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The great thing about competition is the opportunity to find what you are capable of. Yes, you can go out on your own and in theory push your limits but in reality, for me at least, that only happens in a competitive setting. Sometimes, such as last Saturday in the Flint Hills of Kansas I truly surprise myself.

The previous week’s race in Nebraska didn’t really go well. I wasn’t prepared for the wind but it was the same conditions for everyone and I still managed to finish second to last in my age group. There was some satisfaction in completing my first bike race in 35 years and it was technically my longest ride ever (by about a mile). I had a goal of finishing in 5 hours and it took me a full 6 and I felt truly destroyed at the end of the day.

Spending the week riding the roads south of Emporia I gained a little more rough road riding experience but I found I really wasn’t able to carry the speed over longer distances that I expected. On long rides, including occasional but very brief stops I would only average somewhere between 11 and 12 miles per hour. Based on that info and the fact that I was far from being rested going into the Flint Hills Gravel race on Saturday I set a target goal of 6.5 hours to complete the 75 mile route.

One thing I wanted to accomplish was to stay in touch with other groups of riders for at least the first portion of the race so I would have some help fighting the winds. The previous week in Nebraska I fell behind early and rode most of the distance on my own with no help.

I felt like I was moving fairly well early on but I didn’t really get an idea of where I was until 16 miles in where there was a few miles of out and back on the same road going to the first water stop. First, it was pretty amazing seeing the fast riders coming back toward us when we were about 1.5 miles to the water stop, meaning they were already 3 miles ahead. What really surprised me is after I stopped at the water stop (very quickly refilling a bottle and getting back on the road) was how many riders I saw still behind me. I certainly didn’t count them but I felt like I was still solidly mid pack which felt good after being nearly dead last a week before.

Much of the next 20 or so miles was heading straight north with a decent tailwind. I realized I had pushed a little harder on the first section so I eased back for these miles and didn’t worry about keeping in touch with any riders hoping that once we did turn into the wind again groups of riders would form behind me and catch up which I could then latch on to.

It was around half way where I did get a little concerned about what the course had in store for us. They had modified the route to avoid what they said was the worst of the mud due to some heavy rains in the couple of days leading on to the race. The organizer was very clear that this did NOT mean we would avoid mud all together but we would avoid the worst of the mud. We turned on to a road with very sticky mud with large chunks of gravel. The kind of mud that can destroy a nice new carbon bike frame by getting mud and gravel rubbing between the tire and the frame. I most certainly did NOT want to destroy my nice new carbon bike frame! The riding through this section wasn’t especially hard (traction was good enough to keep moving) but I did loose some time stopping to scrape out the mud. In the end this secion was only about a mile long and there wasn’t really any significant mud the rest of the route.

Beyond the mud mile the middle section of the route was fairly uneventful. The field was pretty spread out at this point but I could always see riders up ahead and behind me. Occasionally I would come up on someone slower, occasionally faster riders would come past me but in general I felt like I was holding pace about the same as the riders I could see.

It was at the final water stop with about 20 miles to go that I really started to feel like “I got this”. Leaving the water stop I saw a rider probably 1/4 mile ahead, over time I realized I was starting to catch him so I decided to push a little harder since I knew the course would turn south again into the wind and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t fighting the wind alone. I ended up riding along with him and we started chatting a bit and eded up working together.

This is where I was really shocked at how hard I was still able to push. Somehow, we were catching and passing riders, not just a few but several. I would catch up to small groups, work together with them for a bit with different riders taking turns at the front. Each time after a few turns I would look back and realize most of that group had dropped back again and it was just Dustin (the guy I had met up with earlier) and I left. So, we would keep pushing and catching the next group of riders.

With about a mile left to go we turned on to the paved road that led back into town. I could see 2 more riders between me and the finish. My quads were starting to cramp as I had been giving it all I had for the last few miles once I knew I was going to make the finish. In the end Dustin got past me as my legs had just given out but he was a younger guy and certainly not in my 50+ age category so I wasn’t too concerned about that.

My goal was to finish in 6.5 hours. I shocked myself by finishing in 5 hours averaging over 15 MPH for the day. 34th out of 79 in the men 50+ group, 105th of 214 overall, almost exactly middle of the pack. I will take it for a guy just getting back into bike racing after 35 years!

Some days you surprise yourself.