The Fox 2022

The Fox | Gravel Bikepacking Event with a Tandem

Photo Credit: Pointed North 

We stepped into the unknown with The Fox (formally The Heck Epic). The Fox for 2022 was a 2-day & 140-mile route, and it is self-supported gravel bikepacking event (a ride to some & race for others). Lisa (my best friend, stoker, and wife) contacted Jeremy (The Fox organizer & director) to get approval to enter as a tandem team. After getting into The Fox, there were months of building up our bikecamping kit and planning for this new adventure. 

The Fox offered me a long list of "firsts" and a longer list for Lisa... for starters, we've never bikepacked! 

The Fox course is very remote in Northern Minnesota's Superior National Forest, from Finland to Grand Marais to Finland. There are no towns on route, only one bar and a handful of cabins. The event offers one checkpoint with support at the half-way point each day. Each rider is responsible for carrying their camping gear. There is no outside support, meaning there are no personal support crews anywhere on course. 

The Fox Course, day 1 & 2 shared many roads, but the middle section offered new scenes

The Bike

We got our custom Co-Motion Java late in 2021 as a 30th wedding anniversary gift to each other. Last year we inaugurated the Java with The Filthy 50, toeing the startline with only 90 miles of experience on the bike. This summer has allowed more miles and experience, but we've been challenged to keep Lisa comfortable in the stokers positions, changing and tweaking handlebars and saddle. Lisa loves Brooks saddles on a couple other bikes and is super happy with the new Brooks B-17 we got for the Java with the stokers Kinekt suspension seatpost. Even with all training rides, Day 1 of The Fox was our longest tandem ride ever at 68 miles 3,500+ ft elevation gain & ... and day 2 upped it to 69 miles with 3,400 ft elevation gain.

Our fully-loaded Java was close to 100 lbs at the start line

Friday | The Drive and Setup 

We both had the day off on Friday to pack the car and take a relaxed drive up to Finland. The back of our car was stuffed, we don't have a rack for the Java, so I took off both wheels and fitted it into the car with all our gear. We enjoyed a late lunch in Duluth at Canal Park Brewing, and didn't get much further because we can't drive through Two Harbors with out a stop at Castle Danger Brewing.

The loaded drive north

We arrived in Finland at the Wildhurst Lodge & Campground with many other Fox riders setting up for the night before the ride with a wide variety of camping options, from adventure van, to tent, to hammock, to bivy. The lodge is a very backwoods-hunter's bar with some food options, that was nice to get a light dinner without having to cook it on our camp stove. After a lot of conversations with riders we know and just met, we all bedded down for a loud night ... others at the lodge and in the campground clearly didn't need to get up early to ride 68 miles. 

Saturday | Day 1

After making a pot of coffee, we packed up our camp and loaded the Java to get to the Finland Community Center for the rider's meeting and light breakfast. Since the tandem is challenging to load in the car, we separated to get to the community center, I rode the tandem by myself and Lisa drove the car. 

The Fox offered nice breakfast burritos and other options at the morning rider's meeting, and more coffee! After some rules and instructions, we rollout around 8:45 with roughly 70 riders.

Photo Credit: Pointed North

Lisa and I had a great start to the day, the first 10 miles are broad straight roads and we had a nice tailwind allowing us to average 16-17 mph. The first big climb was at mile 23, Heartbreak Hill! That was a very accurate name, after mashing up 200 ft of 5% to 8% at 5 mph, you hit a nasty kick that ramps up past 15% and my heartrate surged to 180 bpm (I haven't hit that number in a long time). I called for the first stop of the day to allow my heart some recovery before finishing the climb.

Heartbreak Hill even has a National Forest sign!

After that we had a few miles of mellow roads, then turned north on the Sawbill Trail, this was  a slow climb up the Sawtooth range. When we turned off the Sawbill Trail, we saw our day 1 checkpoint and it was an very well supplied with ice cold Coke, water, chips, other snacks ...  and Embark Good Energy (maple syrup). I broke my own rule about trying new foods on a big ride, but I'm happy I did with this maple syrup energy drink! One little sip every hour or so was amazing fuel keeping me feeling strong through the day. Embark will be with me on all future endurance rides! 

Our biggest challenge of the whole weekend was the stoker's saddle got messed up at the checkpoint, I had been using the stoker's saddle to lift the rig to put the kickstand down ... but we found out that saddle's mounting bolts had loosened just enough for the saddle angle to change when I lifted the heavy rig. We noticed the change before rolling out, but lacked a great way to be sure we had the angle back to the correct position.

The rest of day 1 was stress-free roads, and the last 8 miles was all downhill into Grand Marias allowing some easy coasting to the campground.  

After we checked in and set up camp, we took a very short ride to claim our 'free' beers at Voyageur Brewing Company and grabbed some food.

The hardest earned 'free beers'

We got back to the campground to find that saddle position caused some damage to the stoker's "bottom bracket". I was able to get the saddle dialed in at our camp. But the injuries had us going to bed planning to DNF and thinking about ways to get back to our car. 

