Stay Fired Up - An Ass Kicker in Kansas

Back when it was Cool Hand Luke Gravel Grinder we raced it, 2017 on the Pugsley and 2018 on the Fargo and it was a butt kicker both times. Since then they have changed the name due to legal reasons and are now going by the name Stay Fired Up, there are also rumors that the course was "tamed down" a bit from the previous versions but that was yet to be determined. It was a ride that sort of fell off the radar for what reason I didn't really know, it was always a fun one in a type 2 fun sort of way. I believe Doug was the one who mentioned it and Jackie had never done it before so that is how we found ourselves once again toeing the line in Leavenworth Kansas.





The saying goes that Mama didn't raise no fools, Jackie and I decided we were going to enter the single speed category for Stay Fired Up and after the previous two times riding it I felt like that decision was going to test that old adage. Would we live to regret the decision or would we not, that was the question yet to be answered. Truth be told we were the only people in the single speed category in the 62 mile (actually ended up being 68 miles and some change) or the 100 mile and I think that say something about how difficult this course can be. All we had to do was finish and we'd get first place but we still had to finish and that certainly wasn't a guarantee going into the race.




I think I made it all of 50 yards from the starting line when I noticed that my freshly pumped up front tire had decided to not remain pumped up and so it was that we had to pull over still within the shadows of the starting arch and pump the tire back up. I was hoping that it was just the valve stem that I had been struggling with and that after pumping it up things would be great... nothing like giving the rest of the field a 5 minute head start. We began the race in dead fucking last, like literally the sweeper van and then the sweeper volunteer rider were right behind us!




Thankfully none of us went into panic mode and felt the need to burn all the matches to try to get back with the field. Instead we wisely just settled into a brisk but sustainable pace and it worked, by the time we hit about mile 15 we started catching up to and passing some of the folks on the back of the pack.



By the time we hit the first checkpoint we were sitting pretty good, I figured we had passed at least a half dozen folks already so we were safe from the DFL.


At the checkpoint who should be run into but MK who we met 6 years ago at our very first Cool Hand Luke (Stay Fired Up) event in 2017. How cool was that and very unexpected. After chatting it up for a few minutes MK and her friend sailed off into the gravel seas to finish up their race.


As the day wore on so did the endless hills and the memories of the previous two races came back to me. Don't get me wrong it's a great event but the hills in that area of Kansas are relentless and they all seem to pitch up a couple of extra percentage when you near the top of them. I ain't bull sh#tting you either, just ask these two fellas!





If you could convince your legs that things weren't all that bad the views held up their own. If you come to the event prepare yourself for the end of the race, some of the worst of the hills are stacked up near the end and if you're not mentally ready it'll be demoralizing.



I was very grateful to see that pavement and know that we were only a few more minutes from the end and it was great seeing friends at the end as well, smiles all around.




Jackie and I finished and that meant that we walked away with some pretty sweet medals, Doug was a bit disappointed because we had thought that there were only three men in the fat bike category but there ended up being four after someone made a last minute category change. Didn't find that out until after the race. Stoked to have finished and super stoked to have "won" but I'm not sure I'd do it on single speed again.. but never say never I guess. Great event, great friends and great times!

 

My Moby-Dick

This is not a tale about a 55 year old, bald rapper or male genitalia so you can all rest easy with that knowledge and continue on without fear of something white and wrinkly popping up unannounced.


This little gem came in the mail yesterday, I knew something was coming since I got a notification something was on the way but to be honest when that blip came flashing across my texts I had no idea exactly what this way cometh. You see, I had almost completely forgotten about that email back in late November from the fellas who ran the C.O.G 100. In that email they let all of the registered racers know that there would not be a C.O.G 100 race in 2020 or even in 2021. Reading the email back in November the rhythm and flow painted a grim picture for the C.O.G happening again, ever, if you read between the lines. In that November email the registered riders were given a few options on what we wanted to do with our entry since the race was not going to happen any time soon. Those options  ranged from doing nothing and letting it ride for a future event to basically donating your entry and swag back to Guitar Ted and NY Roll so that they could try to sell the swag and recoup some of the costs they had already shelled out. Like the selfish prick I am I opted to have my name removed from the roster but wanted the hat. I just didn't know that this is what was in the mail and on it's way when I got that initial text. 


