15th Anniversary Hoodoo 500 Ultra Marathon Bike Race
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.
When I asked him, I thought it would be good for him to have something to train for during his recovery and I was right. I may be wrong, but I think it gave him some extra motivation. Wow.. what a comeback!
At first, I thought we might be able to self-crew the race but finally decided to ask around to see if anyone would like to be our driver/crew.
Stepping up was our good friend Julie who we both have known for many years. Julie and her husband Colin crewed for my late friend John and me when we did the LA Wheelmen Grand Tour Quad on Johns's tandem in 2014. I have done many rides and events with Julie.
We left town a little early so we could get a bit acclimatized to the dry air and higher altitude of Southern Utah.
The race started on a Friday. We left on Wednesday and arrived in Saint George in the late afternoon.
My idea was to do like I did back at some of my former races. Have a day ahead to do a short bike ride to acclimatize. It worked well.
We went out for a 28-mile ride on the first part of the race route. Julie drove the support vehicle course to familiarize herself with the route. We met her out on course and rode back to the hotel with her.
Later in the afternoon, we had check-in and the race meeting for the stage racers.
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| Rider check-in: Our mug shot with crew chief Julie Stokes |
The non-stop race started on Saturday so their meeting and check-in was on Friday while we were racing our first stage.
Check-in and the meeting went well. We then went out for a great dinner at Pancho and Lefty's Mexican Restaurant across the street.
STAGE ONE: St. George to Escalante.
196.6 miles. 11,890 feet elevation gain.
The forecast was for a warm day, but it was nice and cool at the 7 am start.
We all had GPS tracking units so the public could follow our tracks throughout the race. For the team racers, the tracking unit acted as a baton. The rider who was on the road was required to be carrying the tracker.
The first 7 miles of the course was a neutral start where all riders stayed and warmed up at a leisure pace following along with a pacer who would take us out of town.
David and I did the neutral start together, then David was going to do the first relay pull.
Our plan was to do 45-minute splits on the bike depending on whether the support crew had a place to stop. It worked out very nicely.
Julie devised a sign set-up. She made 3 signs. One that said 30 minutes left, one that said 15, and a triangle that meant the next time would be the transition to the other rider. The signs worked great.
David took the first pull toward the town of Washington. The course was great at the beginning. A long ride on Hwy 7, a nice wide highway with a huge shoulder.
I took the next pull into Hurricane where David took over once again. He then did the climb out of town and on to a good climb and toward Arizona. I took over into Arizona, then we switched off a few times until the next turn which was at mile marker 60.3.
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| Getting ready to roll on day one. |
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| Waiting in the van between pulls |
The section heading toward Arizona was the hardest for me. On this year's race, it was a slight uphill that didn't look like one, with a headwind. I really struggled for some reason. Not far before the turn at mile 60.3, I got my second wind and just came to life. Not sure what happened but when I saw the turn toward The Coral Pink Sand Dunes, I woke up and it seemed effortless.
It just felt effortless at that point as I pushed toward the next turn at mile 88. It was getting hot with temps around 100, but it did not seem to phase me. David did great too. This was such a beautiful area. The pictures just don't do it justice.
I took the baton from David a ways before getting on Hwy 89.
The course just keeps getting more beautiful the farther you get into the race.
I was now bombing down a really nice descent toward Time Station One in Orderville.
I took a long 17+ mile pull since it was mostly downhill. We switched at the time station which ended up just about 9 minutes longer than my 45-minute session. I was feeling great.
We had some great climbs and some great descents on Hwy 89 before our turn on Hwy 12. We had a tailwind and crossing tailwind on this section. The temperature was still in the 90's but it felt a little better than the 100+ we had near the Sand Dunes.
David took our team on to Hwy 12 toward Red Canyon, one of the most beautiful places on the course.
We switched off just before the long bike path that goes from Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon State Park.
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| Julie having a little fun in Red Canyon |
We switched off right near the time station at Bryce and David took the pull down the descent to Tropic and through the infamous "Notch", a beautiful cut in the mountain with the road going through.
The course was really getting more and more beautiful as we went along.
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| David climbing through "The Notch" |
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| This is just on the other side of the notch. So beautiful!! |
We rolled through Escalante-Grand Staircase switching a few times before David took the final climb before Escalante.
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| Starting one of the final pulls toward Escalante |
From what the race organizers say, this is the single toughest climb on the course on day one.
We told David we would switch about halfway up. We lied!
We missed our only opportunity to pull over so we went on up to the top and waited. To our surprise, David came up over the summit not long after we got up there.