Getting to know our neighbor at the Grand Marais campground

Sunday | Day 2

After another loud night in a camp group, we packed up our camping gear and rode the short distance to the morning rider's meeting and breakfast. At the morning meeting, Lisa said she was feeling like she could ride day 2. We understood that there was no "kinda do it" on this course, we either get to finish line or we'd be stuck in the woods with swarms of biting flies.

Ready to start day 2 - Photo Credit: Dev

So we rushed to the showers to get changed into our bike gear and back to the start line by 7:30 for rollout. We started day 2 with a wall right out of the camp ground, ramping over 15%, before becoming a very long drag up and away from Lake Superior, gaining 1,000 feet in the first 7 miles! There were a few more steep ramps in the first 25 miles. Also, there was the technical 5-mile double-track section, we had four emergency bailouts along this section because of steep boulder climbs and deep sandtraps. I think Lisa jumped off the bike before it stopped on one of these emergency stops. 

The check point was a great break right after the double-track miles. And they were serving "The Fox", a tortilla with hummus wrapped around a pickle ... that really hit the spot! 

The Fox in the making

Happily we made the finish line with few challenges, just a few more quick stops to remove pressure from damaged areas, and we learned to post (stand) together to get rolling breaks.

Lisa's view

We enjoy an increasing pace on the final miles, it was generally down grade into Finland, but we had a headwind. With two of us putting down power, with basically the same aero profile to other riders, we were able to ride faster and pass others on the way to the finish. 

The Portrait stop by Pointed North

We started The Fox with no goals other than enjoy adventure and getting back home safely ... bonus we finished 39th & 40th (we each had our own bib) of the 64 riders that finished. Our two-day combined time was 12:15. And we are the first riders to complete this event with a tandem! 

It was great weekend adventure with an amazing group of people at The Fox, from the organizers to the volunteers to the cast of characters riding with us. 

Lisa has quickly become a serious bad-ass gravel rider, able to handle challenges in stride and never shying away from the unknown, she even bought her own gravel bike. I look forward to our upcoming adventures together! 

Here is partial list of gear we used on this ride: 

• Nemo Dagger 3-person tent
• Nemo sleeping pads
• Sleeping bag (Chris' 40 year old LL Bean; Lisa's new Kelty)
• Ortlieb panniers
• Ortlieb fork bags
• Revelate Co-Motion frame bag 
• Jelly Belly Sports Beans
• Clif Bars
• Kind Bars 

Revisiting vEveresting on Alpe du Zwift

Catching up on ride reports: vEversting February 2022

Some of you might remember my vEveresting adventure back in March 2021, mostly memorable for a night in the hospital with IVs. For those new to this challenge, here's a little background: Zwift is a great way to ride a bike on an indoor trainer and not get bored. For those that don't know Zwift, it's like a video game with your bike as the game control. There are many worlds and courses, some of the courses are based on real world roads/routes and some are totally fictional. 

I mount my bike to a Wahoo Kickr to connect with Zwift, this is a trainer that has a power meter and it controls resistance, this means that the trainer will make it harder when climbing, making you shift down through gears just like in the real world. 

Everesting is riding up-and-down the same hill over-and-over until you accumulate an elevation gain that is equal to the height of Mount Everest - 29,029 ft. With the popularity of Zwift, the concept of "virtual Everesting" (vEversting) became a thing. I got the idea that vEversting would be a good idea thanks to Zwift, Zwift encourages riders with badges for achieving challenges and the vEversting badge is one of the very last achievements I have left on Zwift. 

There are a number of climbs available in Zwift for vEveresting, I pick the iconic Alpe du Zwift - the game version of the real-world Alpe d'Huez. This is 3,398 ft per climb over 7.59 mile for an average grade of 8.5%. A rider needs to climb Alpe du Zwift 8.5 times to complete the vEversting challenge. 

Looking at my schedule, I had a limited window to get this ride done before a vacation and I had my first outdoor race shortly after vacation. So February 25 was the date that worked. 

The fresh look first thing in the morning

Looking back at my 2021 effort, I had a good idea how to pace myself. Funny thing about pacing yourself on a ride this long ... the open couple climbs feel like your not working at all. But based on past experience, I know the climbs later in the day at the same effort are going be feel brutal.

Lisa had fun setting up my riding buddy

In addition to in-game chat with other folks riding on Zwift, I was enjoying Facebook posts about my effort, and had the radio playing to keep my mind busy. Plus the Zwift display gives you lots of data to watch as you ride. 

Here's a look at the Zwift screen

There were some thoughts that my struggles on the last attempt included overheating. So, I had our two fans blowing on me the whole time to minimize the chance of overheating. 

Throughout the day I kept a basket of snacks on the table right next to the bike, this was empty by the end of the ride! Snacks included peanut M&Ms, Sports Beans, Kind Bars, and Salt Sticks. Plus water bottles with Nuun tabs (electrolyte mix), Starbucks Doubleshots, and Coke. I took a couple breaks to get whole food, like an omelette in the morning and been burrito around noon. 

