Today is Monday August 3 2026 and yesterday, for the first time since last November, i did a bike race.
It was the 50 mile Touch Both Lines Gravel Grinder in Osceola, MO.
It was pretty good.
On Wednesday i took in my cyclo cross bike for a tune up because it's been hibernating all year. On Thursday i registered for the race. On Friday i picked up my cyclo cross bike from the shop and rode it around for about 45 minutes to get as comfortable as possible. On Saturday (race day) i was up at 4:45am and on the road around 5:50.
The weather was perfect (humidity and temps dropped big time overnight, it was almost chilly on the start line) and everything pre race went smoothly except i had no time to warm up. i wasn't stressed about that, or this race in general, but i think a proper warmup would have made a big difference.
A total of 34 people did the 50 mile course and i finished 17th.
Exactly in the middle!
i lost contact with the front group after about 5 minutes on what turned out to be a harder climb than i thought. There was a brief reconnection when the leaders had to stop for traffic and i got real excited about getting a mulligan... but after another minute or two i lost contact again and counted about 12 people riding away.
Throughout the race... i hooked up with a nice young kid for maybe 15 minutes and then he rode away. Two guys closer to my age caught me and i hung onto them for a few minutes. A guy with time trial bars caught me and i hung onto him for maybe a minute. i passed one person with about 10 miles to go.
i rode solo for probably 90% of the race and honestly i had a great time.
The course was fun, the weather was perfect, and i had my blue tooth speaker... i was thrilled to be alive.
I'll mention the weather one more time because it was kind of magical. It was overcast all race but not in a dreary way. It was windy all race but not in a bad way. It sprinkled several times but never enough to be a bother. i was bad a*s.
Anyway... The bike held up well (Thanks One Star Bicycles), the body held up well, the food and water held up well.
So all things considered i'm happy with my performance. On miles 10-35 i felt like i was getting stronger every second and while the last 15 miles were a mixed bag i finished pretty strong.
Like i said recently, i think i'm in a good position to make a significant jump in fitness and this ride backed that up.
Looking ahead i see one or two more gravel races plus a mountain bike race i can hopefully do before Little Sugar...
Bicycles!
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