Mileage: 84mi
Elevation Gain: 12,241’
My first big endurance race on the single speed was held at Grand
Targhee, which sits on the western side of the Tetons. With my parents in
town trying to escape the oppressive Houston heat, we made the race into a little
4-day vacation. We arrived Friday afternoon and were welcomed with a
gnarly thunderstorm that produced around a .5in of marble-sized hail...this was
surely to make for great riding conditions Saturday morning!
The 100mi started around 6:45am and took us on a cat-track climb
for a couple of miles to break up riders before hitting the singletrack. Overall, the stout climbs were rewarded with
amazing views of the Tetons followed by super long descents into flowy forests
and aspen groves. My first split was in
2:34, nearly 5 minutes behind the single speed leader, which was a pace I
couldn’t handle for another 60 miles or so.
Wanting to finish somewhat strong, I decided to sit back and try to
enjoy the riding, ultimately finishing in 3rd at 9:04.
Grand Targhee is a cool little resort, and the organizers did
awesome job w/ the course…I’ll definitely be back next year (hopefully a bit
faster!). Oh yeah, we also went over to Jackson the next day!
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