 of the race, especially the part: “'Cause I'm having a good time, having a good time.” Though the rest of the lyrics of that song were apropos for what I was out there doing too.

Here’s more of what the first four miles looked like. Glorious.

Hardly any time into the race, there was a huge crowd of riders and what appeared to be the promoters and volunteers hanging out. I was very confused by the social occasion this early on. Ah, it’s time for the water boil test! My water boil was uneventful and it was fun too! I got to meet Billy, my water boil proctor and awesome volunteer, and Patty, a super friendly spectator who was going to race the 60k the following day. I believe both live in Colorado. Rob was there capturing the moments too. They all helped me pass time while I was waiting for the water to boil!

At the start of my water boil test, everything worked as expected. It probably took about 10 minutes to get the water to boil, but a total of 30 minutes from stopping to going again. I realized that packing away a hot stove made me nervous and I wasn’t sure if dousing the stove in snow would be a good idea.

We crossed over the highway and headed to infamous Two Top. This was our exit from civilization for what would be many hours.

Off we went, Two Top mountain and a whole lot of climbing was next!

We needed to make it to Checkpoint 1 (inaccessible by car) before 7pm to stay ahead of the first time cut.

There was literally 10 feet of pavement in the first 75 miles of the course. That may have been all of the pavement there was for the whole race for all I know.

Studded tires were not necessary. I did ride studded tires (45NRTH Dillinger 5) mostly because I wanted to train on my bike on potential ice near home immediately before shipping the bike and wanted to have as much time riding the setup exactly as I’d be racing it since there was so little time to test everything out pre-race. If you were to go to Idaho and ride any road prior to getting to a trail, I’d guess that studded tires would come in handy.

Tire Pressure

How many times I stopped to take air out of my tires, I’m not sure. Everyone was taking air out of their tires and stopping to take jackets off. It was also warming up which softens the snow making it harder to ride (mashed potatoes!) and the warm air increases air pressure in the tires. Let more air out. But don’t burp your tires, that’d be too much and oof that would be terrible.

This is the first time I have run my fat tires tubelessly, I’ve been a big fan of tubes up until now for a list of reasons. The use case changed for Fat pursuit.

I have Tyrewiz bluetooth gauges on my wheels so I’d know what pressures I was running. These really come in handy on the fat bike due to low pressures and being able to read to the tenth of a psi. I finally settled out at 1.7 and 2.1 psi front and rear by 6:30pm. I didn’t add any air after taking it all out, it never felt like higher pressure would allow faster forward progress even once the trail got groomed. Who knows? All I do know is that I was crashing a fair amount at closer to 3 psi and it takes time to pick the bike and self up while waving the kind snowmobilers on as each one would stop and ask if all was okay. They were nice out there. I usually crashed when there were a lot of people around to watch.

What not to wear

If there’s one thing this event is not it’s not a fashion contest. Everyone looks frumpy, mis-matched, un-color coordinated, and the exact opposite of what cycling ads spend a lot of money promoting. All apparel is selected in the name of being warm and comfortable for 21-55 hours in the great outdoors. There isn’t a single apparel company that can outfit a rider since it’s such a hodgepodge of stuff gathered from the ends of the earth.

No one was showing off team kit or sponsored apparel. It felt odd to be starting a race where we all looked so not pro.

Alex Howes, formerly a world tour pro of team EF Education First, a contract that ended 6 days prior to this race, was one of the Pursuers. He blended in with everyone else where it came to apparel selection for the race.

You’ll see that many riders don’t wear helmets at this event. It is much easier to manage head warmth and basic head comfort without the helmet, but I don’t feel safe without it. Next time I’d go without the shell over my helmet, it would have been good if my head had been allowed to breathe. I was sweating a lot and the shell was dripping sweat on me.

Due to the warm temperatures predicted, I made a last-minute decision to not wear wool pants under my 45NRTH winter cycling shell pants. I wore Velocio summer bib shorts (quick “bathroom” breaks are vital that these bibs allow), knee-high socks, and then the winter pants that have vents. This decision made me nervous since my plan had been to wear this and a wool base layer shirt as fundamental to my race attire. The lowest temperature my Garmin recorded for the whole time I was out there was 25 degrees. I think in actuality in the middle of the night it may have gotten down to 20 degrees in terms of what it felt like, but that’s still just hot if you’re riding a bike in fluffy, mashed potato snow.

Sweating can lead to freezing. Staying just cool is important. I was pleased with my decision on leaving the wool pants off; I rarely closed the vents on the shell pants, my legs stayed toasty throughout.

I had this look on my face for at least the first five hours. I was overjoyed to be there and I was comfortable too.

For my upper body, I wore a wool sports bra, wool base layer, and full-zip fleece layer. Over that was my hydration pack then XL Nano down jacket and/or an XL wind jacket depending on how warm I wanted to be. These layers over the pack went on/off frequently. I stopped every time I needed to adjust my wardrobe. Not sure if other people are able to do this on the fly.

I kept a wool beanie and wool neckwarmer on the whole time except when I stopped to bivy in the wee morning hours. The neck warmer froze into ice in the night, but it was still useful and good to breathe into when it was frozen.

With the temperatures so warm, I was able to dry off after sweating too much prior to night falling and potentially freezing. From head to toe, I was comfortable the entire time I was out there including when I was setting up to bivy, breaking down the bivy, and spending an hour boiling enough snow to make 3L of water the following morning. The only adjustment I might make in the future is to add a lightweight vest over the hydration pack.

For socks, I wore thin liner socks and over those, some super thick expedition socks made by REI. These socks took up all of the space in those waaay-too-big boots and kept my feet toasty. Having toes that wiggled was just what I needed to be warm. Even after stopping to bivy, which meant leaving my boots outside for 1.5 hours in the cold of night, I kept the boot liners on my feet and by the time I’d put the boots back on and the cold of the boots got through the liners, my feet were generating enough heat to stay comfortable! Woohoo, success!

Most of the time I didn’t wear anything on my eyes. During Day 1 it got sunshiny and bright so I wore sunglasses for some of the day. I packed clear goggles just in case, seemed like good insurance to have those.

Having lots of reflectivity on bike and body could have been useful. Should a light go out, the reflectivity is really important for visibility. I took lots of extra lights (3 rear lights plus extra batteries), but saw others struggling with theirs out there. Luckily, the snowmobiles stopped running after dark, but that’s not guaranteed. The snow groomer comes through, too.

Two Top Mountain

The ride up Two Top mountain was absolutely lovely. I was chatting with Jennifer Hanson, someone a friend from here had told me to find out there. Early on, I did find her and her husband, Jason. They are from Arizona and I was just thrilled to hear it. They both finished the Pursuit last year in more challenging conditions. No one can use the excuse about getting cold now, if Arizona riders can do it, ANYONE can do it. She was telling me about the cool trees at the top of Two Top. They were spectacular!

Chatting with Jennifer as we approached the start of the Two Top ascent.

There wasn’t a ton of hike-a-bike up Two Top, and there was zero wind. I hear this never happens! I enjoyed the cycling. My teeny 24t chainring and massive 52t cog on the cassette got utilized a whole bunch. Legs and lungs were all good, I kept my heart rate in low zone 2 and had hours of fun sightseeing.

The snow was easier to ride earlier in the day before it warmed to 32 degrees and before a lot of snowmobiles turned up the snow. Snowmobiles make the snow much harder to ride. I heard the term snow machine used quite a lot.

How beautiful is this?!

There was a good amount of back and forth with other riders and the foot people too. It was nice seeing people frequently, having some conversations. I was impressed with how quickly other people asked my name and wanted to get to know each other. One rider I saw more than anyone else throughout the race, his name is Justin from Wyoming. It felt like everyone was out to help out everyone else.

A few people asked me if I was Danni. Eventually, I found Danni and ended up riding with her quite a bit that afternoon. I was glad I’d gotten confused for her, she was a class act. I got to know her in the little sauna that the organizers set up at checkpoint 1.

The view of a warming tent, what I’m calling a sauna, with Jacob enjoying the warmth at checkpoint 2.

Does it sound like it’d be miserable to sit in a sauna then go back out in the cold? It was absolutely fine, getting warm felt quite good and there was no extra cold feeling after leaving the sauna. The low humidity of Idaho is likely to thank. Considering the self sufficiency the race required, I felt a bit guilty for using the sauna and for getting the wonderful assistance by the very helpful volunteers at this checkpoint.