Honestly it wasn't that dickish in my head, the Real American Gravel hat went nicely with the other COG 100 hat I had from the first race in 2019 plus I have a bit of a hat collection if truth be told. As a hat collector, one as rare as this was a much desired addition and one I could not pass up. I mean come on, how many of these hats could possibly exist in the entire world? Additionally since November it has been verified that the C.O.G 100 is in fact dead for good. That bit of news along with the announcement by Guitar Ted that he was also stepping down from organizing any further events also now makes the hat a nice nostalgia piece. Something to talk about with the great, great grand kids some day. Maybe.


But it’s also a bit more than just having a cool hat really, I was determined to give the C.O.G another go in 2020 and try to redeem myself a little for the ass kicking I took in 2019. The race was always going to be difficult, it was 100 miles of gravel on a single speed after all but conditions were miserable in 2019 and that multiplied the suck factor. It had just rained the night before, it was cold and the winds were whipping across the fruited plains. You can read my post race write-up for that HERE if you so chose to read about that as I'm not going to rehashing it here. The flashbacks man, the flashbacks.

With the demise of the race I thought that the C.O.G 100 would always be my Moby-Dick, the one that got away. Instead of a big white whale biting off my leg, the race directors chomped off all my shifty bits and left me adrift in the gravel seas. Come to thinking of it, Guitar Ted does look more than a little bit like an 1800's sea captain and NY Roll sometimes smells like live bait. Kidding there, a little, but I thought I'd never get the chance to give it another go... sure I could have ridden the same course again, if I could find the cue sheets because there wasn't a GPS file out there to my knowledge. And really, what would have been the point of racing the same 66 mile failed attempt?


I felt like 2020 was going to be the year, I'd gotten into better shape than I had been in years, I figured out a way to have a lighter, more gravel worthy rig and I had a score to try and settle. No, it wasn't going to magically return all those beautiful shifty bits to my bicycle but Ahab didn't go after the white whale hoping to get his leg back either... it was about the revenge. All is not as dark as it seemed when that email hit my inbox as it turns out. In very un-GT like fashion, Guitar Ted and NY Roll released what would have been the 2020 C.O.G 100! So as it turns out I still have my chance to dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, even if it's not an official C.O.G 100. Now I just need to figure out when to do it, I do want to attempt it on a single speed in the true spirit of the race but I'm opting for a much nicer time of year than March in Iowa. I suppose one could argue that is cheating a bit but as the DJ of this particular dance I can change the date as I see fit. I guess it's time to see how serious I was about tackling the C.O.G because as the saying goes; be careful what you wish for, lest it come true.

*Photos of the race were taken by Jon Duke, to the best of my recollection.*

 

One Speed To Rule Them All

There used to be a time, before Fat Bikes, when all I rode was a single speed bicycle but then the mistress that is the fat tire lured me away to the plump side... and gears, gaaaah! The Santa Cruz Highball replaced my Redline Monocog near the end of my single speeding days and has gone mostly un-ridden since I got my first fat in 2015. To put it into better perspective, the Santa Cruz has 525 miles on it and I got it in August of 2014, by comparison the Journeyman I picked up in November of last year already has 225 miles on it. Oh how things have changed; instead of single track and 2 hours rides, it's gravel and 5 plus hours of saddle time.


Earlier this year I went and signed up for the inaugural C.O.G 100 in Iowa, put on by Guitar Ted and N.Y. Roll. When I signed up I thought to myself that I better start getting the ole Highball out on gravel and see about getting some of that single speed leg back. Well, that event is next weekend and time has just flown! Winter was especially crappy for most of the mid west in February and a good chunk of March, so those longer rides to get the legs up to par didn't really happen.


Saturday was deary and sprinkling a bit so it was not exactly ideal either but I had to get a few things dialed in on the Highball before riding it for real next week, so it was now or never. A few of us, who are also signed up for the C.O.G., decided that this weeks SMNDFBR would be a single speed version so that if nothing else we could get a shake down ride with any tweaks or changes we had made. I had changed a few things I needed to run a bit to see how they would work, gone were the Kenda Small Block Eight tires for a set of Racing Ralph tires. Probably a bit more tire than I need but they were tires I had that I never mounted up, so they got the nod. I also put on a set of Ergon GS3 grips with the small nub of a bar end. I figure these will help keep the hands from going numb as quickly compared to the round Lizard Skin grips I had on there and the bar end would offer a alternate hand position. I had been running these on the Pugsley for a year or two before switching that bike over to the Moloko bars, so I knew they would do what I wanted so dialing in the correct angle was all that would be needed.




