2013 Stagecoach 400 info is UP

[JeepJenJen]

Question...why are Forest & Dan (ITT'ers) showing up on the finishers results?

[tetontodd]

Great Job Eric Lord, I was riding with Eric for the most part of the first 90 miles. Way to stick with it!
Congrats to all the finishers and people still out on course!

Unfortunately I had a tough Stagecoach run, my race was cut short because of that heat,javascript:void(0); I wasn't prepared for that coming from Jackson Hole. The entire experience was great. I want to give a big shout out to Brendan for organizing this event, it was a lot of fun and I met a lot of really cool people! Trust me I'll be back better prepared!

Maybe we will see some of you at the CTR this year! Have a great summer!

[Dust]

Brendan & Mary - thanks for orchestrating another great weekend of SoCal endurance fun.  I will have great memories of the desert, big-horn sheep, riding Indian Creek ST under the stars, "open 24hrs"...   

I have not done anything longer than one 12hr lap race before this, SC400 is way more interesting to say the least.   

[Roland Sturm]

Now on to spectating after finishing my ride. My chain broke just as I was getting to Cowbell Alley, so almost perfect timing. So I just rolled down chainless to town and pushed the last few meters on the highway rather than trying to fix it.

But even though I was only the 11th rider back in Idyllwild, seems like there aren't that many survivors on the road, just two....

And Gerry Lattimer just made a wrong turn as I am watching, in fact, same place I missed yesterday myself. I figured out that I was wrong quickly, but Gerry and Ted keep going longer. Very easy to make the mistake as the actual trail is much less visible than continuing downhill on the wrong one. I drew an arrow in the sand for the actual turn and also made a stick arrow yesterday, but I guess they didn't see it and went down.

[Roland Sturm]

The conditions this year were much harder than last year: Fish Creek was almost completely rideable last year (except, of course, the climb-a-bike section) and that seems to be more typical. Unfortunately, this year was mostly unrideable - deep sand.  Last year was warm, 80s, this year was hot, upper 90s in Ocotillo Wells. SC 400 is a brilliant route, but suffering caused by the conditions on day 1 may have been a bit too much this year.

So while some course changes (Indian Creek instead of Noble Canyon; 7 miles of pavement instead of Kane Springs Rd; no reservation hike-a-bike) by themselves might  have cut times by something like 2 hours, the deep sand in Fish Creek wash and heat made easily up for this. I spent less time resting/sleeping, and yet was several hours slower. I think the same is true for Tracey Petervary who both years finished just in front of me. So the top 3 riders did simply an incredible job as all 3 shaved hours off Jay's time last year.

Want to race like Eddie O'Dea? Maybe try his unplanned training approach: He forgot his money at the last bikepacking race,  the Huracan 300 last month, and had to run the whole event just on powder he had in his bag. Still rode it to a new record in under 24 hours together with 2 other guys. 300 miles without food must be quite the suffer fest. But unusual training or not, hitting such a time on a complicated course that he didn't know is even more astonishing - especially with the top notch competition in JayP and Guy Sutton.

[GerryL]

Now on to spectating after finishing my ride. My chain broke just as I was getting to Cowbell Alley, so almost perfect timing. So I just rolled down chainless to town and pushed the last few meters on the highway rather than trying to fix it.

But even though I was only the 11th rider back in Idyllwild, seems like there aren't that many survivors on the road, just two....

And Gerry Lattimer just made a wrong turn as I am watching, in fact, same place I missed yesterday myself. I figured out that I was wrong quickly, but Gerry and Ted keep going longer. Very easy to make the mistake as the actual trail is much less visible than continuing downhill on the wrong one. I drew an arrow in the sand for the actual turn and also made a stick arrow yesterday, but I guess they didn't see it and went down.

The stick and arrows were long gone by the time we got there as it looked like some motos had done some poaching of the trail. The trail was real fun for the few miles we rode it though.

I wish I had left for Oriflamme when you did. We waited for Ted at the store and it absolutely cooked us at noon. I took a night of rest at the top of Noble to recover. That 30 mile day messed up my run a bit.

I agree with you about the conditions... the extra heat and softer sand were much harder for me this year. I am still amazed at the effort Eddie put in to win it.

[Roland Sturm]

For me, the key is to get out of the desert quickly. It was already getting hot when I left the RV park (I had hoped to be out of the desert by then). Another hour or two later and I would have had to do a layover in Julian or the campground past Noble myself.

The last words I heard from Norb DeKerchove were "really toasty here" as we started Oriflamme. Norb is a strong rider, seemed to handle to first day much better than me, but maybe he just had been hanging out too long with the quitting crowd at the RV park (who had startedbreaking out the booze already), so another 3 hours (2 of them climbing with full sun) before reasonable temperatures and nice riding were discouraging. All of a sudden, he was gone.

[Erick L]

Awesome race Brendon, thanks for putting it together.  Finally coming back to life, though still don't have any felling in my pinkies yet!

Todd, hope you recovered from the heat in Borrego.  Man it was hot out there. 

Keith, thanks for dragging me up Fish Creek Wash while I was fully bonked and dehydrated!  I'm really not sure I would have made it alone.  Our 1am stagecoach chat inspired my run for 60 hours, thanks for planting the seed.  Hope all went well with the family on Monday.

Sam, it was a pleasure to spend so much of the race with you.  Your route knowledge was encyclopedic and pace was amazingly steady.  I'll always remember ripping though San Diego at night together. That was a blast.  Your daughters should be super proud of you because you really crushed it out there! Hope we get to ride together again sooner than later.

Looking forward to next year already.

Erick

[Erick L]

Oh, one question...why did Guy Sutton go so far off route at Lake Hodges?  It looks like he went into a country club 2 miles away when services were available 100yds off course.

[Roland Sturm]

First part of my report and pictures for SC 400 up here:
http://rolandsturm.blogspot.com/2013/05/april-2013-stagecoach-400-bikepacking.html

[Roland Sturm]

And the report on the final section is up now, too:
http://rolandsturm.blogspot.com/

[Norb]

Great report Rolund. Way to stay strong and get this race done!