He did awesomely and made that climb look so easy.
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| David looking good on the toughest climb on day 1 |
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| At the summit. Escalante hear I come! |
I took the pull from the summit for the blazing, 18-mile descent to the time station in Escalante.
I made it to Time Station One just before 7 pm with plenty of daylight.
Day one was a success.
Julie ordered pizza and it was ready not long after we finished so she went and picked it up. We relaxed for a while and then crashed so we could recover for day 2, the toughest section of the race.
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| PIZZA!! |
STAGE 2: Escalante to Panguitch.
171 Miles. 10,794 feet of elevation gain.
Stage two is arguably the toughest section of the race, whether you are doing it solo or on the stage race.
If your choice is the solo race, you do most of this section in the dark and cannot see the stark beauty of this amazing section from Escalante, up on to the infamous Hogsback and over Boulder Mountian. As a solo, you will see first light somewhere on or near the climb out of Loa, Utah to an 8,600-foot summit with Boulder Mountain looming at your rear. You then have pretty cool or downright cold temps all morning until out of the Kusharem area.
On the stage race, you get to see this amazing course in daylight but it comes with one caveat.
Heat and wind, which is why I say this is the toughest section, especially on the stage race.
This year it was hot, but not as windy as previous years so we got very lucky. The heat made up for it though.
We rolled out of Escalante with David taking the first pull. We stayed at our 45 minute time intervals until we got to Boulder Mountain. We then switched to 20-30 intervals, especially on the steeper lower slopes.
David finishing off one of the first climbs on day one above Escalante on a cool morning
This whole morning section was spectacular as usual. There was a little smoke in the high cloud layers from the California wildfires but it was not too bad. It was nice and cool the whole morning.
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| Climbing 9,600 foot Boulder Mountain out of Bolder Utah. |
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| It was beautiful up there |
Up and over we went. I took the final pull over the 9,600-foot summit feeling fantastic.
It was now down down down off the mountain.
This descent is not all descending though. There are a few little climbs on the way down. We switched off once and David took it down to just before the beautiful Torrey Utah area.
This was the toughest section of the day for me. The worst of the headwind on this day just happened to be from Torrey to the Loa area. It was getting rather warm too.
I just geared down and kept a nice steady pace.
Coming down to a lower altitude, I started to feel really good.
Next up...The nasty climb out of Loa!
I will never forget the first time I did this climb.
My first time doing Hoodoo, I did it solo.
It was my first RAAM qualifying race back in 2014.
Why I did the toughest of the US RAAM qualifiers on my first one, we will never know. All I know is that I got it done and had a blast with crew chief and friend Victor Cooper and my two daughters Cherisse and Nicole as my crew.
I had just had a 2-hour sleep stop in Loa at the time station laid out in the van with the heater going because it was in the low 30's outside.
As first-light came, I was about halfway up this tough "stair-step" climb to 8,600 feet. It just seemed never-ending as a solo racer.
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| My very first time up this brutal climb out of Loa. 2014 and very early after just waking up. |
This being my 6th year doing the race and doing it this time on a relay team, it just seemed too easy.
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| 2021 climbing out of Loa with Boulder Mountain behind me. |
I took the really steep lower section and then we hit some road construction. David took the baton and took it to the summit. We could not do a switch due to the following car that led us to the summit with one-way traffic. We waited for David up there.
I took it from there and bombed the very long descent into a headwind, to the town of Kusharem.
I then had tailwinds and 100+ degree heat for quite some time.
David and I relayed a few times through this section and eventually had a crossing headwind which was a little worrisome. We were thinking of the infamous headwinds going into Panguitch.
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| It was a long, hot, slog out of Kusharem as usual. |
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| Rolling down the valley out of Kusharem Utah |
Once we made the right turn on the Hwy, we had a slight headwind but it was not too bad.
On this year, this stretch heading into Panguitch just seemed way too easy.
From Circleville to Panguitch, we had no headwind, in fact, we had some tailwind. Go figure.
Anyway...I was the last one to pull us into Panguitch with lots of light to spare in the day. Day 2 was done and dusted and we had a great time. Now for fish sandwiches thanks to our awesome crew Julie!
Finishing up day 2. Woo hooo!
STAGE 3: Panguitch to Saint George
152.6 miles. 7,920 feet elevation gain. 12,000 feet elevation loss!
Day three started out great but it was a little cold. The temp on my bike in the sun read 46 degrees but the crew in the car said it was 42. Luckily, we were climbing the whole time.
