Category: Cycling

Little Apple Gravel Race 50K – Race Report

August 3, 2025 – Manhattan, IL – 50K Open Division

Results: 50K Open – Male: 24th out of 40, no official time listed

Watch data: 30.68 miles – 1:53:20 – 16.2 mph/ave.

I completed my first bike race today! Well, kinda sorta. Although I’ve raced my bike in numerous triathlons, this was my first cycling-only race, a 50K gravel race on a great day. There were 48 registrants in my division – the Open 50K, with many others doing longer distances, some requiring a license that I lack, and after today, have no desire to obtain one. Those people are in a different league.

I arrived early enough to find a good parking spot under a shady tree and picked up my number placard, which goes on the front of your bike. There was a table next to the pick-up area that had some fun trinkets and a sign near some stickers that said something like Team Dog or Team Cat – Choose wisely. I chose Team Dog and stuck the sticker on my number.

Even the dog thinks this might not be a good idea.

Looking fairly fresh just before the start of the race. Somehow, I missed my friend Jim’s call for a pre-ride group photo, but I still had a chance to get in a shot or two with people I had no idea who they were.

The course is billed as 88% gravel and runs through the farm areas of the southern Chicago area. The start is a neutral roll-out, where there’s no racing and is designed to get the group going without any incidents. A little after a mile, the race is on. I saw Jim and another friend, Dan, just before they started their 100K ride. Dan wished me luck and advised me to “stay between the ditches.” As we got rolling and started racing, we came to the first turn and the first section of gravel, and that is when I saw my first crash. The guy went into the turn a little too hot and wiped out. I was surprised to see him at the finish later on, looking good and in one piece. It looked to be a bad wipeout.

The gravel section is hard enough, but the course started heading uphill and into a headwind. It was at this point that I realized the packs of riders ahead would be tough to catch, and I found myself riding pretty much on my own, which I didn’t mind. This section was about five miles long, and I just kept focused on keeping a good cadence and finding the best line, usually the car tire-packed-down area of the gravel road. There were plenty of bike tire tracks to use as a guide as well.

I was finally catching up with some other riders and caught my friends Chris and Kristin, who had started strong, but I was finally able to pull them in. Chris rode on my wheel for a while, but then I pulled away. We were three Chris’s for a mile or two.

I had ridden the course a little over a week ago and remembered which areas to be cautious in. Someone nicknamed a section of very soft gravel the “Devil’s Gravel,” and that section had some white knuckle moments. Around 23 miles into it, I saw a second rider who had just passed me and another rider go down around a corner. His helmeted head hit the ground hard enough for me to gasp, but the gravel was so soft there that it didn’t seem to phase him. I saw him later on as well, and he advised that he was fine.

Right after the guy went down, I chatted up “Matt” and we started working together to get to the finish, and by together I mean, I got on his wheel and tried to hold on. When we finally got to a paved road again, it was I who took the lead and let him hang on for a while, but he was a little faster going up the hills. As we turned onto the final straight to the finish, we both pushed pretty hard, trying to catch the guy ahead of us. Somehow, I finished ahead of Matt, but I’m not sure if he was happy to let me go, knowing that there really wasn’t anyone challenging us from behind, or was out of gas and had no sprint finish left. Well, I gave it my best effort regardless.

Pretty dirty at the finish.

In all, it was a day of riding hard, being cautious, and enjoying a great race for the first time. I may have to do this one again!

Ka-KLUNK! & Other Noises From Me

My gravel bike has been my riding choice this year, as it is more versatile and the tri-bike hangs in the garage, needing a tune-up and a reason to do it. Most of my weekday rides have been in the 20-25 mile range and I have stayed mainly on the local paved trail. Some of it is smooth as butter, but most of the portions of the trail have cracks and bumps, which are hard to avoid. And every bump lately has also come with a loud Ka-KLUNK! The sound was curious at first, causing me to wonder about it, but also to completely ignore it. But on my ride on Thursday, the sound was really bugging me.

The sound sometimes sounded like it came from the front fork, other times it was the back of the bike. But it seemed to echo through the carbon fiber frame of my bike. I tried coasting over bumps – Ka-KLUNK! I tried riding faster over bumps – Ka-KLUNK! I removed my water bottle – Ka-KLUNK! I checked and tightened all my screws – Ka-KLUNK! I removed the top tube bag which contains a bunch of stuff – Ka-KLUNK! One last thing to check was the saddle bag, which includes my flat repair tools – BINGO! No more Ka-KLUNK! It was a little surprising because it was tucked very tightly under the saddle and packed so full of junk that nothing loose could have been moving around. I added a piece of foam between the bag and saddle for now and have been riding Ka-KLUNK-free.

