Team Broland Goes to the Idaho City 100
“We don’t know where we’re going, but we’re going!”
Day one: On the road
We had a bit of a slow start Thursday morning with having to bring in Josh’s work van to the shop. Of course rush hour traffic slowed us down, luckily we had the truck loaded so we could just grab the trailer and high tail it out of town.
A few hours later we did eventually get to the border and what would you know… we had all the paper work for the bikes and trailer but somehow we’re missing the truck insurance… I think it’s pretty clear that neither of us have gotten much sleep this week with packing and unexpected bike maintenance. After a short intermission, we got the insurance emailed over and we were full steam ahead. Straight through the border with no issues . The next hour was as exciting as a afternoon drive to swift current. Yeah…scenic… Until we got to great falls that is, the views were just what we needed. We wound our way down through the mountains, taking breaks for gas and snacks. Oh ya! Snacks! Little miss celiac over here hasn’t gone to the US in 15 years. Somewhere along that time line I was diagnosed and have only heard tale of the gluten free wonders to the south. Well, so far it’s been pretty tame but a quick stop to get groceries in Wally World prompted the first small haul. This included Funfetti cake mix, cinnamon swirl cake, and caramel sugar babies. I don’t know why I grabbed the last one…
Anyways! Onward we go and this is taking forever. Did I mention the speed limits in the US are a bit generous? Construction zones that ask you to slow down to 90-110kms, what. Is. This.
Our little F150 is doing it’s best but by the night fall we just weren’t where we wanted to be and the eye lids were getting heavy…no rest stop in sight. We found our selves winding through what the signs called scenic views (guess we will view them on the way back, when someone turns on the lights) and completely missed the craters of the moon. Damnit. At this point it was 1 am and our expected arrival to our original destination in Mountain home was still 0245hrs. We pulled off into the only rest stop we could find on our route, and proceeded to sleep like logs. Josh will protest this, I slept like a log, he woke up to the refreshing sound of diesel cattle trucks on either side of us. We quickly made coffee and got the H-E- double hockey sticks out of there.
Day two: Boise Bound
2hrs of driving and we made it to Boise, a little hangry but we still needed our OHV registration. Off to a motorcycle dealership we go… and though very friendly staff, very unsure of how to register a few Canadians. An hour later we finally had what we needed, and the hanger was getting a bit to real. At this point it didn’t matter, we just wanted to get to our destination. We went straight for Idaho city, this time with the lights on. The views were pretty neat but we both agreed that Montana was the most scenic. Maybe if we had seen the craters of the moon on the way in that would have changed our minds.
Josh had booked us a site at Bad Bear camp ground just outside of Idaho city, it was a perfect little get away from all the race action. Once we were set up and fed (finally! Real food!), We drove down to the sign up. As we were standing in line I hear Josh behind me “Canada?” And “ya”, that’s right folks, we found the only other Canadian at the Idaho city 100, and he was lined up right behind us. Mr. Steve Wheatly, this gentleman has been attending this race for 6ish years or so and has also gone to ISDE multiple times (once with the Turners). He had a lot of great tips for us, which we appreciated! Next up we took the bikes over for inspection and impound, this went off with out a hitch, our gas cans passed inspection as well. Whew! Team Broland, ya done good so far!
We waved goodbye to these Cycleworks Calgary beauties and drove back to camp, made a big dinner and prepped our camel backs with our Rynopower supplements and some quick snacks each. I tried to give a mix of sweet and salty for taste but also balanced for nutrition (lytes, BCAA’s, carbs, fat and protein. Yes, these are the things that I think about. Anyways, 9:00pm rolled up pretty quick and we went to bed.
Saturday: Race day 1
Josh and I woke up at 0630am, Josh started the coffee while I threw together some eggs, bacon and strawberries. I could see that Josh had some nerves this morning so I put on music and figured demonstrating some of my most epic dance moves would soothe his nerves. I don’t think it worked… but I sure felt great! We scooped up our gear and drove down to the race site. Luckily we ran into our fellow Canadian rider while we were trying to sort out our minutes and we were able to ask a few last minute questions.
