The Royal - Almanzo's Big Brother - May 18, 2019
A late and short report from a long ride (second longest ride I've ever done to this point)
2019 signaled a number of changes for the Almanzo races:
- New leadership of this classic gravel race
- New location in Northfield, MN
- Change to a ride - no race results captured or report
- The addition of a 50 mile course - Malanzo
Despite the forecast including thunderstorms and hail, the rain was not a factor. A major storm front pushed through as I drove to the start line, but there wasn't a drop of rain during the 14 hours it took me to ride the 167-mile course.
We had 30 riders step up to the start line, out of 115+ registered.
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| Small group of riders ready for Royal |
It never got much over 50F, never saw the sun, and the wind was very mean to us all day - headwinds for most of the first 80 miles, some tailwinds in the middle, but the last 15 miles was back into Northfield gave us a strong headwind. Winds started out of the East (odd) and by afternoon were coming from the Northeast. Weather reports for the region recorded wind speeds average 16 mph, with sustained speeds up to 24 mph and max gust at 32 mph. The course was up and down most of the river valleys in the area, so the low areas gave some breaks from the winds, but never enough!
In the first 20-30 miles, the majority of the Royal riders were together. I went to the front of this group and took my turn setting pace. As I pushed myself too hard before I dropped to the back to grab food and drink. I timed everything terribly, we crested a small hill, I'd left a little gap open up, I've got a mouth full of food, and the headwinds caught me without the protection of our small group ... I just watched as the pack rode away and I had no power to catch back on.
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| Climbing an early MMR |
A little later, I caught up with a smaller group on a climb, one of them was riding single-speed and needed to walk the steepest hills. This crew worked together for a lot of miles.
Most of the day, I enjoyed riding with a crew of three riders for Northfield, they knew many of the roads we were riding and that was helpful. The four of us stopped for lunch in Lake City at the Whistle Stop Cafe, the enjoyed an egg and sausage sandwich and my first cup of coffee for the day (I forgot my travel mug on the kitchen counter). We refilled water bottles in the men's room and got back out on the course.
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| The regulars were looking us and our bikes up and down |
Shortly after our lunch stop, one of the Northfield crew starting struggling with knee pain. I felt bad for leaving them, but I didn't think I could offer much help and needed to get back to Northfield to make the drive back home. So I rode solo for a long stretch.
On the finishing stretch, I caught up with Reinhold. He was stopped talking with a rider finishing the Alexander course and he was having issues with navigation. We worked together to get the Alexander rider on the right course (it was a different route to Northfield than our Royal course). As Reinhold and I fought the winds into the finish, we caught a small group of Almanzo riders. At the finishing line we had a mix of Almanzo, Royal, and Alexander riders that had all just rolled in.
No race results were recorded, but by using Strava Flyby I'd estimate only 5 riders DNF'd, roughly 4 riders finished after me. So, I finished between 15th and 20th place. I'm good with this result, since only the strong and confident riders showed up to ride in questionable conditions - the forecast cut the start list by roughly 75%.
After the 2018 DAMn (240 miles), this is my longest one-day ride. It is my biggest climbing day - my Garmin recorded over 11,000 feet of climbing.
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| My trusty Breezer Radar Pro at the finish line |
Link to YouTube with GoPro footage of the ride.
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