When I was getting worn down and mentally fatigued after my fifth trip up the Alpe, I was super happy to have Birchwood friend Ben jump on and ride with me on the sixth climb ... and that ride up saw an improvement in my pace. It's funny but a riding buddy on Zwift is just as helpful as in the real world. 

My last trip up the Alpe, I could barely turn the pedals over. I had planned to finish the ninth climb, but my body let me know that this was not an option! But to avoid any technical issues, I went past 20,029 feet, finishing at 29,501 for the ride.

In total, it took me nearly 14 hours and I was riding (or the avatar was riding) for over 13 hours, so there was very little down time. I can finish Alpe du Zwift in under 60 minutes; but that is doing the climb one time. For vEversting, my fastest early climb was 75 minutes; and slowest 90 minutes ... I'd call that good pacing! I was able to keep my heart rate between 130 and 140 BBM for the whole effort. Other nerdy stats: power averaged 166 to 192 W on the climbs; and I kept my cadence between 80 and 90 rpm on the climbs.

After the ride I was confused by sore shoulders, upper arm, and core muscles. After thinking about it, this was because of the amount of time I spent out of the saddle, using my upper body more than I think I've ever done while biking. 

My effort was recognized in the Everesting Hall of Fame

I may try to do another Everesting in the real world ... some day .... maybe ... 

Dry January

Dry January | Health Benefits and Some NA Beer that doesn't Suck

Over the last couple years, I've been drinking more and more, mostly out of boredom as well as a way to cope with the stresses of Pandemic World. 2022 is the first time I've been successful with Dry January. I've tried Dry January over the last few years, but failed to get more than a couple weeks in before falling off the wagon. Going the full month without a drink was eye opening for me.  

I'm going to break this post into two sections: health benefits and NA beers that don't suck.

Health Benefits: My health stats are all based on Garmin products, Forerunner 645 watch and Index smart scale 

Forerunner Data: 

Resting Heart Rate: My resting heart rate (RHR) in December 2021 was averaging 51 bpm; it has dropped to 46 bpm in January 2022. A roughly 10% improvement in resting heart rate, by simply cutting out alcohol. For reference, here is information about how Garmin calculates RHR with my Forerunner. 

Sleep: My Forerunner has a sleep tracker, but I don't put a lot of trust in it's accuracy. It reports sleep duration and sleep stages (deep sleep, light sleep, REM, and awake). Overall, the Forerunner doesn't show a change with any of the data. But I've observed a change: I am sleeping better, waking up less. The odd bit is that I have a harder time falling asleep without alcohol. There is a lot of research on this topic: after drinking alcohol, your brain produces the sleep-inducing chemical adenosine, which does allow you to fall asleep fast. But the problem is, adenosine subsides quickly, making it more likely you'll wake up frequently.

Stress: The Forerunner 645 offers all-day stress monitoring analysis, it is based on an understanding of heart rate variability (HRV), small changes in the interval between consecutive heart beats (more details on this measurement). Garmin reports stress on a 1-100 scale, I was averaging 28-29 September through December; after I stopped drinking it dropped to 17 to 26 (high number following a hard race). 

Index Data:

Weight: Comparing last year to this year, you can see in the graph below that I typically keep my holiday weight through January. But this year, I'm down to my target weight by the end of January, and I rarely get to my target weight in the middle of summer when I'm most active. 

Graph of weigh with the top graph from a year ago and bottom graph for this year:

Body Water: The scale was reading 62.5% to 63% body water in December and it has gone up to 64% body water over January. That is roughly 1 liter of water available to my body, and that is important on hot summer rides. I'm thinking about this like I was starting long rides and forgot a water bottle at home. Another interesting data point, the only time in 2021 that the scale measured my body water at 64% was after spending a night in the hospital and getting 4+ bags of fluids ... here's the full story on that: vEversting, ER & IVs ... OH MY

The high mark in March (left side) was after 4+ IVs, the same body water % with Dry January

Body Fat: Garmin is showing that I've lost 2% of my body fat, that's more than 3 pounds of fat.  I don't see body fat percentage this low except for a short window in the over the summer at peak training and activity. 

Footnote: I've read a lot of information that makes it clear that electrical impedance scales (like the Index) measurements of fat and water can vary greatly from one person to the next. For reference, here's information from DC Rainmaker on this topic: "Consistency is more important than accuracy. Meaning, if your scale consistently measures your fat at a given level and changes as you do things to affect it (increase or decrease) – that’s more important than having a one time scientific measurement that’s accurate. In an ideal world these electrical impedance scales would be more accurate. But they simply aren’t across a wide spectrum of individuals." Bod Pod & Consumer Scale Comparison Tests

Beers: I've been trying different non-alcoholic (NA) beers throughout Dry January. I've found all of these NA beers at France 44, additionally, you can easily order NA beers online, like Athletic. Added bonus, NA beers are 40 to 100 calories a can ... much less than typical beers. 

Bauhaus Nah Helles: This has been my favorite of the NA beers. It is as crisp, tasty and as true to helles style beer you can get in an NA. 

