Reliance Deep Woods Gravel Race - Stage 2

After a restless night's sleep (achy legs), Sunday morning I drove back to the venue with my Trek Checkpoint sporting 45mm Continental Terra Speeds.  They would be a little sketch in some areas of the course, but with 23 miles of pavement and mostly smooth'ish gravel (relatively speaking), this bike was gonna be fast, as long as I had the legs to power it.

Today's course was 60 miles and 7300 feet. It was another fast start uphill on Hwy 30.  Having a 45 minute lead over 2nd place, I took it easy and settled in behind a group of ladies.  Chelsie took off like a missile.  I miss those days where just one good night's sleep and I was ready to hammer again the following day. I spotted a fellow Scott's Bikes jersey and introduced myself. It was Sara Fletcher, who I follow on Strava and kinda knew about, but finally got to meet her in person.  We chatted briefly during those pavement miles.

After some initial rollers, I felt my legs begin to come around.  Having happy legs made the 10 mile Kimsey climb more manageable and I was able to pull away from the group of women I had ridden the first few miles with. There was a fella riding just slightly harder than me on this climb, so I stuck to his wheel and let him tow me up the mountain.  A nice comfortably hard pace, but not one that required any match burning. Once at the top, I prepared myself for the chunky descent down Ditney, which we had ridden up yesterday.  Those 4.4 miles I settled into a conservative "don't wanna flat" speed.  Halfway in, I came across two ladies, one helping the other who had flatted.  I think I may have slowed down a bit more after that.

My pacer just up ahead on Kimsey

Heading down to Farner, I was in no man's land.  Very lonely for this 5 mile stretch of rolling pavement. Turning right onto Hiwassee River Road, I was on a dirt road as smooth as a baby's bottom.  Man, if only I had the power on the flats, but I had to settle into a nice tempo pace. Sara ended up catching me on Shuler Creek Road and we chatted a bit to pass the time on the flats.

Shuler Creek

Once we turned left onto the Unicoi Turnpike (Joe Brown Hwy), so began a 3.5 mile climb up to Unicoi Gap where the aid station was.  I thought Sara was behind me, as I heard a second set of wheels, but it was the fella that paced me up Kimsey Mountain.  So I hopped back on his wheel and finished the climb with him.

At the aid station, Matt partially filled a bottle for me. I was in and out in less than 20 seconds. The descent down Joe Brown to Cooper Hollow was fast and furiously smooth. Legs were feeling fairly good so was able to make quick work of the pavement over to Ironsburg Road.  Ahhh ... fresh buttery smooth pavement!

I struggled a bit on the initial climb up Duckett Ridge.  But also ran into the owner of the Swedish looking red house on the right.  Paid him a nice compliment as I passed by as I have always admired that house.

Along the second half of Fingerboard, with all those short punchy climbs, the wheels started to come off.  My low fuel light came on. But I could smell the finish.  Just get up this final friggin' tar n chip climb.  Ooomph!  I hit the Towee Pike descent to Childer's Creek.  Who the f*ck put all those rollers on Childers?  I didn't remember those!  Yep, I was tired and ready to be done.  Up and over, up and over, up and over I pedaled until my legs filled with lead.

Rolling past the JMT trailhead, I was at 4:55.  I challenged myself to get to the finish under 5 hours.  It hurt like hell, but I managed to squeak it in at 4:59.  I had to yell out my number at the finish.  This was old school watch timing.  And the timer was busy talking to someone who had finished just before me 😆.

And with that, I wrapped up a win in the Master's category with a combined time of 11:06.  

With the win, I scored some $$, a cool trophy, and a free entry to next year's race.  

Once again, I want to thank Shannon and Celeste for a wonderful weekend of fun sprinkled with a wee bit of suffering.  Overall, I was extremely satisfied with my performance.  These past couple of years have been a bit of a struggle having sparkly days.  You know, the kind of race where it feels almost effortless.  But with dialing in my sleeps, nutrition, recovery, strength training, and trail running/hiking, this body has become stronger and more resilient. Just gotta stay on track.

