The next morning I was up bright and early. It was a chilly but beautiful day, about 42 degrees at the start.
The first 15ish miles was a bike race and of course my fellow Blackwater Gravel Grinders wanted to be near the front. It was like a crit, I thought I was riding near the front but every time I looked back, I was nearly the last guy. The group got smaller and smaller until finally one of our dudes made a wrong turn.
At that point, I was happy to turn off the gas and turn on the camera.
This route was pretty fantastic! Or should I say pretty and fantastic!
Along the way we had a few stretches of quiet pavement but mostly it was packed sand.
Miscellaneous singles and doubles trickled by as the remnants of the 400 riders dropped at the start slowly strolled by as I waited for my Blackwater Bros.
So beautiful!
I turns out that our lost rider took about 30 minutes to get back on track so I had time to shoot, ride, rinse and repeat.
Old school railroad crossing.
POD! Picture of the Day.
After about 55 miles most of our group reassembled and we took a rest stop. Derek in orange, our mighty leader, Mike, Magumi, Jason, and Serge.
At this point, our group took off to do the 100 mile route, I was perfectly fine just doing 80 so we split.
Random red mud spot.
The last 15 miles was paved but back into a stiff head wind. I eventually met up with another 80 miler and we swapped pulls back to camp.
After a good hard and hot 80 plus miles, I was glad to be back home. I snapped a quick selfie, one where you can’t quite tell how haggard I felt.
The Blackwater Bros invited me back to their rental house to have dinner and camp in the driveway. The post ride activities where just what you might expect, theraguns, air legs, talk of the day’s ride with occasional bad smells. Great route and a fun weekend!
davefaitlemonde.com 