Last Saturday was the Pony Express Gravel Dash down in Maryville, Kansas an event we've done several times now and always a fun time. This year, just like the original Pony Express route was designed, we signed up for the relay. While not on horses as originally ridden we opted to sign up for the 120 mile single speed category instead, single speeds eat a little less hay and poop a lot less than their equine bretheren.
Our ponies for the event were the Salsa Stormchasers that we have been putting the miles on this year, freshly shod with new Cantu hoops which Mark and Backroads Bicycles worked tirelessly the week of the event to make sure they got setup and on the bikes. It's been a single speed sort of season for us this year putting roughly 1600 miles on the Stormchasers this year... the wheels on the other hand we only had about 30 miles on prior to the race. I know, never change anything big before a race. Good advice but what are rules for if not to be broken.
As we have done for the past three years we loaded up the covered wagon and setup camp in the local park the night before the race so that we could partake in the spaghetti feed and pre-race festivities.
New this year was the antique bicycle exhibit at the art museum in town, a lot of pretty cool old bikes were on display and rumor has it that they are going to try to make it an annual event to go along with the Gravel Dash. After catching the exhibit and finding some food we hung out at camp for a bit before retiring for the night, morning comes early you know and a growing body needs it's rest.
Maryville has a pretty great downtown skyline, especially in the early morning glow of the sunrise.
Our team, Iron taint and the greasy cheeks, consisted of myself, Justin and Jackie riding in that order on the relay. The team name? Well that sort of came off the cuff due to my proclivity to avoid chamois and chamois butter of any kind, on any ride, no matter the distance and everyone else's desire to grease the cheeks with that awful stuff. It's not like I haven't given it the old college try but it worked the opposite of what it was intended to do for me... worst, and only really, saddle sores I ever have gotten during a gravel event was when I was wearing both a chamois and butt butter... nope, my hinie prefers the only moisture on it to be of it's own doing while avoiding sitting on a sponge as well.
Our competition for the day were Joe, Todd and Trisha Luke (not pictured here) as they were the only other single speed relay team that signed up. I think they are discussing their strategy of letting Trisha bring home the win here at the beginning of the race.
Things got underway right at 7:30 am as we rolled out of town in a neutral start until we hit the gravel, albeit a spirited neutral start as is usually the case with these things.
Once we got onto the gravel the pace quickly exploded, Todd and I swapped spots off and on for our leg of the relay and we ended up coming into the first relay spot at mile 42 with an average just under 16.5 mph. I'm not entirely sure we could have gone much faster without swapping out gears or at least I don't think I could have, the 38X17 was near perfect for the up hills and just a tad spiny on the flats but all in all a good gearing choice for the course.
Being wrapped up in the event and the relay I didn't get too many pictures of the second leg swap in Axtel but our two teams were still neck and neck leaving out of there. Justin and Joe kept the speed up and finished their 31 mile leg averaging right around 15.5 mph. The fate of each team would be decided by the ladies on the third leg.
Jackie did an amazing job on her 45 mile leg averaging roughly 14.5 mph but Trisha managed to pull away and get a 20 minute lead on her coming into the finish. Super proud of our entire team, everyone gave it everything they had and we fought right up to the very end. The weather was near perfect and the course was dry and fast and we managed to finish the 120 course in 7 hours and 46 minutes, which was pretty darn fast. Looking at the overall 120 mile finishers, our time would have netted us a solid 9th place finish in the geared category. Not so shabby for one speed if you ask me, not too shabby at all.
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