Jeff’s Yankee Springs Time Trial Race Recap

Jeff and Zoe Cachero
Jeff and his daughter, Zoe, who also participated in the intermediate kids race.

Finally a better day in the saddle! My Yankee Springs Time Trail race went well. I raced the Sport 40 to 44-year-old group for the first time ever. When I started racing, it was in the 25 to 29-year-old category. The course was nice and fast.  The sand traps were uneventful and the climbs were not as steep as I remember. All of this led to a finishing time of 54 minutes. That was good enough for me to place 20th out of 36 in my age group. Fort Custer is next!

~Jeff Cachero

Traveling Circus HellKaat 50 Race Report

Dan Frayer's HellKaat 50 RouteThe Short Story: 29/84 in the Men’s open with a time of 2:52:32.  It was hard.

The Long Story: The HellKaat 50 was race #4 in the Michigan Gravel Racing Series.  Starting at 5 Lakes Brewing in Dorr, the 50 or 100-mile event was a fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The neutral roll out from the parking lot was short and things got real intense real quick once the pavement turned to gravel.  There was a great deal of confusion at the first turn with 100-mile participants going straight and 50 milers turning right.  There were a couple of crashes as people were turning around.  I took advantage to weave through the traffic and hop on with the fast guys.  The 50-mile group split and I was happy to sit in with 15-20 guys that were way faster than me.

That was mistake #1.  I blame my ego. Continue reading “Traveling Circus HellKaat 50 Race Report”