World Tour Week Two: Hellhole Pre-Ride

Look! A 47! It's blurry and I don't care. It was early. 

4:00- Alarm. Snooze
4:09- Alarm. Fine, I'll get up. It's Hellhole pre-ride day!
4:35- The car, mostly packed the night before, leaves the driveway in route to Francis Marion National Forest, a mere two hour drive from Columbia.

Look! A picture of me! I was happy to be riding despite the early start.

I've been looking forward to pre-riding the Hellhole course, or at least getting an idea of what to expect for a while now. So while I wasn't exactly excited that the ride was leaving at 7:30 that morning, I knew it would totally be worth it to make the drive.

A merry group of six set out for our 65 mile trip traversing the gravel roads of the national forest. While we weren't exactly riding the course on which the race will be held, it was still super sweet because 65 miles of gravel! Seriously. That's a lot of dirt road. It was awesome. This also gave me opportunity to test out the equipment I plan to use for the race.

My wheels of choice for the gravel stage race in September are my Myerson sell-me-down Kazane road wheels. The wheels aren't exactly big and beefy, but they've held up to all the abuse I've put them through in the past few years and they're relatively light. They'll be wrapped in 35 millimeter Kenda Happy Mediums. I've been riding a Happy Medium on my front training wheel on my 'cross bike for well over a year and raced on this set at the May 'cross race, but I was excited to see how they would work in a long gravel setting like this one. I'd say my random ass pressure choice was good. The dirt on which we rode wasn't super rocky. There were a few sections that had large pieces of gravel, but for the most part I'd say the roads were just as smooth as most Richland County roads. Yes, I mean the asphalt ones. I ride on the service roads at Harbison Forest pretty regularly, and have a history of pinch flatting on pieces of rock there and that wasn't TOO much of an issue in Francis Marion. However, there are a metric shit ton of pot holes out there, so pinching would still be a threat.

Being more concerned with not pinching than being super comfortable, I went a little bit high with my pressure. The tires still felt really good though. I never felt like I was getting beat up by my bike, and I didn't have a flat (there were a few flats in our group Saturday morning, but luckily I dodged that bullet). I MIGHT (depending on whether or not I can drop these pesky last three pounds) take a few pounds out of the tires come race day, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I was pleased Saturday, so it's probably best not to test my luck.

What really impressed me with the tires was how well they gripped, even at such high pressure. While there wasn't a lot of turning on the ride, and even less turning at speed, the numerous holes put tire grip to the test. If you're riding behind someone and see a hole at the last second, you're going to want to not hit it and probably swerve... hard. Every time I moved to avoid a hole, the tires stayed firmly connected to the ground. There were a couple of times I TRIED to break them free, but they stayed put.

Most of our group taking a break from the gravel

As far as the actual race is concerned, I still have next to NO IDEA what to expect. I at least know that my stuff works, and that I should probably consider a third water bottle, and that I should bring bug spray (a ton of bug spray) but otherwise, the event is still pretty cloudy to me. Racing in the men's open category means there are going to be a lot of guys there that are way stronger than me. So I'm approaching it more as a long training race, plus a really fun event, double plus an excuse to go to the low country. 

One final thought- outside of pure strength/fitness and bad luck, there's not a lot on the course to force a selection in the race. There's going to be a lot of small groups riding together. Riding in a group on a course like this is wacky. You've got to trust the person in front of you a lot and be ready for them to move sideways rapidly or slow down rapidly. Riding behind someone also means that you won't be able to see the awful stuff in front of them (namely, pot holes) so you have to constantly be on your toes and ready to not break your wheels and ass. One of our group learned the hard way that if the rider in front of them slows down or hits a hole, you need to react or else you'll make a blood sacrifice to the gravel gods. 

Thanks to Anne and Chris for inviting me down to ride. And for not holding it against me that I didn't ride with them this morning. I'm stoked for September!

Pack some spare tubes and a lot of food and register for Hellhole in September.