News / Articles

Every athlete has experience with a race not going to plan: a flat tire, missing equipment, travel delay, injury, etc. All things that can occur no matter how well you plan. Another thing that happens is an event cancellation. In the past year or so, I’m aware of event cancellations due to fire, severe weather, low registration, and permitting issues. This can be a huge setback, depending on if it is a big “A” race, the expenses associated with the race and when notice is provided about the cancellation.

This summer I had planned to do The Last Best Ride in Whitefish, Montana. A fellow Sorella had offered to transfer their registration when a conflict arose and, honestly, I had heard such great things about the race that it had been on my bucket list. I was excited because I knew there would be a few other Sorellas and it would be a great race-cation.

About 3 weeks out, there was chatter about seeing if we could get a refund on the deposit for our vacation rental. The race had officially been cancelled due to permitting (including mandatory volunteer numbers). While this is pretty good notice in the scheme of things, we would still be out the deposit on the rental. After some discussion, it was agreed that we’d go anyway and turn it into a training vacation. IT WAS AWESOME.

Instead of an easy shake-out ride, a brutal race effort, and then a ride or two on absolutely trashed legs, we got to do whatever we wanted and with no pressure on the pace. We did the “fun” parts of the original race course (and the silly hiking part of the longer course), got to explore new areas in search of a flatter ride, finished our rides at a brewery or farmer’s market for a casual lunch or dinner. In other words, we had fun on our bikes and took full advantage of being in a beautiful place with friends that like to “play bikes”.

Ride #1: “Is my bike properly assembled?” shake out ride concluding with lunch

Ride #2: “The best parts of the race plus a better climb” ride, concluding with a late lunch

Ride #3: “Flat-ish forest ride” with almost zero interactions with people

Ride #4: “Going the Sun Road” in Glacier National Park (a mandatory experience in the area)

Ride #5: An afternoon easy ride concluding at the farmer’s market for dinner

Ride #6: Mixed-surface adventure ride with road construction and avoiding the MTB portion that Saskia had inadvertently done while Lea and I were in Glacier

There is no way that I would have seen even half as much if the race had occurred as planned. In addition, I would have had the pre-race nerves plus the pressure to not do or eat anything crazy in advance of the race. We missed out on the big community atmosphere of the actual event, but we got the smaller community of the people we know well (and the wheels we trust). It was an amazing vacation filled with solid training and stunning scenery.

Sometimes Plan B turns out better than Plan A.