Reliance Deep Woods Gravel Race - Stage 1

 

Shannon Burke, who operates TennesseeGravel.com, started this 2 day gravel race last year.  With a few tweaks this year and a lot more sponsors, he had upped the game and I had a feeling this was gonna be a great weekend to race, swap stories, and even party a little. You could race the long routes, or you had the option of riding 2 shorter courses each day.  Afterwards, you could clean up at the campground, chow down on some grub, and have a beer or NA beer, or two. This was as much a festival as it was a race.

Saturday's course was burly: 66 miles and 9200 feet.  And with a good bit of chunky gravel/double track, my 2016 Niner RKT RDO with 2.2 Race Kings was the right bike for the gnar.  It had dumped rain the night before, so sections of the course could be particularly spicey. The starting temperature was 60 degrees ... perfect!

The start was faster than my legs wanted to go this early on, but I knew I needed to hang on to enjoy the draft going up Childer's Creek and Power House Road.  Five miles of mostly free speed on pavement ... I will take it!  Just that one stiff little climb, where I was able to pull away from a few ladies, as the diesel engine was warmed up ... much sooner than I expected. The 3 mile climb after the swinging bridge went by quickly.  Well, hello there, sparkly legs!

The Smith Mountain climb was a beast at 6 miles of chunky double track.  Fortunately, I was having a great day and ended up passing another woman on a short descent.  This section was quite wet and a little muddy, but the Kings were hooking up well.  Wish I woulda tried these tires years ago!  

I followed Scott, aka "Sugar," down the Kimsey descent to Piney Flats. This descent is WAY more fun after only 20 miles in your legs as opposed to 120 miles when doing the Dirty 130.  Piney Flats was wet but grippy.  There were a couple of severely rutted out sections where you had to carefully pick your lines.

The aid station was at mile 32.  I stopped briefly to eat a banana and refill one bottle.  Then I was off to tackle the 10 mile Wolf Creek-McFarland climb.  The Wolf Creek section was smooth, 6-8 % average grade.  Legs were still sparkly ... huzzah! From there, I made the right turn onto McFarland and continued climbing another 5 miles, but with horribly steep pitches, washed out road beds, and chonky bedrock to negotiate. Still motoring, I made it to the top in record time, a new PR for me!

Then it was back to Smith Mountain, but this time I got to descend it.  Got a chance to recover a bit, although I still had to stay focused, as it was wet and chunky. As I turned right off of the Smith Mountain descent, Randy Kerr came riding up behind me.  WTH?!? Apparently he had ridden the Piney Flats section twice instead of coming down Smith.  Man, I hated it for him.  When the course has lots of criss-crossing, you have got to be astute in doing your homework, as well as watching for the upcoming turns, so that you don't end up repeating a section or going backwards on the course.  Ask me how I know ... Gravel Worlds 2023 😣

I passed by the aid station without stopping and then began the short climb on Lost Creek.  I could not believe how good I was still feeling. The last 13 miles seemed to fly by, standing and hammering the climbs and raging the descents.  I tried to stay conservative, as tomorrow was another hard day, but I was having so much fun. I ended up PR'ing the Lost Creek section, too.

I rolled into the finish line, 1st Master's and 2nd woman, with a time of 6:07.  Chelsie Tan had finished in 6:04.  I had heard about her and finally got to meet her.  Tiny, she's lucky is she stands 5'1", but I bet her watts/kg is phenomenal.  Previously a World Tour level athlete, she has found that mountain biking is much more fun. And today's course was a mountain bike course, for sure!

Unfortunately, I could not stay and join in the afternoon camraderie and festivities, as I had to go home to let the kids out.  Both Carly and Charlie had to work today.  But it also gave me good reason to get home and try to recover for tomorrow's stage.

This year's Day 1 course was so much better than last year's.  Long climbs and technical descents made for a great day of racing and adventure in my backyard.  If you want champagne gravel, head to the middle of the country.  If you want to do hard things and destroy your limits, then this race is for YOU!