I only got this photo at the checkpoint, doesn’t do it justice. It was 4pm, the sun was setting and temperatures were dropping. There was a lot to do and I was trying to move fast (everything was in slow motion for me though) and I didn’t want to skimp on sauna time.

I almost forgot to mention the grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwich! That was the very best grilled pb&j sandwich ever. Yes, it was also my first grilled pb&j. It hit the spot. They had very hot water ready to go and warm water so I filled my pack, er, Billy filled my pack, I was unable to do basic things by myself. I also had most of a cup of noodles.

I made two mistakes here: I came in low on water so I had been rationing for the last 2ish hours. I should have guzzled a bunch here then refilled my pack. Instead, I drank nothing and then hydrated while riding. That cost me valuable free hydration. Mistake #2 was not putting enough Untapped Maple in my water. I had the first 3 liters concentrated with Untapped Maple and it went down well all day along with providing valuable calories. Slightly weaker water ended up making me nervous and plain water was undrinkable and not possible to digest, at least that’s how it felt.

Some of the food I packed and prepared for the checkpoint resupply bags is shown here. There was more not shown in this photo. The bike-specific food I had shipped from MA, it would have been impossible to find bike-specific stuff locally. Food choices that I loved: red licorice, Untapped Maple drink mix, a slice of pizza warmed between base layers, bites of cool mint chocolate Clif bars, chocolate covered pretzels. What didn’t I love? Plain water, that was nearly impossible to drink.

On the trail again, with this checkpoint an out and back, it was super nice to see riders both who had already visited the checkpoint heading back out and those headed to it after I left. It was an opportunity to see a lot of people, cheer for others, and have some idea who was ahead and behind me. I didn’t look at the dot tracker for the others even though there was cell reception. I don’t know that looking would have been helpful.

Off to Checkpoint 2 and a very, very long night. The time cut for CP2 was 7pm the following day - a full 24 hours after the first time cut and about 48 miles to cover.

The next climb was very substantial. Not as steep as Two Top but it went on and on. I heard a lot of riders say this was the hardest part of the whole ride for them. The dark came and I was very alone. I wanted this situation, I had imagined it many times as riding into an abyss. The dark got to me and I wasn’t feeling particularly peppy. This is the first time I put on headphones and turned on some music Rob had shared with me. Fast-paced, upbeat. Two to three hours elapsed with no one in sight. The music got me out of my funk and I started feeling pretty good again. I stopped and called Rob to say hello. There was magic cell reception in the middle of nowhere! He offered me a good pep talk and told me there were people nearish to me which helped me feel less alone. It was probably 9:30pm, not exactly the middle of the night, but the early sunset made it feel late.

A foot person passed me, hurray, I’m no longer alone! Next I saw two bivying people tucked in their little bivies alongside the trail. I was a little envious but not yet tired, wanted to make more progress. Then I saw Justin boiling water and making a tasty trail-side meal with a dehydrated food package. There was social time when a third person came along. That was nice. Onward!

The volunteers warned us that when the groomer comes through, you get off the track completely. Jump in the deep snow next to the trail. The groomer is one massive machine pulling two more exceptionally large snow flattening devices. It came through at 9:35pm, earlier than expected and the resulting smoothness left behind was heaven to ride compared with the mashed potatoes. See in the photo a rider who had gotten out of the way. The people on foot were not as happy about the grooming, they had been on the best snow all day before the groomer came through!

After the groomer came through, all of the fighting I’d had to do all day to keep my bike riding straight ahead suddenly became much easier. Fighting the snow means it takes two hands to steer the bike, a quality headset that allows easy steering is not your friend, and it’s hard to take a sip of water or eat food. Riding mashed potatoes is a full body workout in ways that used muscles I didn’t know existed.

This is what riding in the dark on a perfectly groomed trail looks like.

After awhile more, I started to bounce back and forth with one foot person named Ian. It was 2am or so. He was talking about stopping to bivy. I thought I’d keep going until I got tired which I was hoping would be during the daylight.

I considered what he was saying and then thought about all of the snowmobiles I’d seen Friday. I knew I could sleep through their loud noises, but is it safe to bivy next to snowmobiles? Finally, it was probably 4:30am and Ian stopped to bivy. I still wasn’t tired in the sleepy sense. This was my first bivy ever outside and turns out it’s a bit of a daunting task in the dark of night for someone who has absolutely no idea how good my equipment will do at keeping me warm. Will I freeze to death while setting up the bivy? Possibly. This hasn’t been tested before. I got a -20 bag, a quality bivy, and two thermal crash pads. The marketing departments of this equipment say I’ll live through this. I know I’m thankful Ian is setting his camp up with confidence.

Ian valiantly out on trail later that day. He ended up finishing third in the foot division.

As you’d expect, Ian was faster at getting setup than I, and I didn’t want to be making any noise while he was trying to sleep. I didn’t want to repay his kindness by keeping him awake. It was snowing some, but still almost no wind.

Aside from having some trouble seeing with the teeny little light I was trying to hold rather than using a headlamp, I got tucked in quickly enough and was warm enough. My heart started to race uncontrollably and after I zipped up the bivy, I felt like I was going to suffocate. I thought I had tested the bivy enough to know that I would not get claustrophobic. What was going on? I unzipped the bivy to let cold, fresh air in. That was scary since I was not convinced I’d stay warm with cold air flowing in. I was wondering if this was a panic attack. Was I freaking out?

The next thing I knew, Ian was telling me that it was time to wake up! That was the soundest 90 quality minutes of sleep. I didn’t get cold either. I had set my alarm in case I overslept, but that was just the right amount of time. I didn’t feel sleepy when I woke up, got to work to pack everything away and was able to get moving fairly quickly. Ian was long gone at this point.

That’s when the wheels fell off. I was feeling like I had no power. I wasn’t tired, but my legs weren’t under me either. I kept looking back to see where the person dragging skis behind me was. Finally, I realized what I I was hearing was my labored breath, my lungs had accumulated fluid overnight. After the sun came up, I stopped to make water out of snow. I made 3 L of water, the whole process took about an hour. During this time, I was coughing and I saw things when I coughed that I didn’t care to know had just been in my lungs. This continued.

Justin passed me, he looked strong and I wasn’t able to maintain conversation. I told him to go on, he looked like he was going to have a great day. I realized I was likely experiencing effects of altitude sickness, something I’ve had once before in a slightly different form, but I know I am susceptible to getting it. I was trying to drink more going in to the event knowing hydration helps ward off altitude sickness.

My pace went from slow to slower, often walking since that wasn’t much slower than riding and I knew I had to stop riding when there was a chance to do so. That meant moving gradually forward all day, struggling to get each mile to pass until I got to an area where Rob could come meet me with the car at mile 75. Thankfully, after hours of no cell service, I was able to contact him so he had time to get to where I’d be riding in.

Not long after I’d decided I’d need to stop, along came an angel, fellow racer named Erika. I’d met Erika before the race and had seen her near checkpoint 1. She was chatty and so nice to ride with. I felt badly because she was riding faster than me, feeling better than me, but trying to wait for me, too. Finally, it made sense for her to keep moving, but her company made quite a few miles go by faster.

Erika was a chipper, breath of fresh air out there! I was so thankful to see her the morning of the second day!

I’d been imaging I was seeing people, buildings, and a whole ski team too! Each time, these just turned out to be snow-covered trees. Erika had mentioned having hallucinations too, I was so glad to hear it wasn’t just me turning everything into something! It sounds like this happens to a lot of people. There was so much unexpected out there that I was so glad to be able to discuss with people at the end.

When I saw Rob waving at me, I was certain he was a hallucination. I didn’t wave back. He waved again, this time I knew he was real! What a relief! The moment we put my bike in the car, I wondered if I should have tried to keep riding. The biggest issue with that, had my body not been in a place of reeling from what I will blame on altitude, was that I would miss the Sunday toast at 12pm, I’d miss most people who would head home right after the toast. I have never felt a more serious case of FOMO!

Edyn and his father who was there to support Edyn at Checkpoint 2. This checkpoint was accessible by car and was called the “Breakfast” stop. Volunteers were serving up pancakes!

Racers take a moment at Checkpoint 2, the fires at the checkpoints were wonderful, in addition to the saunas at each.

