Punctures, Storms & a Strong Finish – Josh Hicks at the Berryman Trail Epic

Written by Josh Hicks

Photo by Erin McGruder
While Josh technically races with VanDoIt for MTB events, he’s still very much a part of the Move Up family.

So the my main goals of this race were to get a top 10 to get my name on that Tshirt and also to get a 4:15 for my time. I had everything mapped out at what times I needed to be at first checkpoint, Berryman CG, the Bass River Entrance, and what time I needed to get on the last section west of Bass to accomplish this. Weather was calling for severe thunderstorms to start about 10:00 or 11:00 AM and continue until 11:00 PM. The pros started at 8:30, single speeders started at 8:32, and the first wave of amateurs (my wave) started at 8:40. My plan was to go til I blow. I was going all in on this race! I was either going to meet my goal or be laying in the ground passed out in one big cramp.

The gun goes off and I’m about 10th wheel going out the entrance and up the first hills towards the lodges. As we crest the hill everyone lets up and I keep it pinned going down the hill to hit the gravel and the low water crossing. As we started to go up and make that first right a few guys sprint for a bit but I stick to my pacing, knowing I would catch them as soon as it flattened out a bit. And that’s exactly what happened. I went back and forth with a few guys but I was staying steady and they were hammering the steep pitches and easing up on declines and flats. They all wore down and I was the 1st man in the woods! Ended up averaging almost 380 watts on that opening section from Bass to the woods! Hit the singletrack and I settle into my marathon pace. 4 guys went by on a steep section and I let them go, hoping they were going to gas out. I knew I had as good fitness as anyone so I stuck to my plan. I passed a ton of single speeders and several pro women. There were 40 single speeders, 15 pro men, and 7 pro women that started ahead of me so I was getting pretty pissy with all the traffic. It was costing me quite a bit of time. But I hit the first checkpoint at Brazil right on time for my 4:15! From there to Berryman CG I passed 3 of the 4 amateurs that were ahead of me so now I was in 2nd place in amateurs. In that span I finished my first bottle and as I took the 1st drink from my 2nd bottle I dropped it putting it back in the cage. I get to Berryman CG right on my 4:15 time pace and get 2 fresh bottles from Chelsi. I hadn’t had a drink in about 45 minutes so I really needed that! Within 10 minutes of leaving the Berryman CG I caught the guy in 1st, which was a junior CycleX kid from Columbia. I passed him and he stuck to my wheel. I asked if he wanted around, and he said no. I was starting to get irritated at him 2 feet off my back wheel and asked him if he was a roadie? He said, “No, I’m a mountain biker!” I said, “Well it’s usually roadies that just want to suck wheels and not earn their keep. That’s why I asked.” I then started easing up on the climbs to fuck with him and it didn’t take long until he asked to go around. Lol!

At about 2.5 hours I finally get to my favorite section of the whole race in the flowy, twisty, curvy pine needles section! And almost instantly I hear the dreaded hiss of air leaking and sealant is spitting out of the center of my front tire. I couldn’t believe it! I just made it through all those sharp rocks and flat in a section of smooth dirt! I immediately feel dread in the pit of my stomach but calm down thinking it’s not a sidewall so a plug should fix it. At this point it’s getting really dark and starting to rain. I heard a tip from Keegan Swenson one time that he always threaded 2 bacon strips into his plug tool to double the affect. I had 2 plug tools with 2 plugs threaded in each. I also had a Dynaplug tool loaded up and ready to go, and 3 CO2 cartridges! I throw the first 2 plugs in and rotate the plugs down so the sealant will seal. But it doesn’t work. Sealant sprays everywhere! I throw in another 2 bacon strips and rotate the tire. The hissing stops but the tire is almost flat so I hit it with a CO2. Sealant sprays again so I throw in the dynaplug. This finally seals. I empty the rest of the CO2 in and the tire feels pretty firm so I take back off. As soon as I start rolling the hissing starts back up and sealant is spraying. I can’t fucking believe this is happening! Then it stops. My front tire is soft and really squirmy so I baby it in the corners because it’s wanting to fold under and I have to be really careful of any roots or rocks so I don’t pinch flat. I make it up to a road crossing where I have more light and a couple volunteers had a tire pump. The gauge was under 10 psi when I hooked it up. As soon as I got a little under 20 I stopped and took back off. Immediately the hissing started again. I had already used all my CO2s and I said fuck it! I’m just going to see how long it will last. It sucks since I had to baby that front tire so much but I had anger and adrenaline motivating me to pedal harder up hill. I make it out to the gravel road to start the gravel TT to the 3 Sisters entrance. A volunteer was at the road coming out of the singletrack and had a tire pump so I tried again to air up the tire because at this point it’s held for over 30 minutes. It’s now raining pretty hard and I air it to 17 on the gauge and take off. Instantly the air starts leaking out again! At this point I knew I was just going to have to ride it as is and hope it makes it to the end or I’ll have to tube it. I’d already wasted a ton of time fucking with it.

I time trialed the gravel as hard as I could and passed a couple guys that passed me while I was fucking with my tire. By the time I got to the woods for the descent to the 3 sisters it was absolutely pouring with lightning and thunder constantly! I hated having to go easy on that descent but I had no choice because of that soft front tire. This section is pretty tough no matter what but with the monsoon all those off camber rocks and roots were like ice. I passed a few guys in this section as well. Pretty sure they were all single speeders. After the 3 sisters I come out of the woods and the road was just a river of standing water. It was raining so hard I could just barely make out the silhouette of 2 riders ahead. I caught them at the lodges and one of them was the young CycleX kid. He looked pretty defeated and shocked to see me. My amazing wife was standing out in the monsoon with my last bottle of Redbull to get me through the final loop. My legs were still feeling great so I hammered up the road climb and went as hard as I could on the last gravel section before the singletrack. It was like riding in sand with standing water! This whole section was hard as hell! The singletrack was a mini river with water rushing down the trail and there were lots of soft spots that sucked all your momentum and energy. I crossed the line at 4 hours and 34 minutes with no clue how I finished overall or in age group because of all the time I spent messing with that tire and from the chaos of the rain and storms.

I made it back to the camper and took a shower outside before I went in. I was beat and ready for some of Chelsi’s leftover lasagna and some Jack n Cokes! After I ate and mixed a drink I walked down to see results and saw my name at 11th overall! You gotta be fuckin kidding me! Missed the top 10 by 1! I was 2nd in 40-49. The guy that beat me and got 10th place was from Iowa. I was shooting the shit with him at the start line. I never saw him pass me so it must have been while I was messing with that damn tire. I got back to the camper and checked the Strava stats and I had 7 minutes of stopped time from the tire and who knows how much time was lost from having to go easy on that front tire and from the rain. I had 8 psi in the tire when I got back to the camper. I checked it with my digital gauge. But with all the time lost I now know with 100% certainty that I can get a 4:15 with no mechanicals or hurricanes! Even without the down time of messing with the tire I would have been 6th. I also lost a ton of time passing 39 single speeders, 7 pro women, and half of the 15 pro men. That’s over 50 riders that I had to slow down for to get around. Next year I’m registering in the Pro Class to avoid all that! I’m motivated as ever!