Here are some pics of the Funks Bottom gravel ride/race I did the other weekend. It was a 350+ mile trip for me from Pa. to do this ride and I think it's State #7 in my quest to do a gravel ride/race of 50 miles in length in all 50 states. There were some old school farming barns on the way there and I had to stop and take a pic of one. Notice the old concrete silo. I was also somewhat fooled as I thought the next day's ride would be flat like my ride in.(wrong) I was about 5-8 miles away from Wooster my night stop before the ride at a Rodeway Inn when I passed Sam's pizza place in Smithville Ohio. I didn't need to check out Trip Advisor as with all the cars there it was where all the locals ate. It was a pizza buffet of all you could eat at a great price. On to the hotel to get ready for the race. Breakfast was good warm waffle/biscuits with sausage gravy/and plenty of OJ. I thought I would have trouble getting awake the next morning being tired from the road trip but like always I always get awake every couple of hrs during the night.
Off to the ride which was about 10-12 miles from where I was staying. I was glad I did arrive early as there was a small parking lot there. This was a free race and still what I would call a grass roots kind of ride. I donated $20 for a t shirt to hopefully help out some. Not sure how many riders were there but I would guess somewhere between 100-150. Start was fast and wild and for anybody that has ever been to hilly Wheeling WV. I thought this was where the start of the ride was. The neutral roll out was less than a 1/4 mile. I was spit out the back but no problem as I could ride my own ride then. I made it to the 20 mile mark and had a Twinkie and a Cherry Pepsi. Talking to some other riders they said there was a food/water stop at around 52 miles. I came across a rider around 30 some miles that had crashed. It was around a blind corner so i came across him fast. It looked like he hit a huge pot hole at speed and crashed. Two other riders came and I helped him up and although he looked a little bit shaken up he didn't look to have any injuries so we parted company. I did have one scary time in this ride. This course has lots of loose heavy/big gravel stones I am not sure if this is what they call chunky gravel or not. I came smokin down this hill hit the brakes and the bike never stopped. I am not sure but I think the bike was going so fast I was somewhat airborne and couldn't get stopped. I blew thru a stop sign and for the rest of the ride I slowed down some on the descents. The bridge pic was too good for me to pass up and glad I stopped to take the pic.
At 30 miles The Pirate City Cycling has some water out in the back of a pick up and also had some Hammer Heed there but I still had some of that in my bottle so I refilled my water bottle. One of the things I have out gravel bike riding that it jars me around more and so I had to stop 3-4 times for a pee break. The one small hill pic was one of those pee breaks. This ride had lots of short but somewhat steep hills that just keep coming. The ride was set up well and marked very well. I kind of stop eating around 48 miles or so and was kind of bonking a little bit. When I arrived at the 52 mile mark I found 3-4 riders standing around that plastic pipe coming out of the side of the mt. My heart kind of sunk as I was somewhat day dreaming of what I was going to eat at McDonalds as I don't do fast food but luv burgers when I am out biking. Mind back on task I knew I had to start trying to get some calories in me so I tried getting down as many fig bars as I could but I never really caught up. I had in my head that the ride that it was only 62 miles 100k and looked down on the cue sheet and saw that it was 66 miles instead. Just put your head down and finish the ride. I got lost somehow on a downhill around 61 miles and now was off course. I stopped at a guys house and he gave me directions on how to get back on course. Somehow it didn't seem right to me and so I turned around. I then had a bee hit my helmet and then sting me I guess because he was pissed. I ripped my helmet off but it was too late. I then just pressed on and finished the ride. This was the first ride I had that finished in grass. Kenda was one of the sponsors along with Hammer and a beer company so the Kenda banner made for some good finish line pics.
All in all I really enjoyed the ride and would go back again. How can you complain about a free ride/race. I have talked to Chris and he said he will try and clarify about the bar/food stop a couple of blocks off the course for next year. I don't know about anybody else but I kind of enjoy riding/racing the gravel rides as you never know what kind of terrain/road you are going to come across and that gives it some thrills.