Rob drove me to checkpoint 2 so I could see what it was like there. The volunteers had been there for so many hours but were still chipper and they treated me as if I had ridden my bike to that point. I had a terrific chocolate chip pancake, coffee and hot cocoa mixed together and it really helped me feel better. We then continued back to the lodge in the car and that was the end of my Pursuit. I’d been out there for 33.5 hours and 75 miles. I could not have asked for a better experience or a more complete one given the circumstances and all of my goals with the exception of getting Chompy across the finish line were accomplished!

I had a lot of post-race discussions with people at the Sunday 12pm toast. This is me chatting with Tom who had had a successful Pursuit.

I was able to be there at the toast Sunday at 12pm. There was time to hear about other people’s rides, hear how the night had gone for others, where they had bivied, what parts were hard, what they got out of it, all of the details. Even among the veterans, people were sharing tips that had worked for them. The learning ever ends for this kind of an event.

The toast is a perfect opportunity to wrap up the Pursuit, see people, leave feeling good after congratulating each other, sharing hugs and lots of smiles. I was so glad to be able to be there this year.

I met more people, everyone was happy for everyone else: we’d all survived and all raced our own races and overcome stuff to get to the start line and more stuff to get to the finish. Everyone has a story of overcoming to share, we’re all human and no one is immune from life stuff that gets in the way of a perfectly smooth road to a race like this one.

It was nice to be able to thank both Jay and Tracy after this was over, along with the volunteers who had worked incredibly hard to pull the whole weekend off.

I got to celebrate what I did accomplish even though it wasn’t a finish. While I was out there riding, I was thinking it’d be fine if I never did this again. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was already thinking about next year. As long as I can get ahead of the altitude issue, I will be back. My lungs cleared up quickly indicating my symptoms were definitely related to altitude. I felt 100% within two days, just a little residual soreness remained afterward.

The wonderful volunteers and organizers of Fat Pursuit celebrating a very successful 10th year of the event. Many of these people have volunteered for all or most of those years!

I heard a lot of great things about the camp Jay hosts alongside the very best in the business prior to the Fat Pursuit start from a lot of people who have attended one or more of the camps. He encouraged attending that in the future along with taking more time to acclimate. Carving out a little more time will be worth it and knowing so much more for a future year of Pursuing, it’ll be less worry and less imagining things like the snow-covered bison.

I went out to the finish Sunday night and there was a party still happening, all of these people were waiting for the last finisher to come through 60 hours after the start. Let this be a lesson in not being too worried about being last - it’s okay to be that last person, and wow, that final person got that much more time to enjoy the snow out there and still got a party!

What’s next? I’m looking forward to many more special fat bike rides on the snow in New England this winter and I am going to take advantage of every opportunity to bivy, to ride longer, test out my gear and systems, ride in various weather conditions, stay connected with the winter ultra community, continue to optimize my setup, work on eating and drinking more while riding, and dream about future winter ultra events. I’ll be watching as others take on more winter cycling challenges, I’ll be rooting for people as they race the Ididerod, and I will carry the confidence and knowledge I gained at the Fat Pursuit to every challenging ride I do from now to eternity.

The landscape of the Fat Pursuit is breathtaking.

Thank you to Rob, the good people of Seven Cycles who built my awesome Highline XX fat bike and helped get it ready for this event, all of the wonderful people who made Fat Pursuit happen, my friendly fellow competitors out there, everyone who offered me advice along the way, my very supportive family, and everyone in the cycling community who have sent your best wishes, who followed my dot, who supported me via social media. I has all meant so much to me.

I hope my ride has inspired some of you, too. The winter cycling world is wide open to all who desire to be part of it and it’s an incredible place to be.

Latest eNews is Out and a quick update

If you aren’t receiving our email newsletter, be sure to sign up for it! Here’s the latest one to check out - there are A LOT of new rides on our autumn calendar and we’re already looking forward to hosting the 8th annual First Snow Ride!

Subscribe to our e-newsletter if you’re not already getting it in your inbox. If you’re not seeing it, be sure to whitelist connect@rideheadquarters.com so it comes through.

The HQ van hosted a welcoming party to Dan Schmitt as he rode into town after completing a cross-country bikepacking trip on his Seven Evergreen. The van loves popping up ice cream parties!

It’s been quite a year! We’re celebrating the big, red van’s first anniversary today. We have enjoyed the ability to meet riders all over New England and spec out amazing new bikes with you in an even more dedicated, thoughtful way. The new bikes that have resulted have been so great, and have been treating riders to fun, local rides, and big rides all over the world.

We saw an uptick in S&S coupled bikes that are easy to travel with this year. Getting back to normal has involved making up for lost travel time with the bike during the pandemic.

Bike components are all coming back into stock now, we’re not seeing nearly as many stockouts or lengthy leadtimes on the components you want for your new bike. Seven Cycles continues to crank out frames for our excited riders.

While we work with quite a few people on performance road bikes, it’s very common for these bikes to have more generous tire clearances and handling qualities so the bike can easily double as a gravel bike.

As we transition into autumn and shorter, chillier days, we recommend thinking about your winter cycling.

It may not be the thing you want to think about now, but imagine being excited to ride in the snow, imagine having a chance to connect with your cycling friends in the dead of January. We host absolutely awesomely fun rides on the “worst” days of the year. Seven Cycles’ Treeline bikes are performance mountain bikes, bikepacking bikes, and lightweight, nimble fat bikes as well. Ask for a demo to see just how much riding a Treeline can make available to you, all year.

Ask us about building a Seven Cycles bike for four seasons of riding, perfect for safe, fun winter riding then extending into the best summer riding on all kinds of dirt trails and roads.

Unbound Race Report 2022, 200 Mile Edition

Ride HQ’s founder, Patria Vandermark, participated in the 200-mile edition of the Unbound Gravel race on June 4, 2022 in Emporia, Kansas. She shares her very special experience of the event and weekend with us.

Moments after finishing Unbound, there’s a person and bike under all of that mud.

Unbound started for me back in January of 2020, when I entered the lottery for the 2020 version of the race. Covid hit in the spring so Unbound was cancelled that year. I chose to defer my registration to this year when I hoped Covid would be in the rear view mirror.

Ride Headquarters filled the spring with Gravel Training rides and the Gravel Panel Session (still available to watch) to help make the training happen for me and everyone who was doing early season gravel events and to share as much knowledge as possible.

The second Ride HQ gravel training ride was a 100km adventure ride starting in Lincoln, MA.

The big, red Ride HQ van, my husband, Rob, and I road tripped from Boston to Emporia, Kansas, driving ~25 hours, arriving Thursday evening, with just enough time to set up camp before the gorgeous Kansas sunset.

The Lyon Fairgrounds in Emporia was home for the weekend, it’s run by a nice man named Ken. Reservations worked like this: call Ken a few months ago, tell him we’re coming. An electrical hookup would be helpful. Pay in person when we arrive, no deposit necessary. He’s not worried, he knows we’ll be there. At the end of the weekend he tried to convince us to stay, it wouldn’t have taken much arm twisting!

Lyon County Fairgrounds was more than comfortable for the weekend.

Friday morning was casual, we cooked a huge pancake breakfast at camp.

Rob came to support my ride and that involved being chef, mechanic, photographer, driver, and alarm clock!

We can’t travel without a tasty coffee experience whether we’re bikepacking or van camping.

After breakfast and doing dishes - there was both electricity and running water at the fairgrounds - we rode our bikes 2 miles into downtown Emporia to get checked in for the race, and see the XL racers start their event. XL riders had a 350-mile course and were required to keep at least a 10mph average including stops, completely self-supported.

There was a throng of people cheering for the XL racers.

I was excited to see many Ride HQ riders in Emporia in addition to our supplier partners who we haven’t seen in over 2 years due to the pandemic.

For all of the festivities happening, I felt fortunate to be able to see these people all at the same time:

Riders from left: me, Michael, Derrick, Andrew, and Elliott. Everyone shown here finished the 200 mile race.

Shimano was proudly displaying a Seven Cycles Evergreen built up with Shimano’s limited edition 1x GRX components. There were a good number of Seven Cycles’ bikes out there, quite a few under our riders, but also a number of Sevens under riders who had worked with other shops. Unbound is the perfect ride for an Evergreen in so many ways. I’ll write more about my bike setup and why Evergreens are ideal for Unbound; it’s a long article by itself.

Shimano’s GRX tent displayed this Seven Cycles Evergreen s with limited edition cockpit, along with 1 x GRX components.

Naturally, I missed people I was anxious to see. If I were to do it again, I’d arrive Wednesday night so as to have two full days to shake out travel legs and have time more time with people.

