Preparing for the toughest race in Ontario: Lost in the Rocks

Earlier this year, my wife and I were planning a trip back home (Ontario, Canada) for our wedding reception. As always, one of the first things I did was start looking around for what mountain bike races were going on in Ontario about the same time. Not more than an hour later, my good friend Ron got back to me and asked if I was interested in this endurance race called Lost in the Rocks and Trees.

After a quick browse of their website, they made no secrets that this race was known as “Ontario’s toughest mountain bike race”. Being an endurance racer and a guy that’s always up for a challenge, how could I refuse? Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention that our always under-prepared, but stubborn and strong as a moose friend Erik, said he was going to join us as well. He committed to the single loop version of the race. From here on, I will refer to him as “the Frenchman”.

Well, that was three months ago…

Now the time is here. With as hectic as everything has been (work, trip planning, reception, racing 3 series locally…), this race was almost absent from my mind. So this week I figured I should do a little more research to try to figure out how to prepare.

Two minutes into my research, Google revealed some enlightening information. Here’s what some of the people had to say about last year's race: “walking my bike was easier than riding”, “the mud was above my ankles”, “1/4 mile of water”, and “the flies were so bad, I could barely breath”.

To be honest, none of this really surprised me as grew up just hours from Mattawa, and I know how rough the Canadian Shield terrain can be. The problem is, I didn’t ride mountain bikes back home, I road dirtbikes. I didn’t start riding in until I switched from motocross to mtn bike racing 5 years ago.

Anyhow, I’m not one to throw in the towel so I had to come up with a plan to survive. I’m a die hard long distance rider. I figured that if could ride and race bikes all over the world (New Zealand, Peru, Costa Rica, Germany, Denmark…), then I should be able to figure this one out.

Here’s what I came up with.

Race Info
110 km (~68.35 miles)
2 loops, 3 check points

No rider support (water only at checks)

Last year’s times (Fastest: 5hrs 19min – ouch!, Average: ~6.5hrs)

Bike Set-up
System 2 Tubeless rear

System 2 non-tubeless front (Intense prototype tire)

Heavy duty HGC chain

New brakes

Front mud & water guard (yet to install)

Nutrition & Gear
Small camelback - InfinitNutrition (XC blend)

Large bottle on cage - InfinitNutrition (Endurance blend)

Small bottle in jersey back pocket - InfinitNutrition (Endurance blend – jus powder, not filled)Small baggies with InfinitNutritionTube, CO2, multi-tool, oil, bandaides

Strategy
1 bottle/hour = 6 bottles total = 2-3 refills
Use bottles as main nutrition source and camelbak as backup or if trail is too rough.
Fill both bottles and add nutrition at last checkpoint before longest section.
Oil chain before Loop 2.
Wear ample bug repellent

Loop 1
- Sit in the top 5, feel out the pace, do not lead
- Learn the terrain, learn the competition
- Ride one gear lower than normal at all times

Loop 2
- Pick up pace significantly for first ¼
- Recover for ½
- Full our effort for last ¼

We'll see how it goes!
AL - on the way to Canada...