2016 CTR - Race Discussion

[mtbcast]

‪#‎ColoradoTrailRace16‬ Barry Ritchey called in from Silverton! And Aaron Denberg called in with his finish call!

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/ctr16/

[mtbcast]

‪#‎ColoradoTrailRace16‬ Will Scheel called in to say he is OUT after a crash! And Aaron Johnson called in with his finish call!

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/ctr16/

[cmn529]

Storm cell is pinning some of the guys on the final segments before Durango.  Lightening and rain right now.  Hopefully the guys on the ridges are staying safe.  Looks like 14 folks on the Molas to Durango section.

[mtbcast]

‪#‎ColoradoTrailRace16‬ Barry Ritchey called in from Indian Ridge!

http://mtbcast.com/site2/category/ctr16/

[Yogi the Barry]

Third time's a charm? Indeed! - At ~4:41 AM, Sunday morning, making for a time better than my sub 8-day goal, I finally finished a CTR. The CTR has been goal/quest/obsession of mine for over 5 years. After failed attempts, on the even years of 2012 and 2014, which is when the [IMHO, climatic and proper] Denver to Durango course direction is run, I finally crossed the finish line. Scott/Trackleaders has me finishing later than I actually did, but I came in before 5 AM, riding with, and ahead of, Rob Conklin. Rob and I came across Scott Sidener, just a few miles from the finish, in a sleepy stupor and tried to rally him to finish with us. He locked onto our wheels for a bit, but the sleep demons pulled him back down for additional recharging. Even though I had ridden Molas to Dango before, as a day ride in the 2014 CT Classic Endurance Race, this final segment of the CTR is more of a trail-that-never-ends beast, than just a long day ride. Backing up a bit, to replay events earlier that evening...
After leapfrogging for days with Adam [Marcinkiewicz] and Rob [Conklin], the three of us were pretty much time-synced and staged in Silverton for the final day's push. After rebounding from leg cramps, brought on by about six hours of GI Go diarrhea and dehydration the first day, I felt that there was a high probability I could actually finish the CTR this year. My plan to finish the CTR was to enjoy my last day on the trail by stopping, just once, before sunset, along the relatively flat part of the trail shy of Indian Ridge, to savor that golden hour light and eat a stove-cooked meal. After sleeping-in the next morning, utilizing actual sunbeams hitting my Cuben fiber tarp-tent to signal time to roll, I'd finish the next morning before noon. But as always with the CTR, plans are subject to change. The forecast for rain on Sunday sounded like my leisurely last night of camping wasn't going to be so enjoyable. Adam's ambition of finishing in under a week also infected me.
So, Sunday morning my plans changed. The first goal of the day was to get up and over Rolling Pass before the rain started. Rolling is where I got pinned down in driving rain and lightning back in 2012, which was when that CTR attempt started to rapidly unravel. This year, just a few hundred feet below Rolling, I experienced the race's first bolts of lightning. Just a coincidence or is it Rolling [Thunder] Pass? Deep dark thoughts of here we go again erupted. After starting in Silverton and climbing up to Molas together with Rob, along with a gazillion black flies, the building weather drove me to gap Rob and push hard to get up and over Rolling before it started to rain. Once over Rolling, I'd be in the finishing chute, right? Riding behind a 3-pack of day riders, just shy of the pass, one of those staccato lightning strikes [5-6 bolts?], hit less than a second away. Way too close for comfort. Instead of sitting it out, like I did in 2012, I just pushed even faster and went over the top with the 3-pack. Once up and over the pass, it started to sprinkle... then rain a few miles later. It looked to be a long and wet day. Over the next few hours, I'd don full rain gear, sit out the heavier showers, then ride as much as possible when the rain backed off. The rain had me in a funk. I'm a desert rat from New Mexico. When it rains here, we just wait a few hours for it to dry out and then ride. Riding in the rain is my Achilles. I truly hate it. It just sucks all the fun out of biking for me.
During one of my hourly breaks, Adam caught up to me. Living in Vancouver, Adam knows all about riding in the rain [otherwise he doesn't ride]. Adam's perspective on the rain gave me a much needed attitude adjustment on the situation. Yes, the weather sucks, but we will finish and could do so in under seven days. Over the next few hours, our party of riders increased to five, adding back Rob, then Matt Quinn and Paul Kruger. I tended to climb faster than the others. My 59-year-old knees demand low granny gearing. For me, that ultra low gearing cuts down on the HAB. I used that as an opportunity to cook my last freeze-dried meal and attempt a quick nap. Those naps were always part of the daily plan, but I bet the summed time of all my naps didn't exceed 30 minutes during the entire week. When the group caught up to me, I shared my level of commitment to finish that evening with them, and not spend another night/morning on the trail. I had donned my wool 'sleeping socks'. So nice to have wool socks on with wet feet. Lacking dry socks to sleep in meant there would be no bivy/sleep until after the finish for me. And then the evening on the trail-that-never-ends began for us five.
High atop Indian Ridge, a.k.a. Highline, we spotted the lights of Durango. How awesome! The rain had stopped and the stars were out. Stumbling along at about 12,000', I had the idea at ~11 PM to do a speakerphone call-in to MTBcast. I bet that was a first. And then it started to rain again. The atmosphere was saturated. Being at the dew-point, meant rain and bits of sleet. How much worse could it get?
Questions like that often got answered over and over again during the CTR. How much hotter can it get? How much colder can it get? No way the trail will ascend that crazy ridge, right? Surely this trail segment is almost over, right? How much worse could it get? Atop Kennebeck pass around midnight, it was raining, cold, windy, Adam was out of food and Rob was out of water. About the middle of the long scree field traverse past Kennebeck, Rob cut a rear sidewall. Not near either end of the traverse, where it would have been so much easier to cope with, but right in the middle of the slope. Knowing that Rob had a boot and spare tube to fix his tire, three of the party pushed on. A narrow trail, on an exposed slope steeper than a double-black ski run, didn't offer much room for a party of five to fix a flat. I stayed to help Rob. Having a bike tumble down into the abyss, while we fixed the flat, was an answer to how-much-worse-could-it-get? we didn't want to experience. Paul Spencer caught up right as we were affixing the tire to the frame and generously offered up some chain lube, before he continued thru. Flat fixed, water acquired and five hours later, on what seemed like the longest, wettest, slickest, most overgrown trail I've ever experienced, myself and Rob finally crossed the finish line. That was probably the most mentally and physically challenging 21-hour push I've ever had to sustain.

