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.

200 Miles On The J-man

With the warmer weather that we have been having lately, I have managed to get in a little over 200 miles on the Journeyman so I thought I would share my experience so far with the J-man and the changes I've made to the bike.


The more I ride the Journeyman, the more I'm impressed with how it handles gravel and minimum maintenance roads like a champ. I used to ride my Redline Conquest Disc on gravel before I got my first Fat Bike and I wasn't a huge fan to be honest. For me, and likely most gravel noobs, a 38 mm cross bike is going to put the fear of Jesus in you at least a few times while soaking up the learning curve that is riding gravel. This would probably be enough to turn most traditional roadies off from ever riding gravel again, with the Journeyman I have yet to have one of those experiences. Some of it is the wider tires for sure, some of it is probably also the fact that I now have 4 years and thousands of miles of gravel riding experience under my bibs but a lot of it is also the geometry on the Journeyman. With a pretty healthy bottom bracket drop, the Journeyman has been stable in every gravel/dirt condition I've put it into; if I didn't look down and see those svelte 2" tires I'd almost swear the tires were twice that wide at times, it is just that stable; even in the loose stuff.


One of the things Salsa also did to improve the bike, IMO, was to put a legit drive train on the bike with the Apex 1. Sure the Sora and the Claris are both serviceable groupsets but the Apex gives the Journeyman that extra step up in shifting performance and also gets you into double digit gears. Even though the Apex 1 on the Journeyman is setup as a 1X, I am not wanting more gears like I do on the Fargo; while they share identical 11-42 gearing on the rear, the Journeyman gives you a 40 tooth chain ring vs. Fargo's 32 tooth ring. Those extra teeth equate to more speed on the downs and the flats but I haven't yet found a hill I didn't feel like the Journeyman had a low enough gear to get up and over. It might happen once the gravel season starts and I venture outside of Nebraska but you can find that hill with any bike, regardless of what gearing your are running. I think a 1X makes a lot more sense on a bike like the Journeyman than it does on the Fargo in my experience, Salsa did good on this one.



One of my big complaints about the Journeyman were those awful (for gravel) Cowbell handlebars, so the first thing I did was pick up a set of Cowchippers to mount in place of the stock bars. Being of wider shoulders, I also opted to go up to the 44 cm bars vs. the stock 42 cm bars. As you can see from the pictures the chippers also give  you a bit more flare in the drops, which for me is much more comfortable than a traditional drop. Those two extra centimeters also put my shoulders more in line with the hoods instead of making me feel like I was reaching in all the time, something you might notice on a longer gravel ride as your shoulders start to fatigue.



Once mounted I wrapped them in super cushy Lizard Skin bar tape in water tower blue (Sky Blue according to LS) and then added a pair of Lezyne Flow SL cages in Enhanced Blue to add a little accent color to that sexy pink colorway and both of the lighter blue colors almost perfectly match the light blue stripe on the bike.



Even though it didn't add any performance improvements at all, gone was the black Salsa cap. I miss the days (only a few years ago) when Salsa and other bicycle companies were adding a touch of color to bikes by adding colored anodized stem caps, spacers, cranks and hubs to bicycles in the stock option. I think the down turn in the business has caused those type things to go away as it's cheaper to mass produce everything in black versus running several different color runs. Anyway, I replaced the stock cap with a cycling skull from Kustomcaps to add a bit more personalization to a bicycle that I am sure Salsa is going to sell by the hundreds if not thousands if you count all levels and colors. So if you don't want your ride to look just like the other 5-10 in your hood these little accents will help to have your bike stand out from the crowd a bit. Plus it's always fun to make the bike your own and add a little bit of you here and there, if you take to serious gravel riding or racing, you're going to be on the bike for hours so you might at well give yourself inspirational or fun things to look at.



One hit, if you call it that, so far has been the paint. I noticed a few of these chip/flake/missing paint spots on the bike when I was cleaning it up and have sense shared thoughts with other Jman owners and it seems that the paint on all of the Journeyman might be susceptible to gravel strikes. Paint is paint and all paint will see some wear while riding on gravel or worse, it's an easy fix by applying some paint/frame protection. They are either sold precut or if you're a DIY'er you can get a roll of it from 3M and go to town cutting it to fit every nook and cranny. I would advise at least hitting the bottom of the down tube, the bottom bracket and the chain stays if the sight of scratches in your paint makes your stomach turn. If you're a believer that every mar is a battle scar than ride it as it is but over all it's not an uncommon issue and it's a pretty simple fix if you're into that sort of thing but do it quick if you're going to do it.

Personally I wouldn't let the paint deter me for getting this bike if  I was looking for a gravel capable all day rig that is near the bottom of the affordable gravel bike genre. As popular as the Journeyman seems to be, I think it's only a model year or two away from being priced out of the "affordable" range as improvements are made to the bike, things like thru axles and higher end groupsets. The bike in it's current iteration isn't for everybody for sure but for the gravel curious it is a really good jumping off spot and a bike that would serve you well for years down the road even after moving on from beginner to gravel veteran. Not sure if I'll do another follow up on the bike barring any major events happening, I think I've covered everything I would cover unless, like I said, there is something that warrants a new post. I'll likely post up photos as things change but those would be in a "normal" Blog post and not one specifically for that but there will probably be a wrap up post at the end of the demo period.