08/28/2025
Here comes the long form race recap… Buckle up!
I already posted a brief summary on my IG and page but here comes all the details.
I enlisted the help of my brother Kory with pit stops well in advance. I would have been really F’ed with out him…..
We left the house a bit late and got to Mount Ascutney at 7:30. I was a bit nervous about getting there and getting my numbers and everything squared away before the start time. Once we were there and I was taking it all in I felt much more at peace. Definitely more mellow an atmosphere there in the morning than any dirtbike racing I’ve ever done.
The race left the start area in a “neutral start” at 9am. I carried 3 bottle of 60g mix and one small water bottle from the starting as well as 8 gels/syrup packs on my back.
The most nerve racking part of the whole day for me was the mile and a half neutral start. A massive peleton of 750 bikes all jockeying for position near the front. In my inexperience I was trying to be near the front but not in the way, I was probably the 30th guy in staging and the 100th guy after we got rolling. Once we were moving a lot of guys were trying to come forward before the truck peeled off, I just didn’t want to be the guy who fell before the race really even started.
Once the neutral start was through we went up the first hill, the pack really thinned out and sorted itself out into different groups from there. I was just trying to pace myself and not blow up by being stupid and going too hard so early, in hindsight I think I played it pretty well.
After the first few hills and the field was thinned out I found myself yo-yoing off the back of a group, I’d catch up on a descent and then cling to the back on the climbs.
We finally got to a flat paved section and the group was trading pulls on the front. At that moment I really smiled and thought, this is bike racing! I was tucked up on the wheel of a guy who I felt like was loosing the group and was getting panicked that we would get dropped. But everytime I tried to come around it seemed he didn’t like that. That’s when I realized what he was doing. He’d ride third or fourth wheel. And everytime a rider came off the front he’d open up a gap so they would file in in front of him. Crafty old guy never pulled! And neither did I by following, thanks bub 😂
The first half was a lot of climbing, the class 4 sections (unmaintained highways) were brutal on my 42mm 40psi tires. But I did make up ground in them every time we went down hill.
I battled through the climbing to stay with the group and sent the descents to make up for my fitness.
As we went along the group shrunk and shrunk and shrunk until…. I was by myself….
Kory and Mackenzie gave me another bottle at the first aid and I shed an empty, somewhere between the first and second I lost a full bottle of my carb drink mix on a bumpy down hill… at that point I started to lean into the gels and when we got to the second aid station I was expecting water from Kory and Mackenzie… I rolled through and no one was there. I didn’t stop as I had not planed to but shortly there after I was realizing I was out of drink mix and had very little water left with 15 miles to go.
I was Fu**ed!
But to my surprise and joy, Kory had found an intersection on the road where they could get me a bottle, turns out you could not really drive to the second official aid. I’m pretty sure you weren’t supposed to take bottles on the road but the rules were vaugue so we did it anyway.
Maybe it was karma but I missed the very next turn after getting water from Kory and Mackenzie. As my GPS tried to correct itself I rolled down hill. When I finally realized what had happened I had gone a mile and a half out of the way! And had to ride up hill to get back on course. once I was back on and realized how confused I had been I was within the last 10 miles and decided it was time to bury myself and use up everything I had to get to the end
The end of the course is tricky and deceiving, with multiple steep punchy climbs and descents. At one point another ride told me we were in the second to last climb… and 5 more climbs came. When I got onto the pavement headed back to the ski mountain and damn near in sight of the finish I was completely waxed.
They sent us through a parking area and onto a single track that zigzagged up the hill towards the finish area, you could feel the finish coming but it felt like forever to get through that last mile, just completely on the limit with nothing left to give.
I crossed the finish line in 4 hours and 7 mins, 49 seconds- 201st place overall. My original goal was to finish sub 4 hours and I was so close to getting that done. Had it not been for my detour I probably could have done it. Hard not to dwell on that.
All in all, I’m happy with my ride and the experience I gained. I’m humbled by my result after all the effort I put in to be ready this spring but I’m definitely wanting more!
I’ll look another event to do while I’m fit this fall
Overland 2026 I’ll definitely be back!!!
