2019 Pony Express

Saturday was the Pony Express Gravel Dash down in Marysville Kansas, I believe it was their 5th rendition of the event but only my second. I actually rode the full 120 last year completely by accident, didn't sign up but then something happened to a friend that sidelined him so I took his spot.


It was a great course and a ton of fun so I signed myself up this year, I mean what are the odds that the same guy would just happen to need to give up his spot two years in a row? Actually had he signed up, it would have totally been possible again this year but that isn't how it played out. This year I decided to do the 75 mile route instead of the full 120, pay no attention to that 70 printed on the card it was every bit of 75 miles and a little more according to Strava. Maybe that's what the quotes around the "70 miles" is for.


The Journeyman got the call up again for this one, I figured that this would be a good choice for the course if it was similar to last years and I needed to give it another go after the not so successful Gravel Worlds. The bike did not disappoint at all and was flawless the whole race... well almost.



With a 7:30 start time we got to take in the beautiful September sunrise before we lined up and got underway. Just on the Kansas side of the border, Marysville has really embraced the Pony Express of yesteryear and it's place in that history. A Pony Express Rider statue sits in the center of town to remind all who come visit the town.



Lined up and ready to launch there were a fair amount of Lincoln and Omaha folks among the ranks, always good to see local riders supporting the local(ish) races in the area and the Black Squirrels are a great group of folks who travel up to Nebraska for our events as well. As is always the case the start and finish of the race is held in front of the Wagon Wheel Cafe, which also serves as the check in spot and a good place to grab a cold one and a bite after the race is done.


If you're coming from the west and looking for the Wheel when the race isn't going on, just look for this sign and you've found your spot.


Or if you're coming from the east or miss the sign, just look for the horse and follow it's tail. Old trigger always has his eye on the goings on at the the Wagon Wheel, even if it's his brown eye.


A few minutes before 7:30 there was a good rendition of the National Anthem and then we set out, my riding partners for Saturday were Sarah and Chris so I knew it would be all smiles all day.




After a brief stint on the pavement we were dumped on to a fairly flat stretch of gravel and the pace jumped up quite a bit. Not really in it to win it, I kept a decent pace but didn't try to stick with the lead group.





One of the things that I like about riding or racing Kansas gravel is that their MMR or B roads can be very rocky, steep and technical which is a stark contrast to Nebraska where most of our MMRs near Lincoln are smooth, fast rolling dirt. These roads speak to my mountain biking side and I get a kick out of flying down them.






Another thing I noticed were all the yellow flowers that lined several of the roads and some of the cool old abandoned houses we encountered along the way, it was a nice little distraction to take your mind off of the pedaling for a little bit. Some of the pictures are out of sequence chronologically but since you weren't there you probably won't notice but I'll give you the friendly disclaimer anyway.



Somewhere not to far off from the start, Rick rolled up on us and our threesome became a foursome... now, get your mind out of the gutter folks, the only thing dirty going on in this story is the gravel roads. We did introduce Rick to the official Nebraska ditch beer, even if we were in Kansas, and it was a good one I picked up specially for this race. I loved the Clown Shoes Gordo that I had on the Heat Stroke so much that I decided to repeat it again for this ride, if you haven't had it, go get it. Don't let the pumpkin spice on the label scare you off either, with the bourbon barrel aging process you won't even notice the pumpkin in there at all.





At about mile 39 we rolled into Greenleaf and the first check point feeling pretty good and clipping along at a fairly healthy pace; I'd guess about 14 mph for our average at this point. We refueled (special thanks to Chris's SO for providing cold beverages and snacks at the SAG stops), got our mail stamped and pushed on towards the next stop.





A couple of MMRs, a few gravel roads, one nice stretch of pavement, the friendly town of Hanover and we rolled into our second check point at the Hollenburg Station of the original Pony Express around mile 60 on our route.




The Pony Express Station stop was fully stocked with all kinds of goodies, including homemade, freshly baked pies. Some of you might recall pies from the Washington/Jefferson County Ride earlier in the year, well these were those same delicious pies baked by Micaella again and they were every bit as tasty as I remembered them.



The historic station building was really cool and would warrant a trip down there for a visit, even if you weren't riding a bicycle. This was also the only point in the day that the Journeyman let me down, they had a photographer set up to take pictures of people in front of or on the saddle. I leaned my bike against the saddle and went around to the other side, I was discussing with the camera man what would be the best John Wayne-esque pose would be when the Jman decided to lay down for a nap. I sort of threw up my hand in disgust, the photographer snapped the shot and quipped "probably exactly like that" to my earlier question, everyone's a comedian these days.



The four of us set off from the station and headed toward the finish line. I sort of had a goal of trying to get in before 2 pm and secondarily my Garmin was down to about 35% and I didn't want to mess with the battery at this point. So at about 10 miles to go, like a douche canoe, I abandoned my fellow riders and pushed it a little bit faster to try to get in before 2 pm or the Garmin battery pooped out; which ever might happen first. I ended up coming in right around 1:52 or so and the Garmin was still just a tad above 30% so I accomplished both of those goals.



As a consolation for being a non team player, I did get to get some pictures of the rest of the group coming in a few minutes later. So there is that.


Not a bad place to finish a race if you ask me.





After our group came in, we cleaned up, changed clothes, grabbed a bite to eat and then waited for the 120 mile friends to come rolling in a few hours later. Roy pulled out a second place finish in the 120 mile fat bike category for his efforts and the relay team of Katie, Patricia and Doug got third in relay so it was a pretty good showing for the Nebraskans.

While only the 75 mile, if there is such a thing as only 75 miles, and not the full 120 I think it was the right call for me. This late in the season my legs weren't feeling up to that many miles and it was kind of nice to not spend all day out on the bike either. Everything went awesome for this race, I felt good, bike was flawless and I felt like I was eating and drinking enough so I didn't get dehydrated or run out of go juice. The fact that it wasn't 90+ degrees also helped tremendously as well, that heat and humidity has a tendency to sap the will out of a fella. Ended up at 49th out of 71 finishers for the men's open and 58 our of 91 finishers overall of the 75 mile route with a moving time of about 5 and a half hours and total time of 6 hours and 22 minutes. Not blazing fast but not to shabby either.