Midsouth trip report
Midsouth is a gravel race that takes place each spring in Stillwater, Oklahoma. After years of hearing about this event, and many folks saying it is their favorite bike event of all, I decided to go check it out for myself.
Midsouth started back in 2011, the brainchild of charismatic leader Bobby Wintle and his crew at District Cycles - definitely one of those "oh this shop gets it" bike shops, the likes of only a handful that really exist in the world. While this event is part of the Lifetime corporation's gravel events, you can tell it is put on by real humans who put community first. I really liked how they had the pro race the day before the regular people race. I personally found it nice to totally ignore all the things happening on pro-day, chat with friends, meet new people at the expo and focus on the community aspect that is the real draw to these events for me. Grass roots racing can be so fun when it is regular people pushing themselves and everyone sharing that camaraderie without the annoyance of a media 4x4 braaping around to document it. When we got out there it felt just like the old times.
While hatching plans to go to the event, I hit up my Bozeman pal Taylor of Roly Poly Coffee Co. and he was up for a little road trip. Our friends at Brooks England were also down to hop in. The plan was that Taylor would drive his mobile coffee setup from Bozeman down to Denver where we would rendezvous, and then do the final leg to Stillwater where Sklar could show off some bikes and Roly Poly could make coffee for everyone on Brooks, thanks Brooks!
Expo Day
Taylor and I set up a nice little booth with his super cool Vanagon Syncro. I have always made fun of these things for being unreliable but after riding in his I kind of want one. He has a mobile espresso bar that I actually welded for him back in the day. Roly Poly started out of the back of his truck with this very bar in the parking lot of my bike shop in Bozeman and now he has three brick and mortar cafes - how cool is that?
I brought two bikes: the SuperSomething I would ride the next day and a PBJ to show off too. My little sign I built for NAHBS a million years ago and it is still kicking. It fits in a bike box too. So nice to keep it simple. The expo was really fun. It is always so cool to meet customers or people who have seen the bikes online but never in person. Thanks to everyone who came and said hi. There were some other industry folks there who we got to chat with as well: the SimWorks crew and the Ripton folks to name a few. It was a fun long day in the sun and we went to bed early while a lot of folks partied to get ready for the big day.
The Ride
I heard that there were 3,500 people lined up for this start and it definitely felt like the most I had ever lined up with. I had been riding more in the few months leading up to this. While 80-120 mile days were quite regular for me five years ago, my mileage has been pretty stuck in the 30-60 mile range since moving to the bay, just such big hills. I felt confident I could survive and feel good after though.
Standing in the crowd at the start I ran into my friend Rachel from Oakland. She is a real fast bike racer and I thought I might try and ride out with her. She found a hole in the start and I tried hard to catch her but never did. I kept going like that though and definitely went out way too fast. Oops.
As soon as we hit dirt it was pretty dusty. The race swag bags came with a bandana that I passed on, but maybe now I see why - I definitely breathed in some dust that day. It felt like folks started to spread out about three miles in. I find it like 30% annoying to ride with that many people and 70% inspiring to see so many cyclists out there doing something hard. I know we pitch Sklar bikes as "non-racing" but there is something really special about having a big ride on the horizon, training for it and finally doing it, and these events make that possible for so many people. I love that aspect of it.
I'm not sure I need to give a turn by turn of the 106 mile ride but it was really nice! The dirt as promised was red. The hills were rolling. I am not sure I know how to ride rolling terrain. As someone who has always lived in the mountains or at least hills, I am mostly used to slogging up a climb and then ripping down a hill. The all-day up and down was very exhausting. I would ride with a group for a bit and then either fall off the back or move up to the next one, and I found that to be quite fun. These days a lot of my riding is solo, which I like a lot, but there is something about closing a gap to the next group and hanging on as long as you can that is just really fun and pushes you in ways that you haven't found elsewhere.
I always mess up with sports food and this day was no exception. On my own rides I tend to bring a sandwich and a bag of gummies, and I didn't realize until too late that I needed more salt. After the second aid station in the town of Guthrie I started to get some tummy stuff and had a couple of WTF moments staring at another set of rollers. I limped into the final aid station where Taylor was making coffee, he fed me a salty electrolyte drink and I came right back to life.
After some well-earned cheeseburgers we wandered over to the festival where we chatted with friends from all over the place who had made their way to Oklahoma for Mid-South. Comparing notes on the day, talking about the next one and learning a little more about each other. That part is always the best
It was a really fun day out on the bike in a beautiful place! Bobby and crew put on a great event and if it sounds like something you would be into I would recommend checking it out.
