Hey Dave,
I thought that with these photos I'd give you just a semi-quick race report. I'm glad that everything you've heard about the Angry Horse thus far has been positive. It was such a fun event and I'm stoked that it is getting so much attention both locally and beyond. Brooke Jeffs the race director has an infectious energy and a passion for riding gravel that bleeds into every aspect of the event.
I signed up to ride the 45 mile ride with Kellen and Chris Babb. Sled Shed was in charge of an aid station that luckily was located at the Start/Finish which made the logistics of allowing me to ride much easier.
As you know I have been riding a Trek Domane, which I thought would be perfectly suited for an event such as this, and with the exception of only having tire clearance for 33mm tires it was an excellent choice. I had hoped to run my tubeless wheelset that I built for Crusher back in 2015, but unfortunately as I mounted it up on Friday night before the event I realized that there was just no chance that I had the tire clearance to risk running that wheel/tire combo. I went ahead and set up my Clement LAS 700x33 tires with tubes on my Vision carbon rims and told myself I would be fine. More on that later...
Our 45 mile race started at 8am, and I'll be honest I was ready only just in time, in fact I failed to find a moment to warm up or even put on some sunscreen but decided when they yelled go I better just start rolling. At least one heckler, Ryan Edge, (who was the former manager at Bill's in Rexburg and now works at Fitzgerald's) let me know how white I looked haha. I saw Kellen hang with the fast group right off the start but decided I'd rather find my pace and stick to it. I had started pretty much in the back of about 40 people but by the time I was about 5 miles in I was somewhere in the middle of the group.
Around mile 6 we started down the first significant descent, which had some washboards and some larger gravel. I may have been cruising a little faster than was prudent and that's when I pinched the tube in my front tire. I quickly leaned back and grabbed a fistful of rear brake. I couldn't steer with the front wheel as my tube lost all of its air, and my back wheel was skidding all over the place but luckily I was able to hold onto my two wheel drift long enough to get stopped and start my tube change. I was devastated to discover that the spare tube in my seatbag had only a 32mm valve, which was not nearly long enough for the 30mm carbon rims I was rolling... I was ready to start waiting for the sag wagon when amazingly the first spectator I had seen, who just happened to have stopped his van at the bottom of the descent where I was stopped, hollered out that he had a spare tube with a long valve and a floor pump! I hurriedly tucked in his new tube, traded him my spare that didn't work for me, let him air me up to 50psi, since 40psi hadn't been enough not to pinch, and was back on the road having lost only about 4 minutes. Unfortunately 4 minutes was long enough that I had dropped firmly into last place.
I knew I had to make up ground but also knew that there was still roughly 39 miles and 4,000 vertical feet to ride, so again I just tried to find my pace and trusted that I could make up ground. As I started up the first real climb I started seeing the back of the pack and had overcome a few riders before I made it to the top of that climb. I was grateful for the 11-36t cassette I had installed the night before.
Even though I had never ridden any of the gravel roads out in Bone area I knew that the course had to be in phenomenal shape just because I couldn't imagine gravel roads being much smoother or faster. You could just tell that all of the rain from last week had just packed everything down and that it was as buffed as is possible. There were some incredible views of the Caribou mountain range, rolling hills, snow on distant peaks, creek bottoms, sage brush, and of course cows. I couldn't help but to bust out my phone and snap pictures on more than one occasion, even at race pace.
I felt good about my strategy to pace myself right from the start because I was never passed throughout the entire race after I had fixed my flat tire. At about mile 44, roughly 1.5 miles from the finish line I caught up to Kellen who exclaimed he had blown up and had nothing left in the tank. He had hung onto the wheels of some of the fastest roadies from Jackson and Idaho Falls, without having done any significant training all year, but eventually his endurance had given out. As he and I passed the Bone Store we knew there was only a mile left, but Kellen gave me the go ahead to leave him behind as we started the punchy climb after the store.
I finished the race in 6th place, which I felt really good about, because when I looked at who had beaten me I had no problem recognizing that they're stronger riders than I am. Basically all of them are guys that take riding very seriously. All in all I don't think my race could have finished much better. I can hypothesize that if I hadn't gotten a flat tire that I might have been able to compete for 5th place, a 4 minute difference would suggest that was possible, but who knows if when 5th place (Gary Azevedo) had seen me coming that he wouldn't have attacked and stayed ahead of me.
Brooke had some great sandwiches, beverages, fruits, etc at the finish ready for riders who had finished and we all got to hang out with some live mustangs and snap photos on some saddles. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly and riders from all over the state were mingling and making new acquaintances.
We saw Greg Roach come in, having finished the 82 miler. He told us he'd had a great race and that he loved the course. He acknowledged as I had that the race had been harder than he had anticipated, but that it was still no comparison to what we're both facing come July at the Crusher in the Tushar. The Angry Horse however was an excellent precursor and training ride in preparation for Crusher. Can't wait to ride some more gravel!
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