The plan was to head out on the gravel towards Malcolm for a longer 42 mile loop, the forecast was calling for rain near the beginning of the ride and then becoming mostly just cloudy and miserable the rest of the day but staying dry. Rain it did at the start, nothing too awful but enough to let you know that the forecast wasn't wrong this time around. Gravel was in surprisingly good shape even with the drizzle falling it was mostly firm if not entirely dry.



I have to admit that riding the single speed again was a bit odd at first but by the time we hit the gravel, the legs were mostly getting used to the idea of not having gears to bail them out on the hills.



Of course it wouldn't be a Saturday ride out to Malcolm without a stop for a bridge beer, matter of fact Bluff road is closed a little bit up the road from here so we had to double back on the next road to get back to McKelvie and our way through to Malcolm so we actually did a few extra mile just for this bridge stop. The things we do for traditions.


The bridge we were on seemed to survive the recent flooding pretty much unscathed but you could see how high the waters were not too long ago from all newly deposited mud and the trampled vegetation.



We hadn't seen much rain at all since we hit McKelvie but as we rolled into Malcolm and got onto 55 M, you could tell that we timed things just right as the pavement was still wet from the rain that had passed through not that long before we got there.



The Malcolm General Store is always a welcomed sight on a hot day or on an overcast and dreary day, like Saturday. I almost can't imagine Malcolm with out the Sac-O-Suds as we affectionately call it, a little homage to My Cousin Vinnie. She's an old gal (built in 1897) but she looks like she's undergoing a few renovations, which is a good sign that she will be around for years to come. Fun little factoid; I used to stop by the Malcolm General Store on my way home after biking Branched Oak Lake's Area 7 in my more mountain biking days... there used to be a little town called Crounse in the area around Area 6 and 7 of Branched Oak Lake until the lake came about in 1967 and the town was flooded. There is still a marker out there in Area 6, or at least there used to be, marking the spot near where the town used to be if anyone has any interest in that sort of historical stuff. The town was named after Lorenzo Crounse, a former Nebraska Supreme Court Justice, Congressman and Governor. Some of the buildings in Crounse were moved to Malcolm when the town was abandoned and before it was lost to the lake. I'm not sure where they ended up in Malcolm or if they are still around but if someone was at all interested, a little digging would probably reveal that information. Any way, I guess the point is that it's good to see the Malcolm General Store weathering all these years of change and still going strong today.





Refueled and warmed up it was onward and upward to our next regroup spot over the interstate, I always get a kick out of how amazed some of the people traveling on the road below get by seeing bicycles on the bridge. Several of them honk and wave as they pass underneath us on there way to or from where ever it is that they are heading.







One final push after the Interstate and we were back to the pavement on the edge of Lincoln. The smooth rolling blacktop and cement trails were a welcoming sight for my weary legs. Single Speed legs aren't quite there yet and probably won't be 100% by next weekend but this ride did remind me how much fun a single speed bike can be. I may look into the idea of finding a rigid front fork for the Highball and converting it into a gravel/around town bike and getting a few more miles on her regularly.


Back in Lincoln we decided to stop at White Elm to warm up a bit and share some conversation over a libation or two before eventually ending up at Yia Yias again for food. Good group and great times on a less than ideal day. No ride next week as most of us will be in Grinnell Iowa for the C.O.G 100... one ride on the single speed should be more than plenty to prepare for a 100 mile race, right? Guess we will find out next week.

Speaking of upcoming rides, get signed up for the American Legion Post 197 Gravel Mission out of Eagle Nebraska. Entry into the even is free, it just requires a post card and there are 50 and 100 mile distances available to register for and then come ride on May 25th. The organizers are the same folks behind Tour of Dirt Roads and Gravel Worlds so you know it'll be a well run event and a great time. For more information about the ride and how to get registered go to their Facebook event page which can be found HERE!