Winds of 70 mph ripped via central Oklahoma March 14, downing energy strains and inflicting brush fires throughout the dry panorama surrounding Stillwater. It was the kind of chaos that made racing really feel like an afterthought as almost 130 wildfires have been reported in 44 counties, together with Payne County the place the beginning for The Mid South was to happen simply hours later.
In an on the spot, I went from obsessing over each race-day element to realizing simply how small biking is within the grand scheme. There was a letdown for all the main focus and preparation in a gravel race – dialling in my Factor Ostro, 100 grams of carbs per bottle, spending an hour rigorously positioning the No. 1 race plate because the defending champion – just for all of it to vanish. One have a look at the sky, nevertheless, and I knew.
Racing will at all times are available second place to individuals’s security. This time, it wasn’t nearly us, it was about Stillwater residents going through devastation and emergency crews stretched skinny defending them. The race may wait. The well-being and security of the group couldn’t.
Mother Nature guidelines
It’s an odd shift in perspective. One minute, the whole lot revolves round a motorbike race. The subsequent, all of it feels secondary, even trivial. It jogged my memory of an article in regards to the discovery of a black gap 33 billion occasions the mass of our solar. It makes issues like chain ring dimension, 12-speed versus 13-speed cassette, 45 mm tyres versus 50 mm, and marginal aero positive aspects all really feel much less essential.
And in a approach, that realization is liberating. No matter how a lot effort we put in, some issues are out of our management. We create which means in our world, however generally, actuality shatters the phantasm.
Reality hit laborious in Stillwater. Less than 12 hours earlier than the race, flames crept via dry brush, reaching western components of town because the scenario worsened. The occasion, the preparation, and the anticipation have been all immediately irrelevant.
The second of realization hit me like a pile of bricks. It was the ‘a-ha’ second, the ‘oh god’ second, the ‘what are we doing right here?’ second. A speedy shift from ‘How am I going to win this race?’ to ‘How am I getting house tomorrow?’
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Race mode and survival mode are fully completely different. Race mode is about maximizing efficiency, refining each element, and controlling the controllables. Then, in a single on the spot, you realise issues are fully out of your management. My thoughts went from obsessing over carbs per hour and tyre strain to questioning if my Hampton Inn was about to be engulfed in flames, survival mode engaged.
The shift from race mode wasn’t simple. When you make investments a lot into one thing, it’s laborious to let go. It was laborious for me to shake the thought that perhaps issues may very well be resolved by morning. But the inevitable rapidly turned clear because the official US Air Quality Index skyrocketed above 250 in particulate matter (PM), which needs to be nearer to 25 PM, and my eyes began to really feel the results of the ash within the air.
The race can be cancelled at round Midnight native time, and actually, it needed to be. How may we, as people, justify driving via a city in disaster, pretending our world hadn’t simply collided with a a lot harsher actuality?
Disappointment is actual
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Race director Bobby Wintle is understood for his infectious vitality and dedication to creating each rider really feel valued. Everyone loves Bobby. I spend your complete 12 months trying ahead to his legendary finish-line hug, which I’ve skilled thrice as a winner. The night time earlier than the race, as he delivered his replace, reassuring us that the whole lot would go on as deliberate and the get together would proceed, it felt like he was doing the whole lot in his energy to ensure we by no means felt let down.
I went to sleep early the night time earlier than with 5% confidence that, in some way, the whole lot would return to regular and the race would nonetheless be on. There’s at all times an opportunity, however there was additionally a 95% probability Mother Nature would result in the cancellation of The Mid South. I awoke the subsequent day at 4:30 a.m. native time to test for an replace and was not stunned by the cancellation.
My mother, a instructor on spring break, had been the final word help crew all week – selecting me up throughout course recons, grabbing burritos, and making last-minute Walmart runs for all of the random however mission-critical necessities. She was there for the pre-riding, and pre-driving a whole course, for a race that might by no means occur. I used to be so excited. Everyone stated it could roll quick, however the chunk made that appear unlikely.
