Ride

The route is effectively a north and back from Truckee airport on an even mix of dirt and pavement. Smithneck is the main corridor up the valley with an option to loop up and over Sardine peak, then east somewhat to work back through the forest and around Stampede, Boca, and Prosser reservoirs before returning to Truckee.

Bikemonkey took over the airport for this one. Looks like an enormous turnout, the crowd stretches way back behind us. Gear choices run the gamut from full-suspension mountain bikes to road bikes with slightly largish slick tires.

Smooth rollout onto Highway 89 and quickly up to speed with the forward group… Eventually we start to spread out, but nice to have help. It’s not long before we’re trekking across a variety of surfaces and environments; flat shaded gravel, exposed flowing asphalt across dams, ragged choppy mixed-surface backcountry forest roads.

Main decision on the north end of the route is whether to take on Sardine Peak. We commit, slowly picking through the technical chunkiness up, up, up to the 8000′ summit. Patient, persistent, heads-up riding, momentum and effort checked by the group weaving across ruts and around jagged rocks. The long descent off Sardine back to Smithneck was a mix of skilled woo-hoo celebration and hold-on battle fatigue. Some of the rolling, arcing sections were great, some of the more choppy stuff was brutal on 45c tires.

Back across the valley and onto mellower forested climbs. A bit smoother riding but still on-point and focused, the surface seemed to change every dozen yards. Rolling forest path is where the Revolt really is in its element; rapid, stable and responsive. Yep, this is pretty fun out here flying along with the skilled riders on our varied but well-sorted equipment, the lady just ahead rolling through the creek and giggling.

Back to work. The last of the mountain descents was literally a 6 mile long staircase; a narrow double-track of jagged embedded stone; fast for the full-suspension mtb guys, ragged for us dropbar skinny-tire peeps. I had to stop for a breather a couple times to keep my eyeballs from scrambling and limbs shattering.

Tipping out into the winding asphalt section in superman mode, the dropbar bike providing options for riding positions helped battle the fatigue and press through the headwind. That interminable meandering of the last ten miles or so from Overland, over Glenshire, and back to the airport might be fun on its own but at this point I’m tired and ready to be done.

Sit inside Hangar One to eat burritos, evaporate some beer, shed pile of dirt and dust while the bikes are cleaned up by the Muc-Off guys.

Gear notes:

• Going to need a much better chain lube; whatever I had used here failed to deal with the dust early on (might have been White Lightning?). Luckily the rest stops had some lube stashes.
• 45c Ramblers not up to task on hard-chop terrain. Not enough volume to make up for no suspension and fast riding. Had plenty of grip though.
• Pump and tools and things in the top-tube bag rattled constantly. Battened down in a saddle-bag probably a better solution.