April 18, Thursday Before the Race
Mike and I have spent a week solid relaxing, eating, planning, mapping resources on the race course, eating, tuning bikes, swapping gear out to ride lighter, and eating more.
A week of downtime is better than being late for the race!
It is tough to carry what you need for an open-ended ride while also trying to switch to the bare minimum for a race. The folks at The Shenandoah Bicycle Company kept a box we shipped for our resupply and now they’ll keep another box of stuff we don’t want to carry for The RockStar but will pick up when we come back through.
We’re also shipping a box home….fingers crossed we don’t send anything we might need!
Plans are always changing….but if all goes well, we’ll each finish The RockStar trail race in Roanoke and then take a leisurely ride together in reverse on the gravel course back here to Harrisonburg, pick up our stuff stashed at the bike shop and ride the Trans VA route toward D.C.
We’re thinking of picking up the C&O Trail to the Great Allegheny Passage to ride the Trillium section we missed in PA because of the weather.
But things change so I’ll keep you posted.
Friday, Tomorrow
Pre-race meeting, last minute tweaks to the bike and hopefully a good night’s sleep!
Now Friday is Today
Lunch at the Little Grill. Unique decor!
Pre-race meeting was at Ruby’s Arcade. What a trip – Duck Pin Bowling, ping pong, pool & foosball & pizza & a Photo Booth!
Whatever the race brings tomorrow, we are having a blast!
Saturday, April 20, Race Day
For those who like to follow the Trackleaders map, know that you’ll see everyone go “off-course” for a 12-13 mile section and possibly for a 4 mile section. We’re being re-routed for controlled burns but the detours won’t show on the map you see.
Also, there are 3 simultaneous races on The RockStar map: Trail, Gravel & Pavement.
To more easily find us, select the Riders tab on the main map, then choose “trail” in the drop-down option after the tabs near the top left.
There’s 81 racers on the 3 race courses combined. On the Trail course, there’s 22 racers at this point.
After tonight, I’ll go pretty dark even if I get to WiFi coverage since I’ll need to conserve my electronics for maps and other necessities. I’ll try to post at the start line and perhaps a time or two along the race!
Here’s the link for the race map:
https://trackleaders.com/rockstar24f
Bikepacking 