DWR500: The Prep
Steve test riding his setup at Tar Hollow
TEST, TEST, TEST! With 500 km** of Ohio terrain to cover and the potential for any and all types of weather in early December, Jen and Steve wanted to make sure that their gear was dialed. One advantage of having a sanctioned World Ultra Cycling Association (WUCA) route record attempt is that you are required to have a follow vehicle with officials and a crew. This means that extra clothing, equipment, and food/ water could be carried and easily accessible! Some of you may be laughing saying, “ha well that makes this way easier!” but don’t forget this meant that they had to find a vehicle that could handle the rowdy gravel roads and willing friends to drive at 10-15mph for 30 hours on top of getting their gear set. Anyways, let’s get back to the fun stuff!
Luckily, Jen and Steve came into this crazy idea with a solid base and plenty of gravel miles. They had spent a majority of the Summer and Fall working with Eric at ERG Cycling to get their fits dialed and riding positions optimized. Although their bikes were dialed (or so they thought), the idea of riding in the winter threw a whole bunch of unknown variables into the mix when it came to clothing. This made the prep that much more exciting (and moderately terrifying)! The first step was to reach out to their local bike shop, Paradise Garage, and stock up on winter riding jackets, waterproof pants that can also withstand the cold, bar mitts, and of course lights for technical night riding. Now that they were equipped with their new cold weather gear, it was time to take it for a test ride! What better way to do that than an 80 mile ride around the Mohican gravel (some of which was on the DW500 course) in 40 degrees AND rain?!
Elevation profile of the Mohican ride.
While their Kenda Booster tires crushed anything the Mohican route could throw at them, Jen’s drivetrain was not thrilled with the wet, sandy terrain that made its way into, well, everything. With about 20 miles to go left in the ride, Jen lost a majority of her shifting which ultimately lead her to make the decision to switch to Shimano Ultegra Di2 (pulled from her CX bike). Steve also learned that having mechanical disc brakes was not going to be an option if he wanted to survive the gnarly hills and technical descents at night. Hydro it is and time to call Paradise Garage! With such a high demand for bike builds and being less than a week out, they were cutting it close to get on the schedule before it was time to head out. Paradise Garage worked some miracles and was able to get everything completed by that Thursday (attempt was Saturday). But that’s not all that needed done! With such significant changes to the cockpit, it would be ill advised to attempt such a long ride without getting fit. And here another hero emerged - Eric from ERG! And so there they were, the night before the event, getting their fits fine tuned and ready to shred. Having worked closely with Eric for years to dial their bikes in was a huge advantage when it came to making sure the bike setups were just right and not going to result in injury.
And with that, they were ready to roll out Saturday morning! Next up we will look at their bikes. What did they carry? What tires did they run? Gear ratios? The suspense is palpable.
** 500k route taken from (with minor modifications to meet WUCA standards) the Dirty Water Route, created by Anthony Bunt of Ashland Bike Co.
