Preparation comes with a expectation and lack of preparation come with consequences. For me I have never been a guy who doesn’t like to be prepared when it comes to racing or endurance type events. I have never done the Belgian Waffle Ride, but I have heard plenty of interesting stories regarding this race/ride. I know plenty of friends that have done it but I know a whole lot more that laugh about even trying it.

So why did I think it was a good idea to do the BWR? It really started when I got my new Intense Cycles full suspension Sniper XC bike. Why would this bike make me want to ride 133 miles “40 which is dirt” and over 10,00ft of climbing? It’s simple I had a hard tail mtb that I wouldn’t be riding anymore. I figured this was a good ride to utilize my Intense Hard Eddie. There wasn’t much that I needed to do in my eyes to get this bike capable of doing this ride I put a carbon rigid fork on it and some 32mm wide road tires but the question mark was I going to have enough top speed with a 1-12? Once I added the 38t to the Sram eagle drive train I knew I was going to be just fine. With a top speed at about 36 mph before I spin out I knew I could hang in the draft of the group I wanted to ride with.

The ride was a week out and the longest ride I had done was 40 miles say 2 months ago, but for some reason I was ok with it. Life has been crazy lately and I didn’t want to add another layer of stress training for an event, so I basically played it by ear up until the night before the race. After spending all day at the baseball fields helping coach my sons baseball team I nearly pulled out of going but a good friend of mine Jake Elkins kept me in check, so I came home and got my crap ready for the ride.

Our crew didn’t stay together very long but they are some bad ass dudes

I arrived in The Lost Abbey Brewery where the event was being held at 6am to find lots of very fit looking riders and all different types of set ups as far as equipment. Part of this ride is getting the infamous Belgian Waffle breakfast to load up on carbs before you suffer on two wheels. I ate on the way down due to wanting to sleep as much as I can in my own bed. Enough about my personal excuses let’s get to the fun shit! We had 6 guys in our crew Brian Davis, Greg Matherly, Jake Elkins, Simon and Alex that were all going to try and stay together so we could all work together and help each other out. Well you could imagine how that went once we rolled out. This huge day on a bike quickly turned into a full blow race! The first thing I noticed was how well the CHP controlled the road for the ride. The roads were blocked so we had an amazing flow. The first part of the dirt was at the bottom of Lake Hodges and it was definitely funny to see the people who don’t ride in the dirt absolutely panic once they didn’t have complete control of their bike. My mtb set up worked perfect like I wanted to in the dirt, I was very comfortable and confident and that was my goal. I got through Lake Hodges in front of a big group and started heading up Highland Valley road where I started to take advantage of the range of my Sram Eagle Cassete. I didn’t have to put a lot of power out to stay with the group. I just used a high cadence to save my legs. We got up into Ramona and headed to Black Canyon. My legs were starting to feel it a little already and that was from the pure lack of volume that I had NOT put in. By the way Greg and Jake were long gone due to measuring wieners up Highland Valley. We didn’t know how far ahead they were but I wasn’t in any type urgency to catch them.

We made a quick stop at the aid station at Black Canyon for a PB&J, new bottle and off we went into the dirt again. Black Canyon was an awesome segment of the ride. Smooth dirt roads descending into the canyon, and then a nice climb up into some lush green hills of the Santa Isabel. I got popped off the group on the climb out of Black Canyon, but I decided to skip the aid station at the top that climb to get back into the group. This part of the ride was really scenic on the road but it was the start of the pain for me. I started to cramp up in my quads and was doing everything I could to stay with the group that my friends were in but they slowly slipped away as we turned on to highway 78. This where I’d meet a dude named Shaun. Shaun single handedly pulled me back to the group that I lost touch with and I couldn’t thank him enough. This made the next 15 miles so much easier on me. We made the right off the 78 heading back toward Black Canyon and I just knew that it wasn’t in my best interest to put that much power out so I sat up and took my time on the decent into Black Canyon. As I made my way out of Black Canyon I saw Shaun again. He was sitting under a tree helping someone else with their bike. I waived as I rode by and climbed steady out of the canyon. I used the aid station at the top filling up with water and hydration mix and then made decent into San Pasqual Valley. I got to cruise down highway 78 and was feeling pretty worked. I was almost done with the dirt section before Bandy and here came Shaun again. He was like, Hey buddy you have company again! I was pumped!!! I would learn shortly that Shaun was going for a top 20 in this race before he got two flats and now he was basically cruising it and I could tell he wanted to give me some company and make my experience at the BWR better. We continued to roll together through Lake Hodges before I got my first and only flat. I got it fixed up and we continued on the way. We climbed up Del Dios Highway, into Elfin Forest and found some Bacon and Bikinis at the end of Questhaven. I didn’t have much power left in me but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was basically all climbing until we reached Double Peak. Double Peak is a punchy climb that goes from 6% to 10% in a little over a mile overlooking San Elijo Hills and the Pacific Ocean. It’s very steep on the main road but I didn’t realize they added some extra credit on the utility road that is at the view point. I was creeping up this utilizing the 50t on my cassette and I can honestly say with out I don’t know if I wouldn’t have had to walk it. I made it to the top and it was just descending the dirt section until our final 5 miles of road back to the event. The Hard work was done and we were at the bottom of double peak when we realized there was 3 mile extension we were not aware of. That 3 miles was like a stick in the eye! We were not expecting this slight grade detour but we just wanted get off our bikes after nearly 9 hours. I rolled up to the finish feeling very accomplished!!! I said thank you to Shaun and one of his buddies we picked up along the way for riding with me and motivating me when I needed it. Shaun truly made my experience one I’ll remember. His gaol was to be a top 20 racer and break his personal best but once he saw me riding solo and in need of a riding buddy he hung out and made my experience the best it could be.

Brian Davis finished as good as he looks

Sooooo... should you start training to do the Belgian Waffle Ride? If you are a meathead and like to suffer yes! IF you like to train but aren’t a meat head do the wafer distance you will like that ride just the same I bet. I was blown away with how organized this ride was. It was seamless, Registration was quick and easy, the aid stations had everything you needed and more including Velofix mobile bike mechanics at every major aid station to help you if you were in need. The road markings could not have been any better. Honestly I was blown away how greatly executed a ride/race of this magnitude was. If you are a endurance Cyclist make this a must ride for you. The crew honestly utilized the best terrain that North County has to offer.

For Full Results from TBG Event Timing click here

My final stats from my Garmin were

Strava Link

Miles: 133

Elevation: 10,187

Ride time: 8:49 min

Calories: 9,657

Equipment

Frame: Intense Hard Eddie

Fork: Carbon Rigid

Bars, stem, seat post: Carbon

Saddle: Union Sport