After going over each other’s times separately, everything looked to be correct. I think I went over these 5 times… they better be correct! Then a short walk back to the truck only to realize we left our tape at the trailer. Rookie move team broland!, we made a quick stop at the gas station and bought the last roll of duct tape. I wonder if a few others made this mistake too 🧐 Anyways! back to the truck to get geared up. Our minute was 0955hrs so we could take our bikes out of impound promptly at 0945hrs. You had to roll out of the impound to add your check times to the bikes. So we lined up with our big roll of duct tape and proceeded to mark the bikes. I used the bar pad, Josh used the front fender. We had a spare list in our pockets, with a pen just in case. On the line we met the last guy in our row, he was completely new to racing. Kudos to him for taking this beast of a race on! We all checked each other’s time cards and were good to go!
0955hrs came up on the big clock and we started the bikes, as per racing rules. They fired up and we were off. Here we go! I was anxious but excited. The weather was perfect, about 20 degrees, a little humid which made the trail conditions as good as I imagine they could get. Josh and I stuck together, and rolled into the first special test within 20 minutes of starting. They counted josh down and sent him first. I had to sit and wait for a minute. This would be the same for every test there after, they send you out separately so you truly are riding against yourself. The volunteer counted down from 5 and I took off, I can hardly remember this test. It’s a blur. All I know is that it was rough and whooped out. I could hardly keep my rear wheel down. The heck is going on?! I had set my suspension for Koocanusa like terrain, which includes tons of whoops….maybe my camel back is too heavy? I don’t know, what I did know was that I was going to go over the bars if I wasn’t careful. I caught back up to josh in the transfer section and we rolled into check #2 together. We were 12 minutes early. As this was our first time, we decided to fuel up and Josh filled his water. I told him about my shock but I was too nervous about being on time, that I didn’t do anything about it… I would regret this later as I definitely had plenty of time to do something about it. I opted to drink more water…less weight? So silly…
We head out again and the trail had flowy single track, however it also had countless whoops and breaking bumps which were beating me up. I was actually surprised to see roots and rocky climbs on the trail. We managed to stay together for this section, and into special test #2. I wait for josh to go and then it’s my turn. This test was rough and I nearly lost my front wheel a few times. That’s it. The rear is way too soft! I will need to fix this next time. Josh let me catch up after the test and we rode together again to finish this transfer section. We arrived at check #3 with plenty of time to spare. We fuelled, watered, had a quick bite and I stiffened up the rear shock. Hopefully that does the trick! … hopefully it’s not to late, my back was screaming from being tossed around so much. I decided to lose the tool belt I had been wearing, and tied it up with the gas cans. It felt a lot better. We left the check together again, this one was going to take a few hours so we wanted to pace ourselves.
This section had the greatest variation of terrain. At times we’d come up to a rooted, loose rock climb and riders seemed to slow right down. This made passing a bit sketchy but not something we aren’t used to. I have to be honest though, I found myself struggling with the transition from slamming breaking bumps in 3rd gear with knees pinned to the tank, to having to switch back into having loosey goosey, ballerina style legs, trying to weight the pegs and ride technically. Josh got away from me in this but I would charge to find him after my little bobbles. There was a special test (number 3) closer to the first hour of this transfer but I’ll be completely honest, now that we are a few days out I can’t remember how it went. I believe I was very happy that I stiffened up the rear shock, suddenly I could turn and I could weight my rear tire as it should be. Other wise I just remember that the rest of the transfer following the test was endless switch back turns that you could hardly see due to the face slapping brush. We were winding up and up, the trail was on a small ledge and these slappers were starting to wear on my nerves. I worked hard to get up in the pegs after all that fast track and eventually did find Josh. He had a bit of a bobble on a switch back that turned up over a rock face. Luckily seeing him bobble showed me exactly what I needed to do (thanks babe, always looking out for me).
We worked our way down to check #4. Surprisingly with a lot of time to spare. We fuelled up and had a snack in the shade. I opted to not fill with water as we only had a little over an hour left to go and I just wanted to keep it light. Josh and I were in high spirits at this point and after what felt like a leisurely break we offered some words of encouragement for this home stretch. We’re almost done! As we start into this next section we begin to realize that the trail over here is amazing! Cake dirt, winding single track, it almost felt like home. This was the most fun we had all day! I think we both started to get our mojo back, hell yeah! Time for a second wind!
There was even sections of snow, did they know we were coming? They really knew how to make these Canadians feel welcome.