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I had gotten a couple of flats while riding on the tarred and chipped roads we have around here, and the inspection of my rear tire showed considerable wear on it. Little pointy rocks on the road and on the crushed limestone paths were easily causing small cuts and piercing my tube. I ended up buying a new tire to replace it. Replacing the tire was not easy. I got the old tire off easily enough, but the new tire was not going on at all. My son was called in to assist and we both struggled to get this tire on the wheel. We were eventually able to muscle it on, but it left me thinking about how hard it would be to fix a flat while out riding by myself.

I was scrolling through Reddit and saw a post on r/bikewrench from a guy who was having the same issue – couldn’t get the tire on the wheel. One guy responded that he could get it on in about 30 seconds. Others chimed in with the same advice the 30-second guy had and I was embarrassed to admit I had not heard of these instructions before. I bought a new matching tire for the front wheel and it went on much easier, and without having to call for assistance.

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One of the reasons to replace the front tire to match the back was to avoid looking silly, but also because I am doing my first triathlon in 3 years next weekend!  Yes, I’m racing a gravel/off-road triathlon next Saturday and the tires I have added to the bike should make for good traction at this course.  It’s a crushed limestone path with lots of turns, so hopefully I won’t have any problems negotiating those turns.  

I found myself looking at the participant’s list, hoping to see if I knew any other locals racing, but couldn’t resist taking a peek at what the competition looked like in the M60-64 age group.  There was one guy I found who had a very similar finish time to me and I figured he was my main competition.  I searched his name and found that he’s a triathlon coach.  Great.  Well, I’m still going to give it a good effort and try to be competitive, despite trying to ease back into it after having hamstring injuries earlier this year.  While I was on vacation, I was able to ride 10 miles in about 35 minutes and run 3 miles in about 25, so I’m not too far from my race pace effort.  

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Speaking of coming back from injuries, I have been doing much better.  After my above-mentioned 25-mile bike ride on Thursday, I followed it up with a 9-mile run on Friday.  I fully expected to be sore and have to run a little slower on a rather warm and humid day.  But I was surprised to be running very well and pushed a good effort through 6-7 miles before the heat made me dial it back.  I’m glad that the stretching and smart training I have done has made a difference.  I just got to keep it up and not do something stupid like racing.  

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There’s a new Ironman 70.3 in Rockford, Illinois next year and of course, I had to sign up for it!  Feeling good about riding and running again, and since this race is fairly close to me, I decided that this is would be a good reentry point.  It’ll be a fun time!

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I haven’t told the wife yet, but I signed up for the Broken Anvil Backyard Ultra yesterday.  The race director said it was filling up and was capped at 100 participants.  So I checked and saw that it had 79 runners so far and figured why not sign up?  The race falls about 3 weeks out from the Chicago Marathon, so I can use it as my last long training run before then.  I really like the backyard format and this race has been fun the past two times I have done it.  I got through 50 miles in 2022, and 37 miles in 2023, so I’ll play it by ear and try to have some fun without wrecking myself. 

I’d better tell the wife that I signed up.  She hates it when she finds out on Facebook.  If I don’t break it to her soon, you might hear a Ka-KLUNK! from my skull.

The Illusion of Speed

I got some new shoes the other day and immediately felt faster. I wasn’t actually faster, but I felt like I was. I could think of a couple of reasons that made me feel that way.

First, I have been running in black colored shoes. I used to avoid black shoes because they had the opposite effect on me – they made me feel slow for some reason. Black just seems clunky in my head. But black goes best with my winter running gear, and I guess I just carried black shoes over into the summer. My new shoes are a light grey and when I started the run I felt like an Olympian, running with speed and grace.

The second reason is a little more obvious, they were new, felt springy, and I was bouncing along with seemingly less effort. Feeling faster from a new pair of shoes should make it easier, I suppose.

After that initial fast-feeling run, I was surprised to see that I really wasn’t any faster than most of the recent runs I had been doing.