Athletic Cerveza: this is a good and flavorful NA beer, much better than the old standard macro brew NA beers. 

Lagunitas IPNA: I enjoy IPNA, but you will not mistake it for a standard beer or IPA. This is like a seltzer with some malt and hops. 

 

Untitled Art Hazy IIPA:  This is the best NA IPA I've had, you could forget you're drinking an NA beer. 

 

Galactic Extra Dark: This is the best NA dark or stout I've found, but it's clearly not a beer. 

Also, I've grown a beard over Dry January, I'm not sure if that's related to taking a break from alcohol or just a coincidence. 

Before 

After

As I post this blog in late February, I'm drinking beer on the weekends, but keeping the number of beers down from the past. Looking into the spring and summer race season, I'll plan a week without beer prior to any races or big rides. I am interested to see what this means for my competitive riding in the spring. Riding bikes aside, I'm very happy with the changes I've seen from taking a break and resetting the way I drink beer. 

The Filthy 50 | Tandem Style

Trenton started The Filthy 50 as a 50-mile gravel race in Stewartville back in 2013, I started riding The Filthy 50 in 2016 and haven't missed it since. I fell in love with the course and the community this race attracted. In 2019, the race moved from Stewartville to Lanesboro and the course became even more amazing than the origianal course. I've wanted to introduce Lisa to this ride for many years, and 2021 was the year!  

(Photo by Antony Robinson)

2021 is our 30th anniversary and we decided to give each other a bycycle built for two. We worked with Steve at Twin Cities Tandems to place an order for our Co Motion Java in February, and made plans to ride it on The Filthy 50 ... thinking we would have months to train and get used the bike. But the pandemic-supply issues delayed the bike's delivery until the end of August, then we lost a couple weeks waiting on stoker bars that would work for Lisa and wanted a bike fitting with Paulie at GO Physio. 

Paulie measuring up the Java

We only had 90 miles on this bike when we toed the start line in Lanesboro ... and we had never taken the bike on gravel roads. All that and Lisa was starting her first gravel race. I was feeling nervous and excited as we waited for the start. 

The massive roll-out  (Markman Outdoor Photography) 

We all heard the starting gun, the mayor firing his riffle, but it seem to take forever to get rolling with the big crowd of riders in front of us. We rolled out near the back of the starting group, I think this was the largest group of riders I've started with. The Almanzo 100 is the only other race I can think of with a starting crowd this large. With our limited time on this bike, I didn't have a ton of confidence in my bike handling and I was very cautions in the huge crowd. 

I know the Lanesboro Filthy 50 course, but only from riding it once in 2019. The course is nearly all un-paved, including gravel roads, MMRs, and Amish buggy roads.

From the Lanesboro start, you're working your way up a 5-mile long climb. We paced our effort going up this climb, plus, there was really no room for a tandem to pass, so we slowly rolled up that first big climb. 

From 2019, I remember the first descent was fast including a narrow buggy road with a couple concrete spillways for creeks. These spillways are basically two concrete slabs forming a V to allow the creek to flow over the road without washing away the road. In 2019, riders came to a near stop to cross the spillways and I was warning Lisa on the descent that we need to be prepared. However, 100 yards before the second spillway, there was a large crown of riders warning of a bad wreck up the road. We walked over the spillway and past the wreck with shock at the terrible injuries to the rider. For the thousands of miles I've logged on gravel rides/races, this was the worst injury I've ever seen. There was a large number of people helping the injured rider and we didn't have any skills to offer that would have helped. After we walked by we took some time up the road to gather ourselves, talking with other riders all feeling very shaken. Taking a deep breath, we remounted and got back to riding, but our hearts stayed with the injured rider and all the folks assisting them. 

We were both challenged to be comfortable on the saddle. I went in knowing that tandems are uniquely challenging to get the saddle set just right. Our limited training ride left us finding out that we still need to make more tweaks to the saddle placement. We ended up stopping once or twice every hour to get off the bike and get some relief. 

One of the Amish buggies we shared the roads with

The hills continue to roll throughout the course and some very steep ramps that had us using every gear on the drivetrain. This course was more hilly than I remembered, it's never really flat. Some of these climbs really kick, ramping up to 15% or more. And tandems are far from the easiest bike for climbs, keeping us working hard getting over all of the hills. 

The route and profile with 4,000 ft of climbing

I was looking forward to the mid-ride oasis, I rode past it in 2019 and heard the best things about it from other riders. At mile 26 we pulled in to the Grub Hill Oasis with ice cold Coke and Amish raspberry pastries (SO GOOD). 

Rolling out from the Grub Hill Oasis (Photo by Laura Wiles) 

It felt good to have half the ride behind us plus the winds would now be at our back. Our on-ride learning helped us ride faster with more confidence on the second half of the course. But we continued to need breaks off our saddles. 

A few miles from the finish, we found David Markman with his camera and a toilet in the middle of an intersection. It was "Catch the Crapper" ... an alterative take on "Chase the Chaise". I knew this photo opp would be on the course and planned with Lisa on our pose, here's the Christmas card picture: 

Lisa: "HURRY UP!! It's a RACE!"
Chris: "I know ... I KNOW! I'm going as fast as I can!!"

