Huffmaster Grasshopper is always hard, 89 miles 4800 feet of climbing, about half gravel covered dirt roads, with some dirt only roads, and half pavement. This year it was harder.

It rained and snowed on the course leading into race day. The gravel covered dirt roads turned to gravel covered mud. Mud is not all muddy. If you can ride dirt in the rain and not get dirty, I call that class one mud. If you ride wet dirt and stop within a hundred yards because your wheels won’t turn, I call that class 10 mud. Grasshopper gravel roads were 4-6 this year. Tires sink in about an inch and you will be pushing the fiction of mud, like a boat pushes water. It’s slow and it’s hard.

The early gravel sectors are not so long and back on the pavement I joined a few shredded pack remnant riders coalescing into a nice quick effective paceline. Which was great until we hit more gravel mud. This time on a snow covered climb and descent.

Equipment note: I rode Continental Terra Trail 35s, tubeless with rim brakes. They were great. No problems with traction, cleared the mud always, light enough and very smooth ride quality. Rim brakes? Descending muddy hills I rode loose and light, and let the bike run. Rim brakes are great for this and I passed many riders on the descents.

Climbing a muddy, snowy slope is slow and hard, for everyone. Fitness, experience, equipment matter, but everyone is slow.

About racing in mud. That’s called cyclocross and the races last about an hour. Huffmaster is 89 miles. Through miles 45, 50, 55 miles pushing through mud with every pedal stroke to simply keep rolling is hard. Very hard. Much harder than a dry Huffmaster. This year at mile 55 there was a time cut, 1:45pm, 3:55 after my start, or average speed of a little less than 14 mph. I missed it by a few minutes. The EMT marshall at the cut asked if I wanted to continue? “Hell No!” The final climb and descent of Huffmaster Road on the full course, which I opted out of, was about class 8 mud on race day. Some riders rode it, some carried their bikes. After 4 hours of riding, in near freezing conditions, covered with mud, I said it’s time to head to the finish.

On race day I did 71 miles in a little over 5 hours. No, I did not officially finish. Yes, I’m ok with that.