2022 was a wonderful year for bike adventures, it was full of bike events large and small. I wrote some ride reports but ran out of time to post full reports for many of this year's events. So this is an overview for most of my 2022 rides and annual stats too.
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| Photo credit Josh Kowaleski |
January 15 on Lake Minnetonka, Excelsior, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
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| The start area on Excelsior Bay |
The course was "groomed" ... but the grooming did nothing for riders, the snow was too soft to ride. I typically finish this event in an hour, but the 2022 course took me 3 hours! So much of the course was unrideable, so we'd just pushed our bikes though the soft snow. Additionally, it was cold with temps around 10°F and dropping to nearly 0°F for my ride home.
The picture is another challenging part of the ride, my tires dropped into some water on top of the lake ice and I got this nice ice added to my rims to add weight to my already heavy Pugsley. Plus, this ice coated the cleats on my boots making it impossible to clip into my pedals. Thankfully, the Erik's van at the finish line had a screw driver to clear the ice out of my boots for my ride home .... and you know I'm the dork that rides to/from the race ... that ride home was a slog!
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| The ice was caked in my rims |
Loppet Fatbike 33K
February 6 in Minneapolis, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
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| Photo credit Elizabeth Lopper (I think) |
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| The route including lake ice and Nordic ski trails in Theodore Wirth Park & my ride to/from the race |
February 20 on Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
This was simply a fun day on a frozen lake with a bracket elimination short track race, an intermission with a live mariachi band, and then a time trial across Lake Harriet including feats of strength (like dragging a heavy log across the ice). We enjoy a warm and sunny February day on the Lake Harriot ice and with good friends.
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| The start of a short track heat |
February 25 on Zwift
Full ride report: Revisiting vEveresting on Alpe du Zwift
Ragnarök
Another major spring ride that didn't get a full ride report ... and this is my longest ride after my three DAMn rides. The Last Call Challenge is 200 miles of every road/trail surface available.
April 2 in Red Wing, MN with my Breezer Radar Pro
I'm not sure how it's taken me so many years to ride this spring classic. And some how I didn't write a full ride report either. Ragnarök was one hell of a ride ... messy and hilly. It nearly all gravel road with some still thawing out (peanut butter conditions), it includes 8,500 ft of climbing over the 110 mile course (this includes my bonus miles & climbing).
I was doing well when came into the first check point in 43rd place, and I got into the second check point doing great at 19th place. But then I seriously blew up between Lake City and the finish, dropping from 19th to 53rd on those final 30 miles (including bonus miles) ... oof!
Ragnarök challenges riders by using cue sheet navigation (no GPS route). I was getting so tired after a very hilly 90 miles, and I missed the turn to the finish, started a second loop of the course. I went down a long descent before figuring out my error. I stopped to catch my breath, eat and drink before starting back up the climb in hopes of finding my way back to the car at the finish line. It painfully clear that my endurance/pacing were not ready for prime time this early in the spring! I finished 53rd of 90 finishers (plus 17 DNF) with a time of 8:49.
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| Just a little feel for the mess that was the 2022 Ragnarök |
Last Call Challenge with Utepils Cycling
May 13-14 in Minneapolis, MN with my Breezer Radar Pro
May 13-14 in Minneapolis, MN with my Breezer Radar Pro
Another major spring ride that didn't get a full ride report ... and this is my longest ride after my three DAMn rides. The Last Call Challenge is 200 miles of every road/trail surface available.
The ride started at from Utepils Brewing at 10:00 pm (last call). The route was amazing and a ton of fun!
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| 2022 route with me starting/finishing from home ... route went right past our house 😁 |
I rode out strong, averaging 18 mph in the cool evening air. When the route got to Mayer, it transitioned from mostly rail-trails to gravel road ... and I started feeling a gut issue coming on. I felt the need for an 'extended stop' to relieve some pressure, but the few gas stations we passed were closed. As a result of these issues, I wasn't eating enough. It took until the I got to Farmington at 7:00 AM (around mile 110) to find an open gas station. That took care of the "pressure" issue, but I'd gone 60-70 miles with very few calories. With another 90 miles to go, I was in a serious calorie deficit and there's no way to properly recover while you continue to ride so my pace slowed way down.
I spent much of the ride with Steve, he was having GPS/route issues and Steve was offering me great support as I struggled. But we got separated in St Paul before the Brickyard Climb (around mile 150). After that my pace crashed to 12-13 mph, part of that was riding the sandy conditions on river bottoms. There were challenges with flooding on trails along the river, but nothing that you couldn't get through or around. The rest of the route was just mashing the pedal with a loop on the St Paul side of the river before getting back to Utepils along the Midtown Greenway.
I finished a little after 1:00 pm (roughly 15 hours) and was the 6th person to finish the 200-mile route. I believe there were 10 riders that finished the 200-mile route.
And I added to the fun by riding to the start at Utepils from Hopkins. Lisa met me at Utepils for my finish and after a beer or two and some food truck tacos, we rode back home together. I was so happy to have the company 'cause I could've fallen asleep on my bike getting home! |
| The aftermath of The Last Call Challenge |
The Fox
July 30-31 Finland, MN with our Co Motion Java
Full ride report The Fox | Gravel Bikepacking Event with a Tandem
August 22 in Estes Park, CO with my Bianchi Infinito
This was a solo training ride to get ready for my goal of riding Mauna Kea on Hawai'i (The Big Island) early in 2023. I had a few goals, starting with making sure my body could handle the effort of climbing at high elevation; testing out my new bike travel bag; and test the tires I bought for Maua Kea.
The day before my ride, Lisa and I took a 9 mile hike from 7,400 ft to 10,600 ft and back, and heart rate average 100 bpm. So with hiking, I never felt stressed by the thin air in the least.