Eventually we pull into Test number 4, this one was amazing. It was like any primo day in koocanusa. Super fast, fun whoops, basically hero trail. It’s just what the soul needed after riding for so long. Once we completed that check we knew we were getting close to the end. The last little bit had the best single track of the entire day, I felt like myself finally and we both got going on a decent pace. We couldn’t help ourselves it was just amazing to finally ride that kind of single track. I did start playing mind games wondering if there would be another test or not and right when I felt we might be out of the woods we roll into the last special test. I hear the course worker yelling “welcome to the grass track!!!.” My heart sinks. We just rode all this amazing single track and now we have to ride grass? Josh goes and I pull up. The volunteer looks at me and asks if I’m having fun, I nod and he yells “I can’t heeaaaar you!” So I say screw it, and let out my biggest “wooooo!!” Maybe I needed that, he lifts his hand I charge into the grass. This was a short section thankfully but it was sketchy. Rutted out corners, turns that took you down a hill and 180 degrees back up the same hill, “just stay on 2 wheels!” I told myself and focused on being smooth. Josh apparently had the same approach in there and we both felt a great sense of relief when that test was over. Not just because it was over, but because that meant we were almost done. We rode on and through to the final check with 15ish minutes left. We sat and waited for our minute to cross the line and let what we had just been through sink in. We were pretty damn happy to say the least, that was the longest ride we’ve ever been on, and the farthest. Plus we had the added bonus of not only making our checks in time but with plenty of time to spare all day. Maybe we can do this!
Later on we topped the bikes up with gas at the truck and took off our filter skins. The bikes took no damage during the race so we drove them over to be impounded for the night. We went back to camp to have a quick shower and eat before heading back into town to check the results.
Josh finished with 5th place, which earned him a gold medal finish in 30B for day one and 16-OA for the B schedule. I was first, the only girl in B (weird flex, but ok) and more importantly 22-OA for the B schedule out of 103 riders. I was curious how my times compared to the A girls of the day and to my surprise I saw that I could have made my checks in time for the A schedule and my test times could of even put me in first for Ladies A. That’s pretty Sweet!
Sunday: Race day 2
Josh and I leaped out of bed at 0630hrs on the dot! … right. We crawled our asses out of bed, quietly mumbling bits of self doubt masked by more outwardly words of encouragement to each other. Josh made coffee while I struggled to push myself up from my lying position. I told myself if I just started moving everything would start working properly. That first sip of coffee felt like a warm hug that enveloped my whole body. Thanks babe…you ARE the best.
Luckily that last bit was true, once we started moving and got some food in our bellies we felt a lot better. We grabbed our kits and headed out, this morning Josh seemed to have no nerves at all, unlike the day prior. Whereas I could feel that familiar twang in my gut. I promptly told my stomach “I’m not nervous, you are, get over it!”, Didn’t seem to help…We drove down to riders meeting and arrived just in time for the national anthem… anyways, we got our time cards sorted and went back to the truck to get dressed. The times didn’t seem much different from yesterday so we didn’t feel like we had anything to worry about. We are riding the same course backwards after all. When we got lined up in our rows it was clear that we were a few men down. Looks like a few of our buddies from day one we’re not feeling it today. That’s ok, Josh and I were motivated to get this done, today I even had another girl in my class. Sweet! 0955hrs rolls across the clock and we take off.
Wow…I felt pretty good, and I could see that josh did too by the way he was riding. Very smooth, relaxed. 5 minutes in we hit the first special test, the grass track, ugh. The ruts had definitely gotten worse after day one so you had to be smart or get stuck. At least we got that test out of the way early. A few minutes after the first test we roll into the second special test. That seemed fast.. at least this one we loved, we both had fond memories from the day before so we pushed hard to hopefully get a good time. We then went into our favourite section, flowy single track, cake dirt, some snow, roots and switch back turns. I think this was the best way to start day 2 as it felt the most like home. This transfer was just under an hour, Josh was flying and I, despite feeling better, was not able to keep him in sight. At one point I caught a branch in my helmet that pulled across my face just under my nostril, I swear it was trying to rip me a new one. I managed to barely stay on the ledge of the trail. I paused for a moment but didn’t feel any blood down my face, so onward I go… where is he?… he’s definitely given ‘er. I figure I had a lot of time yesterday so if I just stay steady I’ll be doing great. On one of the road sections I started to wonder where this check was and saw my watch had 10mins to go until my next check. Holy crap! I am slightly less given ‘er. I got serious and forged on. Luckily I rolled through check with 7 minutes to go for our B schedule. Josh was 10 minutes early. He would have made the A time but I would have been 2 min late. I guess they do tighten up the time on day 2, I know I could have made it but I was to busy looking at stuff.
