NEWS

Tree F 10/2/18 Tree F 10/2/18

2018 // Day 4 – An Impossible Thing

“We started coming out here 13 years ago riding our dirt bikes in this forest and we fell in love with it,” Alex Gardner, Race Producer told the racers. “Being on those ridgelines and seeing those mountains, from certain aspects you can see all four on a clear day, we started wondering how mountain bikes would work on these tracks. We weren’t quite sure and didn’t have the skills yet to host here, but we spent our time in Oregon and we figured out how to do it. And now we are back, so it’s a pleasure to have you guys out here enjoying these tracks. I think we’ve put together some of the best – for mountain bikes at least.” The rain held off for the last day of racing, allowing riders to experience the incredible mountain views and fall colours that first inspired the Trans-Cascadia crew to come to this area.

“Best trails, best conditions, best times, best feeling I’ve ever had on a bike – ever.” - Loris Vergier

The night before, punctuated by the sound of firecrackers, Nick Gibson, Event Director, told the racers what to expect for their final day. “So, the last two days were rest days, right? Active recovery? Maybe? Probably not? I say that jokingly because I think these are great days, they definitely hurt stacked up, but they are also really great days on the bike. Tomorrow we’ve got five stages, one neutral, and your elevation profile is about 6,000 feet of climbing and about 9,000 feet of descending. The total ride time for Day 4 will be about 6-8 hours – if you keep moving.” An exhausted voice from the crowd hollered out “I can’t believe he said that with a straight face.”

Racers hopped the shuttle from camp in the morning and accessed the highest point on East Canyon Ridge possible. From there they climbed further up the ridge, with views of Mount Adams behind them, and continued along it to the start of Stage 10. The first stage of the day dumped riders down 1,300 feet over 1.9 miles. This stage ended at a road that took racers across and down to Stage 11; a fun and flowy downhill. After this second stage of the day, racer rode out to the meeting point for lunch. Here they loaded onto the shuttle and were driven 3 miles to the start of their next liaison.

Mostly a nice gradual climb, the mix of road and singletrack wound up the valley for 2.5-hours, ‘at a nice social pace.’ At the top riders were rewarded with Sunrise Peak and a 360-degree view from the rocky ridgeline. Stage 12 was 1,000 feet of descending in a half a mile. The fast and steep track offered gnarly rock sections and rooty drops with multiple line options. “It’s a spicy descent. We’ll just leave it at that,” Nick had offered at the racer meeting the night before. The descent dropped racers into a little trough that they had to work out of with roughly a 30-minute climb to the top of the next two stages.

Stages 13 and 14 totaled about 6,000 feet of descending. Stage 13 offered a spectacular view from the start before riders dropped into the essentially a downhill pumptrack with endless whoops and bumps to pump and jump complete with fast, ripping corners that allowed them to really open it up. At the bottom, riders had a ten-minute climb to the final stage of the event that Nick had described simply as “a beautiful way to finish off the day.” This stage had two distinct sections of riding; the first was a continuation of the whoops and fast corners from the previous stage and after the neutral zone the course got faster with steeps, rocky corners, bench cut, natural gaps, and moto whoops. At the bottom the Transition crew as waiting next to the shuttle with nachos and beers to treat everyone.

“It was a big effort. I’ve never ridden anything like it,” says Greg Minnaar. “We were just having a laugh because going up that climb, we were thinking ‘this sucks’ but right at the bottom, Loris, Elliot and I decided that we have to come back next year and do it again. And that’s how it is when you’re riding such good stuff you really do want to come back. I just couldn’t believe that we’ve gone through five stages today and not one of them was crap. Every stage is really nice and well thought out. You’d expect a crap stage here or there but for four days we haven’t ridden anything that was crap. You could try to say that one trail is better than the other, but it’s still far better than anything I’ve ever ridden.”

On Stage 11, Francois Bailly-Maitre broke his rim and Greg swapped wheels with him. “It was fine, the rim was strong enough and it held all tension, but sometimes the carbon could splinter off and cut the tire and it would be a bit shitty for the leader of the event to go out because of that. It was kind of a mixed thing because you have Loris is second, but you know two Santa Cruz’s were in the lead and they’ve got to have a fair battle.”

“I can’t thank Greg enough,” says Francois. “I felt way more confident with his wheel on my bike than trying to push with a broken wheel – you never know. I had a really good day, the trails were amazing once again, more features and a lot of good things to worry about like rocks and roots. I had a lot of fun and some crazy moments. I’m pretty stoked that Greg finished the race with the wheel intact, I’m glad his race didn’t end because of me.”

