Firecracker 50 - Gravel

Thursday was the annual Firecracker 50 put on by the Great Plains Bicycle Club, this was the 15th rendition of the ride. I've done a few of them off and on but certainly haven't come anywhere close to getting all 15 of them in the Strava-sphere. Last year we made an unofficial gravel route that was supposed to be 60 miles but got shortened to 55 miles because of the oppressive heat, I know 5 miles doesn't sound like that big of a difference but when you're sporting a fair case of swamp ass it's a long way to carry a soaked chamois. The 55 mile route stuck and we officially had a gravel route this year for the Firecracker 50 and it was following that same route from last year. The plan was to leave the church at 7 am to try to avoid the runners who also use Bluff Rd at that time but as Carlos saw, we missed that mark so we had to navigate the sea of runners on the way to gravel. Not the biggest deal in the world though, we just go slow and pick our spots.




The gravel was in great shape, despite the seemingly constant rains we have been getting around here the gravel seems to manage to stay mostly dry somehow. Weather was also in our favor with temps in the 70° range, low winds and overcast skies, about the only thing not going our was was the humidity. The air was thick with moisture so sweating was still obtained through the simplest of exertions, like breathing.



The clouds looked pretty ominous early on but we never did get more than a sprinkle all day and that little bit of rain wouldn't be until much later in the day. It was a near perfect morning to be rolling through the countryside on two wheels.



Shortly after leaving civilization we came across a two dog greeting committee, they were the gatekeepers to the lone MMR on the route. I think the two were a little disappointed that we didn't stop to say hi but their MMR was the kind of road that keeps me coming back to gravel. I bet the road was even better a week ago before the grader went down it and "smoothed" it all out.



Humidity was kicking yesterday, hydration breaks were a lifesaver to replenish lost fluids.






I'm not exactly sure how many gravel riders there were yesterday but we had 16 in our group, most of them familiar faces but there were a few new ones also. Pace was lickety split too, it's almost like gravel sprints in between hydration breaks.




The first, somewhat official, stop on course was at the Husker Bar in Brainard and it was also a stop on the road route as well so there were plenty of folks packed into the tiny bar. I think the poor lady working as bar tender was more than a little overwhelmed by all the folks, I thought for sure at one point she was going to disappear into the back room and never come out again.



There were a few "closed road" signs on course that I hope didn't dissuade anyone from riding on and following the course. The route turned before the closed sections or they were still totally navigable by bicycle. Some of the best roads I've ridden on were just on the other side of a road closed sign.




The course was designed heavy on the rest stop options on the back end, the first 28 miles saw nothing in the way of places to resupply but the back end had an optional stop roughly every 10 miles by taking advantage of small town bars. These bars are one of the things I love about exploring Nebraska via the back road. Many of them are time capsules that take you back to a simpler time when things were so technologically advanced and everyone wasn't in such a hurry; and they are always happy to see us and ask about how we got there and where we are going. I also like to think that we are contributing to their ability to stick around a little while longer, a good group of cyclists spending money at these places can bring in a huge amount of one day sales for these places. I think as gravel is gaining in popularity, it's something that these small towns have picked up on and have really opened up their arms and towns to cyclist.


Leaving out of Bee it was all pavement for the last 8 mile push back into Seward, while billed as a gravel ride I think everyone enjoyed the smoother surface, faster pace and easier ride on the way back. On a hot and humid day 50 miles of gravel can seem much longer on the body and soul, it's always good to end a ride on a positive note.

Firecracker Fiddy

Not sure why (probably one too many blows to the head while biking) but for some reason it sounded like a good idea to get up at 4:30 am on the 4th of July so that I could ride in the Firecracker 50 in Seward Nebraska hosted by the Great Plains Bicycling Club, first time I've ever ridden it. Had a pretty good crowd already by 6:45 am when we got there so I obviously wasn't the only crazy fool up way too early on a day off.


Looking at the clouds while we were rolling out of Seward I figured rain would be the main concern we would have to deal with, ended up being the wind that would have it's say on the ride this day instead of rain, ended up feeling like I was biking against a blow dryer. I'm not math genius but our average speed for the first 25 miles was 17.8 mph, because of the 20+ mph head wind on the way back it dropped the average speed for the whole ride down to 14.9. Again not a mathematician at all but it's way slower on the way back if it drops the overall average down 3 mph but how much slower I couldn't tell you but it was a huge difference to drop it that much.


Since it was a free ride the SAG was limited to just this one station at about 10 miles out of Seward, because it was a loop however you encountered it again at mile 40 before heading back into Seward. It was much more welcomed at mile 40 on this day than it was at mile 10.

Once we made the turn away from the tailwind the real struggle began, this unassuming bar in Brainard at about mile 27 was a true godsend as an unofficial SAG station as I didn't see another gas station until we got all the way back to Seward. The awesome thing about small town bars, other than the fact that they still exist, is that they are not only a bar but they are the social hub (think Facebook before Facebook existed and people actually sat across a table from each other and talked to each other) of the community, the place where everyone goes to hang, even children until the evening hours. If it weren't for the fact that these bars are often the only place to go in a small town it probably wouldn't have had any thing but beer and liquor but luckily it was fully stalked with cooler of soda, Gatorade and other convenience store fare. Thank god for small town bars!

The push back to Seward was awful fighting a constant 25+ headwind all the way back, luckily I was able to hook onto the end of a 4 person pace line at about mile 35, even that little bit of wind block made life a lot more enjoyable for the last 15 miles. Unfortunately we all got kind of stacked up on the way back because of the fierce wind and I lost my riding partner somehow, kept looking over my shoulder and just catching a glimpse of another rider that I assumed was him... as it turned out he had a few leg cramps on the last push and had to go into survival mode. Even with the wind it still ended up being a decent ride, one I will probably do again next year how can you beat a free ride.