John's story: Thunder Bay Thriller

BaseCamp athlete John Keepers shared his experience at the 2025 Thunder Bay Thriller gravel bike race in Michigan.

It’s always great to see Tracy Gravlin and John at the races. Spaghetti dinner the night before was fantastic! I think I inhaled all the garlic bread (evident in the pre- and post-race photos). Good fueling at dinner and breakfast. Cleared the system in the morning but had a tough time downing all my Roctane (260 gr Carb 3L camelback) and Clif Bloks (180 gr C). Temp in the a.m. said 60 degrees F, but it felt really warm, but it was really nice out.

I fell off the lead group around mile 5 and a group of 6 of us banded together until we hit the uphill sand in the woods… the only time I was forced off the bike. My sand skills have improved a ton, but I still look for any route to avoid it…climbing the walls, riding thru the woods… I had 45mm Maxxis Rambler EXO TRs on. For 90% of the course, I should have had 38s or less. The gravel was good and more pavement than I expected.

After the mid-point, my legs were on the verge of spastic cramping. I could tell on some of the rollers that they were about ready to pop. It's hard to stay on the gas in no man's land. This is an opportunity for me, as I had the same issue in Ore to Shore; keep cranking when you are on your own. I always end up in no man's land!!

The course was well marked, but with my distance vision, I could never tell which way the arrows were pointing until I got right on top of the signs. This was more of a challenge in the single track at the end.

Results: finished 2nd in age group. Both normalized power and TSS/hour were okay but not near the top limit for that duration. Thanks tons to Coach Jim Pomeroy for his guidance and support!!