Over the weekend, Noel participated in the Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder with one of his biking buddies. Kevin and Noel met a couple of years ago on a bike trip and they've kept in touch and continued to ride bikes together. A few months ago, Kevin asked Noel if he knew anything about a ride in Michigan where you ride from one side of the state to the other. (The Coast to Coast Ride). Noel told him that he had actually participated in the event the first two years that the race began. (He stopped 22 miles short of the goal that first year and then finished successfully the second year). Noel didn't really feel the need to ever do the race again after finishing it on his second attempt, but after thinking about it for a while, he told Kevin that he would do it with him and they'd stick together in the hopes of helping Kevin finish. Once again, Doug K agreed to go along as their "rider support" and so the three of them drove up to the east coast of Michigan on Friday night and stayed in this little motel in Standish, MI.
They got up really early on Saturday morning and Doug drove them to the starting line in Au Gres, Michigan which is a little town located on Lake Huron. The race would begin at 6:00 a.m. and the riders would ride all day with the goal of crossing the finish line at Stearns Park on Ludington Beach - a total 204 miles ridden - at some point before the race cut-off at 2:30 a.m.!
The sun was just coming up when the race started.
And then they were off...
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Just under four hours and approximately 50 miles later, Kevin and Noel would pass through the first checkpoint. This is where they met up with Doug for the first time and took a few minutes to eat a little something and to get off of their bikes to stretch. They took a couple of pictures and Noel sent a text to let me know they were doing well.
I got another notification around 2:30 that they had reached the second checkpoint and had completed 100 miles. They were still feeling good at this point.
Here is a bit of the scenery that they had ridden through at this point:
The third stage of the race would be the toughest. Not only does it cover over 70 miles, but it goes through a lot of sand and uphill trails as the riders go through a lot of ATV tracks in the Manistee Forest.
This is where the guys usually take the longest as the path gets harder and they have elevation that they have to push them. It also just "feels" longer because this is also where we lose track of them for a quite a while as they don't have a lot of phone reception. It felt like it took longer than before and I was trying not to think about it too much but I was certainly relieved when I got the notification around 10:07 that they had reached the "Big M" checkpoint and had only 35 miles to go. Doug said that Noel still looked like he was doing pretty well and Doug was confident that Noel could finish, but Kevin's knees were really hurting and he was struggling a lot at this point. The two were going to attempt the final 35 miles but they were only averaging 9 mph at this point and with the race cut-off time ending at 2:30 am, they would really have to push themselves to hit that mark.
Around 11:00, Marissa and Nolan were preparing for bed so I checked Noel's location on his phone one more time and it said that they had 28 miles and approximately 2 hours and 43 minutes to go so I set an alarm for 1:00 so we would be awake and able to drive over to Stearns Park to meet them at the finish. I had planned to go to sleep for a couple of hours but I wasn't able to fall asleep so I just laid in the dark room and waited. A little after 1:00 a.m., I got a text from Noel. He said that Kevin just couldn't go any farther (they still had about 23 miles left) and they would be calling it quits. Doug was on his way over to pick them up and he'd be back to the hotel a little after 2:00. Thankfully Noel was still doing alright and although he could have gone ahead and finished before the cut-off, this race had been about Kevin and since they started the race together, they would "finish" it together as well.
Final stats would be 180.48 miles ridden with a "moving time" of 16 hours and 7 minutes. (Over 18 hours all together including their stops at the check-points and a few stops for rest along the way). They may not have made the finish line (this time) but it was still a great attempt and a job well done.
Believe it or not, the winner of the 204 mile race across Michigan was a professional rider who finished in just over 10 hours!! That's averaging 20 mph the entire time. I can't even imagine!
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Edited to add these pictures that were taken by robmeenderingphotography.com.
Aren't these just the best pictures? We will definitely be ordering copies to keep here at the house.
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