Here's the 2021 Catch the Crapper gallery, scroll through the gallery for some good toilet humor ... also check out the 2018 Catch the Crapper gallery for a truly filthy crapper! Footnote: it took me a minute to figure out the puddle on a sunny day ... it was melt water from the toilet tank full of ice and beer and there's a bag with Baby Ruth candy bars in the bowl. They thought of everything!

We had our one-and-only mechanical on the last climb, I shifted to the small chainring and the chain got sucked into the frame. It didn't take long to straighten it all out and we made our way back into Lanesboro for the finish. We were greeted by Trenton with our finishers' pint glasses and tokens for a Filthy Pale Ale at Sylvan Brewing's tap room just a block from the finish line. 

Finish line smiles (Photo by Laura Wiles) 

At the after party, there was a lot of the normal chat with friends old and new, but everybody was also talking about the injured rider and their status. We learned that this person had been airlifted to Mayo, and later found out that they were stable and alert. We send our very best for a speedy recovery. 

After the finish, I was thrilled that we got interviewed by Nick, he's working on a new documentary film focusing on The DAMn and The Filthy 50. Nick created "Delta of Spirt", a film that that has been screened at six film festivals, most recently Tous en Selle in Paris! 

The Filthy 50 was a big day and a wonderful adventure! We had great autumn weather, wonderful encouragement from the crowds of riders on the road, outstanding race organizer and volunteers, as well as the welcoming community of Lanesboro. We ended the day 3rd place of four tandem teams (fastest co-ed tandem team), with a time of 4:53. That put us at 448th place of the 554 riders that finished the 50 mile route. For the three routes (25, 50 & 100 miles), there were 1,000 riders registered, 853 riders that checked, and there were 112 riders that DNF'd. 

I'm so fortunate to have somebody in my life that's willing to step up for an adventure in the unknown! I'm grateful to Lisa for trusting me to captain the tandem and navigating the route ... even when my idea of "rolling roads" might be "vicious hills" to most people. I look forward to many more adventures with this bike!

Our custom painted Co Motion Java

The Final DAMn - August 14, 2021

 

The Final Day Across Minnesota

Photo Credit: Markman Outdoor Photography

The DAMn (Day Across Minnesota) first became a race in 2017. I was interested in riding this first year, but I was honestly scared that I had what it takes for this epic challenge and I didn't sign up. After seeing the 2017 DAMn ride reports, I committed myself to training and gearing up for the adventure, and I was rewarded with a successful 2018 DAMn. After the 2018 DAMn, I felt no need for another DAMn ... but a few months later, the 2019 DAMn was announced and I signed up again and was able to became a DAMn Champion a second time. I signed up for the 2020 DAMn, but the pandemic forced me to take a rain-check which rolled into 2021 ... The Final DAMn. 

For some perspective on completing The DAMn, during the open ceremony video, Erik shared these stats: 409 riders have become DAMn champions from 2017 through 2020; 329 of them have completed the DAMn one time; 60 have done it twice; 15 riders have complete three; and 5 have finished every DAMn year! 

UPDATE 

Statistics through the 2021 ride: 1,685 riders have attempted The DAMn and 744 become DAMn Champions! As reported in The Last DAMn, a documentary about the ride by Checkpoint Zero Films

Fatbiking the DAMn

When the 2021 DAMn was announced, I posed the question: do I ride my gravel bike and go for my fastest time; or ride my Pugsley to go for the fastest fatbike ... Trenton (The DAMn creator) encouraged me to go fat, and that's all it took! 

The DAMn has challenged me to push myself into the unknown. Having completed the ride twice on a typical gravel bike (Breezer Radar Pro), riding a fatbike brought me back into the unknown. My longest day with the Pugsley was 140 miles, and that was a rough day that left me crushed. I've spent countless hours over the last 8 months getting the Pugsley and my body ready for this challenge. 

My drop-bar Pugsley (AKA The War Rig) was created in 2016 with the help of Kyle when he worked at The Alt. This bike is a 2015 Surly Pugsley that's mostly stock, with Salsa Woodchipper handlebars, Gevenalle GX shifters, and Fat B Nimble tires (riding with tubes - the Marge Lite rims are not tubeless compatible). Over the last few years the crew at Tonka Cycle & Ski have been taking care of this beast. In preparation for the 2021 DAMn, Tyler at Tonka got the Pug ready with a mostly new drivetrain and other tweaks and adjustments.  

Pugsley's Patronus: The War Rig

In addition to the work Tonka did on the bike. I met with Paulie at GO PHYSIO for an body analysis and bike fit. We focused on dialing in the Pugsley for comfort and efficiency for the long day. Also, Paulie has a custom bike trainer in his studio that will fit a fatbike tire, which is really cool! 

