I did a lot of 100 mile/MTB Marathon racing in the early 2010s, but pretty much hung up my cleats after the 2014 season for a number of reasons—#1 being not having enough time to train. Since moving to Alabama I’ve had plenty of riding time so I figured I’d try to find a worthwhile goal, and Ordinary Epic’s Alabama Skyway Epic 100 MTB race seemed just the ticket. It took some finagling to find an entry, but I made it happen and took several trips out to the area to pre-ride and see what I was getting into. The biggest question was “what bike to ride”? It was called a MTB race, but had a lot of gravel roads. Plus I only have two bikes in Alabama: my 160 mm travel trail bike and my gravel bike. After a few test runs I decided to go with the gravel bike and hoped for the best. Here’s how the race went down:

The course begins with a 10-mile loop on the Slyaward Trails at Lake Howard: lots of fast and flowing machine-cut single track. I had no idea how I’d feel riding single track at full tilt with the MTBs, so I took a conservative start and latched onto a small group of five riders. It was nice to follow wheels and essentially tail-gun the first 45 minutes.

When we dumped out on the gravel road I made a few efforts to see how the group would respond. We came apart a bit but two of us stuck close. We also caught one guy who was ahead of us on the single track for a small group of three. Wiregrass Rd has some elevation change with some fast downhills. I was feeling pretty good but deliberately made sure I didn’t make any large efforts.

Around 18 miles in we reached the first major obstacle: the 3 mile/1,000 foot climb to the ridge of Skyway 1. There was a water station at the base the climb, but I still had 2 full bottles and rolled through. As for the climb, I’d call it “unimproved jeep trail” as its rougher than a typical gravel road, but wide with lots of line choice. The dirt is sandy with lots of rocks, some embedded and some on the surface. Basically it’s a slow slog up to the skyway, and you find the gear you’re most comfortable pushing and put you head down. I left my riding companions at the bottom of the climb and set a steady pace, not worrying about where they went.

Once the climb tops out the surface improves, first with less rocks and then it turns into a graded gravel road. There are a few punchy climbs, mud holes, sand traps, and fast descents along the ridge. The sky was still overcast with temperatures in the 60s. Perfect riding weather.

Skyway 1 from Ed and I’d pre-ride a few weeks prior

While I didn’t have time to admire them during the race, there are some great views from atop the Skyway as well.

Mile 30 was Aid 2/the 60 mile turn around point. I was doing well on food and only slowed for a second to grab a bottle of water and drop my glasses. Aid 2 is at the north end of Skyway 1, just before a 500’ plunge to Highway 77 and a few miles of pavement. Although the headwind was picking up, the pavement is mostly downhill and was a good opportunity to stretch out the legs and eat lunch. There is an almost 2-mile straight shot of pavement before you reach Skyway 2 and I saw neither anyone ahead of me, nor anyone behind me the whole way.

At Chandler Springs we headed back into the woods and up the climb to Skyway 2. Similar to length and duration to the first big climb, this time the gravel surface is less improved and significantly rougher. Some stretches are almost entirely rocks, others had large channels of erosion. It was slow line-picking back up to ridge. Once you reach the top the gravel really mellows out, first as a graded downhill, then back up to Skyway 3 for a regular gravel climb, and finally a fast, packed gravel descent to Adams Gap around mile 45. Coming through the sand washes I tried to count tire tracks and convinced myself there were at least three riders ahead of me. I decided to play it safe and consider myself in 5th.

Just before I crested a climb on Skyway 3 I caught a glimpse of a jersey ahead. At this point I had not seen another rider for nearly 2 hours and got a sudden jolt of excitement. For me, the hardest part of catching people is not being too “greedy” and working too hard, so I tried to keep my calm and my pace and roll up on him slowly. I gave a cordial greeting and said hello before passing; as I rode away I gave a slight acceleration to see if he would respond. He clearly was not feeling it and didn’t change his pace. “Don’t get greedy, just keep your own pace” I had to tell myself.