I snuck in a quick pre-ride of the first few miles of the route. It was just long enough to see the starting stretch and feel the first few turns which would be taken with hundreds of other people, likely at high speeds. Stay right. The line is smooth and the road is cambered safely for those on the right.

The night before I wasn’t feeling nervous or really even thinking about the race much. My mind was more concerned with making sure everything was ready for the morning, the Garmins were loaded with the route, yes, plural, I think I brought at least 2 of everything. At this point I’d over-thought everything a few too many times. Not having nerves seemed like maybe I’d be in for quality sleep. Ha no. Of course not.

Whoop told me I’d gotten one of the best sleeps of my life when I woke up Friday morning. I didn’t look at my Whoop data the morning of the race. Glad I didn’t look: it thought the 3 hours of sleep I got wasn’t enough and I was in the red.

Race Day Begins Early

The alarm went off at 2:45am. Rob was already up making coffee and breakfast. He barely slept. I took a few moments to dig myself out of bed. First order of business: eat a massive bowl of oatmeal filled with nuts and berries. Having had an early dinner the night before likely made this undertaking easier than usual.

No one looked to be awake anywhere around our campsite. Did we get the date wrong? One of my fears of staying at the fairgrounds was that it was going to be a loud party all night. Wrong. Everyone went to bed early and the noise that threatened sleep was only distant trains blowing their horns for the entire night. Ear plugs made those noises go away completely.

While digesting breakfast, I did my hair and got dressed and ready to ride. Time before an event moves faster than regular time. 1 hr 45 minutes of time felt more like 15 minutes. Regardless, Rob and I were ready and rolling to town before 5am.

We met up with RHQ rider Elliott, and his wife, Leanna, at the coffee shop so we could collect ourselves. It was chilly out there!

While Elliott, center, and I stood around trying to stay warm, 100-mile racer, Alan from Marblehead, happened to find us! Alan had joined in on the RHQ Gravel Training rides and here we all were now in Kansas, ready to do the thing we’d all been training for!

Alan captured super video footage on his ride - check it out!

Elliott and I decided to start together and the plan was to stay together if it was possible. We have similar strengths on training rides, but add 1,200 other riders and neither of us knew how the dynamic would shake out.

I visited the portajohn - no line, nice! Upon leaving the toilet seconds later, there was already a long line waiting. Pete Steina was in line. The pros use these facilities too. We are all, essentially, treated the same.

While there are plenty of facilities, people were literally pouring into town and this line formed in a matter of 2 minutes. It must have grown quite long as the start drew nearer.

Elliott and I chose to start with the 14 hour pace group - everyone can start wherever feels appropriate, given one’s expected finish time. There are cheerleaders holding up signs to make it obvious where to go. I was expecting somewhere around 16 hours, but wanted to start a bit ahead of this time just to have stronger wheels to follow, hopefully stronger=safer, too.

Elliott and Leanna have a moment together prior to the start. From where we stood, we could barely see the start clock.

A train came through, the start got pushed out by 6 minutes as organizers waited for it to pass. 6:06am official start time.

Race Starts!

Once the race began, it didn’t really begin back where I stood. It was a casual rollout, a long, straight, paved road. It was more like being part of a parade with people cheering on both sides of the road. It felt great. There was no one moving up or falling back, everyone seemed perfectly content with their position - there was plenty of room to move up so it was an option. I know the race ahead of me was likely chaotic, but where I was, it was chill.

Riders stretched for blocks after the start. It got light quickly.

I was gleeful to be there. It finally happened and I was there. I kept expecting something to derail my plans to attend. I know too many people who have recently come down with Covid and that would make racing impossible so I’ve been paranoid about indoor meetings, have been masking up for everything for weeks. It was a relief to be here in the first mile.

Rolling out just after dawn was calm and peaceful, not full of the sketchy behavior I was expecting, though was likely happening ahead on the road.

I stayed to the right, seeing the road I’d pre-ridden, taking the lines I wanted. Feeling good. My legs felt great. This was an easy rollout, but even then, you never know when tired legs start by complaining. I’ve often had good rides that started with angry legs. Not today. My legs were happy to be here.

There was a tiny puddle on the dirt road which I’d pre-ridden and knew it was easy to blast right through, but riders nearly came to a stop. Dear me, did I start too far back? Fortunately, it was one of only a couple of weird stops that weren’t necessary and simply due to too many riders. At least no one was being sketchy around me.

Very early on in the ride, we were headed toward serious storm clouds. We got spat on some but otherwise didn’t get soaked like many of the riders up the road.

I did everything I could to follow wheels and take clean lines. I would mark those who looked like good riders who were smooth and seemed to be selecting the best lines, then I would take possession of that person’s wheel, sticking close enough to get their pebbles in my face. Some tires are nicer to the rider following than others! I pulled out my road racing experience which has been lying dormant for many years. Being in a tight pack and jockeying for position is an element of road and crit racing I secretly enjoy. The stuff I don’t like about road racing is non-existent in the gravel scene.

My gleefulness of being here continued mile after mile. I was so happy to be doing this and having this shared experience with ALL of these people.

Water Crossings!

The very first water crossing was a slow walk very early on when there were too many people together. People were trying to keep their feet dry and it was funny to see the calculations in people’s minds. Do I have to get my feet wet? Pause. GO. I was glad to get it out of the way early so it wasn’t something to dread, but to welcome.

First water crossing of the day happened very early in the ride.

The next water crossing was about 2 feet deep 18 miles in. I watched someone in front of me ride through so I went for it and I laughed out loud as I rode through splashing out the other side. It felt great to get through that and stay upright. That was the first of many. Most were rideable - I was careful to ride the exact lines of people who rode ahead of me so as to not get surprised by a hiding rock. Water crossings are dangerous since the bottom can’t be seen on most.

Mechanicals

After every single water crossing and nearly every section of rougher road (it is all gravel so I’m talking about rougher-than-usual road), there was at least one rider fixing a flat or dealing with a mechanical. There were hundreds of mechanicals that I saw people dealing with throughout the day. It seemed thousands of water bottles were donated to the volunteer clean-up crew that had flown out of bottle cages.

The closest thing to a mechanical I had is that one of my cameras broke off of the handlebar because its mount broke. They say not to do anything new on race day. This was the only “new” thing I incorporated into my setup on race day. “They” are right. The camera went flying on a fast downhill so I got to do that hill twice to go back to collect the camera.

Water Oasis #1 - Texaco Hill, Mile 41

The first water oasis hit at mile 41. I was really hoping the fastest 100 mile riders would pass us before then since they were doing the same first 41 miles we did, they started an hour later than us. Peter Sagan did the 100 mile race so I was assuming he would be passing me in this first section. Alas, he wasn’t riding world-tour speeds and I was keeping a relatively high pace. Darn!

Rob captured this photo of Peter Sagan at the start of the 100-mile race. Looks like Peter is hammin’ for Rob’s camera! Peter’s world-tour teammate, Daniel Oss, is riding just to Peter’s right (so left of him in this photo) - Peter is riding on the yellow line.

People on Texaco Hill, getting water and many people seemed to be spending lots of time rearranging the things on their bikes.

I filled a water bottle, the volunteers were super helpful doing the filling while I was wiping down with the cold, wet bandana volunteers handed out. Clouds still blocked the sun so it hadn’t gotten warm yet. It rained a tad here and there, but it never got rainy, never stormed on us, and the cooler temps meant a much more pleasant day! If you read other people’s accounts of their Unbound, you’ll hear a variety of stories. There was a lot of weather out there and everyone ended up with something different. I felt lucky.

Groups

The group of people I rode into at the oasis broke up there because everyone took more or less time. I found some people I liked riding with, but who knows where everyone was at this point. I didn’t waste time getting back on the bike.

Groups came and went. I met all kinds of people out there throughout the day. I can’t emphasize enough how nice everyone was. I was riding with many guys who looked much stronger than me, but they were happy to have me ride with them, many spoke and said hello. We often exchanged where we were from. I met a man from the Philippines, a first timer. He came the furthest of those I met.

This is Kayde from Denver, she is showing off her pretty nails. The conversation and general chit-chat started when I complimented the mud splatter on the back of her jersey. She was super friendly, and crazy strong. She went on to Beat the Sun. Four days later, I’m still digging mud out of my not-so-nicely manicured nails!

In one group I was riding with, after a lot of quiet on a long, gradual hill, one guy said: “Someone say something, please!” So I replied, “What a fun hill, let’s hope we get more of these!” I think he regretted that request.

