Just as I Thought Cycling Was Easy: The Cedar Cross (a.k.a. How not to prepare for a self supported event)

I've been putting off doing this for far too long, probably because I've been too tired to do much writing the last week or so I still don't want to admit how much I failed to live up to my own expectations. 

Back to the beginning - after attending the first annual MLK weekend Berryman ride and discovering how good of a post ride party Team Virtus and the Hoosier Daddies can put on, I immediately signed up for the 100+ mile Cedar Cross, not even worrying that I didn't have a bike that was ideal for the ride.  There was no way the skinny tires on my road bike would be able to handle the gravel, and the 26" wheels on my mountain bike would be way slow with everyone else probably on either 29ers or CX bikes.  I mean, I'd just done 25 miles of Berryman in January and had done 50 miles on the KATY trail in a morning with my mountain bike, and I had 4 road centuries under my belt.  It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Fast forward to March, and I actually bought the CX bike that most people would probably be riding in the race.  While I immediately fell in love with the new bike (and relegated my Schwinn to the rafters in my garage), the brief stint of gravel on the century I did a week and a half before the race made me nervous enough to decide that even wider tires than the 700x33's that came on the bike were necessary.  The CAC and that century also both aggravated my knee that I had bruised in a low speed mountain bike crash at Castlewood last October.  I don't know if what I did at the CAC is really related to the fall at Castlewood (since there was no pain in the 6 months between the two), but it was the same part of the same knee that hurt.  So while I felt I had the base miles in to be successful at the Cedar Cross, doubts were starting to creep into my head.

After researching wider tires, and finding out that the LBS closest to my office only had tires as wide as 700x38's, I found a shop that had the 700x45's that Luke from Team Virtus said he was going to be using.  The day before the race, and an hour before the shop closed for the night (right after Super Kate dropped off her famous chocolate chip cookies), I headed over to it to pick them up.  My plan was to put them on when I got home, then spend some time cleaning up my bike and getting everything ready to go so that I could wake up in the morning and leave, just like I did for the century ride a week earlier.  However, when I got home, everything started heading south.  I pulled in the driveway to discover that my lovely wife had started to clean out the garage.

-I only add the next two paragraphs because I think they started a string of bad luck-

At this point, I'll admit that I'm a bad husband sometimes.  About 2 or 3 times a year (usually depending on how many big snows we get), I get nagged to hose out the garage, and I HATE doing it.  I usually fight it for a good month before I grudgingly drag my butt out there to do it.  This year, since we had 2 months of crazy warm weather in March & April, all of the kids outside toys were cluttering up the garage instead of the basement which made it that much more of a chore.  I haven't been able to park my car in there since mid-March.

Anyway, after earlier in the day in which she told her parents not to clean out their garage in the 90° heat, she was cleaning out our garage, which meant that I would have to take over doing that or keep the kids occupied and out of her hair.  I opted for kid duty.

After the garage was put back in order, I was finally able to put on my new tires.  Unfortunately, when I finally got them on, it was pushing 9:00, and I knew that I needed to get to bed since I had a two hour drive to Jefferson City the next day for a 9AM start.  I didn't have time to do much else in the way of bike maintenance that night, so I decided to set the alarm for 5:00, then wake up and finish preparing for the race.

I actually woke up closer to 5:45 because while I set the alarm on my iPod, I neglected to turn the volume up, so the alarm went off, but it didn't make any noise.  That meant I had to rush around even more to get ready and finally, I was ready to go around 6:30.   The drive to Jefferson City was uneventful, and I managed to get into town right around 8:30, about a half an hour later than I really wanted to.  I made a quick stop at a gas station to get a 2 liter of Sierra Mist and some ice for my water bottles and hydration pack, then crossed over the bridge to the park where we were starting.  I quickly got registered and changed, then got in the group for the pre-race meeting.

Coming into Jefferson City on US 50.

About 9:10, Bob fired up the truck that was going to be the lead out vehicle, and we were off.  I started off in the middle of the pack and I figured that soon enough I would either start passing people or getting passed.  I knew there were some really strong people out there and some others who I could probably hang with no problem.  Not long after we hit gravel though, I starting feeling my water bottle rubbing against my leg.  Uh-oh.  I looked down and the top screw came out of my water bottle cage, so it was flopping around as I was pedaling.  I pulled off and the pack immediately passed me.  Unfortunately, in my haste to pack, I did not have my multi-tool with me, and I had to flag down Luke and Adam who were sweeping the course.  Adam didn't have his multi-tool either, but Luke managed to find his and I unscrewed the other screw and put the cage and water bottle in my jersey pocket.  Great.  More weight on my back to carry around all day.

