TNGA 2022

 

The race started and there was almost immediately a group of 6 or so. We were definitely going out too hard, but I got to meet the legend Abe Kaufman which made it worth it. Going into Darnell Creek there were just 3 of us, and we all came out at different times. I rode the next 10 miles solo until I stopped to eat and was caught by Miguel from Boulder and Ben from Greenville. We all stayed as a group pretty much the whole day. Ben broke his chain coming into Moccasin Creek, and me and Miguel slowly rolled thinking he would catch up. He didn’t, so we resumed normal pace going up Wildcat. I wasn’t feeling too great after a hard initial push, but we kept pushing until Tray where we stopped for water at the church at the bottom. It started raining almost as soon as we started the climb, and was pretty heavy a few times going up. Tray wasn’t as bad as I remembered it last year, which was nice, but still absolutely brutal. The first jeep road descent was pretty rowdy especially since it was wet, but stayed upright the whole time. The singletrack was fun, and there were no crazy downed trees which was a welcome surprise. About halfway down we saw a bear and its cub far down the trail, and waited a few minutes for it to safely pass. There were also 4 or 5 baby boars off to the side of the road once it turned into pavement.

We made great time all the way to Helen, making it there right at 7 which was about an hour ahead of my time goal. I was a little worried about pushing too hard, so I tried to manage my effort going up Hogpen. Miguel was next level strong, so he would put gaps on Ben and myself and then wait for us to catch up. The two creek crossings between the gaps were not nearly as deep as I would have expected. Cedar predicted almost thigh deep, so being almost rideable was a welcome surprise. Ben and I saw light shining through the trees and fog making a super cool view, so we stopped to take a picture. When we rode a few more feet it turned out to be a street light. We thought it was super funny, and that was probably the first sign of getting tired. Thick fog made descending off of Wolfpen to Cooper’s Creek slow in some spots, but still fun. I had some long awaited lasagna before rolling out solo towards Stanley gap.

Abe was long gone, but Andy had left just a couple minutes before I did from Coopers, so I hoped to catch him. I was getting pretty tired rolling over towards Stanley Gap, and chose to lay down for 20 minutes on the bench in front of Iron Bridge Cafe. I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but it was pretty rejuvenating. No more than 15 seconds after my alarm went off, though, the sky opened up and it started absolutely pouring. I scrambled to get all of my stuff under the small covering and out of the rain. I threw on my rain jacket and rolled out after the worst of the rain had subsided. It was a constant steady rain all the way up Green Mtn and there was some pretty close lightning which was fun. Stanley was wet, but at least it wasn't actively raining. After a few close calls of almost riding off the trail, I elected to just hike the whole climb and be safe. I don't believe the downhill was too sketchy which was nice. I was starting to get tired again after the long hike, so when I rolled into Cherry Log the lit post office was too nice to pass up. I got to take off my shoes and socks for the first time all ride and slept inside for 45 minutes. Once I got up and was packing I saw another rider’s lights on the road a few feet away and said hey, and it turned out to be Cedar! I had checked the tracker not but 5 minutes before, and it showed him 40 miles back, so I was super surprised. We filled up on water and rolled together until Pinhoti 0 when I split off and rode a bit faster. It was nice to chat for a little while after a tough night. I was feeling good on p0 all the way over to Mulberry which made the miles feel much faster and easier than I remembered them from last year.

Somewhere near the top of p0 I stopped to check on a weird feeling in the crank area, and there was a bit of play between my crank arms and the spindle/chainring. I didn't think too much about it, and kept riding. It must’ve continued to wear in the time between mulberry, because I noticed it had gotten worse on the MG driveway climb. I went inside to eat and pick up a new Spot tracker after my old one had stopped working while my bike was cleaned and looked at. When I came back outside I could tell by everyone’s faces something was wrong, and was told my cranks were delaminating, and that there was nothing that they could do to stop or slow it. I was second at the time and had put in so much time, money, thought, and energy into preparation as well as the massive effort over the last 30 hours. It hurt to hear that at any time my cranks could just give out under me, but I was suggested to just keep riding and hopefully they would hold up until the end. I left feeling pretty down on myself, but tried to stay as positive as I could. I called my mom on top of p3 and told her the news. That was my only breakdown of the entire ride which I am personally proud of. She said to just keep going, and so I did.