My strategy was to ride easy, eat, and do things that are harder to deal with when people are around when I was alone. I’d get ready and be head’s up enough to jump on any group who was passing who wasn’t passing at break-neck speeds. This way, I saved my energy and was with people for probably all but ~3 hours of the day.

The group I enjoyed the most was one that was comprised of teammates from Ontario, around mile ~90-100. They were wearing the same clothes so I knew they would be trying to stay together. I jumped on.

The Ontario team and a few others working together. I wanted to tell them just how thankful I was for the lift.

We rode through a lot of technical sections together and they offered easy wheels to follow, taking fast, good lines. They were trying to Beat the Sun (so finish before the sunset). This is a fast pace. One of their guys started cramping. I convinced him it was in his head. He started feeling better moments later. After awhile, I remembered I had Untapped maple shots in my bag so I passed him one figuring he was probably low on calories too. His chain was squeaking. A squeaking chain is a slower bike, but it is also enough to usher someone to a dark place.

We had a bit of conversation about coming from cold climates and not being heat acclimated.

At this point in the day, the sun was coming out and it was heating up quite a bit. I did some heat acclimatization at home via a sauna blanket and I’m convinced it helped.

The Darkness

Everyone goes into a dark place on rides at some point. I’ve been there, I know what it feels like. A lot of riders visit one or more dark places during Unbound. I really, really wanted to enjoy the ride and was hoping not to have any pain - physical or mental, to put a damper on the day, not that going to a dark place is anything that leaves a bad taste or anything. But still…

This soundtrack “Hello Darkness My Old Friend” started playing in my head about 2 hours into the day. Listen to it if you really want to get into my head while I was drinking in the beautiful green rolling hills of Kansas and pushing on the pedals all the while moving closer to the finish line.

Kansas is deep green, only interrupted with these neat dirt roads that roll for miles.

One of my goals of the ride was to not get into a dark place, however impossible it might be to avoid. Around every corner, I was looking for it. Where are you? Are you coming to visit me today? Watching for the darkness was like watching for Peter Sagan. I missed them both.

My legs felt great all day. My brain was in this game - after 50 miles in, I had 150 miles left and I had confidence doing 150 miles since I’d done the 150-mile RHQ Training Ride. I also had the confidence from people I’ve been riding with in the back of my head. Others believe I can do this and I really want to do this. I counted down the miles in terms I know, comparing with rides I’ve done of the distance remaining. I have done rides of all of these remaining miles and I have often felt more tired at the start of rides I help organize than I was feeling 8 hours into Unbound. 100 miles in, only another 100 to go. No problem. I can do this.

Eating and Drinking

Using a hydration pack with 2 liters of water was a life saver. I drank a lot and nearly constantly. It takes so much less energy to drink out of the hydration bladder than reach down for a bottle. The little things matter during such a big day.

I was properly hydrated all day. For the first time in my cycling life, I think I have figured it out. I also have come to realize how much I have ridden dehydrated in the past and have had harder/slower rides as a result.

Eating was more of a challenge. I started with a Clif Bar at the beginning when I wasn’t working too hard and figured solid calories would be fine. It took me hours to get that one bar down. Giving up on that, I enjoyed a few pieces of Maple Hardtack (our homemade more enjoyable-to-eat maple syrup version of peanut butter brittle). These are easy to eat and are instant leg-saving calories. After awhile, I could taste too much of the butter (taste buds change weirdly during a long day) and my teeth got super sensitive (felt like getting an electrical shock in my molars when I bit down…no idea where that came from!) so that made it not enough fun to eat. I switched to leaning extensively on SIS gels and Skratch Superfuel water bottles. Each bottle had 400 calories so if I kept this up, I’d be properly fueled. The SIS gels went down easily ALL day, along with the Skratch water bottles.

The water in my hydration always had electrolytes with a few calories in it so I didn’t drink plain water all day.

CheckPoint #1 - Eureka, Mile 77

This is the first time I got to see Rob and the HQ van. The van was easy to spot and being greeted by Leanna who told me where to find the van was so pleasant! It was a quick stop, I felt good so just needed to get new water bottles since the ones I had were covered with plenty of mud. I finished that darned Clif Bar, used the portable toilet we brought in the van, and just took a moment to be sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. In the meantime, Rob lubed the chain and changed the battery - all preventative to be sure the next leg would be smooth. Indeed, it was.

Looking clean and fresh still!

Oasis #2 - Hamilton, Mile 115

I got a fresh bottle of water for safety but didn’t need it. They had a hose and I asked them to spray down my arm screens. Ooooh nice. My stomach was starting to get grumpy with me and I couldn’t let it turn over. Once that happens, it’s really hard to get it to work again and at mile 115, there is too far to go.

There was a cute little general store with old fashioned soda fountain at this oasis. I hadn’t planned on visiting the store, but sure am glad I did. I asked for a root beer float. They only had chocolate ice cream left. Fine! You said the magic words: ice cream. And they had some pretzels with southwest seasoning that I would never touch on a normal day. Had a nice conversation with them, thanked them profusely, then went outside to enjoy the chocolate ice cream float.

Traveled back in time at the General Store and this was the best chocolate ice cream float I’ve ever had. It’s also the only one I’ve ever had!

The cyclist standing beside me didn’t have money, but needed a sandwich. The local guy standing there who happened to be at the store offered to pay, didn’t hesitate to offer.

All of this food hit the spot, it was just what my stomach needed. I set up the pretzels so they were easy to access in my jersey pocket. Note that I had to use fingers to get at pretzels. This means that if I ended up getting dirty hands, I’m eating these pretzels with whatever is on my hands.

Wrath of the Kansas Mud

At this point, I’d already written most of this blog post in my head while riding. It was an easy Unbound, no stories to tell, not sure what the fuss is all about blah blah blah…

Time to rewrite the story…

There was a mile of DEEP muddy bog (can’t call that thing a road), it was impassible, and here we are now in the heat of the sun and a slippery road with mud that clings with the jaws of death to every surface of my bike that it can find.

I forgot the camera was running. While capturing images of the day was a high priority, survival mode took over and photographing the carnage was the last thing on my mind once I got stuck in the mud.

Naturally, I felt like I was the only one with a muddy bike that I couldn’t figure out how to move. I’d brought a brush and hard plastic tool meant for cleaning bikes. It just got so muddy too. I resorted to using my fingers to getting the mud off. This was the worst and heaviest mud I have ever seen in my life. It was hard to manage especially because of all of the extra weight; I’d already put a substantial amount of stuff in my saddle bag and had three full water bottles going into this section. Add 20+ pounds of mud to a bike for a tired cyclist with weak arms and that’s a new sport that I didn’t train for!

This mud was 20-30 pounds of solid muck. I was so glad to not have a painted bike or breakable derailleur hanger.

It wasn’t just me. It was everyone. There was a woman on a fat bike trying to get through it, her bike had to weigh 60 pounds with the mud on it, she was staying cheery and offering me encouraging words. We all cracked a lot of jokes.

“Remember we paid for this!”

“It really would have been a boring day without this.”

And the the best: “I just found a worm on my bike…No! Make that TWO!”

One guy was laughing/bemoaning just purchasing some super light cycling shoes that felt like lead weights on his feet with the mud refusing to let go.

At the top of this road where we were all glad to have clawed our way to reach and there are a bunch of locals basically laughing at us (it was totally friendly), meanwhile the race was sponsoring some sort of disc golf challenge. What?! How about a hose to wash off our bikes? Oh - right, disc golf might be a better sport than cycling. It is a big deal in Emporia.

I didn’t hear anyone get upset. Even the guy who fell over off of his bike getting completely covered as we rode into the section, no prob - he was apologizing to me for whatever reason I can’t comprehend. He didn’t come close to taking me down, maybe he splattered me with mud? I assured him all was well. I’ve since read so many IG/FB stories of people saying they loved that section. It killed my time by over an hour. Alas, it hurt everyone’s time by a lot.

Unbound brings out the best in people and brings out people who like to get dirty. It’s so darn cool.

Then there was the bike wash party in the river which was basically the best thing I’d seen and experienced all day. The water felt great and the bike worked well after this washing.

I was glad I brought a brush for bike cleaning, it came in handy at the bike wash!

Impressively, the bike made no noises after all of that. I’d used the plain water in my 3rd bottle to wash out the brake pads and rotors.

