Gary's story: Loess Hills Enduro

BaseCamp athlete Gary Wenzl shared his experience at the 2025 Loess Hills Enduro gravel bike race in Iowa.

My first competitive 100k race. There was no age brackets. Due to rain we did the wet route that had no MMRs and was mostly chunky rock with some hard surface.

Coming out of winter BaseCamp, I was unsure what to do. So I copied a couple weeks that I thought would be appropriate and doing another FTP test. Then I purchased/started Tim’s 4 Weeks From Foundation to Early Peak Gravel Events training program that lead me up to this event.

My goals going into the race were to complete the course in under 4 hours and I wanted to average >200 watts. Basically performing better than I have in the past.

The race was super fun and a lot of learning experiences.

Started out strong and feeling great but everything I learned in BaseCamp was not on my mind for some reason. About 5-10 miles into the race, I remembered and began to consciously think about and perform them (like my breathing gears, and pedaling and so on). I may have been doing them all along but just wasn’t consciously thinking about them (must of been the excitement).

I was in with a group of riders who was very strong on the climbs, but I couldn’t get around them and found myself coasting & braking down hills. So I intentionally didn’t hit the climbs as hard, creating a larger gap at the crest so I didn’t have to brake.

Soon we hit hard surface and mostly flat, but they were running my pace, and we were taking turns pulling. When we turned off onto gravel going into a headwind, I was in the rear, by the time it was my turn to pull we were just entering into the first climb. I knew who was behind me and just couldn’t skip my turn, so I made the decision to hit it much harder than I should, knowing after that climb I’d probably get dropped from the group. I did and noticed a huge difference not being able to draft with the direct head wind.

I kept working solo for the rest of the race (30 miles). 8 miles left and I began to cramp really bad (inner thighs). Must have been too late, because additional electrolytes and water didn’t seem to help. I was struggling to maintain over 180 watts without my legs knotting up. 1-1/2 miles before the finish, I got passed by 4 others who finished right before me. Hard to admit, but I finished with 24 oz of water and planned on my hydration pack being empty in 4 hours. Sometimes I miss the easy things (like drinking), and it hurt (both physically and being disappointed in myself).

For some reason, the last 30 miles of the race, I had forgotten my goals and was just working to my own pace/zones breathing gears and so on.

Despite what I messed up on, the experience was priceless and was super fun!

Club: BaseCamp Explore Team

Pace: 3:52

Chip Time: 03:59:55

I placed 28th, completing the course in 4 hours. A friend of mine made 3rd place 3:10.

Was happy to end up doing as well as I did. Looking back at history best efforts, the most power I ever averaged for any length of a ride was 184 watts.

I wasn’t sure about Tim’s gravel training plan, thinking I’d like to do a hard 100k prior to this race. But looking back, it had me very prepared!

I have a little down time to fill in for a couple weeks, but I will be using Tim’s plan again to prepare for my next 100k gravel race, the Solace Gravel Grinder in June.

A super big thank you to Rhonda Wright, who introduced me to BaseCamp and has been super helpful (like having a coach).

Love the BaseCamp kits! They are awesome for the 100k gravel!