Justin's story: Escondido Night Gravel

BaseCamp athlete Justin Hersom shared his experience at the 2025 Escondido Night Gravel bike ride in Texas.

First off, I got to meet up with fellow BaseCamper Bryan Rooney and had a nice time chatting with him. Bryan and I rode together for the first 6-7 miles. This wasn't a race, as it was a night ride, and the organizer said he didn't trust racers. I treated this as a training ride and practiced some skills; I chose the 27-mile route due to it starting at 7:30 p.m.

Prior to the ride, I was having tire issues. We started the ride with a nice and easy 2-mile neutral rollout. And after about 15 minutes of riding, I thought I saw a tire had lost air. I told Brian to go ahead and ride ahead of me as I assessed my tire. My tire was fine, and I decided to ride harder to bridge back up to Bryan. We split off to our own routes.

There were a 4 riders a ways ahead of me, and for me that's just a signal to push harder and chase them down. I was able to maintain a strong Tempo pace and catch and pass all the riders. This is my first nighttime ride, and it was a blast. I was the first rider to complete the ride. After crossing the finish line, the organizer asked if I would ride back into the finish line a second time with him running behind videotaping me for a promo video. I don't know what happened to the video, but I don't see it up on the site.