Lotoja

[RC Vikings]

Do we have anybody signing up this year?

[Rocker Ute]

Do we have anybody signing up this year? My cousin died in it last year, so my part of the family is officially out. In fact this may be the first time in probably 12-13 years nobody from my family is in it.

[Eddie]

I have aspirations to do it sometime. But as someone who has never been further than about 65 miles on a bike, I know I'd need to get a few more miles in to prepare. I also don't really have anyone I ride with, and I'm not sure this is the kind of thing you do on your own without a group. Are the folks there generally open to a single tagging along as long as I'm willing to take a turn pulling?

I really would like to do this one day. Probably not for another year or two at the earliest.

[Rocker Ute]

I have aspirations to do it sometime. But as someone who has never been further than about 65 miles on a bike, I know I'd need to get a few more miles in to prepare. I also don't really have anyone I ride with, and I'm not sure this is the kind of thing you do on your own without a group. Are the folks there generally open to a single tagging along as long as I'm willing to take a turn pulling?

I really would like to do this one day. Probably not for another year or two at the earliest.

You'll want to be doing century rides with some solid climbs pretty frequently and comfortably before you tackle it. It has become huge since the days I started doing it (first time I arrived the evening before and signed up, I think there was something like 300 riders, now far far larger than that).

People are generally okay with people hopping on, particularly when they take their turn pulling, and it is kind of a chaotic mess out there, so there is always someone to ride along with. However, I'd encourage you to find 3 or 4 guys to train and ride with and do it with them. Working together with people you know how to ride with makes it a fun race, trying to hope on with different groups and doing it alone can make it tough. I had a friend do it on his own without the proper training, and he completed it to his credit, but it took him about 3 hours longer than my worst time, and my worst time was an absolute suffer fest. I can't imagine extending that by 3 hours.