I definitely paid for my lack of stretching before the race. My IT bands were giving me issues early in the ride and I started cramping up pretty badly about 4 miles before the end of the ride. Both my inner left & right quads and left hamstring were all cramping at the same time to the point I had to stop on the side of the road. A SAG wagon came up and asked me if I wanted a lift, but there was no way in Hell I was quitting after 58 miles on a 62 mile ride. I told them thanks but no thanks and tried to get my legs back in proper working order before finishing out the ride. I think I didn't drink enough fluids on account of it being cold for the first couple hours of the ride. I didn't heat up much so I didn't feel thirsty and drink a lot. When the sun came out and it warmed up, I paid for it.

Stretch, stretch, & stretch. Also, I need to be more consistent in my fluid intake.

They had pizza at the end, which I inhaled. I was afraid to stretch too much because I didn't want to aggravate the cramping(mentioned earlier). Basically I ate pizza and drank Powerade.


Poor pre-ride stretching, not intaking enough fluids.


The course was well-designed and marked very well(they had color-coded six-shooters painted on the road showing each route which way to go). The support at the rest stops was good, every one my gf and I stopped at had pickles, oranges, bananas, and various Clif bars or Gu as well as water & Powerade. This was the 19th year of the bike ride and it shows. The only thing I'd suggest is perhaps more medical staff & SAG wagons. It's possible they had more than I saw since there were several routes and they could have been dealing with issues on the other routes, but on the 100k route I didn't see that many medical staff and only 1 SAG wagon(which I saw after the routes recombined).