Dave's story: Loess Hills Enduro

BaseCamp athlete shared his experience at the 2026 Loess Hills Enduro bike race in Iowa.

63 miles and 5200 feet of climbing, with the longest climb being less than .75 of a mile long, makes this ride a little punchy. But it is absolutely beautiful. They had a 100k and a 50k. Everyone started together. I was messing with my computer and ended up starting at the back of the group, which was fine with me. I know that I don't have the ability to be on the competitive end of the ride. My goal was to just do the best that I can do and have fun.

I had no heart rate for the whole ride, and my power meter didn't start working until the second half of the ride. Once I got moving, I worked my way through about half of the pack and found myself solo between two packs. I caught another rider, and he dropped in on my wheel. I could see another solo rider not far ahead of us. I kept the pace steady for a little bit to help the rider on my wheel recover. I then picked up the pace to bridge the gap to the next rider. Once we caught him and he dropped into third position, I flicked my elbow and dropped to the back of the little group that we had formed. After the other two riders took their turns on the front, I saw another solo rider not far ahead. So I slowly brought the pace up so that we could catch him. Once we caught him, he dropped into fourth position. We now had a nice little group of 4. I backed off the the pace just a little to make sure the new rider could recover and then moved to the back. When I had worked back up to second position in the rotation, I quickly noticed that the rider that had just moved to first position was really struggling with the loose gravel. As I moved to the front, I took a quick look behind me to see how the other two were doing. That's when I realized they had dropped off and were at least 100 yards back. So I decided to back off the pace and see if we could regroup. Then the other rider that was with me completely sat up and quit trying to push at all. So for the rest of the day it was a solo ride.

Throughout the day I was passed by a few riders and I passed a few, but my position remained pretty much the same the rest of the day. At about 40 miles in, both adductors started cramping, and they continued to cramp off and on for the rest of the ride.

At about 45 miles in, we hit the steepest climb of the day. It was on an MMR road and hit 18%. About halfway up, there is a little hump in the road that is only about 2 bike lengths long. I knew if I made past that point I could complete the climb. Unfortunately, I was passing another rider, who was walking the hill, and just as I reached the hump, the other rider didn’t know I was passing him, and he stepped over in front of me. I had to quickly change paths and dropped into a rut. At that point, it was either quickly get off the bike or crash. I walked about 50 feet and then decided to try to get back on the bike. Restarting on a 15% grade is tricky for me. I was lucky enough to get both feet clipped in quickly. The front wheel was off the ground for the first 4 pedal strokes. I managed to finish the hill with the adductors cramping every stroke. At the top of the hill was an aide station. I stopped and chugged 20 oz of heed, took 4 Hammer Nutrition electrolyte pills, and ate a fun size bag of M&Ms.

Shortly after I took off from the aid station, another rider passed me. He stayed anywhere from ¼ mile to 200 yards ahead of me for about the next 10 miles. With about 3 miles to go, I decided to see if I could bridge the gap. I was surprised how quickly I bridged it. I caught him about halfway up a climb and tried to talk with him, but he was breathing so hard he couldn't talk. So I soloed to the finish.

Thanks, BaseCamp, for teaching me how to push a little harder at the end of the ride. I'm pleased with my effort but not satisfied. I know I need to work on my fueling. I rode for 4 hours and 45 min and consumed less than 150 grams of carbs.