Once I got packed up, I rode with Luke and Adam for a while, but gradually started to pull away from them.  Eventually I even started to pass a few other riders as we made our way through the edge of Holts Summit towards the first piece of singletrack, which also happened to be the same pasture that I had hiked through during the CAC.  This time though, I didn't see any of the cows that were out there that weekend.  About halfway through the pasture, I saw a pickup truck with a few people hanging out around it.  As I got closer, I realized that one of the people was Todd from the Hoosier Daddies and their team had brought a keg of beer and some bottles of water out to hydrate the riders.  That was a welcome site!  The temperature was climbing pretty rapidly towards 90, and I wasn't about to turn down any cold liquids.  I also was able to give Todd my water bottle cage to take back to the finish line so I could get it out of my jersey.  I hung out there for several minutes while everyone bringing up the back of the race came in, and when we took off, there were about 15 or so of us that formed a pace line through the rest of the singletrack and back onto the gravel.

Refreshments!!

Once we hit gravel again, the pack started to thin out again and I found myself riding with Jim Davis of Team Seagal.  We'd only met maybe once or twice before at some GORC functions, but it was nice killing the miles talking to him.  After a while, we pulled into the first official rest stop, a church that had a water faucet in their yard.  At this point, I combined the Sierra Mist from my water bottles into one and filled up the empty one with some nice cold water.  I also downed the two packs of M&M's I picked up at the gas station in Jefferson City.  There was only 40 miles to the next place I could buy food, it wouldn't be that bad, right?  Not two miles after leaving that church, we were back on the second stretch of singletrack.  With the rain the area had a couple days earlier, this was still pretty muddy, and there was a lot of hike-a-bike through here, so what might've taken 20 minutes if it were dry wound up taking probably closer to an hour.

Creek crossing on the singletrack.

After finally exiting that section, we had about 3 miles on gravel before we crossed over this old bridge only wide enough for pedestrians and started climbing another section of doubletrack.  This was also familiar ground as it was where we exited the singletrack on the biking leg of the CAC.  Unfortunately, it was a lot soggier this time around, and coupled with the narrower tires on my CX bike, it made for a fair amount of hike-a-bike as well.  Fortunately, after we trudged through the muck, the Hoosier Daddies made another appearance with their beverage truck!  At this point (mile 35), we had about 15 miles to the next rest stop where our drop bags were, and 35 miles to the next stop with a convenience store.  While we were done with the singletrack until that rest stop, that also meant that we were going to be riding through a lot more open areas without much in the way of tree cover, so those 15 miles were hot!

Bike & Pedestrian bridge across Cedar Creek

While I was wishing I had more food with me by now, I also thought I was making pretty decent time, and I was still passing the occasional rider that was getting worn out in the heat.  Everything was going all right until I heard a loud POP! and saw my front tire go flat.  While I did have a spare tube and CO2 cartridge, I had also forgotten a CO2 applicator (the downside of having 4 bikes!) in another bike bag.  Fortunately, about this time I had a double stroke of luck.  Another rider named Dave and his wife pulled up about the same time, and Dave helped me air my tire back up while his wife, who was driving the course in a van with their 4 kids, offered to take me back to the start if I wanted.  I was getting to the point where I was thinking about heading back when I got to the rest stop anyway, so I graciously accepted his wife's offer and put my bike in the van and cooled off while we headed back to the park.

When I returned, the Hoosier Daddies were back grilling their famous bratwurst (see MLK Berryman report), so I ate a couple of those and grabbed a couple of the baked potatoes that were promised to all of the riders.  Super Kate's chocolate chip cookies were locked up at this point though, so those would have to wait.  It was getting to be about 3:00 now, so after refueling my body, I chilled out with some of the other people who DNF'ed and we waited for the winners to cross the line.  Just after 4:45 the first group of 4 came across the line.

The Cedar Cross Winners

I continued to hang out at the pavilion for a while, but I was starting to get thirsty for a soda or something like that.  Too much beer and I wouldn't be in any shape to make the two hour drive home.  Caffeine would also be good to keep me awake.  I hopped in my car and headed across the bridge back into Jefferson City, and immediately after getting off the highway, I saw this:

Snow Cones! (US 54 & Missouri Blvd)

It's not soda, but I love snow cones, and when I saw that stand, I had to stop.  I ordered me a strawberry one, and went back to the pavilion to eat it.  After I finished that though, it was after 6:00, so I had to start thinking about heading home.  As much as I wanted to stay until everyone finished, it was looking like I would be there well after 8:00 if I did that, and then I wouldn't be home until after 10:00 (as it turns out, the final group of 4 didn't come in until 11:00).  I decided to say my goodbyes and head out.  So while the ride didn't work out for me very well, Bob put on a really well run event, and I hope to give it another shot next year.  Hopefully, I'll prepare myself a little better next time.