Steve's Cycling Blog

 I don't think I have ever been so well prepared for an event before this one. I was feeling better at the start than any other ultra-race I have done. My training was more on track than in the past too.  At the young age of 69, I was very conscious of my limits.  This year I was going to attempt doing the race in the self-supported Rondonneur Division. For those that don't know, in this division, you have to be self-sufficient and will have no support crew. You have to be prepared on the bike and make sure that everything you may need to pick up along the way is put in drop bags to be left at the time stations. Rondonneur riding is how I usually train on all my long treks anyway. In training, I was maintaining a pace that would easily have me finishing the race in under 45 hours without even working that hard. One of my training rides was The Tour of Two Forests Double Century, which I rode from home to the start. This was a very tough double with very tough climbing. 250 mile

  What can I say about The Hoodoo 500?  Well...it is the most spectacular race out there if you take into account the beautiful course, the incredible difficulty, and the wonderful people involved every year. This would be my 6th year doing the race. This year for my favorite race, I asked my friend David if he wanted to do it on a team with me. We would be doing the 2-person Stage Race  as a 70+ team. He answered me back right away with an enthusiastic.....YES! David is really the star of this race!! In his early 70's, David had a bad cycling accident with some serious broken bones almost a year from the date of the event.   10 broken ribs ,  collapsed lung,  re-injured shoulder (separation) , cracked neck vertebra,  cracked vertebra mid-back,  broken pelvis ( places) with displacement. He was unconscious for a few hours with no memory of the trauma event so may have had a concussion  When I asked him, I thought it would be good for him to have something to train for during his r