Emily Slaco took the overall win in the Pro Women’s category with Kim Hardin in Second. Ingrid LaRouche came from behind on the final day to take the third step overall. “Last year at Trans-Cascadia was my first time ever doing a multi-day race,” explained Ingrid, “it was all a learning experience. I was racing a lot more this year, so I was a little more familiar with this. There were a lot more girls this year than last year, so the competition was pretty stiff. The event is so cool and [women] should come and participate more.”

In the Pro Men’s category, Loris Vergier took the top step with Francois Bailly-Maitre in second and Luca Shaw in third. “I knew that yesterday I had lost some time, but I gave it my all, so I did the same today and had fun,” said Loris. “I tried to stay on the bike – and I did. It paid off. Best trails, best conditions, best times, best feeling I’ve ever had on a bike – ever. It’s just good to be here and fun.”

“It was an awesome day,” according to Luca. “The weather held out, for our five awesome stages and I ended up catching a few people and ended up on the podium. Either way, I would have been super stoked because it’s been really, really fun week and the result was just a bonus. I had fun and enjoyed myself and that’s what I came for. I was just having so much fun all week, these trails are another level, it’s almost like another sport out here.”

Following the final podiums, the Race Producer; Alex Gardner, Race Director; Nick Gibson, and Logistics Director; Tommy Magrath stood in front of the cheering and clapping crowd. “This is an impossible thing that we attempt to do each year and somehow it all comes together,” said Alex. “I think that the thing that makes that happen is the community that we talked about at the start of this event, the minds up here, volunteers, the people who give endlessly to see this thing happen. It’s got a mind of its own, it’s got momentum and it’s a pleasure to be out here with all of you. Thanks for coming out!”

“Without racers, we don’t have a race,” added Tommy, “without trail builders, we don’t have trails, and without volunteers, we don’t have any of this.”

Nick wrapped up the official part of the evening, “On that note, we’ve got beer left, we’ve got liquor left. . . let’s go have a good night!”

FUll Results

Tree F 9/30/18 Tree F 9/30/18

2018 // Day 3 – The Traverse

“The stages have been amazing; the riding has been absolutely incredible.” -Greg Minnaar

“Tomorrow morning, we are moving camps,” Tommy Magrath, Director of Logistic, announced to the racers on Friday night. “So, this is your last night in this beautiful area, before we move to another beautiful area.”

“The stages have been amazing; the riding has been absolutely incredible.” -Greg Minnaar

Day 3 saw racers traverse between the two basecamps riding east along a beautiful backbone ridgeline complete with rocky outcroppings and viewpoints of both Mount St. Helens and Mount Adams while the production crew packed up the event’s entire existence and created the same home-away-from-home-but-deep-in-the-woods feel at the next location. Shuttles took riders about an hour out of camp where they had a 15-minute climb to the 2.5-hour ridgeline ride that would take them to Stages 8 and 9.

The first two days of riding were on the west side of the Gifford Pinchot – a non-motorized area that took the team thousands of hours to reclaim and saw them cut out hundreds of logs from a trail network that had been largely unused. “Now we are on the rawer-dog side of things. It’s a multi-use area and it gives another aspect of gnarly roots, ruts, and steep chutes,” says Nick Gibson, Event Director.

The first stage of the day was 1,609 feet of descending over 3.8 miles. But event with a lower angle grade the track was still fast flowing and included high-speed berms and some physical, rooty pedaling in the middle. “I was getting used to these ‘hold it wide open and let it go, not a lot of hard pedaling stages,’” says Joe Lawwill. “So, I pretty much started the stages today with the same mindset because these mountains are so massive, and the runs have been so long. I got after it and realized that I was in trouble and I had to slow it way down. It was hard to do because things were coming at me so fast, but I pulled it back together and it was still awesome. I couldn’t go full gas, that’s for sure, because of what happened last year.” What Joe is referring to is an epic crash he had while following Mitch Ropelato on Day 3 last year. Mitch described it best at the time, “We drop in and I was hauling ass, it was a little bit too fast for the conditions, but it was working out. Then we come into this one section – my glasses are all muddy, and Joe’s catching all the roost off me so he’s double as muddy – and all of a sudden I just see left! I lock it up and slide around the backside of the berm and park it into this tree off the trail and was like ‘saved it!’ Then I go to warn Joe and I look behind me, as soon as I look behind me I just see him on front and rear brake. He can’t go sideways because I’m standing right there – and he probably should have just plowed me, I would have fallen over into a tree and I would have been fine, but he just locked up the front and rear and skidded off into the trees. He looked like E.T. taking off, it was insane, and he just flew through the trees and out of sight. I was like ‘oh my god, he just died. He’s dead. There are a million logs out there – he must have landed on one and it shanked him and shish kabobbed him and he’s done!’”

