East Texas Showdown 2023
Race Stats: 400 miles 17,400 ft of climbing 32.5 hrs 4th place The race had organized a neutral rollout with police escort guiding us for the first 8 miles. That was super cool, and definitely made the highway riding less sketchy. As soon as it ended, and there was immediately attacks going off. Everyone hit their aero bars, and the front group got smaller and smaller. 15 miles from the start was the infamous Old Onalaska/Groveton Road. It has a reputation for being miserably sandy in the best of conditions, and after the massive storms overnight, it was a nightmare. The sand made progress slow and power higher than I would’ve liked. As soon as we hit that section, a guy flew out of nowhere and was out of sight quicker than I thought possible. I figured we’d never see him again, but I learned after the race that he was riding fixie (maybe SS and someone was mistaken) and slowed way down around mile 140. After an hour or so of sandy riding, we were treated with pretty normal riding...