My Loaded Pugsley Ready for The DAMn

In the months leading up to the race, I did many training rides, focused on building endurance. This included racing the Freedhem 76 and winning as the fastest fatbike; this result was very encouraging. Additionally, two weeks before The DAMn, I invited some DAMn friends (Rene, Dan, Arik & Robb) for a night training ride. We met up at midnight to ride the Luce Line from Plymouth to Hutchinson and back (3 of us started in Hopkins for some bonus miles). It was a very basic course, with little challenges in route or climbs, but great test of lighting and ways to stay awake/alert all night.

The DAMn COVID

For the first three years of The DAMn, there were three assigned check points on the course: mile 60; mile 120; and mile 186. These were the only places your support crew could meet you for fresh water, food, bike maintenance, etc. In 2020, this changed in reaction to COVID-19 and restrictions on group sizes, and the organizers allowed riders and crews to pick their three support stops along the route. 

I worked with Lisa to pick general locations and gave her final say on the exact place to meet. I picked Morton at mile 86; Henderson at mile 151; and Cannon Falls at mile 214 (this became Spring Garden/White Rock at mile 222).

The DAMn Route with Past and 2021 Check Points

Additionally, this change required releasing the whole route in advance of the race. On the first three years of The DAMn, riders would navigate with cue sheets, and you'd only get enough cue sheets to get you to the next check point. I was so happy that 2021 riders were officially allowed to use a GPS device with the route, that really helps to avoid wasting time and energy with missed turns.  

The DAMn Eve

It won't be The DAMn eve without a last minute panic. On a short ride with Lisa Friday morning, my rear brake started making an awful noise. I went straight to Tonka Cycle & Ski and Brett got Pugsley right on the stand, confirmed that retaining spring broke ... And the pads were shot. I am so happy this happened at home and not in Gary (or on the way to Hager City)! Also so grateful for the outstanding support from Tonka!

I spent most of the afternoon packing the car with all our gear, food, and supplies. We decided to drop off our three dogs for boarding as we left town, so I needed enough space for the dogs and their gear too. 

The car reminded me of a Looney Tunes cartoon from childhood - ready to explode when you opened the trunk! 

Gary to Morton 

We arrived in Gary with a little daylight left to allow us time to set up my bike and create space in the back of the car for Lisa's sleeping bag. We also had time to catch up with so many friends around the Buffalo Ridge resort. 

As it approached midnight, riders started to gather for the start. As I was talking with Birchwood teammate Nick, last year's top finisher (Chase) rolled up and down the street with a bike that look more like a pro time-trail bike than a gravel bike, and his wheels made the most intimidating noise rolling over the fresh chipseal on the street. Chase and I were clearly going to have a very different rides! 

Chris and Nick Ready to Start The DAMn

The roll out is always fun with the fireworks signaling the start of the race and a short neutral roll out on the paved highway, then we make a right turn on to the first narrow gravel road. The pace is always fast with lots of pent-up energy. The early roads were soft, it felt like beach sand under your tires, they were some of the worst gravel roads I can remember riding (2017 Westside Dirty Benjamin is the only other one that comes to mind). 

Pacelines were forming, I got into a group of 30 to 40 riders. We were fast, averaging 19 mph, but it was stressful in the dark with the loose gravel causing riders to lose control. Add to that the cloud of dust and constant peppering with small gravel kicked up by tires. I went to the front for a long pull to avoid the dust and not worry about somebody wrecking in front of me. I know the riders behind appreciated it, so it was a win-win, but there's was only so long I could keep up that kinda effort. When I fell off the front, I tried riding in the line for a couple minutes and hated it. I made the excuse that I needed a pee-stop (and I kinda did). After that I rode solo or with smaller groups. 

The long line of riders leaving Gary - Photo Credit: Markman Outdoor Photography

I was very happy to have my fatbike to ride these soft sandy roads. I would have had a difficult time handling a normal gravel bike in these conditions, slowing me down and stressing me out. 

It was a cold night, my Garmin was reporting 46℉ over night, and not just a little dip, but from 1:45 to 7:30 AM! I've checked with other riders and their devices were recording the same temps. 

Through most of the night, I wasn't able to get at my bottles or food with the fast pace and the loose conditions. It was good to roll into my first support stop around 5:30 in Morton to get a couple ham & cheese buns. It took longer to get out of Morton than I'd hoped and I started getting the shivers - it's a good thing I kept my vest on! 

My Cheering Section at the First Support Stop in Morton

Morton to Henderson 

These were fast and uneventful miles, the cool morning helped keep the legs feeling fresh. Road conditions improved, making it easy to grab food and bottles. 

Shortly after sunrise, I got into a good group that was a core of two single-speed riders, one with a standard gravel bike, and me with Pugsley. This group would grow and shrink over the miles, but this core group of four of us worked together for more miles that I can count. We were keeping our average pace around 16 mph, and that felt GREAT ... sadly, I knew that pace couldn't last. Our core group started to splinter a little after the classic check point 2 (mile 120) as we all had different locations for our support stops. 

The group that made the morning miles roll by fast

I was planning a longer break in Henderson (mile 151) to get some whole food, lube the chain, reload on-bike supplies. It went smooth and was a great way to refresh and recover energy for the hard miles ahead with rolling road and the heat from the midday sun. I was happy and shocked to leave Henderson just after 11:00, well ahead of my personal record pace. 

