Ouachita Challenge - the recap

Oden, AR - Start/Finish of the Ouachita Challenge - Yeah, it's a small town

Wow, what a great weekend. I'm still a bit out of it from the 10 hour marathon session in the car getting back home after the race yesterday. CVO, Shawn and I rolled back into town around 2:30 in the morning and I didn't hit the hay until around 3ish. I haven't slept in past noon since college, but the body and mind definitely needed a recharge after this past weekends fun.

Oh, where to start.....well, how about with the fact that the Ouachita Mountains are beautiful. If you haven't been down there for a mountain bike ride, you should put that on your list of places to ride. Arkansas has one of the IMBA Epic Trails, the Wobble Trail, which is part of the Ouachita Challenge every year. I won't go into great details about the Wobble trail, but will say it's one of the best trails I've ever ridden.

Entrance of the singletrack

Make no mistake, the Ouachita Challenge is one tough cookie. It's an early race which really helps gauge your fitness. The rocks are brutal and there's plenty of climbing and descending which punish the body. Plus, the bike and equipment take a beating as well. Finishing the event without a mechanical or a flat takes luck.

One of the two long gravel climbs prior to entering the singletrack - Sonja Looney off in the distance

The course this year was a good mixture of gravel roads and single track. I'm not sure of the exact distances of each, but I would venture a guess of about half gravel and half singletrack. That's just fine by me cuz I love gravel. Plus trying to find a good spot to eat or drink in the singletrack can be tricky and downright dangerous. Since I opted for water bottles and not a hydration pack, I used the gravel road sections to down a bottle and get some calories in.

Not your typical Nebraska gravel

The gravel down in Arkansas is a bit rockier than the Nebraska variety. You gotta be on your toes even on the gravel sections. The last thing you want to do is tank a big rock or pot hole and get a flat, crash or worse.

CVO being interviewed for the local news - not sure which station

Now on to the actual race. This was my third crack at the Ouachita Challenge (2007, 2009 and 2010). I've had a rough go of it every time and this year was no exception. I guess that's what keeps me coming back.

Rollin' out - recumbent in the distance

The race started out in a mass neutral roll out. The group of 260+ followed a pickup truck who was followed by a recumbent bicycle. Having a recumbent bike lead out was a first for me.

Namitra O'Dea, fellow XXC Mag contributor, sittin' in the best possible wind break position

Neutral roll out was for a couple of miles and then the group made a right hand turn onto the first gravel of the day. Once we hit the gravel it was game on! The pace picked up, but nothing too crazy. Riders were five to six wide most the way to the first gravel climb. Once we hit the first climb the group began to spread out a bit. By the second big climb folks were getting a bit antsy because they know that getting a holeshot entering the first section of singletrack is vital due to the fact there aren't a lot of great places to pass. Jeff Kerkove, Bryan Fawley and a couple others broke away from the main group and got a small gap on the rest of us. I thought about bridging up to them, but didn't want to burn too many matches that early in a 60 mile event. I managed to be the second person of the chase group in the singletrack which was right behind dreadlocked Garth Prosser.

Once in the singletrack I encouraged Garth to give chase of the lead group. We weren't too far back and had a small gap on the rest of the folks behind us. I couldn't believe what happened next. He promptly stopped and got off the trail to let me pass. That's not what I wanted or expected, but it was a very cool gesture. At that point I knew I was in over my head when Garth Prosser is letting me pass.

I tried in vain to catch the lead group and then endo'd in some rocks. The fitness was there, but not the skills. Garth and a few other passed at that point. I'm not a great technical rider and those first sections of singletrack are about as techy as I'll ride all year. A bit further down the trail I went down again in some rocks and banged my already injured left knee. At this point I just wanted to maintain without getting hurt. Last year I got hurt pretty badly and had to take almost a month off the bike. That wasn't gonna happen again this year.

One of the four aid stations stocked with all kinds of goodies

The second section of single track included the dreaded Blow Out Mountain and Ouachita Trail. Those trails have large sections of unrideable (at least for me) rocks. I did a lot of walking and pushing my bike through the second section of singletrack. A few folks got by as they were able to negotiate the sketchy basketball sized rocks.

During that stretch I noticed the back end getting soft. Eventually I couldn't ignore it anymore and had to get off and air it up. I tried the Caffe Latex sealant for the first time for this event. The front tire did great, but the rear wasn't holding air. There were no noticeable holes or gashes anywhere so I figured I could just air it up and hopefully where ever it was leaking would seal. Unfortunately, it didn't. During the tight descents the tire would burp sealant. So I had to air it up about every 30 minutes. Why didn't I throw a tube in right away? I guess cuz I'm lazy and was holding out in hopes of it sealing. I stopped at the second and third aid stations to air it up with a floor pump. When I rolled into the third aid station it had 15 psi. Ha!

