Shannon's story: Gravel Worlds

BaseCamp athlete Shannon Scanlon shared her experience with her husband, Den, at the 2025 Lauf Gravel Worlds bike race in Nebraska.

We started out the day with a stretch goal of staying with the 10-hour pacer. My plan was to gauge the pace and make a decision after 20 minutes. The 1st 20 minutes was at or slightly above my FTP, and I determined I would be unable to stay with this group. I backed the pace and focused on staying in Sweet Spot until the MMRs. I knew I would have the opportunity to recover on this more technical section. Den was stronger than I at this point and continued up the road with the group.

After the MMR sections, I planned to power on at Tempo to the 50-mile checkpoint and then conserve energy by finding wheels to draft. I was able to hook up with a nice paceline and eventually caught Den at about mile 80. I was on the pull and called out to him, "Your bike angels have arrived." This gave me more motivation, because prior to that I was in a dark place, questioning my "why." My why originally was to help Den to a podium, and at that point he didn't need me; he was up the road. I needed to find a new why, an opportunity to practice my pacing and nutrition and the determination to finish this thing for myself. "I'm a powerful, strong Mimi, and I will finish" became my mantra.

After Den and I connected, we maintained a Zone 2 pace to the 2nd checkpoint. Our plan: refuel, bathroom stop, and quickly press on. Nothing at the aid station to eat sounded like something I could stomach except a coke and a few pretzels a wonderful volunteer offered me from her lunch. We traded pulls to the last checkpoint, but at this point I was really hurting. My legs felt every hill, and all I could do was try to hold Den's wheel. He pulled us to the finish and himself to a 1st place podium finish.