The first and final 10 miles of gravel had just lately been regraded, and the rocks have been large. The rolling felt a lot slower than in years previous. The notorious creek crossing felt approach much less intimidating from the opposite aspect. Last 12 months, it created a large bottleneck at mile 12 with a large lip on the entry level. Earlier within the week, I examined rolling via the center when nobody was watching. I’m glad this was accomplished privately as a result of I tipped into the water at 4 mph, perhaps extra of a splash. The backside was thick with mud, stopping me in my tracks.
Last 12 months, after I noticed the bottleneck on the creek crossing, I rapidly determined to roll straight via and hook onto a quick group. I didn’t eat it, and it was wonderful. This 12 months, the creek crossing would have include 17 miles to go, leaving a bottleneck threat very slim. And now, hopefully, the course will keep the identical for 2026. It’s as difficult as it’s stunning.
The new “singletrack” was something however singletrack. Some beneficiant Stillwater residents opened their non-public land, including a rugged, rocky part that demanded consideration for sudden options. It was a stark distinction to final 12 months’s easy, inexperienced, MTB-style singletrack, however an attention-grabbing function nonetheless and one thing to interrupt up the relentless Oklahoma gravel.
Putting racing into perspective
The Mid South 2025 did not occur as deliberate, however the occasions that unfolded over the weekend put the whole lot in perspective.
According to native media reviews, together with the Stillwater News Press, greater than 70 properties have been destroyed within the metropolis, Mayor Will Joyce stating: “It’s laborious to explain the extent of the loss for these households; usually there may be nothing however ashes remaining of just about the whole lot they personal.”
While there have been no deaths reported in Stillwater, nevertheless, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management reported on March 17 that 4 fatalities within the area have been associated to the fires or excessive winds, in addition to 200 accidents. A state of emergency remained in impact for 12 Oklahoma counties, together with Payne County, 4 days after the primary flames.
Ted King, a current Gravel Hall of Fame inductee, and Chase Wark, tenth on this 12 months’s BWR Arizona, set off on their Mega Mid South FKT (quickest identified time) makes an attempt at 6 a.m. and seven a.m. native time, respectively, on March 16, a day after the race would have taken place. They set off to interrupt a report of twenty-two hours, 38 minutes throughout 300 miles to not simply journey, however to boost funds for the fireplace aid efforts (unbelievable guys!), proceeds going to United Way of Payne County and Stillwater Wildfire Relief Fund (see observe beneath from Ted on the outcomes).
I had already been on the highway for almost an hour, driving house to Colorado with my mother, when Ted took off. As a lot as I might have liked to have been a part of one thing as significant as their journey, my thoughts was elsewhere, anxious to achieve a spot untouched by hearth.
Cycling offers us a way of objective, but it surely’s not the whole lot. Safety, for ourselves and people round us, is what actually issues. The disappointment of a cancelled occasion is nothing in comparison with the truth of individuals shedding their properties, their livelihoods – some, even their lives.
We’ll line up once more subsequent 12 months, and obsess over tyre strain, diet and marginal positive aspects. But for now, we will step again, take a breath, and acknowledge that some issues matter excess of any bike race.
Something greater than 300-mile journey
The Mega Mid South is a 300-mile route that takes within the midway factors of programs of years previous which provides as much as 17,000 toes of climbing. With the smoke-filled air clear on Sunday, Ted King and Chase Wark began an hour aside, with King the primary off at 6 a.m. (CDT).
King did break the previous report of Nick Elliott (set in 2024) by 320 minutes, a brand new greatest time of 17 hours, 18 minutes. However, that FTK was held for about 40 minutes, as Wark crossed the road in 16 hours, 58 minutes for the higher time.
“I did the Mega Mid South FKT to see how far I may push myself bodily and to problem myself to boost funds for the Stillwater group that was affected by fires only a few days prior. Ending the journey and seeing what number of people donated made the journey much more particular. We knew we completed one thing a lot greater than only a 300-mile journey,” Wark posted on social media.
The pleasant competitors continued to see who may increase essentially the most cash for native charities, such because the United Way of Payne County and Stillwater Wildfire Relief Fund. The two had mixed to boost greater than $8,500 as of March 19, with King pledging $1 for each minute below the earlier FTK for $320.
King, a two-time winner in his age group within the 100-mile race, stated he hopes the group bounces again and he plans to return subsequent 12 months. He will proceed to simply accept donations for a number of extra days on the weblog about The Mid South on his web site.