This year, I had a unique vantage point at the Transylvania Epic. I started out as a racer, hell-bent on being The Fastest Slow Guy in the field. I trained for hundreds of hours in the frozen dark of the New England winter. By the end, I was alternately a rider, a volunteer and a sweeper. Here are my thoughts and evaluation of this years event.
1. Organization: 10 out of 10. As a racer, everything you need is provided. From the breakfast spread, the bike transport, the never-ending hammer gel and Perpetum to the by-dinnertime results and daily highlights movie the whole week went by without a hitch (Im sure there were hitches, but the Mike and Ray smoothed them out without any of us noticing). The single results issue took about 3 minutes to resolve.
If you are thinking about volunteering, the system is run with military precision by the friends and family of the organizers. Everyone is friendly, and the hours I spent at the checkpoint went by almost as fast as Justin Lindine. Riding behind the group was good too - I met some awesome folks, rode at a pace that allowed me to actually take in some of the incredible scenery and hung out with the moto guys. Who were kick-ass.
It seemed most of the volunteers were the significant others of people racing: if you are on the fence about bringing a date, do it: it seemed like everyone had a pretty good time.
2. Quality/ variety of terrain, stage length etc: 9 out of 10. There were 7 different stages, and each one had its own character and appeal. I would only change 2 things (and I know this is quibbling): the duration/ composition of the TT stage and the amount of fire road descending. The former I feel was a bit too long OR on too much open road, the latter may simply be a function of land access. Want more of my unasked-for advice?
Of course you do.
Maybe break the TT stage into 2 parts: a cx style handling section and a big-watts road section. This way, everyone is happy (except for the folks responsible for logistics). Or just shorten it to make the time gaps less important going into the days ahead. Or just cut out the part where JB passed me and Ben like we were tied to a tree.
The "more single track descending" is probably much trickier. I just know that when someone spends 20 minutes pushing chain up a dirt road climb, they want some sweet, sweet trails on the way down. It dosent have to be Downieville, just some twisty, rocky fun.
3. Food (the "meal package"): 10 out of 10. Easily the most improved area from last year. Every single meal was good. And not just "I rode 50 miles on my mountain bike over Taintsmash Ridge, literally anything is going to taste good" - the food selection, variety and quality was top-notch. There were mom-made cookies. Seriously. And the breakfast was remarkably consistent: no gastrointestinal roulette this time around. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, oatmeal, fruit, cereal - you can't go wrong.
Even the vegan/gluten free options were delightful.
The checkpoint food was well done also: cold coke, Gatorade, heed, ice water, sandwiches, fruit, cookies and bars all laid out for half-delirious bike racers to stuff their face-holes with. And all handed out by a smiling, friendly volunteer.
4. Staff: My opinion of the people behind this event are already pretty well-known. For this race, you show up at a boy scout camp in a part of Pennsylvania where a horse and buggy is considered part of normal highway traffic, ride through some of the most wacky backcountry shit you can imagine and live with a cabin full of hellions (ahem, I mean "respectable cyclists") and somehow never leave your comfort zone too far behind. The staff is responsible for setting the tone, and these guys make sure every single person - from the podium to the back of the pack, from spouses to kids - feel like part of something special.
5. Lodging: 7 out of 10. Ahh yes, ye olde Rimmey camp. Aside from subtracting one star for the ass-sized sag in my mattress and two for the hobbit-sized spider I enjoyed a conjugal visit with, the accommodations were adequate. The toilet struggled a bit, and there was some kind of device in the bathroom whose sole purpose seemed to involve sporadically leaking black water, but overall the commode situation was well within race-tolerances.
The stove was somehow a professional grade, 6 burner monstrosity that applied heat to a pan more evenly than anything I have ever used in an actual home.
Lodging Advice:
Bring fans. It gets sticky, and unless you want to be drained completely of blood by mosquitoes the size of Yorkshire terriers, you will keep the doors closed.
Bring a small cooler or big container to put in the freezer for ice. There is a huge ice machine at the mess hall. Take advantage of this.
Bring something that can make a bunch of coffee for a bunch of people, fast. There is coffee at breakfast, and it is passable, but you may find you need a little something extra on morning 5.
6. Facilities: 7 out of 10. Just about everything we needed was walking distance (after 4 or 5 days, this became "limping distance") from the cabin. The showers were your choice of "single" or "prison-style", and doubled as a washing machine. Just walk over after the stage with your kit on and viola! You now had a clean-enough chamois to decorate the hanging line in front of the cabin. The "individual" showers suffered from a bit of a drainage problem - depending on demand and time of day, you could be wading ankle-deep through a stagnant puddle of other dudes wash water. However, the separate shower bays mostly made up for this problem.
7. Overall Value: 10 out of 10. The most common question I was asked upon my return from this race was "why would you ever go back after all that?".
The answer is pretty simple, but explaining it isnt always so easy.
Of course I would do it again: The whole event is fantastic.
I had a pretty bad run of it as a race but as an overall experience, it was still a hell of a week. The only reason I didnt pack it in and head home on Wednesday with a broken bike and a stomach of anger was the atmosphere and camaraderie fostered by the organizers. I (and the other folks that, through the vagaries of misfortune, also DNF'd) was offered every opportunity to ride, hang out and still be a part of the event I drove 7 hours to get to.
Overall, I feel like I have a better grasp on the event than last year: the Transylvania Epic isnt just a race. It is a temporary community: a gathering of people you know, people you dont know and people you have only read about. It is pros and weekend warriors and in-betweeners like me, all riding the same course, eating and living together. By the end of the week, there arent any more distinctions or awkwardness - just a group of cyclists and their families around a campfire telling stories about what an awesome time they had.
And Ill see you next year.
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