 |
|
Leonard Fancher pedals toward Glenallen in the early stages of the Fireweed 400. Photo by Sarah Alban |
The Fireweed 400 is the biggest endurance road race in Alaska. It requires cyclists to pedal 400 miles over a course that includes 28,000 feet of elevation gain, and they have to finish in 33 hours or less for their times to count. And that’s not over a period of several days—it’s from noon on Friday until 9 p.m. the following day.
 |
 |
For a little perspective, imagine pedaling your bicycle over enough hills to equal a ride from sea level to the top of Denali … and then riding 7,000 feet higher. It’s a task so daunting that only about 15 riders attempt it each year, and a significant portion of them fail to finish. It’s a bit intimidating just to serve on a rider’s crew, so when my friend Leonard Fancher—who joined me on a ride to the Million Dollar Bridge that was featured in our annual travel issue last February—asked me to help him during his solo attempt on the Fireweed this summer, I was relieved to be able to say that I already had other plans, but would let him know if they fell through.
Little did I know that they actually would fall through, and that last Friday I would find myself behind the wheel of a car loaded with tools, food, clothing and a spare bike as Leonard rolled off the start line at Sheep Mountain Lodge. Of course, the car also contained Sarah Alban, the summer intern that the magazine’s staff seems determined to subject to all manner of torment and peril. Each solo racer is required to have a two-person crew on the course, and the chance to see a bit more of Alaska proved tempting enough to get her on the team.
A person has to really want to see Alaska if she’ll agree to stay awake for about 39 hours, much of it in a crowded Honda Element while mixing powdered energy drinks and making sandwiches for a crazy bike racer she just met. A guy so crazy that he pulled off the road at Bridal Veil Falls in Keystone Canyon sometime about 2 a.m. and—when we ran up to ask what he needed—stared upward through the darkness at a roaring stream of water and said, “I thought Sarah might want to see this.”
The energy that cyclists expend during such a race, and the suffering they endure, are difficult to explain to anyone who hasn’t witnessed it firsthand. To say it’s Herculean just doesn’t do it justice. But the race also challenges crews, and having a good one greatly increases a rider’s chance of reaching the finish line, so Sarah and I were happy to find ourselves feeling like we were genuinely contributing to the success of the guy whose tired legs were still spinning in our headlights as we slowly rolled out of Valdez and headed up Thompson Pass in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
More than a dozen hours later, we were high on caffeine and pride as we rolled down the final hill into Sheep Mountain Lodge with Leonard still in our headlights.
Sarah got to see a bit more of Alaska.
And Leonard joined the elite ranks of Fireweed 400 finishers after serving as her tour guide for 30 hours, 54 minutes and 2 seconds.