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With a late start to the season, my goal was to cram as many races in to the fall as possible and have some fun. Mrs G and I had planned a camping trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan around the peak of the leaf change. It just so happened that that weekend was also the Moran 166 gravel race…imagine that!??

With no real volume in my legs this year I entered the “66” race and looking at last years results, it was going to be a fun all out slugfest. On the whistle, the neutral roll out began.

The roll out pushed us into the Hiawatha National Forest where the roads were initially champagne gravel: smooth, small gravel and fast. While the course was rolling, there were no big hills to split the group and so the pace was immediately high. I’d set a couple of goals for todays adventure: stay at the front, animate the group if I could and hang on. Pretty simple.

It strung out quite quickly. Initially the group was a hundred or so, when I looked back the group looked huge. Eventually splits did start to happen and one time I felt myself day dreaming and slipping back. When I jumped into the wind to make up some spots, I did so with relative ease, even though we were cruising along at 24+. I felt like today maybe a good day.

We turned onto a seasonal road which was decent “underfoot” but narrow and windy. I sat close to the front, took some pulls and complained to those sharing the load about others not doing any work. The pace splintered into twenty or so and while sitting on the front, the guy I complained to jumped off the front with another, I looked back for some help and no one pulled through. I sat up. After letting myself rest a little I jumped off the front in an attempt to catch the two who’d gotten away. The group stayed on my wheel and although I’d narrowed the gap by half, no one would pull-through. This happened three times. I had to work really hard to hold back my annoyance.

The good news was that now this group was down to maybe ten with plenty more riding ahead. The next section was a really rough two track, again, I went to the front and pushed the pace which split the group again to five which worked out well as everyone was willing to work. I did put in a little too much work though because at one point I got gapped and had to REALLY burn some matches to stay connected.

Somehow, after ten miles or so, the small group behind caught back up on some smooth gravel and again, many of these would simply not pull through and share the load. This caused a lot of infighting and a slowing of pace, the front two would never be seen again.

A couple eventually fell off the pace on a rough snowmobile trail and the group rolled along awaiting the finish. It turned fast with plenty of attacks. I was pretty cooked and was struggling with the pace. We’d averaged 21mph for three hours even with rough terrain and sitting up. The finish was a small cyclocross course which was fun and I was able to make up a couple of spots that I’d lost in the final sprint to the final turn. Overall 8th on the day which wasn’t to bad for an old guy. I’d caught my injured finger on a branch during the race and it was a bit sore taking my glove off, but it was still there. I’d accomplished my goals, had fun and had earned some rest hiking and camping in the north woods.