Writing by Jacob Ashton.
Photography by official race photographer Kai Caddy.
Jacob just rode his Frankenstein’s Murmur to 2nd place at the epic Ozark Gravel Cyclists’ Doom race, a self-supported bikepacking adventure in the Ozarks. 420 miles, 45,000ft of climbing, brutal.
DOOM! Even the name sounds intimidating.
After dot-watching this 400+ mile nonstop bike race for the last few years, it was time to sign up for a bike race in Arkansas, USA.
I have plenty of experience bike touring on rough and rugged terrain all over the world but riding for 400+ miles on mostly dirt roads with a rather silly 47,000 vertical feet of climbing (1.6 Mount Everests!) all in one go, or at least as fast I could, would be new to me.
My last attempts at bikepack racing had both involved major mechanicals. The first resulted in a 50-hour delay on the Tour Divide while I waited for a new fork to be shipped from the manufacturer, and the second was a DNF where the same (supposedly unbreakable) fork broke at Smoke n’ Fire in Idaho.
My hope was that I wouldn’t have any major mechanicals. My goal was that I would push it farther than I’d ever gone before.
Keeping that hope in mind, I bought a Starling Murmur and built it out with my own personal flair then christened it Frankenstein’s Murmur because I appreciate literary accuracy.
Drop bars, aero extensions, a bar-end shifter, mechanical brakes, 2.2 inch fast rolling tires, and a custom frame bag by my friend at Merz Bags. I was pretty sure that it was like no Murmur ever built and asked Joe, Starling’s owner, his opinion; he said it made him feel funny, good enough for me.
The Doom race approached and I began to figure out my resupply strategy. This race would be entirely unsupported, no follow cars or outside assistance allowed, but racers can buy food etc at any commercially available shops or stay in hotels/campgrounds along the way.
A once-in-a-generation level storm in the days before the race meant the need for a last-minute reroute of the entire race by the race’s incredible director, Andrew Onermas. After doing some predictions with the new route, I realized that it was possible to miss every single resupply after the 65 mile mark.
Normally, a store that’s open from 8 AM to 6 PM is no issue at all; in an ultra race, that means it’s closed for 14 hours a day. As such, I decided to carry over 20,000 calories in an attempt to avoid getting caught out and still consume 500 calories per hour of riding to keep my energy levels up. The oatmeal container and baguette didn’t quite make the final cut and were instead swapped for more calorie dense and compact foods like cookies, candy, chips, peanuts, and too many quesadillas. It was heavy, but it felt better than the risk of running out of food.
We charged the small Gremlin Bells by ringing them while walking around our bikes before attaching them to our rigs to ward off misfortune. Our race began at 7 AM on April 6, after a day’s delay due to weather, in a persistent drizzle and temperatures barely above freezing that were the remnants of the storm from days past.
A siren sounded and we were off. Racers sprinted off the line and began hammering up the first hill. It was a pretty steep hill and my bike was heavy with all of the food I was carrying so I opted to conserve energy by walking. After a couple hours of racing, I began passing people. Sticking to my strategy of moving consistently, I avoided stops whenever possible and ate while riding or walking up the steeper hills.
I continued steadily throughout the morning and reached the first 15-mile section of rough singletrack in what felt like mid pack. Having a super capable full suspension bike in a field that consisted of mostly hardtails and rigid bikes paid off and I was in the top 10% by the time we were back on dirt roads around mile 38 of the race after nearly 5 hours of racing.
I skipped the mile 65 resupply option as I was on schedule and still had a ton of food. Pedalling onwards, day eventually turned to night and after a quick stop to get my lights out and shovel as much food as I could into my mouth it was time to keep moving.
I reached the town of Saint Joseph around mile 150 to refill my water and checked the race tracker for the first time since we started. I was in second place and maybe 20 minutes behind first place!
The long night ride continued and the excitement of being near the front of the race soon wore off. After moving for nearly 20 hours straight I began to fall asleep while riding. Eating and drinking even more didn’t help much. I’d nod off while pushing my bike up the hills and swerve wildly before continuing. Even riding down rough double-track descents wasn’t enough and I’d begin to fall asleep while descending, too.
I was only carrying an emergency blanket as my sleep kit in hope of pushing through the night but after a couple of hours of fighting sleep it was clear that wasn’t going to work. The temperatures were barely above freezing so it was far too cold to sleep outside. Luckily, a community center that was open to racers was approaching and I’d be able to sleep inside.
I finally arrived before 5 AM at mile 190 and about 22 hours of racing. I ate as much food as I could and changed into fresh bike shorts before wrapping up in my emergency blanket and sleeping for an hour.
I felt surprisingly refreshed after my nap and ate even more food before beginning to ride again as the rising sun turned a clear morning sky blue.
A few other racers had shown up while I was there, including last year’s winner, but I was the first to leave. The race leader had extended his lead further by then and it began to feel like a battle for second place.
I had no trouble staying awake and continuing to ride through the day but I was significantly less efficient than I had been on the first day.
Night fell again after what seemed like an all too short day and within a few hours after dark I was having trouble staying awake again. I fought it for a while before trying to take a nap on the side of the road for 10 minutes, it helped a little bit but I was soon back to nodding off while riding.
There was another option for sleeping inside, the neutral aid cabin at mile 338, barely more than 60 miles from the finish but also a very necessary stop.
Arriving at about 2 AM, I reached the cabin and again ate as much food as possible before sleeping for an hour. I was on the road again after less than 2 hours and knocking out the remaining miles to the finish.
The last 25 miles were among the hardest of the race with a huge amount of steep dirt climbs and chunky descents. The last 1.5 miles were on singletrack and I had to walk about half of it because I no longer had the coordination to ride anything technical.
I crossed the finish line in just under 53 hours elapsed time since the start and about 5 hours behind first place, who hadn’t slept at all, and 5 hours ahead of second place.
My race was successful! I pushed it harder than I ever had before and managed to come in second place overall and I actually felt pretty good when I finished.
The full suspension Murmur was instrumental in allowing me to stay relatively comfortable and keep pushing on the relentlessly rough terrain. I managed to eat about 400 calories per hour so I still had a few pounds of uneaten food left in my bags at the end.
Hard foods like the cookies and chips began to be too difficult to eat as time continued and the leftover quesadilla and a half were too bland that far into the race to choke down.
Will I race again? Probably, but not right away. Racing is hard and expensive. In the meantime, I’m taking my Murmur on a tour of the Arizona Trail at the end of April.
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Thinking about purchasing a Starling of your own? Get in contact with Starling and mention this article for a £50 discount and Jacob, the author, will also get £50!
About the Author: Jacob Ashton has been a bike bum since 2016 and has cycled more than 110,000 miles in 108 countries with no intentions of changing that lifestyle anytime soon.
He’s authored one book on his travels, Until The Road Ends and is slowly making progress on the second book while continuing his travels.
