They say there is 19,000 feet of “up” and 22,000 feet of “down” on the Tevis trail across the 100-mile span from Truckee to the Fairgrounds in Auburn: the hardest and most coveted 100-mile race in the world. The stigma and safety issues have kept me away from Tevis and I always assumed that visually the ride would be as unforgiving as the technicality of the trail. I was very wrong: it is one of the most breathtaking locations on earth. The vistas are wide and the pines are strong; the rock formations are incredible and the lakes and rivers are the gold leaf on the crown of Tevis.
I felt like I was on the list under false pretences: the subject of Tevis had only come up in February, when I offered to crew for Clydea at Tevis in 07 as a gesture of thanks for letting me ride Zeb at three 50-mile rides during the winter while my young horses were being legged up to compete later in the year. Clydea smiled and nodded on the few occasions I mentioned it, but it was not until we were at dinner together one evening when she said “Rather than crewing for me, I would actually prefer it if you would ride the Tevis with me.” Why would anyone refuse an offer like that? Clydea has ridden Tevis at least six times, and this would undoubtedly provide a very rich experience for me to paste into my book of memories.
And so the training and planning and riding and strategizing began, overtaking most other things in life, or at least becoming embedded in them. We trained consistently – and I learned much from Clydea about building distance and speed. We drove up to pre-ride the last 66 miles of the trail in June, which showed me just how risky this ride was to be.
Read More: Tevis Cup 2007: Frantic and Precarious
