Thanks!

Thanks to everyone that came out to the first AntiEpic Gravel Grinder.
Before I get to posting more, I'd like to see if anyone is interested in joining me to have a short discussion about your race on here:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mountain-bike-race-minute

If you are, let's get it scheduled very soon. Email me: ben@twenty2cycles.com.

Final Post

About 10.5 hours left until go time....the final post before the ride starts....

If you are questioning anything, you should be!
6:30 we roll out of Greenland Open Space.

First off, I really want to thank everyone for all of their interest so far. I hope that your day goes well and I look forward to seeing you all out there. I look forward to hearing what you have to say when you are done too, so we can do this again next year.

Now...on to being a little cocky...ha...
Weather? There will be sun, there may be clouds, there may be wind or there may not be. Check out your trusted weather forecast and come prepared.

I've received a lot of emails and questions about things - weather, course conditions, tires, water, wind, time, course. I've happily answered them, but I'm a little nervous about doing this because it's supposed to be a self supported event. The beauty of it is that everyone is allowed to figure out how they want to do it. No big boss man laying down a bunch of rules.
Some goods for tomorrow. I would appreciate any donations - a $1 or 2 would be cool just to cover what you see here. Everybody won't get a cookie, but I'm sure that you'll all get at least one of something.

In case you're a little nervous and wondering about yourself.....
here's some motivation.



Thanks to Shane for this one:

Another Map Update

I will not be providing a 100 mile version map. There is some talk over on the registration site about it though: http://coloradoes.wordpress.com/swes-event-list/antiepic-gravel-grinder/antiepic-registration/

Thanks to Shane, here is another link to use to download the map for Saturday. Bikeroutetoaster.com is good for mapping rides, apparently doesn't play well with the Garmin Edge 800.

Shane added the route to Garmin Connect to help some of you load this monster to your device.

AntiEpic course in Garmin Connect:

http://connect.garmin.com/course/921204

Final Map

Hello riders,

Here's the final map:  http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=371718
(You'll note that the map says that the estimated time is 9:37 - this is no way possible - it's based on going 30mph on the flats...good luck.)

You can just download, but I would recommend also making yourself some cue sheets.

We'll meet at the Greenland Open Space, do a neutral rollout for a couple miles and then go from there.
The end will be at the corner of Greenland Road and Mesa View Road.

You'll note that the course does not go into Deer Trail, so if you can carry all of your food and water for the entire route, you can save yourself some good time by skipping the town of Deer Trail. There is no other refueling point, so probably not a good idea to skip the two well stocked gas stations in town.

It's going to take a long time. You may want to bring lights just in case.

if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at ben@twenty2cycles.com

Here is the roster that is posted up on the Colorado Endurance Series site:

• John Hutchinson
• Ryan Fonkert
• Bob Stellick
• Anthony Newsom (100miles)
• Kristi Olson (100 miles)
• Ken Boyer
• Steven Pamlneyi
• Jeff VanDerLinden
• Shane DeMars
• Michael Beck
• Greg Bachman
• Adam Perkins
• Mark Walker
• Aaron Weinsheimer
• Chad Gorby
• Noah Schabacker
• Brian Behn
• Eric Schraufnagel
• Jason Haubelt
• Chris Skogen
• KT DeSantis
• Bill Ruth
• Scott Hendricks
• Jeff Hammond
• Bryan Krause
• Pete Schuster
• Cameron Chambers
• Jayson Middlemiss
• LeLan Dains
• Kevin Thomas
• Trapper Steinle
• Nick Klinkers
• Jim Fluharty-Cooper
• Dave Nordstrom

We'll see who shows up on Saturday! See you then!

working on it

hey gang. I'm working on the final post. please hang with me.
for now, this is the original and still pretty close:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/63155786/

there are only a couple small turns and roads that need to be updated.
i will then release the final one and post the cues here.

the rest is then up to you.
there may or may not be course angels with cookies - yet to be confirmed.

just a reminder that there is more info here: http://antiepic.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-information.html

Sunday Recon

Sorry...this post is already a couple days late...
Sunday I headed out with Shane to do a little recon of the northern half of the race.
It's a good thing that we did because there were some roads that are shown on the map, with names, that don't exist.

We did scout out the two gas stations in Deer Trail and can confirm that they are well stocked. There is also a restaurant in town - the Historic Brown Derby Restaurant & Saloon. They do have "restaurant" crossed out on one of the sign, BUT they did have a small sign out front that advertised sloppy joes and coleslaw for $6.95. We didn't ride around the rest of town to check if someone took advantage of the Brown Derby demoting their status to just a saloon.

I'm working on the final map and cues, so hang with me over the next week or so. It'll give you a couple weeks to study the map, make your cues, figure out your way.

If you haven't checked the registration page lately, you should! It's a long list!! Go HERE for the list.

Shane and I knocked out 102 miles of gravel in about 6.5 hours of ride time. The weather was nice - not as warm as we had hoped, but nice, calm, and good for doing a 100-miler. It was good to finally meet Shane after meeting online (sounds kind of creepy) a couple months ago with the start of all this gravel grinder stuff. He's a good rider and has his sites set on the Dirty Kanza 200 in June. He has his own little challenge up on the Colorado Endurance Series calendar that you should check out - the Rampart Rumble Gravel Grovel . If you want to keep up with his pursuit of the Kanza or any updates on his race or other gravel stuff, follow http://www.gravelquest.blogspot.com .

We saw a couple notable thing, but didn't get pictures of them: 2 herds of pronghorn and 1 pheasant hunter who held up his prize as we passed him and his dog working away in the field.
Here are some pictures I did get, so I'll share those:

My gravel rig, well, need skinnier tires...including all 200+ ounces of fluid (man, the seat looks really tilted in this pic - it's not)

Keep out of what..I'm not sure.

Doesn't matter how pretty you are - nobody's safe.

The nice common home in the quaint country town of Deer Trail. They are living the simple country life - don't even need an address sign.

Endless views!

Just over a month left!

So, if you haven't happen to check out the latest list, it looks like 29 people have committed.
April 7th is coming fast, so make sure you are pedaling a lot.

Here's the list so far.

http://coloradoes.wordpress.com/swes-event-list/antiepic-gravel-grinder/antiepic-registration/

I will do a repost of the map soon and then do a post that will be your cue sheet.
I've gotten requests for a gps track, but I'm going to steer clear of doing that. Why? Because this is meant to be a little more work than just going out and following a line on the gps.

It is meant for you to find your way around. Have a cue sheet, write notes, study up, and do whatever else you need to do. Hell, leave a trail of bread crumbs if you want. It's not like you are riding from Canada to Mexico, so it shouldn't be too crazy. It's only 150 miles on gravel.

The full map is on the Information Post, so go back in the blog and you'll find the main page of info.
Any questions, leave a comment or send me an email at ben@twenty2cycles.com.