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The journey to the shores of Gichigami for the epic "Lutsen 99er" includes a stop for the pre-race dinner at the Subway in Two Harbors.
This is our 2nd trip to travel 99 miles through the North Shore woods, Jeff on his LAMERE fat tire bike and me on my trusty Suzuki DRZ 400 Enduro. In 2014 Jeff finished 2nd and he learned about pushing himself for over 5 hours at race pace.
On our journey in June of 2015 we added Jeff's son Owen to the posse, teaching him about the road trip life of a mountain bike racer. Such as sleeping on the floor of the hotel room and hanging out.
At 5:45am this is the scene from the parking lot of our hotel on the shores of Lake Superior...classic.
Fast forward to the Lutsen 99er mountain bike race. A bit of a blur to organize Jeff's bike and make contact with the organizer, Adam. I help out with being one of the lead motos on my DRZ 400 motorcycle. There are 2 other motos leading the long race and we communicate to keep the race on course out front.
This is the first time I see Jeff and he's out front 7 or 8 miles into the race. Couldn't believe there wasn't a group on his wheel. Several hundred racers are behind him.
Hammer time!
I took a break at about the 20 mile mark because I only have enough gas to go about 95 miles on my full tank, so I sat out for a 10 mile loop. This is where Jeff pops out of the woods with a moto in the lead and he is still alone out front. I am guessing that he was off the front for about 40 miles.
A ride through the North woods, averaging 17.18 for 99 miles...dang.
Steve Tilford and his buddy that he brought up from Kansas finally caught Jeff after 40 miles.
Valuable lesson for the Team LAMERE rider here, was that he could ride solo for 40 miles and 3 months later at the Big One...Chequamegon 40 he put this lesson into action!
Chasing hard and not giving up, about 30 miles left.
Big Man damn near grabbed 2nd, with 6 miles left Jeff was down by 3.5 minutes. At the end, the gap was 6 seconds back from 2nd at the finish after a huge push in the final singletrack section.
3rd place with a race time...5:45:51 @ an average of 17.18 mph for 99 miles off road. 462 racers in the Lutsen 99 mile race.
2/3 of the 99er posse...Jeff and son Owen.
Moto Mike and Mountain Man Jeff.
Our ole Buddy, Tim McGrath... Finish Line Finder and the Man that gave me a bike jersey back in 1985. The rest is history, Jeff got his Finders jersey in 1989...Finish Line Finders!
Good mountain bike race road trip and to share it with Owen, priceless. Telling him stories from the old days of racing was fun. Of course we topped off the race day with pizzas at Sven and Oles in Grand Marais and skipping rocks into Lake Superior after dinner was classic.
Ride On!!
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