After the second and third aid station stops I regained some spots before the rear end got soft again. I rode on a nearly flat tire for a few miles at one point. Finally, I throw up the white flag and decided to throw in a tube. After getting back going again I tanked a rock and pinch flatted. Doh. Another tube and got going again. I rolled into the fourth and final aid station with a nearly flat rear and bummed a tube off a guy who was DNF'ing. Gotta love the floor pumps at that aid stations!

On the positive note, I got to see a lot of the same people throughout the day due to those flats including Fuzzy John. Fuzzy was doing great during the race, but ended up flatting too. I guess it's all about luck.

Part of the Wobble Trail - one of the few pics during the race

Initial results were 26th for the day in the open men's category. I gotta admit I'm bummed on that result especially with the start I had, but it was a great day on the bike and I got to ride some beautiful singletrack. Plus all the Cycle Works/Moose's Tooth crew had great rides. The team had seven folks representin' down in Arkansas this weekend and I'm proud of each and every one of them.

Till next year Ouachita!

Ouachita Challenge Day 1

Locked and loaded...ready to go

"It's not a tumor."

Pre-ride after 500+ miles in the car

Gravel!

Rocks - having trouble finding a good line through this one

First singletrack of the year

CVO - that facial hair is dirty, so dirty

CVO inter-bloggin'

The forecast has changed several times for the race tomorrow. As of now, the weather is lookin' good with cloudy skies and temps in the 40's and 50's. There have been a lot of rumors that part of the singletrack (some of the super rocky stuff) will be detoured tomorrow because of mud.

This is gonna be fun!

Heading off for Ouachita tomorrow

Beautiful flowing singletrack of Arkansas

CVO, Shawn and I are heading off for Arkansas tomorrow afternoon for the Ouachita Challenge (pronounced Wa-she-tah) which is on Sunday in Oden. Kris, Todd and Jerry are heading down on Saturday.

I'm excited for the race, but a bit worried about not getting any singletrack time yet this year. Make no mistake, this is a real mountain bike race in actual mountains. The elevation gains aren't ridiculous, but the terrain is as rugged as that found out West. You gotta be on your "A" game to go fast through those trails.

Stream crossing from the 2007 race - photo credit ?

The 60 mile course will include a lot of big gnarly rocks and numerous stream and small water crossings. A majority of the course is singletrack!

This event is tough on the body and the bike, but fun, fun, fun!

Wish us luck!

Sunday!

DC of the Malcolm General Store

Today's post starts off with a pic of DC. DC lives at the Malcolm General store. He was named by the spouse of the owner of the Malcolm General store. DC is short for Damn Cat. I guess she's not very fond of felines as she wanted to name him FC. I bet you can guess what that stands for.

With him living there I'll get a chance to see him from time to time. He was chillin' on the counter when we rolled in today. Super chill and very friendly. Petted and scratched his ears which got his motor going.

That cat rocks. And that's why he gets first pic.

Heading out West A with the sunrise peakin' over a gravel roller

Had a good sized crew today. Kinda surprised with the WWASH # 2 last night. Figured most folks would be sleepin' in today.

Ryan on the sweet retro Trek

It was damn cold this morning. Wind chill was around 16 degrees when we took off. After a few rollers we all seemed to warm up.

Today's destination was Milford. The white rock was pretty bad in spots. Dane and Ryan broke off to hit some pavement (great ride guys!) as the rest of us headed for some simple sugar in Milford. We hit up the convenience store in Milford and then headed back towards Lincoln in search of some twisty gravel.

Not all gravel roads in Nebraska are straight

We managed to find the twisty gravel which follows a creek (Salt Creek?). It's a rare treat around these parts. Most gravel roads are set up on a grid system and completely straight.

Scott and Brian joined us today - Great ride guys!

Temps started to warm throughout the ride which necessitated some shedding of gear. It'll be nice when I don't need to bring two sets of gloves on rides. Soon. Very soon.

Two deer off in the distance

At one point during the ride we came upon a rafter of turkey (had to Google that one) and a few deer. They were hanging out together by some trees doing something. It looked pretty darn suspicious as they got spooked ran as soon as they saw us. I think they were up to no good. Probably doing drugs or maybe gambling. Darn kids.

Regroup!

Fob and DK peeled back to town as Scott, Brian, Troy and I headed up to Malcolm to get a few more miles and say hi to DC.

The gravel is in great shape, but the damn white rock is annoying. I'm sure once the farm equipment gets out on the roads things will get better.

If I didn't see you today, hope you got out for a ride! This week is looking like beautiful weather for riding!

It's Spring, right?

Icy gravel

Damn you Winter of '10. You had to get one last snow in, didn't you. Well, that's all you get for the first half of the year. From here on out, it's gonna be nothing but sunshine and 70 degrees. Right?