There were a lot of bikes out there that hadn’t weathered the mud as well with screeching chains and loudly knocking bottom brackets.

With the mud, my stomach had had plenty of time to recover with the chocolate ice cream working well in my system and I felt great to keep going. There weren’t any groups around so this next stretch was where I ended up riding alone for longer periods of time. Time seemed to tick by properly quickly and I enjoyed some of the terrain in this section. It’s a bit of a blur now, but there were trees and I love trees. There were also some fun climbs.

43 Hills of Motivation

I had labeled every single hill on the route for people who helped me get to Unbound via RideWithGPS and Garmin prompted me at the bottom of hills, reminding me who the hill was named for. Each of these prompts sent cold chills and literally gave my legs more energy. It’s crazy how effective the brain is in terms of affecting performance. Unbound showed this to me again and again. I dedicated the last hill of the day to my late friend, Stephanie Hill. Yes, that’s her last name, appropriate, eh? She and her husband got me out on my first real bike ride. She was a beautiful person inside and out, and her love of cycling, both road and mountain biking, directly brought me into the sport.

Route profile shows quite a few little hills and a few biggies.

The Judge

While we’re talking about hills, the organizers named the biggest hills of the day and there was a banner leading into these. I enjoyed seeing that so I would know how to talk about that particular hill with people.

The Judge is the name of a steep climb with a narrow track and a lot of loose rock on both sides. Having very low gearing, I could ride right up this hill without getting off and walking. A lot of people were walking and falling off of their bikes. I rode a 40t chainring and 10-50 cassette. It was ideal for me.

The route didn’t feel that hilly despite all of the promises of hills that just never end. Death by a thousand cuts they say. It’s hillier in New England and grades are steeper. I also think that after hearing countless stories about how awful the hills are, one gets ready for this psychologically, then when there are fewer than expected hills, it doesn’t feel as bad.

The northern Unbound route is hillier than the south route (this year and next year are the south route). So it could be worse in future years, just probably not by much next year. There was a big climb that was removed at the last minute due to a river overflowing causing a dangerous crossing, so maybe I’d be singing a different tune with another 1,000 ft of climbing.

Descents and Technical Roads

More in the first half of the day rather than the second, many of the times that we turned into a road, it would be rough, class 4, loose and technical in nature. These were so much fun! It became obvious that many people who ride gravel have dirt roads, but not the more technical terrain like we have in New England. Practicing fast descents and techie sections via the Gravel Training rides paid off on numerous occasions during the day. I was able to hang on good wheels and often catch up to people on these trickier descents. My bike gives me so much confidence with how it keeps its wheels on the ground and I ran tires that rolled fast and gripped well.

The best techie sections I didn’t get on camera. This offers a bit of a view into some of the rougher roads.

There were probably a grand total of no more than 10 miles of pavement the entire day. It was nearly all dirt (er, or cow pie) of some kind!

Checkpoint #2 - Madison, Mile 160

This was the second and last time to see support crews before the finish line. I had heard the last 40 miles were a cake walk so I was feeling very good about finishing at this point in the day. It was probably around 8pm. I let this stop take longer. I knew I’d finish, it was a question of how comfortable I’d be doing it. I’d heard how nice it is to change shoes and socks. I was mostly into it due to getting out the gravel that were starting to cause blisters in my shoes so I changed both, ate vanilla ice cream directly out of the quart-size container, Leanna had bought pizza (what a great surprise!) and that looked pretty tasty so I had a slice, and topped it all off with a pickle. My stomach was loving it all! I wasn’t in a deficit, but not having to rely on more calories in the water and gels was a bit of insurance.

Multi-tasking: eating pizza, changing out of the shoes and socks, relaxing. Photo by Leanna.

It was fun to hang out, talk about the race so far, enjoy the evening air… Now looking back, had I kept my check points and oasis stops to the same time as the pros spent at these, I would have been close to making it to the finish by sunset! While I wanted to do my best/fastest on the bike, rushing time here seemed like it would be missing some of the experience. I knew I had plenty of time to make it by the cut off so it was okay to doddle a bit.

I’d be remiss not to mention just how long of a day support people have. They didn’t sleep either but don’t get the adrenaline of riding a bike. They get to see their riders for too little time for the hours they stand around waiting and prepping for those few precious moments. And they are left with a total mess to clean up once the rider rolls out!

Clear glasses on for the evening, happy feet, glad to ride into the Kansas night as I rolled out of the second checkpoint.

The Last 40 Miles

The next 10-15 miles after the checkpoint were a lot solo, some seeing and riding with people here and there. There was another muddy section, but I had learned better and that went quickly since I picked the bike up and walked it, not risking what might get caught in it. I think the front wheel got gummed up a little so I just took it off, bailed the mud, and continued.

Just drafting off the guy with matching hubs. I don’t remember this at all! Turns out, hours later, long after losing him for who knows what reason, I finished with this same guy.

There were free range cows on these roads, where we had to yell while approaching to get them to move off the middle of the road. They were small-ish, nothing bothersome, cool to see for sure.

During some of these solo miles was what I had been most looking forward to: the sunset on the Flint Hills. It was beautiful. Peaceful. Calm. I really love night riding and this was special time.

The People of Kansas

Throughout the entire day, people were standing in the rain/sun/dark cheering for us! They’d been out there ALL day! And they weren’t just clapping or saying “yay go” - they were jumping up and down, yelling, making a lot of noise, kids were out there in on it. SO MANY PEOPLE. Yes, this cheering also goes straight to the legs propelling the bike forward and with less effort. The people everywhere were really big-hearted, happy to have us there, totally into it. Special. For the miles I was alone in the dark, there was always a light of a rider behind me or a cheer squad so there wasn’t actual alone time. Had I been completely alone, I wouldn’t have been afraid, nothing and no one is out there. I must have seen a total of 2 cars not associated with the race all day long.

At some point I think it was approx 25 miles to go, a faster guy passed me. I looked down at my computer and with it telling me I was close to the end, I burned a match to catch back up to him and lock onto his rear wheel. I stayed there. There were two other guys who we connected with who were going quickly and the four of us stayed together. We flew. We hit holes in the road hard - easy to miss in the dark, getting a little careless. I worked harder than I felt like I had since much earlier in the day. I could now spend the energy I was saving because no matter what happens at this point, I’m finishing.

Final Miles

The evening air was comfortable. I stopped eating at some point because it wasn’t necessary and was fine without anything more. It was also flat and aside from many turns, it was a welcome change to turn off my brain and only think about what it was going to be like to cross the finish line. Not long before the end, there was a freight train that took at least 5 minutes to pass. That was a short train for Kansas. We passed a single speed fat bike rider who was going to finish just a few minutes after us. How amazing is that?!

The Finish

I finished feeling complete satisfaction. I did something new, rode the biggest day on the bike I’ve ever had in my life, feeling a whole lot of relief that everything had come together, nothing had managed to get in the way. This big, scary thing ended up being such a remarkable day on the bike and simply a great day to be a human sharing a human experience with fellow riders and the good people of Kansas.

Kansas gained my utmost respect in every way.

Finishing felt really good, hearing the loud cheering, and getting showered with lots of stuff from the Unbound volunteers was a lovely way to end the day.

After-Ride Food

I drank an IPA - thanks Leanna! I wasn’t hungry for anything else. Somehow the time slipped away to 1am, we returned to camp to sleep until 11am the next day. We enjoyed breakfast at the Commercial Street diner in the center of town, and we let that meal last forever.

In Summary

I met so many people through training for the ride and by incorporating the 43 Hills of Motivation, it also brought back great memories of people and rides that were meaningful, all that helped me get to the finish.

Yes, that is one tough day on the bike. Physically, that was the toughest. I have had harder days on the bike though. I could have made it harder on myself by pushing harder, digging deeper, carrying less and risking more to do better. I could have been empty at the end. Proper preparation both mental and physical paid off in so many ways for my Unbound ride to achieve the goals I set for myself this year. This is the race I wanted and I executed on a well-formed plan.

Elliott and Leanna moments after Elliott crossed the line with both very satisfied with the day, and ready for more.

I’m convinced the coulda-wouldas are why people return. Had I done this or that differently, how much time could I have shaved off? For reference: I came in after a total time of 16 hrs and 45 minutes for an 11.7 mph average. Moving time was 14 hours 37 minutes (stopped times were spent at rest stops and that mud!) Moving average speed was 13.7 mph.