Early the next morning, I got on my bike at our hotel in Estes Park and rode to Rocky Mountain National Park to find Old Fall River Rd. The 8.5 miles of paved roads getting to Old Fall River Rd were nice and quiet in the early morning and had me climb over 1,000 ft just to get there.
Old Fall River Rd is a one-way gravel road that climbs from 8,600 ft to over 11,500 with an average grade of 6.8%. I could feel the effort of the climb, but never felt over stressed or unusually out of breath. Also, I was grateful to have Lisa follow me up the road with our rental car to offer support and capture some great photos.
Reviewing my training goals:
- I'm totally happy with my fitness and ability to handle biking steep roads at high altitude.
- My new Thule RoundTrip bag worked great for my bike, and this bag includes a simple bike stand making assembling/disassembling the bike so much easier.
- I was very happy with my Bianchi on 32 mm GravelKing SK tires, but after this ride I talked with some experts that let me know that the unpaved parts of Mauna Kea will demand 38mm or larger tires ... so I'll bring my Breezer gravel bike with 45mm tires (sorry Infinito).
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| At the Alpine Visitors Center at the top of Old Fall River Rd |
Ride DC
September 10 in Washington DC with a rented comfort bike
We were spent the week with my brother Jeff and his wife Wendy in Virginia and DC. This ride was on our last day of the trip and was a fun opportunity to ride together. The route was roughly 18 miles, including the 305 Express bridge over the Potomac, I'm still blown away that they closed the expressway for this ride. The event is the largest bike event I've ever been involved with, they had roughly 9,000 folks riding! It's was a party pace ride including many stops for snacks and drinks. It was amazing to ride past so many DC landmarks.
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| Post-ride selfie at the Lincoln Memorial |
The Heck of the North
October 1 in Two Harbors, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
Full ride report: The Heck of the North | 2022
October 8 in Lanesboro, MN with our Co Motion Java
The 2022 Filthy 50 was amazing. We had beautiful clear skies and the autumn colors were on full display! The temps were cool, starting around 45°F, and stayed chilly most of the ride warming up to the mid 50s. The big challenge was the wind ... with 10-15 mph winds outta the west all day, and gusts getting to 20-25 mph. Somehow there was never a nice tailwind, just lots of crosswinds and some brutal headwinds to keep it spicy! The other challenge was the soft gravel, there was very little hero gravel to be found. And the limestone dust was so fine and covered everything. After the ride, I looked like Pigpen taking off my socks.
One of my favorite parts of The Filthy 50 is that it's a wonderful gravel family reunion. We saw so many friends at the start, on the route, and at the finish party ... and that extra special greeting from Ray on the road (he grabbed my butt as he passed us ... 😆)
Stats: we finished the 50-mile & 4,200 ft course in 4:47, that's 6 minutes faster than last year (I was hoping with all our experience on the tandem since 2021, we'd have been much faster). With a bigger field of tandems this year, we were 4th of 7 tandem teams. Overall we finished 416th place, moving up 42 places overall from last year & a larger field finished... 588 finishers this year and 541 last year. So based on the rankings, everyone was slowed by the conditions, and I feel pretty good about being just a little faster this year.
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| Big thanks to Matt Hoven for getting this great photo! |
Gravel West
October 16 in Long Lake, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
October 16 in Long Lake, MN with my drop-bar Pugsley
2022 was my sixth time riding Gravel West, that's every year there's been a Gravel West. I love this ride for being close to home and low key. The ride starts at Gear West in Long Lake and I've enjoyed biking to and from this event every year, adding about 20 miles to the day. This year, I was feeling run down after The Heck of the North and Filthy 50 over the previous two weekends, so I opted to ride the 32-mile route.
I rolled out with the riders on the 80-mile route, and that got a little funny because I was talking with Steve Marshal (he's a powerful rider that gets on many podiums). As we talked and rode, I thought we were leading the whole pack out of Long Lake, but when I looked back, the rest of the pack was nowhere to be seen. I was well aware that Steve would drop me quickly, and he rode away from me before we hit the Luce Line (less than 2 miles from the start). I rode solo until the Game Farm Rd climb (12 miles from the start), a group of 15 riders caught up to me at the top. It was nice to work with them, but that lasted less then 2 miles before my short route took a right turn and they went straight on the 80-mile route. I didn't see another rider for the rest of the route, but I enjoyed the autumn colors and quiet roads. When I got back to Gear West, the store hadn't opened for the day and no other riders had made it back yet ... so I took a quick break and headed home to grab some lunch. I look forward to joining them again in 2023 to keep my streak alive!
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| A round barn along the course |
The Last DAMn
The Last Damn is a film by my friends at Checkpoint Zero Films, the film documents the adventures of the 2021 DAMn (Day Across Minnesota). The film began its festival run on December 23 in The Bicycle Film Festival's BFF 2023 Virtual Worldwide, with in-person events and other festival screenings to come in 2023. I'm humbled to be included in this film showing my finish line conversation with race creator Trenton, as well as an interview with documentarian Nick, and contributed video from my GoPro. You can stream Program 4: ADVENTURE long form (The Last DAMn is the third of four films in this program). And for my side of the story, here's a link to my Final DAMn ride report.Annual statistics (as of December 25, 2022):
- Distance: 5,214 miles (including 439 miles on Zwift)
- Hours: 388 hours (including 31 hours on Zwift)
- Number of days riding: 257 days
- Elevation climbed: 196,748 ft (including 49,672 on Zwift)
- Bikes: 14 different bikes including 7 of my bikes & our 2 tandems
- States biked: 6 different states, plus DC (I think that's a personal record)
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| 2022 Heat Map (local) |
I'm looking forward to more adventures in 2023, riding with friends old and new.
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| Filthy 50 Photo Credit Cam Evjen |
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