[joeydurango]

Nice work, Yogi.

[Woodland]

Nice going Barry! Quiet finish to this year's CTR - at least on this thread.

A few intrepid souls still plugging away out there. Impressive

[J_wowzer]

Nice work Barry and nice meeting you out there! "Third time's a charm? Indeed!" Once you start, you will never leave. 

-Justin R. Simpson

[Gimmearaise]

Nice meeting you Barry, you were riding real strong after I saw you by Twin Lakes, that nap must have felt good. Cheers, Neil

[Yogi the Barry]

Neil,
I was brain dead and still groggy when you rode by. I thought you were a day rider out for short ride. My brain said you look familiar, but also thought it could not be 'that Neil'. Because 'that Neil' should be at least a hundred miles ahead of me. About a minute after you went off the front, you make that look so easy, I finally realized it had to be 'that Neil'.
Re: Naps - I probably never slept more than 5-minutes when I'd take a daily 20-minute 'nap', but it did feel sooo good to just get horizontal and let the spine relax.
Humbled and amazed at what you are capable of,
Barry Ritchey

Nice meeting you Barry, you were riding real strong after I saw you by Twin Lakes, that nap must have felt good. Cheers, Neil

[Caddisman]

Dear Stephan and Scott,

Please move Barry Ritchey ahead of me in the standings as finished just before me. Thank u.

I will be forever indebted to Barry Ritchey for seeing me off that damn mountain in daze with no water, flat, little light and a failing body.

Wonderful event that i will always look back on and be proud of. One of the least fun things ive done in a while...lol. The pain and PTSD are fading at this point....

Adam, Kyle and Brian, Barry, Lightning Matt, Paul S and Paul (South Africa) and others...  It was awesome riding with u guys! U guys are a hoot to ride with! If u guys ever want to roll some southeast dirt in Asheville (Pisgah) let me know.

I will be curled up in a nursing home one day remembering that one.

