On August 11th, three of us rode the inaugural brevet of a a new route called Gnarly Nebo. Although a shorter “populaire” version was offered, all of us choose to ride the full 200km brevet.
The three riders included myself (Richard Stum), Anthony Blauer and Richard Randall (Grizz). The weather forecast had the temps going into the mid 90s, but since the big climb of the day is at the very beginning, the temperatures at 8:00 were just about right. All of stayed together throughout the day, with Grizz only a mere two to three minutes behind Anthony and I on the climb up Nebo.
After the Nebo climb, we dropped down into the first convenience store checkpoint in Nephi. At the c-store we met two other roadies who were just behind us on the climb. We left slightly before them but they soon caught us on the route to Mona. We worked together for a while, but they were moving at a much faster pace and we had them let me go (they were training for LOTOJA). Throughout the balance of the day, we worked as a small group, sometimes soloing parts of the ride and regrouping at checkpoints.
All in all, the 200km, 7500-foot day went very well, with no big wind issues or adverse mechanical problems. Next year, I may offer this as a September “fall leaves” route, pushing it back a month into September.