After Stage 8, a hot on-course lunch was provided by the Transition crew and provided racers with a rest stop before they made their way down to the next stage. Wright Meadow is a gnarly beautiful descent down the drainage to the shuttle road with 1,821 feet of descending over 2.9 miles. A high-speed stage, it is rough, “but,” as Adam Craig puts it, “speed and roughness work together in good harmony here. It was neat seeing people’s faces at the bottom of Stage 9. They really enjoyed having some more rugged terrain.”

Rosara Joseph won the Trans-Cascadia Pro Women’s category for the first two years of the event and is back this year as a volunteer. “This is an amazing event, definitely a special one. It’s been great to be back. I’m still enjoying the atmosphere and the amazing riding and learning what goes on the other side – which I’m learning is a fuck-ton. As a racer, you’re unaware of what’s going on [behind-the-scenes] so I’m getting a little taste of it. I’ve been on timing and have been lucky enough to get some riding in as well, I’ve been heading out a bit earlier and riding in advance of the riders. I rode all of the course today and it was spectacular, we climbed up onto an incredible craggy ridgeline and, with views over to the volcano and the fall colors, it was pretty stunning.”

Francois Bailly-Maitre topped the Pro Men’s podium today with Loris Vergier in second and Geoff Kabush in third. “[Stage 8] was a tough one, really physical, especially the second half but the first part was super fun, fast, good berms, I could trust the grip,” says Francois. “Afterward it was just about fighting to get every second. But it seemed to work out because I managed to make a lot of time on this one, so it’s good. I made more time in the first stage, but I still had a good second stage. The second stage had more chutes and drops and rocks, more anticipation. It was pretty fun. Still fast and scary at some points. There are still five stages and I don’t know what to expect. Tomorrow is a long day, I will keep racing the same way. Riding clean and pushing hard when I can. We will see tomorrow night how it went!”

Emily Slaco topped the Pro Women’s podium again with Kim Hardin and Bekah Rottenberg in second and third.

“The stages have been amazing; the riding has been absolutely incredible,” says Greg Minnaar. “[Today] was hard. We were tired and not really that fit for it all, but just the views when you got to the top of Stage 1 – the scenery is beautiful, spectacular for the whole ride. With those tough climbs, it’s been rewarding at the top, and then obviously the trails down have been just some of the best riding we’ve done. It’s raw, it’s open, it’s got a bit of everything. From Day 2 to Day 3 it was such different terrain. And we’ve had a great group of people around us riding, so it’s been really fun.”

Matt Slaven has been at every Trans-Cascadia, “I thought the riding today was awesome. It’s Trans-Cascadia, the riding is always awesome. These guys come out here, they work all summer to clear all these trails, so we can race in the backcountry, otherwise, an event like this wouldn’t even happen. I love pretty much every trail that we ride every day.”

Racers have a big day ahead of them for Day 4 and their final 5 stages. Stay tuned for the final race update tomorrow.

Day 3 Results

Full Day 3 Results

Tree F 9/29/18 Tree F 9/29/18

2018 // Day 2 – A Spiritual Experience

“Because Day 1 was such a hard day of climbing, today is payback,” welcome news from Nick Gibson, Race Director. “We’ve got three big shuttles and your stats are 8,000 feet of descending with 2,000 feet of climbing.” What was best described as an active recovery day saw racers shuttled to the top of the ridgeline east of camp three times to enjoy a wide variety of terrain – including what became known the ‘spiritual experience’ of Stage 6.

“. . . the second stage of today was insane, the best trail of my life.” - Loris Vergier

“Today had three totally different stages and different aspects,” Adam Craig tells us. Adam has been heavily involved in the trail work and scouting for Trans-Cascadia. Stage 5 had racers heading south from their drop point with a neutral section in the first third of the trail. “It is a classic northwest bench cut trail with kind of cool pumice tread. It’s had a lot of recent moisture and these guys did a great job of clearing off sight lines.”