Rolling into Henderson for a break

150 Miles of Gravel Dust

Henderson to White Rock

Leaving Henderson, you cross the river and immediately go into a rough single-track trail. The single-track started with sandboxes and down trees that required dismounting and to lift the bike over them ... oof that fully loaded Pugsley is HEAVY! In the single-track section, I passed Nick getting footage for the documentary ... I'm excited to see what he's doing with this year's ride! I was one of a small number of riders able to ride most of this trail, the Pugsley's tires gave plenty of float over the sand and rough trail conditions.

The next rapid-fire challenge coming out of Henderson is my least favorite climb on this course, it's just kicks up to 8% to 9% and stays there for so long. 

Around mile 155, I saw another fatbike, this was on the only other fatbiker I saw all day. We rode together for many miles, talking about bikes and other races. After a while, one of the riders I worked with in the morning caught up to us. I grabbed his wheel and the three of us worked together for a while; I looked back after a pull on the front to see the other fatbike had fallen off. Then the other rider got to his support stop ... and I had some long, lonely solo miles. 

It felt like there were no other riders around me. I was starting to suffer the heat load of the sun and the many miles. My pace was slowing mile-by-mile, slowing to 10 to 12 mph. Rolling across Hwy 52 south of Cannon Falls, I knew another infamous climb was just around the corner. This one isn't that bad, but with the heat and hurting legs ... it fells very mean. 

The lonely dusty hot road - Photo Credit: TMB Images

Dan (Birchwood teammate that joined my night training ride) caught up to me, it was nice to talk with a familiar face for a few miles. He made a support stop at a friends farm, right at the bottom of another climb. I think if I'd joined him at that stop, it'd been the end of my DAMn ... I was just so tired and looking at that climb as the first thing after you get started again, I knew I needed to keep moving. 

Lisa had a hard time finding a place to meet me in Cannon Falls and moved 8 miles further east than we had planned. It was a terrible thing and a great thing all at the same time. I had 222 miles behind me as I rolled into the stop planning to be quick, dropping off the CamelBak and exchanging water bottles; but I collapsed into a chair after damned near falling off my bike. I was in a deep hole with heat exhaustion, I was light headed and nearly passed out. Lisa was quick with wet towels and cold drinks. There was a moment when I wasn't sure I'd be able to get back on the bike, but Lisa nursed me back to healthy. It was 5:30, and I'd spent 35 minutes in the shade of our SUV recovering, before I was able to remount the Pugsley. 

Rolling into Check Point 3 in rough condition

White Rock to Hager City 

Riding out of my check point 3, I was refreshed and riding lighter/cooler without the CamelBak and sunsleeves/legs, plus the temps were starting to slide back down. 

The last support stop being further up the road than I planned had the benefit of shortening the last leg for the ride. I had 20 miles to get to the finish, in my mind, I'm thinking this is just a lunch ride, I do 20 miles nearly every day, no big deal! It also helps that this miles are mostly down hill. I was watching my Garmin's ETA for the finish, it was holding around 6:40, 20 minutes ahead of my personal record. 

It was odd that I thought I was totally alone on the road for many miles after Cannon Falls, I rode with a many riders on the last miles into Red Wing, including some familiar faces. 

Riding into Red Wing is a nice break with mostly easy descents allow you to cover the miles with little effort. Also, you get into tree covered roads, helping the body continue to recover from the afternoon's heat. 

I made my only route error in Red Wing, I was enjoying the sights and missed that we turned a couple blocks earlier that in years past. The new/earlier turn routed us onto the new river bridge, opened in 2020. The new bridge includes a protected bike/ped crossing ... SO NICE! 

As I crossed the river bridge, my Garmin battery gave up and it shut down. Annoying, but I could see the finish line from here and didn't need it to guide me any more. 

Finish Line

When I posed the question: should I ride for my personal best time or go for fastest fatbike? I thought I was asking and either-or question, I didn't expect 'all of the above' was an option ... But I finished as the fastest fatbike and took 16 minutes of my best DAMn time. When Trenton gave me a finish line hug, he informed me that I was the first fatbike, adding that that's my thing now. I guess I'm gonna have to claim it, I am fast fatbike-gravel rider. 

The DAMn Champion

The finish line moved since I last rode in 2019, now a short distance further and in a shady park-like area. It felt so nice to be in a cool shady space, cheering for riders in as they arrived. This year was the first time I felt like I could enjoy a finish line beer! And a bonus, somebody had a bunch a pizza he could eat and gave me a few pieces ... that was a little heaven, beer and pizza in a shady chair! The finish area was a great place to share stories with friends I've known for years, and some I'd just met. 

The Shady Finish Line

Nick was filming lots of footage at the finish line, at one point I looked back to see he has his camera behind my calf tattoo filming a big group coming in to the finish. I hope that make his documentary! 

My DAMn tattoo

It was awe-inspiring to watch riders get back on their bikes and start the return trip to Gary, SD chasing the unimaginable Double DAMn. 