Sincerely,

Rob Conklin

[Yogi the Barry]

Rob,
I feel you would have done the same for me if the tables were turned. Just riding off would not have been the right thing to do...
BTW, I really regret being so mind dead that I just didn't think to call my better half, who was awake at the upper trailhead and wondering why I wasn't there, even though Trackleaders showed me as finished. She really wanted to see me finish and I wanted you guys to meet her. Oh well...
Re: Nursing home - the idea of rides like this is keep us strong and healthy, to greatly delay the day when we go to one, right? Or is this just beating up the body and speeding up the inevitable?
Ciao,
-Barry

Dear Stephan and Scott,
Please move Barry Ritchey ahead of me in the standings as finished just before me...
I will be curled up in a nursing home one day remembering that one.
Sincerely,
Rob Conklin

[dlnewell]

Hi Rob,

Just want to say I won't forget the hilarious resupply out front of City Market and it was great riding up Cottonwood with you! I am finally starting to recover physically and mentally. What an awesome and brutal trail, and I am so happy to have finished. As I got closer and closer to the end, I could not stop thinking about crashing or a serious mechanical! Bad thoughts!! But, I guess they also go along with the late night hallucinations and stress over not having enough food for two people, or my dog??....whoa. If I am every near NC I will look you up. Same if you make it out to Utah.

Denny

[Yogi the Barry]

Rob,
I have a great photo of you at Baby Cataract Lake, over in the CTR Results thread. Other photos too...
-B

Dear Stephan and Scott,
...Wonderful event that i will always look back on and be proud of...
...I will be curled up in a nursing home one day remembering that one...
Sincerely,

Rob Conklin

[Adam Alphabet]

I got home yesterday after spending the better part of the week in Durango post race eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping and hanging with other racers. What an event this year! So many lessons learned and best of all so many great new friends met along the 540 mile journey. Many of us spend time on these forums filling the void between trips and events it's so good to meet the like minded folks in person and share time together hurting and smiling way way above sea level!
While I didn't snap many pics I'll share the few I did take.
Cheers to all the riders who persevered and to new friends whom I was fortunate enough to share time with while pushing my 28 x 11-36 hardtail along! (Easier gearing next time!) Barry, Kyle, Brian, Matt, Rob, Paul S, Paul K, Denny, Neil, Aaron, Joe, Chris, Garrett, Heather, Kurt, Scott, Tristan and everyone else out there, you all rule!

[Adam Alphabet]

1) Kyle and Brian taking a quick break after pushing up Fooses
2) Barry and Rob brothers in arms
3) Barry Finish Line Cheers!
4) Heather Finish
5) Group shot all finished within an hour or so

[hikeabike]

I know a lot of folks come to the forum looking for helpful planning information, so I thought I would share a few things I learned out there on my ride (9d10hr):

1. People will tell you that you can do this route on a hard tail. This is true, but you could also do it on a cross bike -- but you never would. Sure if you are a hardtail for life kind of person, go for it. But, especially if, like me, are a rider of mediocre technical and speed talent -- do yourself a favor and invest in the right full suspension bike for the job; I would have enjoyed my ride so much more with some squish.
2. If you are going to be pushing even more than the average Joe (me!) give serious consideration to platform pedals and hiking shoes*. By day 5 my left cleat was shot and by day 7 my right one wasn't much better. This lead to a lot of wasted time and mental energy trying to clip in, and a lot of danger as I was spontaneously ejected from my pedals over and over again on technical terrain.  I had extra cleats with me, but the allen hole basically did not exist anymore.
        * Or use a known HARD cleat that will hold up better. I was using the much maligned candy/egg beater pedals, and being well aware of the longevity concerns started the race with brand new pedals and cleats, but I never thought of the cleats wearing out on me so fast, I was much more concerned about the pedals.
3. I rode without a pack, and all the weight on my steel bike (el mar). I did this because it is what I am used to, enjoy, and I tend to suffer from saddle sores and did not want the extra weight on my back. I DID finish with very minimal saddle issues, BUT I would not do it this way again. With so much lifting, shoving, dragging and pushing of the bike, I would get some of the weight off the bike and onto my back to make forward progress easier during these challenging times.
4. I am an incredibly stubborn and "don't quit" kind of person, but I wanted to quit so badly the middle few days, and in fact quit a thousand times a day in my head, and fantasized deeply about sticking out my thumb at each highway crossing. I was 100% convinced that this was the most awful, horrible, stupid thing in the world, that I would not regret quitting and that even once it was over would think bikepack racing was the worst idea I ever had.  However, once finishing started to become a tangible reality (Silverton for me), my attitude shifted drastically (helped by the improvement in trail conditions) and I started to view the entire experience in a much more favorable light. I still do not think I would apply the word fun to the experience, and am not sure if bikepack racing is for me (I have quite a bit of touring experience, and lots of other type of bike racing experience).  All the amazing positive feedback from family, friends, and the bikepacking community have also helped ease the pain. Moral of the story: don't quit; it does get better.
5. Don't be afraid to ask strangers (generally thru-hikers -- they understand your pain) for hugs; it can turn your whole day around.  I will be forever indebted to Sam the Hiker from Denver for that 7am hug on day 5.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to the whole community for so much support.