The second stage included the most pedaling for the day. The liaison from the drop point took racers along a ridgeline north to the start of stage 6. “We traversed north across it for 45 minutes. This area is bare alpine as it’s on the outer edge of the Mount St. Helens blast zone and is a big broad north-south ridge. The trail follows the perfect gradient carving back and forth across it and it’s perfect for going a million on your mountain bike,” continues Adam.

Dropping into Stage 6 became the high point of everyone’s day and both brought everyone together with the shared experience and stoked the competitive fires for a few of the racers. “Stage 6 was a spiritual experience,” says Spencer Paxson. “It was fucking awesome. It’s like one of the best ski runs of your life, like one that sticks with you and that sensation – it’s more the sensation of it that made it. That’s what it was. I think that’s a fairly unanimous feeling. We got to the bottom and there was a little intermingling with the Syndicate crew, all these experienced and professional level riders, and a few amateur level riders and we were all on the same level. There was no distinction, everyone was talking and all giddy about what we had just ridden. It was so good that it normalized the full spectrum of riders who are here and that’s a pretty rare thing.”

Adam and Elliot Jackson were on Stage 6 to witness some of the action and recapped it back at basecamp after dinner:

“I definitely had front row seats for that whole ‘Loris’ getting involved thing. He’s in it now, we’ve got him,” Adam tells us.

“I swear, Josh [Bryceland] beat Loris on Stage 2 by 8 seconds and we were going a million. That is literally one of the more impressive things I have ever seen. I don’t understand,” says Elliot.

“I dropped in behind Elliot who was following Loris and we just did that until Elliot blew off the trail which gave us a chance to slow the fuck down. Loris was going to kill us.”

“I didn’t crash, I just blew off. I was trying really hard to keep up with Loris –”

“Who was winning! While getting beat by Bryceland!” Adam interrupts, laughing.

“I made it three-quarters of the way down and then I blew off the track huge and almost had a crash and then I came back on and I was trying to keep the same pace and blew off again and trying to keep the same pace and then almost crashed again and then I was like – “

“You were doing a good job Elliot, you were riding your ass off, I’m proud of you” ~ Adam

“I was trying hard,” says Elliot proudly. “Okay, I’m going to get a bottle of wine.”

“Hurry!” Greg Minnaar hollers at him from somewhere in the dark behind us.

“Stage three was our lovely afternoon jaunt back to camp,” Adam continues his description of the day’s stages. “We rode the same ridgeline and then took a left and descended right back into camp. It’s really deep pumice and it’s a really sunny windward side of everything. Drier but really fun drifting pumice – there are these natural pumice ruts here that ride pretty darn well.”

At the end of the day, Loris Vergier was in the lead by 2 seconds. “On the last stage yesterday I felt really good and I pushed, and I saw I was pretty good. So, today was about fun and trying to pedal a little bit harder than yesterday. Having fun and going fast is a good thing and the second stage of today was insane, the best trail of my life. It was good dirt, everything was predictable and fast and the best dirt.”

The Pro Men’s category is tight with four racers within 14 seconds of each other. Francois Bailly-Maitre and Peter Ostroski took second and third place after Day 2 and the returning champion, Geoff Kabush, is in fourth. “I’m still in the mix, there’s just been a lot of fast stages so there’s not much time in it still. There was some nervous high-speed stuff out there today. Stage 6 and parts of Stage 7 were actually so high speed it was fun to have some corners to really rip. They had lots of open – you could see and read the trail, and it was just about how fast you wanted to go.”

“The trails are world class, mind-numbing,” says Garett Heitman who is currently leading the Amateur Men’s category. “Not just the stages – I would pay to ride the transfers, seriously! This event, the production value is high but it’s relaxed – so core, simple, not over the top, but anything anybody would ever want as a mountain biker. And obviously, this weather doesn’t hurt. Today was fun. Truthfully, I’m just trying to ride fun fast. If I see it I trust it, if I don’t, I slow down because I want to go home in one piece. I was smiling the whole time. The second stage today – everybody is talking about it – I’ve never ridden anything so fun, so fast, so cool, in my whole life.”

