Silk Road Mountain Race (SRMR)

Among others Jay has raced the Iditarod in Alaska 10 times so he has the experience and knowledge how to deal with cold, foul weather. Yet he called his last bivy in #SRMR one of the hardest he has done.

So it begins. I will share post race randomness over the coming days. This morning after my first worryless sleep I remember this bivy. The most challenging of the race and one of the hardest in my life. Earlier that day I overcome the highest pass of the route, in the snow! I descended down a huge valley for many, many hours. It started to get very cold as I was looking to bivy but kept procrastinating, I'm good fooling myself like that, on when and where to sleep. I finally went down, 100% bundled in. It then rain, sleeted and snowed on me and dropped even colder. Bivy and all things outside had a frozen blanket on them. The inside of the bivy was also moist. I could not peel myself out of the bivy whem my alarm wemt off and hit the snooze until I seen some light, another 2 hours later. My entire body had swole up that night. I was hurting. It lead to a morning of constsnt stopping and adjusting which led to a very inefficient day in the heat with more of the same. It was the worst of my 8 days. By the end of that day I finally reached a service stop and ate a disgusting amount of food. I checked the leaderboard and noticed the 100km lead I had went down to 40km. That previous bad night and day had then turned into my last and best sleeplessness night of the route. With new motivation I tackled the hardest hike a bike of the route (bike on back for many hours, 10 hour total hike) under a full moon and wind storm that had me pinned to the side a scree slope. I forged thigh deep rivers in my destryoed shoes into the morning and as the sun rose I new there was no possible way the person chasing did the same. It was an absolutly crazy night, partially dangerous, but full of adrenaline. Its amazing how many things can happen and change all in a matter of 36 hours. I slept 3-4 hours every night except the last with zero. #silkroadmountainrace2018 #adventurebybike #salsacycles #teravailtires #industrynine #irideissi #absoluteblack #ospreypacks #katesrealfood #guenergy #princetontec #BBD #RideForward #JayP

A post shared by Jay Petervary (@jay_petervary) on Aug 26, 2018 at 8:02pm PDT

Also some interesting insight to his gear in the latest instargam post:

I do not carry the lightest kit. I base most gear choices on the practicality and function of a product first, weight second. In this case of @silkroadmountainrace I knew we would be in the mountains and at 8-10k feet a lot, cresting many passes at 12,500'. Mountain weather is unpredictable and is often cold, windy, can rain, sleet and snow. As it did. Sleep system: @nunatak_gear custom made, synthetic fill, anorak coupled with a custom made JayP skirt. The skirt has a draw cord bottom and I can ride in it. I am comfortable and confident with this system in below freezing tempertures. Note the expedition socks and mitts. Not some mid weight cycling non sense. Having confidence in my gear is what allows me to conquer mountain passes even when I see the weather is bad. Most people will try and wait out the weather. I like to embrace the weather and I actually enjoy riding in adverse conditions. I am 100% happy with all I carried and used all but my long tights. #silkroadmountainrace2018 #nobadweatherjustbadclothingchoices #RideForward

A post shared by Jay Petervary (@jay_petervary) on Aug 28, 2018 at 12:18am PDT