Hey everyone,
I’m doing a special report on my first stage race, Fort Davis Hammerfest out in the Texas hill country. In my opinion this was probably one of my favorite races – I made some new friends, ate some great food, and had some experiences that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Anyways, today I’m writing about the 10 hour drive to Fort Davis. I usually don’t do race reports without racing, but I thought the drive there was important enough to merit its own post.
About a week before the race, Daniel was coordinating two races simultaneously: Fort Davis Hammerfest, which is a non-Collegiate USCF stage race, and the Baylor Collegiate Race which happened to be on the same weekend. Since Daniel’s strengths were both climbing and time trialing, he opted to go to Fort Davis because it featured both types of events. Likewise, I thought that as a light rider I would be good at climbing, and if I had gone to Baylor instead of Fort Davis, I would be racing much of the same stuff as I had at the other collegiate races – a fairly flat road race along with a technical criterium. I figured that going to Fort Davis would give me a good amount of variety in my racing portfolio.
The rest of the team opted to do the Baylor race. However, one alumnus of the team, Clay Dalton, decided to go with us to test out his climbing legs. As a 180 pound racer standing over six feet tall, you wouldn’t at first glance call him a climber. However, he’s super powerful, and we figured he would do well at Hammerfest.
There was one logistical problem, however, which was that we had to transport three riders and five bicycles, along with spare wheelsets by using one car. Since my van had the most cargo space in the back, I volunteered to drive us all the way across Texas. The ride would take us roughly nine hours so I was somewhat anxious since I had never driven that distance before. However, it would be good driving practice for me so I didn’t mind so much. When Clay arrived at my apartment the Friday before race weekend, he lent me his bike rack to help out with the transportation. However, my vehicle didn’t have the correct mounts on the back so the rack was a no-go. We were stumped for a few minutes until Clay told me that we could probably fit all bikes in the back of my car. It was a stretch, but we could do it.
After loading up my van with Clay’s two bikes and my bike, along with spare wheels, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up supplies for the road trip. It was a long trip so I brought a few gallons of emergency water along with some rations in case we got stranded. I also bought some instant coffee, which I wouldn’t normally drink but I brought it along with me just in case I needed it. After getting a cup of joe, we headed out to UT campus to pick up Daniel at his dormitory.
Daniel came down with his luggage and two bikes, and I was quite impressed with his time trial equipment, which consisted of an aero bike with a disc rear wheel, and a 100mm deep rim carbon front wheel. It took us about ten minutes to figure out the right configuration of luggage, but we made it all fit, with Daniel sitting in the back to make sure everything was secure. There was a lot of expensive equipment back there so it would’ve been a shame if any of it would get damaged.
We managed to fit all five bikes, spare wheels, and luggage in the back of my van.
After leaving UT campus we stopped by Mellow Johnny’s for some race supplies, then headed out to Johnson City, which would be our last stop before the long ride to Fort Davis. It took us about an hour to get there and we stopped by a fast barbecue joint at which I ordered catfish and shrimp, which was excellent. I also stopped by Whittington’s Jerky and bought half a pound of turkey jerky and half a pound of beef jerky, of which I believe was one of the best jerkys I have ever had, rivaling the Woody’s beef jerky that I had at Centerville.
Clay tries on his aero helmet.
After we ate, we went on our long drive. After about one or two hours of driving we his Fredricksburg. I vaguely remember the town from the last time I went through it but not really. It was a tourist town with a long German immigrant history, but when I rolled through it it looked as if it were specifically catered to tourists. There’s actually a road race held there in the summer, and I’m currently thinking about doing it. Anyway, we quickly rolled through the town and hit the Texas hill country.
Taking a break at Junction, Texas.
There’s not really much to say about it because there isn’t really anything out there but pasture. Once we hit I-10 the speed limit jumped up to 80 mph! I had never seen speed limits like that and it was pretty crazy. I could really feel the crosswinds rocking the van as we went along. We stopped by Junction to stretch our legs and get ice cream. After about 4 more hours on the road, and seeing nothing but chaparral along the way, we made a stop for gas and we got food at an Ihop in Fort Stockton. An hour and a half later, we arrived at Fort Davis.
The views were great.
We stayed at a place called Prude Ranch. We were originally listed to share a cabin with ten other people, but there were some safety issues with the bunk beds so Clay, Daniel, and I got to share our own cabin, which was a great deal. One of the interesting things to note were that the staff didn’t lock the doors at the ranch. I guess since the location was so remote there was little chance of theft. Anyway, Clay did some maintenance work on his bike while Daniel and I prepped for race day. We had to wake up at 5:30 AM so we hit the hay, anxious for the next day.