Emily Slaco is still in the lead for the Pro Women with Kim Hardin in second place and Bekah Rottenberg in third. Kim raced at Trans-Cascadia in 2016, “the new location is a little rawer and I don’t think anyone has been out here, so I think it’s way more of a level playing field and it’s rad. Stage 6 today was amazing, good dirt the whole the way down really good sight lines with open fast sections and twisty turns in the middle and sandy, loamy, stuff at the bottom. It was one of the best trails I’ve ever ridden, it just kept going. The grade was perfect, it was awesome!”

Day 3 will have racers traversing to our next basecamp. Stay tuned for what is sure to continue to be a tight race between our top for pro men.

Day 2 Results

All Day 2 Results

Pro Men

1st : Loris Vergier

2nd : Francois Bailly-Maitre

3rd : Peter Ostroski

Pro Women

1st : Emily Slaco

2nd : Kim Hardin

3rd : Bekah Rottenberg

Tree F 9/28/18 Tree F 9/28/18

2018 // Day 1 – The Deepest We’ve Ever Been

“Welcome to the fourth generation of Trans-Cascadia and I mean that, this is like a generational thing, this thing gets weirder every year.” - Nick Gibson, Race Director

“Welcome to the fourth generation of Trans-Cascadia and I mean that, this is like a generational thing, this thing gets weirder every year.”

- Nick Gibson, Race Director

Welcome

“It’s been quite a journey to be in this zone. This is the deepest we’ve ever been,” Alex Gardner, Trans-Cascadia Producer, kicked off the racer welcome on Wednesday night. The crowd of returning and fresh faces were gathered together under a large tent around the tables where they had just finished a gourmet meal prepared by Executive Chef Chris DiMinno and provided by Chris King. “We are so excited to share this product with you guys,” continued Race Director, Nick Gibson. “We’ve been out here all summer grinding – how many of you came out and worked with us this year?” Half the crowd of nearly 200 racers and crew erupted with cheers and applause to signify their involvement. “A lot of people here were out digging and cutting and brushing trails. It was a huge project and we couldn’t do it without the community. It’s the community’s race – and that’s pretty sweet.”

This year’s basecamp is in the heart of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and the blast zone for the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The long and winding – sometimes eroding – access road took racers through views of the volcano and the remnants of its destruction that is still evident today as they arrived. “There are so many layers to this forest,” Nick Gibson explained to the crowd. “It’s pretty unique. Gifford Pinchot is the father of the United States Forest Service. He and Teddy Roosevelt created the Forest Service in the early 1900’s – and it was hotly contested. But, it paved the way for recreation and what we are able to do today – to come out here and ride trails. It’s a pretty incredible thing and something that we’ve thought about a lot while working out here.”

Despite being so remote, racers still have plenty of access to services with a WD-40 bike wash station, Shimano for tech support, Clif for nutritional support, and both Schwalbe and Oakley are onsite providing product to racers. There are massage and physiotherapist available and a full bar with a bartender, free-flowing beer and cocktails. The key gathering area is around the fire pit and its end-of-days-huge woodpile. Even hot showers and what have been described as ‘the nicest crappers ever to be used in the woods,’ are here. “Anything you need we are going to take care of it,” the Director of Logistic, Tommy Magrath, told the racers. “We are here for you. The only things racers need to pay attention to is when to eat, when to get on a shuttle [on days that have shuttles], and when to eat again. Coffee, breakfast, shuttle, dinner.”

Tommy wrapped up the Wednesday night meeting by summarizing the heart of Trans-Cascadia. “We are out here to open backcountry trails and we use this race to celebrate the opening of those trails, so you guys coming out here; racing it and hanging with us, are allowing us to do this year after year. So, thanks to everyone – racers, crew, media, volunteers – thank you!”

Despite the 5:30 am wake-up for most the next day, there were still plenty of people still around the bonfire at midnight. The bar was hopping, and a small dent was put in the massive wood pile while – without access to wifi – everyone got to know each other.

Day 1

Day 1 is a loop with no shuttle access. There are also no options to access the trails with resources and therefore, racers are required to carry a water filter and enough food to sustain themselves for what was expected to be on average an 8-hour ride.

Racers began heading out on course at 7 am. Following a flowy section of trail along the river, they pedaled through a stunning old growth forest before beginning a 30-mile climb with a 7,000-foot elevation gain. Roughly an hour-and-a-half up racers hit the peak and the start of Stage 1. “It’s a big dump all the way down to the bottom with one neutral zone in it about a third from the top,” described Nick at the racer meeting. A neutral zone is an untimed section; however, the etiquette is to keep moving within them. There were five creek crossings that were live during this stage; three were ridable, two were not.

