cartwheelsandcake – Page 2 – Cartwheels and Cake

♨️🚤 Gravel

But first, COVID:

After UnboundXL June and July were a bit of a whirlwind. Putting on the 10th and final World Domination Summit (which was supposed to happen in 2020) took Paul and I to Portland in late June. Paul raced the Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder while I worked on the week-long event. Despite taking excessively careful COVID measures Paul came down with COVID the day we were headed back to Boulder (via car). And after 20 hours in the car together I tested positive a couple days later. Boo. We weren’t hit as hard as some but we were … Continue reading

UnboundXL gear choices

Just for fun, a review of what I took with me on my first ultra distance race including my repair kit, food, spare gear, and even what I wore. Here we go:

The seat bag:

I used a Topeak medium aero wedge pack (a size up from my usual small bag) with the following inside:

Spare eTap battery (I needed this some 200-odd miles in!)
Two mini bottles of Rock N Roll Gold lube (I had a hot waxed chain, which I was not at all sold on but would absolutely do again for a long race like this, however

In which the unbelievable becomes real

The first part of this story left off at 2:00 AM and, by mileage, not quite half way through the race. Betsy and I are still riding together, and I’m starting to feel sluggish. Not particularly sleepy but more like I’m running out of gas to keep my legs turning over. This might have been because I hadn’t been able to eat a lot for the past couple of hours. My stomach had been cranky, and I’d been giving it some space to settle down. But I knew it was time to keep eating, and I started working on my … Continue reading

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity

Or something like that…

June 2022 was an absolute whirlwind – a cyclone of bike racing, family visits, road tripping, week-long event production with a world record, annnnnd COVID. But it all kicked off with Unbound XL, and I want to share some highlights of that experience before they turn into one green and golden and dirt colored mushy memory. So, let’s start with day one:

Paul met back up with me at the hotel after his volunteer shift. I’d been drinking my Skratch Wellness Mix, trying to keep eating, packing up the … Continue reading

Unbound XL, let’s go!

Well, I had dreams of adding some blog updates before this but things have been busy. But I didn’t want to ride off on my biggest ride without putting down a few thoughts ahead of it.

It’s currently 11AM, 4 hours until we roll out. The bike is packed and prepped, the last few lights are charging, and I have just a couple final things to cross off the to-do list before go time.

The energy in Emporia has been incredible – the whole town seems to be welcoming riders, from the used car dealership to the churches to the … Continue reading

The 2022 race season

As the 2021 race season was wrapping up I kept hearing about all the great races coming in 2022. It seemed like there was an endless number of gravel races I could sign up for, many of them within a day’s drive of Boulder. And even though the season was just ending, registration (or a lottery!) for many of these races would open before the year closed. In fact, so overwhelmed by my options, I ended up making a spreadsheet just to keep track.

A sample of the races (and just some of the info) I was keeping track of