Heather

[Yogi the Barry]

Heather,
Awesome that you did finish. I too had deep dark thoughts of bailing, while ironically biking some of the most awesome part of this course [Monarch Crest].
Great points. Why make it harder than it already inherently is?
I'll offer up two things...
1 - Gearing [you SS folks can just click thru to another thread] - In all the years of following these threads, you don't hear much about people having gearing that was too low. Usually it's their gearing was 'OK' [they are sleeping a bed of nails] or wish they had lower gearing. For animal-class riders like you and I, not they aliens who can ride anything, it's so nice to have a very low gear. There are so many miles on the CTR which are just stupid-steep and loose, made even harder with the load we carry. I ran a 21T titanium granny ring [mated with a 32T 'big' ring]. My cassette had a 36T big guy. If you do the math on 21X36 gearing, this is a very low gear which is hard to duplicate with a 1X drivetrain. Hanging on in-the-saddle, at a pokey 2.5-2.7 mph, is so much more energy efficient than hiking along at 2.2-2.5.
2 - Pedals - I get sh*t all the time, from people who look at what I ride with. After a couple rounds of debate, I usually shut them up by saying that if I ran clipless, then I'd be so fast they couldn't ride with me. Check out the photos below. Old-school, yes, But it's an awesome blend of locating the foot, like a SPD/clipless pedal does, and the freedom of a platform pedal. And you can use lightweight bike touring shoes, which have a friendly to hike-in sole. Other than a short finish-line sprint, how much do you really pull up with the leg, other than the weight of the leg? BTW, I CAN pull up with my toeclip setup. Our legs didn't evolve by being able to pull up more than the weight of the leg, but they can push way more than our entire body weight. End of sermon. Pedals are lightweight <260g Performance with some of the cage cut away. Straps are bulk Kevlar reinforced belt material from McMaster Carr [~$3/foot], but regular toe clip straps are fine. Trick with the shoes is to make sure the sole isn't too aggressive and no Frankenbolt toe spikes, so the foot can enter and exit the cage without hanging up. No cleats to loosen, clog with mud, adjust, or a need to carry along a spare cleat and bolt(s). How many people fall, due to that split second when they can't get their foot out of the pedal fast enough? Guess my sermon wasn't quite over. And yes, I need to treat my bike to a post finish wash today...

I know a lot of folks come to the forum looking for helpful planning information, so I thought I would share a few things I learned out there on my ride (9d10hr):
1. People will tell you that you can do this route on a hard tail. ...do yourself a favor and invest in the right full suspension bike for the job...
2. If you are going to be pushing even more than the average Joe (me!) give serious consideration to platform pedals and hiking shoes*. ...
3. I rode without a pack, ... BUT I would not do it this way again. ...I would get some of the weight off the bike and onto my back to make forward progress easier during these challenging times.
4. I am an incredibly stubborn and "don't quit" kind of person,... don't quit; it does get better.
5. Don't be afraid to ask strangers (generally thru-hikers ... for hugs; it can turn your whole day around.  ...
Thanks for reading, and thanks to the whole community for so much support.
Heather

[Yogi the Barry]

And a huge thanks to whoever handed me that finish line beer. You told me your name, but I was brain-dead. It's OK to be drinking at 4:45 AM, right?

...snip...
3) Barry Finish Line Cheers!
...snip...

[cmn529]

And a huge thanks to whoever handed me that finish line beer. You told me your name, but I was brain-dead. It's OK to be drinking at 4:45 AM, right?

Ha!  It was great meeting all of you guys!  Chrissy Nacos (Matt's wife)