The snow throw a wrench in the weekend ride plans. I was really hoping of getting out on some singletrack this weekend in preparation for the Ouachita Challenge next weekend. Oh well, I guess the first bit of singletrack that I'll ride for 2010 will be during the race. Yikes. Stay clear of me folks. It's gonna be sketchy.

Bitter cold

A small group of demented...errr...dedicated cyclists took off at 7 AM from D Street this morning. I was very close to bailing on the ride, but once Matt, Butch and Dave showed up I figured what the hell. Todd and The Dark Knight rounded out the crew.

It took me a while to get ready for the ride cuz I had to do some diggin' in the closet to find my winter gear. The snow and frigid temps necessitated the Lake Winter boots and Pearl Izumi lobster claw gloves this morning. Thought I used those for the last time a couple of weeks ago and had 'em packed away for the season.

As we left D Street it was apparent that the streets and sidewalks were as slick as a mofoe. It didn't take long for me to eat shit. Made it to campus and went down on the sidewalk. Landed on my already tender left knee. Awesome. Dave ended up going down twice, but he's obviously a lot more nibble than I am and managed not to draw blood.

Welcome back Dave and Martha (Dave pictured above)!

The crew ended up heading into the wind and made a quick trip to the Malcolm General Store. I love that store. The people are friendly, the donuts are delicious and fresh, and the coffee is hot. Plus the locals were excited to chat and reminisce regarding a little event that's happened the past couple of years. They were even more excited to find out that the event is gonna happen again this year. We just need to be sure to route the ride through Malcolm again.

Ride tomorrow? Maybe. Depends on how the knee feels.

The nicest day of the year thus far....

South 110th Street

Today Lincoln and the surrounding areas hit the highest temperature of 2010. Sixty plus degrees. Ah yeah. Tomorrow the forecast is calling for snow. I guess Winter is going out like a lion.

MMR, not too shabby

We've had lots of precipitation in the last month, but surprisingly the gravel and MMR's were in awesome shape. In fact, due to the work by the gravel road graters and maintainers, some of the gravel was more like hardpack. Super fast and smooth.

110th - part of the 2009 GLGA

Lots of rock

While some of the gravel is smooth and fast, other parts are rough, loose and bumpy. The local gravel quarry has been busy! The local gravel roads were in terrible shape after this year's hard and long winter. In fact, the rural roads were the worst they've been in 20 or 30 years (thanks to Troy for the link!). So lots and lots of fresh rock has been dispersed on the roads. Some of the fresh sections are loose and ridiculously sketchy to ride a bicycle on.

If you're heading out on the gravel roads, be sure to: 1) bring at least two tubes, a patch kit, cellphone and a pump 2) keep pedaling when it gets really loose and especially you feel like you're gonna lose it, and finally 3) keep both hands on the handlebar and the weight off the front when going through the deep stuff.

Your moment of Zen

See you on the gravel soon!

PCL Lincoln-Seward-Wahoo-Lincoln...great day on the bike!

Folks getting ready to roll outside of The Coffee House in downtown Lincoln

Great times were had by hopefully all today. Since the weather didn't cooperate all week with all the precipitation, the PCL event took to the pavement. Oh no, mother nature can't stop the PCL. I'm not sure on the head count, but I'm guessing somewhere in the 30's. A very diverse group. Met some folks today and also had a chance to ride with several of the Nebraska posse that I hadn't seen in awhile.

Obeying the traffic laws...way to go PCL!

Lincoln to Seward and back to Lincoln for the short route (around 60 miles) with the long route going from Lincoln to Seward to Wahoo and back to Lincoln (around 108 miles per my computer).

Nice wide shoulder on 34 to Seward

Managed not to get wet today. Only had a slight mist for a bit on the way to Seward. No rain today, but plenty of wind.

This pic made me laugh!

We fought our way to Seward in the NW wind. Lots of rollers on the way there. Hadn't ridden to Seward in a few years. Last time was for the Fourth of July festivities.

Refuel in Seward

Some folks headed for home and some continued on after the Seward stop. The folks that continued on deserve a medal for fighting the North wind on Hwy 15.

A welcome sight!

Scott B. and I ended up being one the last folks out of Seward. We took turns fighting the wind to the Hwy 92 turn. Damn that was tough. I think we averaged 12 mph that stretch. Yikes.

Flat number 3 or 4 for Eric

Eric had a rough time today. He sliced his rear tire on the way into Seward. We booted that and changed the tube and it held for awhile. Then on Hwy 92, Scott and I ran into him again with a flat. It took a couple of tubes to get him going again.

How many times did you flat today, Eric? Hey man, just think with all your bad luck today, maybe you'll hit the Powerball! If you do, please share.

75 miles in...time for Mexican at Dos Margaritas!

Eric, Scott and I rolled into Wahoo at little after 1:30. It was definitely time for lunch. After 75 miles, the hot food sure tasted good.

