Tracy's story: Thunder Bay Thriller
- BaseCamp
- Sep 15, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 17, 2025
BaseCamp athlete Tracy Gravlin shared her experience at the 2025 Thunder Bay Thriller gravel bike race in Michigan.
The best part of the Michigan gravel races I have done this year is seeing fellow
BaseCamp friend John Keepers! We both did the 62-mile Thunder Bay Thriller Gravel Race out of Alpena yesterday. The night before the race we had a nice Italian meal with John.
Race day was beautiful! No wind. Great temps and sunshine.
I signed up for the 62 because I had survived Gravel Worlds and thought I might as well do the long race. The gravel was fast and easy. There was some good climbing in the middle part of the course. There were several areas that reminded me of Nebraska with the long roads and farm fields with corn.
I felt good and was moving along pretty good until the last 14 miles of the race. At that point we entered a dark forest road. I was by myself and had nobody to work with. There were potholes to look out for and many deep sand areas. I was so happy that my Lauf and my mindset got me through the sand. But my mph definitely lowered. 7 miles of that and then on to a single track that was even more deep sand! Wow. It was tricky for me all the way around. I had to get off and run with the bike four times. I fell over once. But was proud of myself for riding through the majority. Thank goodness my legs still felt good! After that there were three miles back to the finish. I took off and felt great. The top 5 women were going to medal in the 62 miler. I was hoping to make five. There was a woman behind me at one point halfway in, so I pushed hard to distance myself from her. I ended third woman OA and couldn't have been happier. It was a slower time than I had wanted, but I didn’t know there would be such sand traps. I got good practice! And confidence.
One of my ski friends did the race, too. He knows I spend the winter with BaseCamp instead of ski racing now. After the race he told me that my BaseCamp training sure came through in the race. That made me happy. Thank you, Coach Shannon Mathis, for getting me ready to go and helping me with my confidence! Oh, and John Keepers crushed it as always! So strong! Second in AG!!
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