I learned so much before going to Kansas, and I learned the intangibles by being there, feeling it, breathing it, touching the mud, and ingesting it.

Would I do it again? In a heart beat. I said this at the finish Saturday night.

Not sure if I will right away due to so many other events in the world that I would like to experience, but yes, I highly recommend the Unbound experience to everyone, no matter who you are.

Happiness is… A long day on the bike with good people.

Discover Solo Cycling

Social Distance Riding

A cyclist rides the hills of peaceful western Massachusetts.

Here’s one article that we never thought we’d write! It’s impossible to believe social distance cycling is a new form of cycling. Considerations of a social distant ride are the following: stores are closed, you’re riding on your own so you have to do your own navigating, you might have more time on your hands so you want to ride further than usual, traffic is quieter, so that also entices you to ride further, and it’s spring, which means you may experience many types of weather. Since you’re riding alone, you need to be more self-sufficient and now if you flat, ringing an Uber to pick you up isn’t necessarily the best decision while social distancing is important.

Stores are closed

When you’re out for a ride, places you’d normally stop to fill up your water bottle are likely to be closed. Fortunately, grocery stores will probably be open, but nothing can be counted on.

Ride with your food and water so a closed store doesn’t force you to turn around early. If your bike allows for three bottle cages, install a 3rd cage and fill all three bottles. Worst case: you get a better workout by dragging around an extra two pounds of water that you didn’t end up needing!

The Honey Bikes Vermonter comes with three bottle cages and all Seven Cycles bikes offer this as an option.

If your bike doesn’t have a 3rd bottle capacity, your 3rd bottle can go in a large saddle bag, keep reading this article.

Food can be stored on your bike in numerous ways. Jersey pockets, though better than nothing, are not the best way to lug food. Bring a sandwich! Real food is better than packaged food if you can get it together.

Ortlieb bags are terrific and they come in various sizes. This one pictured is small, and has firm walls so as to not crush your sandwich, and everything else you want easy access to.

Having access to spare batteries for electricity to juice up your phone or GPS computer is helpful to have at your fingertips in a handlebar bag. Having a spare USB battery (like a Mophie) and charging cables offers you peace of mind that your phone or GPS computer won’t die on you should you choose to ride longer.

There are other handlebar bag options available, ask us if there’s one you like, we can probably get it for you and ship it to your home if we don’t already have it in the store.

Navigation

You’ve been used to riding wherever your cycling friends go; you never had to figure out routes for yourself. Uh oh! Time to get a Garmin cycling computer in order to follow routes others have put together, and record your data such as speed, distance, cadence, power. It captures almost every piece of data there is to capture including temperature and calories you burned.

We are offering a pandemic-special! If you order any Garmin computer from us, we’ll have Garmin ship the unit directly to you.

We will talk you through operation of the computer over the phone to get you going with it. (When is the last time an online retailer helped you get going with something you purchased?) Yes, we are asking you to buy what you need for cycling from us because your experience will be better for you if you have our advice, guidance, and help.

Email us with your interest in a GPS computer and we’ll offer advice as to which model is best for you based on the functionality you’re likely to use.

For those of you who think using your phone is a good way to navigate when you’re riding your bike: while this is an option, remember that your cell phone is your communication to help if you have a serious problem. Draining its battery by using it to navigate for you and having it on your handlebars, so that it’s the first thing to break if you crash, are both good reasons to have a separate GPS computer.

Routes

You have a GPS computer but now you need to know where to go! Please email us as we have a vast library of vetted rides. We will share routes appropriate with what you’re looking to experience during your ride.

Additional safety precautions

Related to the Garmin GPS computer, there is a crash-detection feature available which allows the device to call whomever you wish if you stop for too long, or come to a sudden stop an remain stopped.

Your loved ones can also follow your ride by way of your Garmin and phone working together to communicate your location.

Be sure to have a Road ID either on your wrist or on a necklace. These are the places paramedics look for ID. It can take hours for them to dig into your stuff to figure out your identity, along with understanding any of your known medical conditions. Play it safe and wear a Road ID at all times since you could experience a medical emergency while driving or out on a walk - anywhere.

Your ride is longer and temperatures vary

With such light vehicle traffic on the road, doesn’t it seem like the best opportunity ever to ride on the road? The biggest drawback to this is that one day traffic will be back to normal and you’ll have gotten spoiled.

You may be in a position to have time to ride due to not commuting or simply needing a break from being cooped up indoors all day!

Add a BIG saddle bag to your bike that holds everything. This large saddle bag will work equally well on a race bike as a touring bike. The one pictured is made by Ortlieb, we carry a few varieties of these bags.

A large saddle bag enhances your freedom when cycling.

Stuff this bag with everything you could possibly need for the ride. At this time of year, you’re likely to start your ride wearing extra clothes and you’ll want a place to put your jacket or warm stuff as the day warms up. Here is a suggested packing list:

A fully packed large saddle bag is not in the way of the cyclist for small to tall people and contains confidence-inspiring important items for an all-day ride.

• Ride HQ Bug-out Bag (purchase this package from us with choice of bag):

  • Choice of Silca Eolo Wallet $175 or Ortlieb Bike Packing Waterproof Seat-Pack $295

  • 2 x spare tubes

  • Lezyne hand pump

  • Tire levers x 3

  • Patch kit

  • Crank Brothers F15 Mini-tool, includes chainbreaker, allen keys, T25 torx, spoke wrenches, screw drivers & more

  • Food service gloves (keep hands clean if you have to touch something or fix your bike)

  • Sunscreen packet x 3

  • Chamois cream packets x 3

  • CO2 cartridge

  • PDW Shiny Object CO2 Inflator

• Wallet

• Arm warmers

• Neck warmer

• Food

• Rain and/or wind jacket

• Extra pair of gloves (either warmer or cooler than what you’re starting with)

• Spare front and rear light, in case you’re caught out after dark

• Book or eReader - ride your bike, find shade, and read!

Increase your safety with new tires

If it’s been awhile (like 2,000 miles or so long you don’t know how many miles), get new tires immediately! Old tires flat easily. Sometimes when an old tire flats, it does so by way of a sidewall blowout. This is dangerous, don’t risk it.

What do you want in a new set of tires? Assuming you’re primarily a paved road or well-packed dirt-road cyclist, here is a short list:

Fixing a flat on the road. This cyclist appears to have touched her face! We have certainly learned better not to do that now with current events. Greasy faces are certainly not ideal, either!

• Puncture resistant, but not bullet-proof. The most puncture-resistant tires can ride poorly. Ask us and we’ll connect you with a pair of pleasant, yet flat-resistant tires.

• Put 28mm-32mm tires on your road bike for comfort on rough, bumpy roads. No, you won’t feel slow. In fact, you might ride faster since these will increase your confidence.

• 28mm-32mm tires are much less likely to puncture due to hitting a pothole. These are far safer and more stable on rough, wet, or sandy roads. Too many cyclists crash on 23mm tires because of the high pressures in these tires and too little rubber contacting the road. Small bumps in the road will vibrate the bike off the pavement, leading to moments of no contact with the pavement and in these moments, a crash can occur for seemingly no reason.

• Your new tires should be kevlar bead, not steel. Kevlar are much easier to change a flat on and are lighter. Weight of your tires/rims is a good place to be lighter for a better ride.

Opportunities are endless

While dealing with a pandemic is a terrible thing, we have all been given the gift of cycling as an outlet to stay healthy, keep our stress levels in check, balance our emotions, and keep peace at home.

You’ll not just feel better, you’ll get a healthy dose of vitamin D which is known to keep your body healthy. An indoor workout doesn’t have all of the benefits as an outdoor bike ride.

Ride and keep your fitness, or get fitness for the first time in a great while. Once group rides resume, you’ll be able to ride more easily with others, and get to experience the joy of togetherness on group rides. Lean on us to help you get out riding on the road and learn how to love solo cycling!

Winter is Back (finally) - Special Rides and Events for this Long Weekend

Winter took a bit of a hiatus while we had close to 70 degree weather last weekend. We put some special road rides on the calendar and were fortunate to get in some warmer-weather BiFrost Sunday morning mountain bike rides.

However, it’s winter and we love riding in the snow! Snow returns tomorrow evening, Saturday, January 18 & we have a couple of very special rides lined up… read on for complete details. Feel free to share with your friends and invite anyone you think will enjoy the weather. Note the studded tire requirement when there’s snow on the ground - we make this a requirement for your safety and the safety of your riding companions. It is not fun to ride on ice without studs and it’s really, really not fun to crash on ice.