The faster Hoka Bondi 8 on the left and my old and slow Hoka Bondi 7 on the right. Basically the same shoe.

There are other times when I felt like a piece of gear made me “feel” faster. Going from a road bike to an aero bike surely made me feel faster, and when I stay in aero I should definitely be faster. I noticed once that I was riding on the trail with my friend John, sitting upright and having a chat and traveling at the same speed, but when I went down into aero without changing my cadence, I slowly started to edge ahead.

Sticking with the bike, I added a set of FLO aero wheels to it and immediately felt fast. Aero wheels make your bike look fast standing still. They just look cool – and fast! FLO makes good wheels and the price is among the least expensive in the aero wheel market, so buying a set made me definitely feel faster and part of the cool kids club. How much faster are they? My combo set of wheels will save you maybe 6-10 minutes in an Ironman, according to the FLO wheels website. https://blog.flocycling.com/carbon-wheels/how-much-time-will-flo-wheels-save-me/ Not exactly blazing speed, but you believe it makes a difference. Still worth it, even if looking cool makes you feel faster.

I also bought an aero helmet, which I had read once that can make one faster for a lot less than a set of aero wheels. I’m wearing the dumb thing in the picture at the top of this blog. I have to admit I don’t really feel faster wearing it. I feel rather silly, actually. I will toss it on for sprints, but I’m not sure the aero advantage of it outweighs the overall protection of a regular cycling helmet in the event of a crash. My aero helmet just seems less protective. The dumb things that are on my mind while just riding and racing a bike are sometimes pretty deep.

What else can make you feel faster? A new racing kit? For sure. A new pair of socks? Yes sir. But do they actually make you faster? Well, sometimes you just got to go with what makes you feel like you are.

I’d love to hear what makes you feel faster. Add some suggestions in the comments below.

This Is My Life

I am a menace to society.  People have hatred towards me.  When people see me I honestly think that it must make their blood boil.  I’m as heinous as they come.  I should be locked up put away for my crime.  What’s my crime, you ask?  It’s because I legally ride my bike on a roadway.

After another close call with the car driving public, the thought of this is how life is for a cyclist passed through my mind.  This is my life can have different meanings, such as:

  • This is my life…  It can be positive, just like this blog in which I post things about the amazing experiences that running, triathlon, and life have provided to me.
  • This is my life…  The things I do day in and day out.  Mostly the same as everyone else, but from my perspective.
  • This is my life…  Or possibly something that occurs occasionally that can be burdensome, such as doing laundry nearly every damn day.
  • This is my life…  But my intended purpose of that statement today is that THIS IS MY LIFE YOU ARE ENDANGERING!!!  DOES A HUMAN LIFE NOT MATTER TO YOU IN YOUR FUCKING CAR AS YOU TRY TO PASS ME IN A DANGEROUS SITUATION?

I was riding my bike on a road that within less than a mile I would hope off of to catch the adjoining trail.  I just needed to be on it shortly.  But to people in cars, I might as well have purposely gone out of my way to plan my ride to coincide with their trip to Starbucks or whatever.

I get being inconvenienced.  I don’t like it either.  But I am a life out there on a bike, exposed to the world and your one-ton enclosed, all steel, with numerous safety features vehicle.  It blows my mind to think that a driver would go out of his way to avoid crashing into another vehicle, but some old guy in tight clothes on a bike is open game.  I probably wouldn’t even scratch your car as you hit me.

I wasn’t really intending to make this post an argument for sharing the road with cyclists.  I could tackle the arguments about why cyclists shouldn’t be allowed on the road, or give a counterpoint to “just because I can doesn’t mean that I should.”  I’ll save it for next time if the next time doesn’t kill me.

So as luck would have it, I have a video of this incident.   I have gotten to the point in my cyclist life that I feel it necessary to document my ride so that in the event that something happens to me, the authorities can look at the video and say “Yep, he was doing it right when he got run over.”

I was riding up some hills, the road was striped with double yellow, no-passing zone markings, and I was taking up a little more of the middle than the far right as safely possible just to give the impression that there wouldn’t be enough room to pass.  She attempted the pass anyway.  Watch the video.  Form your own opinion.  (Warning – The audio is quite loud – turn it down before hitting play.)

All I ask is that you think about that person on the bike when you drive.  They are someone’s family.  And it’s someone’s life that you put in jeopardy by not passing with caution.

This is my life.