Gravel Grovel

As told by John Clasen......

Yeah, Mike put together a tough course. I had ridden much of this route in the past so I knew what we were in for and I chose to ride my GF Ferrous 29er with a carbon lefty, carbon XXX Bontrager wheels, Bontrager XR1 tires (kinda like a 1.8" wide small block 8 ) tubeless at about 45psi, 2X9, 44/32 chain rings, 11-34 cassette.

I started at a moderate pace hanging off the back of a pack of about 30-40 riders with Blake, Jake, and Amanda. It was cool riding bikes with a group like that towards the Nebo ridge trailhead since it’s usually me hauling ass down that stretch in a Subie, late for a Wednesday night ride.

We were cruising peloton style until that first hill climb across from the trailhead. That’s when the s#*t hit the fan. We made a 180-degree turn into the first climb across from the trailhead and all I heard was the desperate attempt of a bunch of people trying to downshift. There were dudes on ‘cross bikes, road bikes or whatever just stalling and hopping off like mad. If you can imagine D-day, storming the beach at Normandy, taking rounds, men falling left and right and you have to make your way through it all, that’s what I did, only on a bike with not such high consequences….maybe. (At this time I was listening to Gardenia by Kyuss, YES!)

After redlining on the toughest climb of the day less than say 10 min into the ride I just tried to gather myself for Combs Rd., which I knew was to my advantage. This road is old school and it is what broke me into southern Indiana Mountain biking. Combs was moderately muddy and steep, perfect for my 32/11-34 gearing. I passed a few dudes on the ascent and a few on the descent, nice. (By then I was into Supa Scoopa, Mighty Scoop and Demon Cleaner, Yes!!)

At this point I thought that I had time to peel off a layer and pee. Mike Hemelgarn and Blake Noland cruised up and we rolled out together. After about 30 seconds I realized that I dropped my Ipod shuffle while I shedded layers and pissed. @#$%! I thought about going back to look for it but after seeing at least half a dozen dudes fly past me with determination in their eyes I continued on, thinking that on the way back over Combs Rd. I may be able to find my Ipod. After some time I had realized that Mike and Blake may just be in it for the ride so I pressed on attempting to catch onto the group of 6-8 dudes I could see in the distance. This continued for some time over rolling gravel roads, 30-40 minutes? After a bit they began to break up and it must have been on the next considerable climb when they began to drop off one by one. As I began to catch and pass a bunch of guys on ‘cross bikes, out of nowhere came two guys in IU kits. It turned out to be the Kiel bros. Matt and Ryan, who had flatted earlier and were attempting to catch back on to the leaders. A few seconds of pain and I was on! The three of us traded pulls for awhile, maybe 30-45min. We hammered it. We hoot and hollered that gravel and dirt. Then they dropped me on an extended paved section. I knew I would not be able to hang the whole way. I was just along for the ride for as long as I could. I decided at that point to ride my own ride. Push it. Not kill it.

The out and back to 446 was cool. I saw the leader Rytlewski, then Messer and another not far behind. I was counting how many passed. That is when I realized that I was towards the front. At the turn around I stretched my back, got some water and ate a Quaker Oats granola bar (what, no little chocolate doughnuts? WTF Mike!). This was the toughest part of the ride for me. My back was tight and my legs felt burnt up. Wischmeier bridged up to me and we rode together for a bit and talked about keeping ahead of the group of half dozen dudes that were not to far behind. I began to pick it up on some of the rollers. I just let it go whenever I could, pedaled hard on any incline and kept all the momentum I could in the flowed out turns of the gravel roads.

It wasn’t too long before I was in familiar territory and I began to feel much better about where I was headed and how long it would take me to get there. I killed it from Maumee to Combs Rd., I stopped for a minute to look for my Ipod, no luck. Then I headed up towards the Nebo Ridge trail, and then down. I aggressively passed a rider on a ‘cross bike on the descent, I got some air on a water bar and just after landing proceeded to run straight into a fallen tree. The guy I just passed skidded straight into me, did a nice OTB and landed on my front wheel.

At this time my front wheel was wobbling horribly and my front disc brake rotor was bent also. I was almost home though so I just kept it going until the next intersection. I thought I knew which way to go but I wasn’t sure so I began to look for course markers, I went one way and then the other. The rider that did a cartwheel onto my front wheel caught back up and we soft pedaled until we saw a car and we asked if they had seen any other cyclists headed back the way that they had came from. They said yes and we were gone.

One monster climb remained, borderline cramps ensued. I definitely made the right choice with the Ferrous 29er over the Surly cross check, most others walked the last couple climbs. They were brutal and I was thankful for the lower gearing. I was over the top of the final climb and home free, not a soul in sight.

I ended up finishing 15th. I’m still unsure of my time, it must have been around 3:30 or so. I did find my Ipod while I was changing clothes. It had fallen down my pants!

I’m up for doing this again soon. I’m sure we could get Mike Sharp to ride it also, it would be nice to hear his thoughts on the course and the possibilities for the 2010 Gravel Grovel.

http://gravelgrovel.com/