Tour Seven Cycles in Watertown Monday

In addition to these rides for the weekend, note we’re offering a group tour of Seven Cycles in Watertown on Monday, January 20 - this is MLK Day. The tour starts at 11am. Full details are on the Seven Tour Page.

Saturday, January 18 7pm Night Mixed Terrain/Snow Ride

We want to be out riding while it's snowing. Therefore, we're hosting a special edition Night Ride tomorrow evening, Saturday, January 18 from 7-9pm. Doors open at 6:30pm if you want get here early, change clothes, get water, air, etc. Departing from Ride Headquarters (here). All studded tire bikes are welcome and encouraged to attend! Snow shouldn't be too deep when we're out there. Be sure to bring lights and appropriate attire for snow.

This ride will be on trails local to Sherborn, and a few connecting roads. We're expecting a 2-hour ride time and we'll adjust the route to be appropriate for the weather and difficulty of riding.

Pace: We're hosting TWO groups for this ride. There will be a steady moderate group and a funner, slower group. If you're not certain of your off-road pace or if this will be your first night ride, the second "fun" group will be the one to join. We don't recommend this ride if you've never done a mixed terrain ride before. NO ONE gets dropped from the second group.

Equipment: Remember lights and bring more than you think you might need. The cold shortens the life of everything battery operated.

Though this isn't a Full Moon, all of the guidelines and rules for the Full Moon rides applies to this one. Here is the Full Moon Ride Page.

Sunday, January 19 9:00am BiFrost Fat & Mountain Ride - Remote Start in Chelmsford, MA 

Sunday, we're hosting a very special version of the BiFrost ride with a remote start! The ride will be located at Russell Mill in Chelmsford. Weather is predicted for more snow and none of the rain Sherborn is expected to get, so conditions should be pretty good up there.

We're requiring RSVPs for this ride since it's imperative that we know who to expect and if we need to contact anyone for any reason, we'll have your info:

Complete details and RSVP here: https://www.rideshortlist.com/rides-events/bifrost-remote-start-details?rq=bifrost

Wednesday Bike Ride with the Wednesday Wheelers

Yesterday, our curator, Patria, took the lead for a CRW Wednesday Wheeler mid-day ride. This is a ride group that pedals together every Wednesday at 10am all year long.

We were pleased to be able to host the ride yesterday and meet the friendly, enthusiastic riders who showed up for the ride.

The weather forecast showed rain into the morning, so the group met at 11am for pizza - acquired by the pizza shop next door - then had a 12:30pm rollout for 37 gorgeous, fall-foliage-rich road miles.

Here are some photos from the ride, below! Thanks to all who came out, we hope to see you again soon.

Note: we are looking forward to hosting a Winter Riding Clinic in conjunction with CRW - it’s free and open to ALL - Wednesday evening November 13. Be certain to RSVP now so you get follow-up information about the clinic.

We ride all winter and we hope you’ll join us!

Pre-ride obligatory group shot. More joined in after we took this!

Rest stop to take a breath of fresh air on a quiet back road.

Fall foliage and a great group to make it even more colorful on the roads!

Post ride, those with a bit of extra time ate pizza, drank tasty George Howell french press coffee, and took full advantage of the couch!

Get our email newsletter

Our latest email newsletter just went out. Be sure to sign up to receive it so you don’t miss out on cool things that are happening really soon and throughout the winter. Winter is a busy, very fun season for us - be sure to come in and be part of the fun!

Group Tour of Seven Cycles Monday, October 14

Dan C explains how he’s machining the tubeset for Kelly’s race bike.

Join us for a group tour of Seven Cycles this Monday, October 14 at 10:30am!

Seven Cycles is located just down the street from us in Watertown. Seven is a company full of bike building professionals, many of whom have been in the bike building profession for over 30 years. This is the place where great bikes of all kinds come to life and many new innovations in bike building have been developed over the years.

See how Seven designs and builds the best bike frames built to last a lifetime! Children who are able to wear safety glasses are invited to attend as well.

See complete details and RSVP so we can email you directions!

John T inspects a frame, no detail goes overlooked at Seven.

Mixed Terrain at its best with Honey 100 and the Honey Moon 100

The Honey 100 ride and Honey Moon 100 rides were more than an incredibly fun day (or night) on a bike! Riders discovered trails and back roads they’ve never seen before, saw what it is to ride in mixed terrain in this area (very different from the dirt roads of western Massachusetts and Vermont), ate very well, and shared a lot of memorable experiences.

We’d like to thank Honey Bikes for sponsoring this event, give huge and heart-felt appreciation to our fabulous ride leaders who showed groups of riders the way, acknowledge the very hard-working staff who cooked, worked the food stops, managed the myriad riders; we had 120 registered riders who came out! And we’d be remiss to not mention how much work the route designer did to develop and scout the very special, inspired routes.

Check out some great photos of the Honey 100!

Riders preparing for rollout.

Iced mochas fresh from Ride Studio Cafe were available at Ride Headquarters and at every stop on each route.

The route meeting - talking about the flow of the day and getting ready for the good times!

The end of the “funnest” fun ride yielded one group of smiling people!

Regrouping on a scenic knoll.

Loving the beautiful trails.

The mid-ride food stop saw all of the riders during the day and night rides, and it was exceptionally well stocked with all kinds of food.

Food Stop. Look at that spread! The cookies in the foreground were very special and particularly big hits. The pie and ice cream hit the spot, too, as well as the savory sandwiches and chips.

Celebrating the vista at the top of this hill few people see!

Enjoying more great trails. The best pictures couldn’t be taken since it takes two hands to be on the bike through the coolest sections!

After the ride, no one was in a big hurry to leave, it is a day of riding and enjoying the company of old friends and new!

Team Dirty Vertigo challenged all of the other teams to a photo contest.

Team Rippers may or may not have known about the contest, but they were certainly vying for the “most fun” team prize.

Team Hustle Hive took Dirty Vertigo to task on the photo contest. Not only do they color coordinate together, but they match the pavement, too!

The Honey Moon riders weren’t a team, but they certainly rode as if they were! They had a ridiculously good time out there, lighting up the night - and keeping the good people who were supporting the ride on their toes until 10pm. One couple who came out for this ride had an anniversary to celebrate; the Honey Moon ride couldn’t have been more appropriate for them!

Honey Bikes - Inspiration for the Honey 100

This bike is one of the Honey Allroads titanium bikes, a bike that was seen under many riders for the Honey 100 since it’s most perfectly suited to gravel and mixed terrain riding.

Honey Bikes, builder of titanium road bikes, both rim and disc, gravel bikes, fat bikes, mountain bikes and more, created the Honey 100 years ago to show riders the joy of mixed terrain riding in our area. This ride lives on to inspire riders to get off of the main roads, experience trails, see what it’s like to ride in new places, and get to know others who are into adventure riding and experiential riding, as well.

Honey Allroads gravel bikes have been really well received by everyone wanting a super fun gravel/mixed terrain bike, those wanting a bike that does it all throughout the year, and, with a tire swap, they are also being very happily ridden as disc-brake road bikes.

Honey Allroads Titanium Bikes are the ideal gravel bike because they are:

• Lightweight: It is as light or lighter than any bike in its price range.

• Fast: Honey's chainstays are stiff, translating pedaling power directly to the rear wheel.

• Responsive: The bike is designed to do exactly what its rider asks without rider fatigue.

• Sure-footed: Keeping the tires on the ground is the best way to stay upright on loose surfaces. This bike maintains contact with the ground, rider confidence is the result.

• Made in the USA: Honey Bikes are designed and hand-built in Massachusetts.

• Price: is competitive with any other bike built with this same parts kit.

• Titanium: This is the best material for a gravel bike frame. Titanium won't rust or corrode under any conditions. It's super durable for rough terrain and treatment.

• Durable: Gravel bikes experience more stress and frame-testing situations such as rocks being flung up onto the frame and hitting potholes at speed than road bikes.The parts kit is curated for light-weight durability.

• It fits and feels great: A Professional Bike fitting is included in the price of the bike.

• Backed by us and our Professional Mechanics: 1 year of labor is included with your bike purchase.

Feedback from Honey Allroads titanium riders has been overwhelmingly positive, with people finding they are doing so much more on their bikes than they ever thought possible, relishing the ride qualities of the well-designed and hand-built titanium frames, and realizing just how nice it is to be able to ride hard and not worry about the bike.