 

I have so many mixed emotions about the Final DAMn. I'm so grateful for the opportunities to challenge myself on this ride three times. I'm feeling sad that there won't be another DAMn, on the other hand, I feel a need to move on to other races and challenges. The DAMn demands so much time and energy, it becomes that one pinnacle ride for my year, I can't fit more than one ride of this scale into my year. I'm hopeful that Trenton will bring a new challenge to us gravel nuts. I'm also happy to know that I'll continue to see my gravel family at upcoming gravel bike events... and that's what I love most about these rides, these stone-cold crazies that are the family of gravel! 

Statistics 

I was 79th place of 231 finishers with an official time was 18:42:49. For reference, the fastest fatbike in 2017 was Bal Singh at 17:26; in 2018 Bal finished in 19:30; in 2019 Jake Cohen finished in 19:22

In the Final DAMn, 563 racers signed up, 393 made it to the starting line, 231 became DAMn Champions by crossing the Hager City, Wisconsin finish line 242 miles later, and then there are the incredible 11 who became Double DAMn Champions by crossing the Gary, South Dakota finish line 495 miles later! Link to full results. 

Thank you for the support: 

• To start with, I'd like to thank everyone I will forget ... 'cause I'm bad like that
• Trenton, Erik, Joel, and countless others that created, organized, hosted, and made this DAMn ride a reality. 
• I was humbled be the number of folks on bikes and along the road that cheered me on by name! I recognized many of you ... but there were too many that I couldn't figure out, sorry! 
• Having the course public brought something totally new and enjoyable: FANS! There were support crews and farms along nearly the whole route cheering riders on, it truly lifted my spirits. Thank you!
• Thank you to Paulie at GO PHYSIO for the great bike fit, I was as comfortable and efficient as possible for a 242-mile day on a Pugsley. 
• Tonka Cycle & Ski: Tyler and Brett both helped me have the Pugsley ready its longest day ever. 
• TMB Images and Markman Outdoor Photography for capturing the good, the bad, and the ugly that is The DAMn
• Saving the most important for last: I have to say THANK YOU again and again to my best friend, Lisa! For the third time, she drove back-and-forth across the state, through the dark & cold night, the blazing heat of the day, and going without sleep for 40+ hours to chase my DAMn ride. There are riders that complete this ride without support; however, my success has always been a team effort with Lisa play a critical role supporting my training leading up to the race, the long day on the course, and the post-race recovery. She's my DAMn Champion!! 

Lisa & Chris in Gary

Fuel, food & hydration:

• Clif Bars - I love the coffee variety
• Jelly Belly Sports Beans
• Stinger Waffles 
• Skratch Labs gummies
• Skratch Labs drink mix
• Nuun electrolyte tabs 
• Ham & cheddar sliders
• Bananas
• Starbucks Doubleshots
• Coke 
• Salt Sticks - electrolyte chewables 

Kit: 

• Podiumwear Gold bibs & jersey; plus lightweight vest for the cold night 
• Pearl Izumi sun sleeves and sun legs: I've used them for many year, but this year I was struggle to stay cool enough and removed them for the last 20 miles to get better air flow across my skin. 
• Sun Buff 
• Tifosi photochromatic glasses with readers

Electronics reports:

• Garmin Edge 1030: It was in battery save mode through the dark of night, and I turned off battery save during the light of day. Unlike past years, I was following a route, and that drains the battery faster. I was a few miles out of Red Wing and got a warning the 1030 was low on battery, but it had 11% to get me a few more miles. But the 1030 shut down on the bridge, with less than a mile to go. I was frustrated since there was still 7% battery showing. I used my Forerunner to capture the short distance to the finish line. 
• Moto G Power (2021) phone: It stayed in my jersey pocket all day with no issues.
• Garmin Varia (radar & rear light): I picked it up in Henderson and it was great for the miles from Henderson into Red Wing when I was tired, giving me notifications about overtaking cars. 
• Serfas Thunderbolt 2.0 tail light: it was on strobe setting and lasted nearly the full day.
• Knog Mob the Face rear light: it was on the seat post was on solid at the start, lasted a couple hours, I changed to the Thunderbolt. 
• Knog Mob the Face front light: it was mounted to my POC helmet to see my feedbags in the night. 
• NiteRider 700 & 750: They did great. I had one of these NiteRiders on all ride, trading out lights in the early morning hours. The NiteRider mount was on my fork with an Origin8 Eyelet Stub, freeing up space on the handle bars.
• Skullcandy Method wireless earbuds: these were great to contact Lisa with updates and support stop details. 
• GoPro Hero 8: It kept crashing all ride, I'd have to remove the battery door, pull out the battery for a moment, and restart it. SUPER annoying. 

Thank you to Birchwood Racing Team and sponsors: 

• Birchwood Café 
• Grand Performance 
• Tria Orthopedic Center 
• The Fix Studio 
• Lakes & Legends Brewing 
• Mettle Velo 
• 1UP 
• Prana Kombucha 
• HED Wheels 

I'll see you further on down the road