Since it was an out-and-back course I knew at some point I’d see the leaders on their return leg; my goal was to try and not see them until I reached Adams Gap. I rolled through Adams onto the pavement and still no leaders in sight. The last stretch before the turn-around is a fast, wide open paved section of Skyway that has a very alpine feel. The wind was picking up, and the nearly 50 mph descent made me worry about climbing it the other direction. After the initial drop there is a long climb to the turn around. About a mile out I saw a rider coming down the hill in an aero tuck. It was Jack White in the lead. About 5 minutes after Jack was Brian Toone, also bombing down from the turn-around/Aid 3. And then I was at Aid 3, which meant I was in 3rd. In some ways this was good to know, but it also began several hours of head games that were hard to keep under control. Here I am in 3rd place, which is way better than I thought I’d be, but I still have 50 miles of riding to go, descending terrain where the MTB would have the advantage. “Don’t panic, just ride your pace” I kept telling myself. I grabbed some water from Aid 3 and headed back on course down the paved descent. Sure enough I passed those behind me as they came towards Aid 3, but it was hard to tell how big a gap I had since I was going 45 mph+ and they were crawling uphill, plus they hadn’t stopped at the Aid (if they were going to). My best strategy was just maintain the same pace, and assuming they did too I’d hold my gap.

Skyway 3 was fast, as the climb back up Skyway 2, but the descent off Skyway 2 was brutal. I knew it would be, as it was the roughest climb. I tried to keep the throttle open but on the gravel bike it was punishing. There were certainly some “huck and pray” moments through some of the rock sections. Just when you think you can’t take any more beating the descent is over, and I made it through with air in my tires and skin on my body.

I drank and ate more along the road towards Aid 2, and suffered a little bit up the north side of Skyway 1. The tailwind matched my riding speed and I climbed in stale dead air. The guys at Aid 2 were very helpful and I devoured a snack of pickles and Scandinavian swimmers, plus a few more bottles of water. I had memories from pre-riding this section and tried to count the ups and downs before the final plunge to Bulls Gap. At this point I started catching some of the 60-mile race riders and it was a series of mini-boosts each time I passed one even though I knew they weren’t in my class. Finally I reached the long, 2-mile descent to Bulls Gap—which after Skyway 3 felt like a paved road. Well, maybe a poorly-paved road, but much less rough than I expected it.

Back Wiregrass Rd was ultra-fast with a steady tailwind, and I felt like I made good time back to Lake Howard to get ready for the final 10 miles of single track. I still had not seen anyone coming up behind me, but was starting to feel the days effort in my legs. There really isn’t any significant climbing on the single track, just 10 miles of ups and downs while always on the gas. My stomach started to growl about 4 miles out but I kept the press on, sure that I heard someone coming up behind me every few minutes. But it was just my head and I came in finishing in 3rd with a 17 minute gap over fourth place. Jack and Brian had great races, Jack coming in almost 20 minutes before Brian and the same from Brian to me.

The irony of the day? I had worried about my decision to race my Gravel bike for several weeks leading up to the event. But turns out Jack, Brian and I were all on gravel bikes. While we were at some disadvantage coming down the rough section, I think drop bars were the ticket for the long and fast dirt sections, and didn’t climb much slower on the uphills.

Overall Jason and Ordinary Epics put on a great event. The weather was perfect, the course was a blast, and I felt really good, which is the best outcome I could ask for. If I’m still in Alabama the next time the Skyway Epic happens I hope to be there!

Men’s Open Podium (L-R) Brian Toone (2nd), Jack White (1st), Me (3rd)

Tech notes:

Here’s my Strava file for those inclined.

Here’s the bike setup. Pretty much my standard Rodeo Labs Trail Donkey 3.0 with a PRO/GRX Di2 build. Big difference for this race was I went down to 650b wheels with 47c Teravail Cannonball tires with the tough casing. I wanted something with a bit of volume and tough sidewalls. 32 psi was perfect and no cuts or tears. The other change was I added a Redshift ShockStop suspension stem, which exceeded exceptions. While I could have used a bit heavier bumpers, it was still enough to take a significant edge off the rough descents and not pound my arms and back as much. Top tube back is a Rockgeist Cache with a Spacelink mount.

Alabama Skyway Epic 2020

Tech notes: