Henry Barze

Tennessee Gravel ITT route #2 complete in 9hrs 10min. That was relentless, rain the first 3 hrs where most of the roads turned into creeks, and the first 25 miles the road surface was awful. Kept the power in check early on and I felt pretty good, but at some point descending the TransAmerica Trail to mulberry gap my derailleur went into crash mode and said adios. Rolled into Mulberry gap and got a bunch of food, then spent ~25 min trying to clean my bike and reset the rear derailleur, but it just wouldn’t start shifting again. Only way to change to an easier gear was to physically push the derailleur up the cassette, which means I had to do the Shimano Shoe Shift™️ the remaining 50 miles. Halfway back up the trans America trail I checked the radar and saw a big blob of yellow headed south, by the top of the climb it was pouring. Steady rain until 7PM then a drizzle until 8. Took a break around 7 and thought I could still get sub 9hrs if I pushed hard, and my legs still felt great. Did my best to tackle the rest of the climbs but the shifting issue did not make it easy, and I dropped my chain several times shifting the front derailleur. Saw some pigs as the sun was setting. Ended up falling 10 min short, getting to the 3 mile descent back to the car right at 9 hrs. The first 25 miles and last 10 miles are very rowdy, rocky, and covered with cross road big drainages, not fun on a gravel bike. I think I could take 30-45min off with my MTB and no mechanicals, but idk if I wanna do this one again especially since it’s basically the cohutta 100 MTB course minus the singletrack. One more ITT to tackle to go for the triple crown, the Dirty 130 🤙