At some point early in the week, Poolboy Matt decided that he really wanted to ride at Syllamo at some point before Syllamo’s Revenge later this month (he’d been back and fourth about which bike set up how, and wanted to test geared/rigid). I had another hard-ish training week scheduled, so I told him I’d go with him if he had a day off of work to ride Tuesday or Wednesday. Lucky for me, it was Wednesday, because my legs were still recovering from the weekend on Tuesday, and I ended up trading that day’s scheduled interval ride for another recovery ride. Tuesday afternoon, once Matt was home from work, we GTFO’d to the cabin. The last hour of that drive when you’re a little tired and it’s dark will put hair on your chest.

Wednesday morning, after breakfast, we loaded up and made a cooler drop to the Highway 5 trailhead (about the halfway point, distance-wise, if you’re riding the Revenge Race Loop). We then drove over to the Blanchard Springs trailhead- not my usual M.O. for riding out there, but it’s where the race starts. I wanted to get a feel for the starting climb on my full suspension bike. Since the hardtail has been set up as my dedicated gravel racing machine, I thought I’d save the hassle of swapping parts around and try racing my Jet 9 carbon. I’ve become extremely comfortable on non-technical gravel climbs (like the race opener) on the hardtail, and I wanted to make sure that my comfort transferred to something that’s not as rigid in the rear.

It worked out pretty well. The race start is always a ridiculous madhouse. There’s basically a 1 mile doubletrack climb before the course turns and dumps you in to another mile or so of descending before one of the more technical parts of the entire trail. So, it devolves into everyone going apeshit up the climb in an attempt to not get stuck in a conga-line of people who can’t ride the technical parts of the trail. I sort of hate it.

Once we were on the trail, we picked up a steady, but not-too-fast pace. Other than the big climb up the blue trail at around mile 26, the race course generally gets easier and faster as you go. So, starting out slow is not a bad thing, because it’s incredibly easy to blow yourself up within the first 1-2 hours. It went pretty OK- the trail is in decent shape as far as overgrowth and deadfall, but the recent deluge of rain has been really bad for the erosion on the steep parts (which, if you’ve ever been to Syllamo, you’ll know that “steep parts” make up about 99% of the trail). It took a good bit of time for me to get my rock-mojo back- especially on a bike that I don’t ride over there much at all. Somewhere near the Orange trail parking lot, Matt flatted. Not as a result of a puncture or tear, but from a rock hitting his valve and breaking it off.

Not long after that, I was going for it up a super tech rock section on the green trail when I spun my rear tire only a fraction of a second before my front tire lodged up against the next rock, making my bike shoot backwards from beneath me and jamming a pedal into my calf. That’ll leave a mark…

The remainder of the ride down the Orange trail to the Highway 5 stop was thankfully uneventful. That’s definitely one of my favorite sections of trail, because the couple of short climbs out there are some that I thought were impossible when I first started riding at Syllamo, and, with a little practice, they were provided me with some of my first “OMG I CLEANED IT” moments.

We had a little come-to-jesus moment at Highway 5. Matt sat on the ground and debated waiting there for me to ride back to the car and come get him. Before you think he’s nuts, realize that not only is Syllamo one of the most physically demanding trails you’ll ever ride, it’s also one of the most difficult places to take in calories without stopping. Since we’d been trying to do a race-simulation-ish ride, we hadn’t stopped for much other than the flat tire, and, as a result, he was behind on calories. He got his shit straight, though, and we ended up banging out the next section of blue trail to the next highway crossing and up the “big climb” at a pretty good pace. Since we were a little behind schedule, we decided from there that we’d bail on the remainder of the loop. Once you’re at that point, there’s nothing else technical, and it’s basically just rollers and short climbs until you make it to the finish.

We picked up the cooler, showered, and packed up the cabin with a quickness  before stopping at Anglers catfish restaurant for late lunch on the way out of town. Luckily, the drive back isn’t so bad since, like the trail, it gets easier as you near the finish.

So, I’m somewhat indifferent about the impending race. It’s bound to be a hot mess since it always seems to rain sometime in the 48 hours before the start. I’ll survive, though. In other, “coming up soon” news, there’s something huge that might happen mid July, but since it’s a big “might happen” event, I can’t talk about it any more until I get more information myself. Let’s just say that the prospect of this “might happen” wakes me up with excitement at all hours of the night. Stay tuned…