Aaron Bradford won the first edition of Trans-Cascadia and has become a staple of both the pro men’s category and the basecamp culture here. Sitting fireside, he describes Stage 1, “after an hour or so of climbing we earned quite the delight. It was wide open and fast, and the dirt was just insane. Someone went through there with a rake, one of those metal super fine ones and it looked like one of those Japanese gardens with the perfect lines with the bends around the rocks and everything. It was absolutely glorious. And then it went into this lush lower half along the river that was really raw. Your sight zones went from 40 feet to maybe 8 to 10 feet. It wasn’t much. That being said, the dirt was good – really awesome through there. It was a little fern valley.”

Once racers hit the bottom of Stage 1, they started another big climb and made their way around the east side of a ridge where there were two short stages. Stage 2 was a spicy, fun, and flowy mile with 700 feet of descending. Unfortunately, this stage saw Sam Schultz crash – and while he is okay – he is out of the race. Chris Johnston was at the bottom of the stage when they got the news about Sam. “We all held back and there were guys who went up to help – we just hung out until we had a firmer idea of what the first responders were going to do and if they would need more help before we carried on. I think it’s an amazing community. After that, we bunched up and it was a good vibe and a good crew to ride with.”

Stage 3 was just under a half mile with 500 feet of descending. At the bottom of Stage 3 racers had the option for a 5-minute pedal to a swimming lake. While everyone agreed that the view was well worth the detour, very few braved the waters for a dip.

The start of Stage 4 was approximately a 30-minute climb back up to a saddle where racers took in views of Mount Rainier and the valley. Following the ridgeline to the last descent, they dropped in and rode 2,000 feet back to basecamp. “[Stage 4 was] ridiculous,” says Josh ‘Ratboy’ Lewis. “I followed Loose Dog and I’ve never seen him ride so fast, it was quite the sight to watch, it was nuts!”

This is Ratboy’s first time at Trans-Cascadia and he says he had no idea what to expect. “I imagined it completely differently actually, but what a pleasant surprise. It was so dreamy. I brought a short travel bike, so I was worried that I would be under biked, but it was perfect – it was just dreamy conditions.”

Geoff Kabush would take the lead after Day 1 with Peter Ostroski and Francois Bailly-Maitre in second and third place. Geoff has competed in each edition of Trans-Cascadia and has won the overall pro men’s category for the last two years. “The best part is exploring new trails. It was super fun riding around Oakridge the last few years because I’ve never really ridden in that area much before the race. And I really enjoy riding the trails blind so it’s cool to come here and explore everything that’s 100% new.”

In the Women’s category, Emily Slaco – who is experiencing Trans-Cascadia for the first time – took the top step, with Kim Hardin and Bekah Rottenberg in second and third place. “I don’t think I had any expectations coming into the race,” says Emily. “Stage 1 was good for shaking out the cobwebs and figuring out what the trails and dirt are like. It was super fun and it was nice to have the neutral in the middle as well. I’ve never had a race with a neutral section before – it was awesome! Stage 4 was so fast and straight down. We had a break at the top of the stage and the views on the ridge were stunning. Hanging out with everyone was fun – the crew made it fun, it was a good time.”

Overall, racers agreed the effort of the day was worth the rewards. “I had no clue what to expect,” says Luca Shaw, “but it was awesome. Definitely the longest ride I’ve done just on trails. We were on trails for five hours plus – that was cool. Such amazing views and the tracks were so much fun. It’s cool to ride this kind of terrain. It’s pretty much untouched and a rare opportunity – just had an awesome day on the bike! I loved it.”

Chef Rick Gencarelli from Lardo in Portland was behind the action for the Day 1 dinner. “[We are serving] smoked duck burritos. We are doing grilled chicken thighs and we are doing grilled skirt steak as well. The idea is that we have all these different meats and we have rice, beans, and guacamole. It’s nothing crazy but everything is fresh and delicious. I think it’s a great post-ride meal.” This followed a snack of fries covered with parmesan cheese, hot peppers, pork belly, and more.

As racers finished up their burritos-of-epic-proportions they listened to what Day 2 has in store for them. There may have been a collective sigh of relief when the word ‘shuttle’ was mentioned. In any case, they were still all smiles from the day – even if they were exhausted, as they slowly drifted off to their tents, one-by-one, from around the campfire.