Tuesday May 24th, was day 3 of XWA22 (Cross Washington Bikepacking), a 700+ mile ride/race from the La Push on the Olympic Peninsula to Tekoa near the Idaho border. The route is open for riders to do at any time, but the annual “Grand Depart” is more of a race format with a group leaving the start en masse.
Bikepacking legend John Stamstad joined me to do the interviews. We parked at Rattlesnake Lake State Park and pedaled back towards North Bend on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail to connect with some of the riders.
We woke up to a bit of unexpected drama in that the two riders at the front of the race had gotten seriously off-course north of Ellensburg. Our understanding was that they had both independently produced hybrid routes that combined the “high route” and the “low route” en route to Wenatchee. They still had the option to ride the course, but since neither back-tracked to the points where they went off course, they are disqualified from the race results. As of day 4, original race leader Abdullah Mustafa was still in Wenatchee, and original 2nd place rider Jason Oestreicher was back on course at mile ~535+.
John noted that the second night and third day of ultra events tends to be the most mentally and emotionally challenging as the body and mind adjust to the difficulties. Just making it to sunrise can seem impossible, but as soon as there is a glimmer of sunrise light the mood usually gets a lift.
John gave a few of his initial thoughts about the race (edit: I mistakenly say the race is on day 2, it was actually day 3):
This was Rick Massey’s third XWA attempt, and he was taking lessons learned to go for a successful finish this time around:
Cycling buddies Scott Rudy and Brad Stisson were (mostly) riding the “Lite” version of the route. Impressively, Brad was on his commuter bike:
Alex Frank was riding with minimal electronics and using paper maps, which saved him time crossing the complicated urban route-finding from the ferry to the Burke Gilman Trail:
Bikebacking veteran and organizer of the GCOR (Gravel Circumnavigation of the Olympic Range) Thomas Sumter was on track with hitting all of his race benchmarks despite having to stop at Singletrack Cycles in North Bend for a bottom bracket repair:
Thanks again to John Stamstad for his contribution to this post.