On the pavement coming out of Ramhurst on the way to Dalton I talked to Caleb who said that once these chanks start to go, they usually don't stop, so I should probably do something to fix them. He made me a shopping list, and I spent 2 hours in the Walmart parking lot trying to fix them. I used qtips and isopropyl alcohol to remove the grease, superglue to initially attach the arms and spindle back together, and then JB weld epoxy to provide a permanent fix. I'm not sure what I did to waste all the time the epoxy took to dry, but I managed to not sleep in my time there which turned out to be a mistake. When I finally rolled out around 11:20pm there was still a small bit of play, but it was far better than it had been before. I texted Caleb to ask if it should be fine, and he said at some point you just have to ride, and it would be ok.

My makeshift epoxy fix

That's what I did, but only for a little bit because climbing Dug Gap to the Snake I was having some pretty bad hallucinations. I honestly don't think I could have told you my name because I was somehow thinking I was many different people, and sometimes multiple at once. I was not a fan and figured it wouldn't be safe to ride like that, so I laid down at the snake trailhead for 45 minutes in the gravel. I woke up feeling pretty fixed, and started the hike through the rock garden. I did try to ride at first, but riding, getting off, walking, and then getting back on took more time than it was worth. The hike up the wall was absolutely brutal. Not sure how long it took, but it is like nothing else I've ever seen.

Getting into the stuff after the main snake I didn’t want to put too much stress on the cranks, so more walking. I got to the point where I would get off my bike in stride and sort of carry my momentum up the climbs on foot. It sounds pretty silly, but I felt like I could have been some sort of speed hiker.

I cycled reeling Andy in all only for him to open the gap right back up all night, but it kept me motivated to keep pushing. Around 6:20 my mom texted me saying that Abe had dropped out. I was honestly a little disappointed since he was absolutely killing it up front, but he was having knee issues due to being on a borrowed bike for the race. I’m sure he’ll be back, though. It did give me a mental boost because now I was racing for the win instead of second.

I tried my best to stay efficient and stop as little as possible to make up time, and I finally caught Andy on a gravel road while he was eating around maybe 10am. I was super stoked to finally catch him after riding alone for so long. We were riding at a pretty similar pace, so stuck together. It was nice to have some conversation after almost 24 hours of solo riding. We knocked out the last few climbs together, but I was running out of water on the last bit of ridgeline singletrack before descending to the dreaded rail trail. Andy kind of slipped away as I tried my best to ration the little bit of water I had left before I could filter. As if it was listening, though, the skies opened up yet again, soaking us instantly. It just never gave us a break! That made the thirst disappear, and I was able to filter from a creek not long after the rail trail began. I was pretty confused as to why there were so many spider webs since Andy should’ve passed by not but 10 minutes before, but he had taken a wrong turn and I had passed him without realizing. He caught up a couple miles in.

Somewhere on the rail trail I asked Andy what his plans were for the end, and if he wanted to race for it or finish together. He said that we still had a long way to go, but if we were together at the end he thought we should finish together. I liked that idea, and it felt right after we were together after so many miles.

We rolled at a pretty steady pace to mile 326 which was the last resupply on route. The highway stretch afterwards was less than ideal and pretty hot, but the miles ticked off far faster than they did in the singletrack, so I was still grateful. During the last pinhoti of the race my saddle bag started to sag big time to the point that it would scrape my rear tire on any major bumps. That was frustrating as any sort of way I tried to strap it up wouldn’t hold. I eventually just resorted to cutting it off and hooking it to my pack for the last 10 miles. My cranks also progressively got worse during the last singletrack since I was riding everything instead of walking, but I just took the risk since I was so ready to be done. The last couple miles of gravel and the silver comet were very peaceful other than my squeaking cranks, just reflecting on all the miles behind us.

Crossing the state line together was super awesome after such a trying ride. I had gone in with my own unrealistic seeming dream of winning, but I didn’t think I could actually pull it off. It was also super cool to share that experience with Andy, and it was his first bikepacking race ever which was so impressive. Definitely couldn’t have done it without a lot of help from my parents, Caleb, coaches, Suburban Cycles for the last minute fixes, and everyone’s encouragement. Already looking forward to trying to defend the win next year!