Held at the end of July every year, the Laramie Range Epic is an old event, and is definitely my favorite of the year. Hosted in the national forest near Laramie Wyoming, the event is a little small, with around 200-300 riders showing up. The atmosphere is great though, the race is well put on (it’s the best marked course I’ve raced), and the food is excellent. There are two options for distances, the one lap ~31mi, or the two lap ~62. I chose to do the one lap, since truly long races aren’t my strong point. I figured my time would be somewhere between 2:30:00 and 2:45:00, and thought that gave me a shot at the overall podium and winning my age group.
The race starts at 7:30am, so we got there around 6:30 to give ourselves plenty of time to get ready. After kitting up, it was time to warmup, and a few miles on the road at the start was perfect. After getting to the start line with plenty of time, it was time to go. All of the categories start together in three waves based on expected time, and I was in the front wave, where I expected most of my competitors to be.
The start is on a downhill road for the first quarter mile, so nobody sprinted out of the gate. The fact that this race was pretty long, and some people were doing the two lap option also contributed to the slower start. The first few miles of road were uneventful, with a little chatting here and there, and a little bit of an increased pace up the climbs. After navigating a tricky turn onto some doubletrack, things got serious and the chatting stopped. At this point I was pretty happy with my position, I was sitting about 6th wheel, and I knew that there was still a long race to go. I knew that singletrack was coming up soon, so I started working my way up, eventually landing in 1st coming into the singletrack. I knew that this probably would be for long, so I didn’t freak out when a few riders passed me. There was still a long way to go.
We followed some singletrack and doubletrack for awhile until we reached a brutally steep climb, that I knew would be a decisive point. I was sitting in 4th at the bottom, and caught 3rd part way up, and passed him when we both had to hop off the bike. At this point 1st and 2nd were pretty far ahead, so I concetrated on building the gap to 4th, and trying to catch them. A few more miles of (mostly) uneventful singletrack and I came through the first aid station and headed out onto the gravel road section. About the only thing that went wrong all race came on that stretch of singletrack. My Mondraker Chrono SE hardtail has two bottle mounts, one on the downtube, and one on the seattube. Partway through the singletrack I noticed my seattube bottle bosses were loose, forcing me to put the bottle in my jersey pocket to keep from losing it.
At this point I knew that 4th was pretty far back, and so I contented myself with being alone on the road. Then I caught the two leaders who had stopped cause one of them had a mechanical. Needless to say I was a little bit surprised, but quickly settled into a paceline with them, and we rotated turns up the road. Then it was back onto singletrack. I knew that the other two with me were faster and so I didn’t blow myself up trying to keep up with them. They disappeared pretty quick, but I knew that I was better off riding my own pace for now. Nothing much happened till I reached the base of the final climb, and I knew that this was the crucial part of the race. If I didn’t get caught up this climb, then I knew had a good chance of taking 3rd overall.
The last climb at Laramie is a brutal one, climbing over 1000ft in just a few miles. I settled into a pace that was fast but not too fast and for the most part cruised up the climb. Close to the top there is a section of trail that switchbacks up an open hill, and when you reach the top you can look back and see a long ways behind you. Upon reaching that point I looked back and couldn’t see anyone within what was probably 5mins of riding. Knowing this I took it extra careful on the descent, knowing that nothing but a flat or bad crash could cause me issues. The descent was a rocky one, and so I was careful on my hardtail not to smash any rocks.
After the descent it’s a short spin on some doubletrack to the finish, and I pushed hard knowing that I’d probably lost time on the descent, and didn’t want to risk getting caught. After cresting the final hill I crossed the line elated, knowing I had secured 3rd overall, and possibly won my category. Upon checking the results, I was 3rd overall and 1st in the 16-29 age group. Needless to say I was pretty stoked, my first ever win, and my first individual podium as well!
After eating some food and hanging out with other friends who’d raced, it was time to head home with my 3rd overall mug, and the motivational boost from a win. I definitely plan on coming back next year, and hopefully improve on my 3rd overall. I’d invite you to come out in 2022 and enjoy the course, food, and enviroment around the race.
For those of you wondering, this was my setup for the race, and also what I ate/drank:
Bike: I ran my Mondraker Chrono SE hardtail (see the full build here)
During the race I drank about 1.5 bottles, one with Maurten 320 drink mix, and one with water. (The water one was the one I had to put into my pocket, making it harder to drink). I ate 7 dried figs, and two packets of Skratch chews, one Cherry and one Orange flavor. My fueling this race was excellent, built on some lessons learned from a gravel race earlier that year.
Photos courtesy of my mom, Jake Marlow, and Caz Norton, thank you to all of them.