I started first and just needed a vest. My hands got cold and numb, but knowing that I would be climbing right out of the box, I didn't mind. It would be warming up soon enough to perfect climbing temps in the mountains.
The first kickers out of town are the steepest part of the climb to Cedar Breaks. Short but pretty steep when first starting out. The cold dry air affected my asthma and I had to use my inhaler. Once the sun warmed me up a bit, my breathing was amazing all the way up to the 10,600-foot summit.
We both felt great on this third day. David was amazed at how good he felt. He was climbing like a beast and made it look effortless.
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| Climbing out of Panguitch at sunrise. |
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| My last pull toward Cedar Breaks. 10,600 feet |
My friend Rick and I climbing toward Panguitch Lake. Rick was doing the solo stage race.
Two old guys huh Julie?
Doing this climb as a relay just made it seem to go by so quickly. We seemed to fly up to the summit.
I was so happy that we were doing the whole climb up to Cedar Breaks this year.
The past few years, the course cut over through Duck Creek to the main highway which goes to Cedar City. That highway was very stressful, with not much of a shoulder and heavy RV and off-road enthusiast traffic hauling their toys. It was pretty scary depending on the time of day you were on it.
The original course cut across through Cedar Breaks National Park and brought us to the summit of this highway so we only had to descend it to Cedar City. This was not quite as bad but still stressful.
The new course was fantastic!!
We did the climb up to the summit where we used to turn into the park on the original course, but this year we turned right instead of left which dropped us down through the Ski Resort of Brian Head to the town of Parowan, which is just north of Cedar City.
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| David about to summit at Cedar Breaks |
It was an amazing 16-mile descent and very beautiful.
David did the final section of the climb to 10,600 feet and then the descent.
I switched with him in Parowan.
The next part of the course was great. Fast and with rolling hills. I was flying until I made a mistake on the course. I was flying through a small town on "The Old Spanish Hwy" when I came to a fork in the road that looked like both sides got on the Interstate 15 in different directions. I knew we were not going on the freeway so I turned around and stayed on that old highway southbound.
In about 2 miles, it turned to a dirt road. I called the crew and told them I thought I messed that turn-up. I rode back 2 miles and found the crew driving toward me at the turn.
Turns out that the road did go straight and paralleled the main highway on the opposite side from where I was. I lost quite a bit of time with those extra 4 miles but was back on track. I road a little longer as Julie drove up ahead and got David ready.
We flew to Cedar City, approaching from the northwest side, missing all the traffic and congestion.
We turned right and were off toward the town of Newcastle. Pretty much the home stretch once we got there.
We actually had a crossing tailwind on most of this section but it was getting hot.
Through Newcastle, we went with a tailwind to Enterprise.
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| Flying toward the finish |
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| Go, David!! |
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| Rolling down Snow Canyon. I just couldn't miss this picture so I pulled my phone out for a quick snap |
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| Rolling down Snow Canyon I just couldn't miss this picture so I pulled my phone out for a quick snap |
David took the climb to the summit from there, the last major climb of the race.
I then took the baton to the town of Veyo where we switched off at the pie shop.
It was really getting hot now and was over 100 degrees. Our next meeting point was going to be the parking lot at the entrance to Snow Canyon Park. At this point, we were going to ride the final 14 miles to the finish through Snow Canyon together.
It really got hot descending down through the canyon. We saw 115 degrees on our bike computers as the radiant heat coming off the ground. (the heat we were actually feeling)
When we got to the bottom we heard a growl coming up behind us.
It was non-other than our good friend Teresa who was on a 4-person relay team doing the race not stop. She just flew down the hill and was really motivated to get a course record. We rode with Teresa to the final little, really steep kicker, near the finish. She then hung back as we finished so she could meet her team at the corner to ride in together.
What a fun race it was this year doing it on a team once again.
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| Finished. With ice-cold towels around our necks and medals. |
A huge congrats to my teammate David for overcoming those injuries and coming back to do the Hoodoo 500. Just amazing.
Thanks to our awesome crew, Julie. She did a stellar job taking care of us. We had such a fun time racing having her there.
A major congratulations to all my other friends doing the race and to those I don't know who completed it.
Hoodoo 500 humbles the best of them and this year did not disappoint.
A big shout out to Nate Loyal Bike Fitting! The improvement in the comfort while riding as well as efficiency has been amazing. I feel like an idiot, waiting so many years to get a professional fit.
A big shout out to Deb and Brian as well as all of the volunteers at the Hoodoo 500. An epic event once again.
Compilation video of the race.
Here is the link to all the photos:
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