These scurvy mates were there waiting for us when we arrived

Jeff, Brian, Rafal and Troy were already a drink ahead of us when we rolled in.

Late for supper!

Aaron rolled in as we were paying our tab. Doh! Sorry dude! But the good news is he and the rest of the Jah posse stopped in Dwight for burgers and beers. Nice work fellas!

Eric's final flat of the day

The tailwind home was great. 25 mph most of the way back. Unfortunately Eric had a couple more flats and decided to pull the plug and wait for the Rafal rescue. Heard he ran into Butch, Fob, Wills, and DK and was able to get rollin' again.

Thanks for the great ride folks. Did anyone make it down to Yia Yia's?

Laramie Enduro registration opens April 1st

Paceline on a gravel road section during the 2009 Laramie Enduro

Got an email the other day from the Laramie Enduro reminder robot. Yep, registration opens April 1st. If racing your mountain bike over 70 miles with 8,000 plus feet of climbing all above 7,500 feet of elevation sounds good to you, don't dally. The race fulled up real quick last year. BTW, the race is on Saturday July 31st, not Sunday August 1st. FYI, you can sign up on the Laramie Enduro website for email reminders regarding registration.

Desolate Flint Hills of Kansas

Also, just listened to an interview with Jim Cummins, the Dirty Kanza race co-promoter, on the Ciclirati website. Definitely gets me pumped up for that event. Jim really does a great job explaining the remoteness of the DK200. That's a big reason I love that race. During many points of the event you can look around for miles in any direction and not see a single sign of human life besides the gravel road.

Sunday!

Concrete marker in...you guessed it...Agnew

The early start (7 AM, cough) hasn't detoured folks for showing up at the D Street rides. We had another good sized crew this morning including Todd from Omaha. After getting out of town the group splintered again with some heading out on road bikes for laps around Branched Oak lake and a couple of others were short on time and passed on the gravel, but six of us (Dane, James, Todd, DK, Schmidty and myself) continued on the gravel roads with Valpo as the rally point. The route was a shoot from the hip method. Just head North and see where we end up. Eventually we stumbled across the tiny town (not sure if it qualifies as a town) of Agnew. Not much really going on in Agnew, just a few run down abandoned homes and several trailers, but there was also a concrete marker. There are a bunch of these markers all across Lancaster county. I thought I've seen them all, but obviously not. I don't know much about them besides they're pretty damn sweet.

Ummm...no.

Pictured above is 98th Street just off of Agnew Road. This was part of the 2009 The Good Life Gravel Adventure. It's a MMR (minimum maintenance road). The gravel maintainers don't go down the MMR's. So it's not gonna be ridable for awhile, but you could probably ski it!

The ride took us to Valpo and then on past Ceresco. The gravel was in great shape to the North, but had some softer sections in Eastern Lancaster county.

Todd Geer of Team Rasta Grassroots race team (Cycle Works/Moose's Tooth)

Hey everyone, this is Todd. He traveled down from Omaha for the ride this morning. That's badass. Thanks for making the trip to Lincoln, Todd. Todd is heading down to Arkansas with us in a few weeks for the Ouachita Challenge. He's also taking on the Leadville 100 for the third year in a row. Yeah, he likes to ride bikes.

Hey Todd, it was great to have ya along for the fun today. You did great, especially keeping up with us on those fat tires! Think about getting a cross bike. They're awesome on gravel adventures.

Pepe's is awesome!

I finally got to Pepe's today and will definitely be back for more. Pepe's is located in Havelock, 64th and Havelock to be precise. The restaurant is upstairs and has a definite bicycle friendly atmosphere and decor. Lots of bicycle art, flyers, an old cruiser on the wall, and various cycling publications (Lincoln Ve-Low!). Pepe is a great guy who is passionate about supporting the local cycling scene and offers a special to folks who ride their bikes to the restaurant on Sundays. Five bucks for an entry and a drink. That's a great deal. I had the mushroom and spinach enchiladas and some very refreshing cucumber lemonade. It hit the spot. I'd like to make Pepe's a usual destination on Sundays when I'm in town. Thanks Pepe!

Cafe Indigo in the Haymarket

After Pepe's Dane, Schmidty and I headed down to Cafe Indigo for an Espresso. As you can see on the list of daily specials, folks that ride their bikes down to Cafe Indigo on Sundays get a free Espresso. Another local small business that supports cyclists. Gotta love that. And you gotta support the businesses that support us. Cafe Indigo not only has Espresso, coffee, and bakes goods, but also a vast selection of books. I need to get down there and peruse the selection.

Thanks again Lonnie!

Keeping with today's theme...Spilker Ales is another local business that supports cyclists. Lonnie hooked me up with a few 6 packs of pints for taking some beer down to The Gravel Conspiracy last year. Good stuff!

Rain the next couple of days. Boo.