We leave check #2 together as always, this transfer is about 1.5hrs long but we felt we needed get going so rode with a little more intent this time. The trail was great, still in the flowy single track, some rooted out bits with the odd section of whoops. We came up to special test #3. Same test as #3 on day one. This one had all the quad trail, it was fast, bermed out and sandy corners. We tried to be smooth and fast, really putting into practice our “moto” turns. Knowing that I’m still faster standing I forced myself to get out of the damn seat and push for this longer test. Josh was gone. I had felt a lot of pride knowing that he was ahead. He was riding great. Eyes on the prize Kristen, I twisted the throttle and tried to be aggressive, this was a long one. I didn’t see josh until the third check, when I rode up he was fueling up. I took the spot next to him and realized I was 18 minutes early. Hot damn! We both got fed and watered and waited for our minute to come up. This transfer section was the longest, over 2 hrs, a range of terrain that went from flowy to rocky ridges, to relentless whoops. It had endless switch back turns with blinding face slapper bushes that threatened to push you over the edge. I’ve decided I don’t like that last one.
I managed to stay with Josh for the most part, he got a little ahead once we pulled into test #4. This one was a lot of whoops and hill climbs. We both tried to attack the whoops as best we could, our knees screaming but minds not quite willing to give in just yet. I think we did great. After the test I did find Josh, and at this point I was mostly able to keep with him. I screwed up on a hill climb, it caught me off guard and I didn’t make it up the deep sand. Hey, I’ve been in way worse situations during a race, so I just rolled down a bit and hit it again. Made it! (Back home, I know my buddies would be laughing at me). Anyways we rode on, it felt like forever but we came into check #4 with 22 minutes to spare . We fuelled up and filled our camel backs. I had to pee so bad, I had been holding it for hours, unfortunately nothing was available. The kindest older gentleman walked down while I finished getting my bag ready and held one of the portopottys for me. I could have kissed him, I ran down and it was the best pee of my life. (Is this to much information?) anyways, he was my hero in that moment and for that, he deserves to be remembered.
After that josh and I sat down in the shade for a snack. We tried to gas each other up, one more check and were done babe! Let’s do this! We left on time and stayed together. I knew Josh’s hands were killing him, my feet were sore, but I had kept a even pace all day and felt I had a bit more in the tank. So after tugging me along all day , Josh finally needed my push. We worked well together and we kept charging, Wondering if another test would pop up. Eventually we realized a test was unlikely. While riding, we came around a corner onto a road and a car was coming our way right down the center on the road. Josh didn’t have much time and I could see he was fatigued, he crashed trying to stop. He was ok, just a little wheel adjustment and we were off again. Our buddy from the minute ahead was with us and as a group we finished the transfer together. We got the to final check with 25 minutes to spare. A big hug and we took our helmets off. We actually made it! We finished the entire Idaho city 100. 325km or 202miles. We did what we came here to do and it felt incredible.
Josh got 6th in 30B, with a silver medal finish for the day. His overall finish for the weekend earned him a gold medal. I finished first for the day, and earned a gold as well. My times could have possibly given me a gold in ladies A and second in the class. At the end of the day Josh and I wanted to see if we could even finish a race this long. We also wanted to see where we stood with check times in comparison to the A schedule. Though that was not the primary focus. It’s hard to tell where you stand in another country, in a new format, amongst a totally different group of riders. Now that we know what we’re in for, I think we will give A times a try next time!
We would like to say a special thank you to our sponsors who make all of this possible for us. Thank you to Cycle Works Calgary, Canada Rail Vacations, Fox Canada, Mongoose Machine, Rekluse Canada, Rynopower Canada and MD Distributions.
This was my first attempt at writing a blog, so If you made it this far, thank you for reading about our trip. I know my writing isn’t grammatically correct, and my sentence structure could use a lot of work, but I’m old and I’m not changing.
Cheers lovelies!!
Team Broland 