Bike fully cleaned and lubed……
Cervelo Aspero
Ultegra 1x mechanical (with GRX left brake lever)
Red Quarq crank w/ 40t
11-40 Deore XT cassette (Wolf Link RD adapter installed)
Swiss DT 240 hubs, carbon rims
Goodyear Connector Ultimate tires, 700x40
Specialized Power saddle w/ USE suspension post
3T Stem w/ Zipp Service Course 80 alloy bars
Storage keg on DT, Leadout HB bag and stock Cervelo bento box (will add seatpack w/ extra tube / CO2)
Bike gets packed tomorrow, leave Tuesday night!
Awesome!
All going to plan I’ll be there 
I’m living vicariously through everyone at the race. I have dreams of bikepacking around Iceland sometime (next year? fingers crossed) so I love seeing the photos and hearing about the prep work.
We landed this AM and had a full day of hiking up to hot springs and waterfalls.
This is simply an incredible country, spectacular beyond my imagination.
A couple of quick pics……
So happy your are enjoying my hometurf
So, met up with @SammyG yesterday on my club’s pre-Rift social ride. Nice to meet you Sammy and good luck on Saturday.
Do any of you have instagram accounts ? Would you share them here for me to follow?
mine is:
If you are staying after the race, check my strava account for route ideas. Please note, I haven’t ridden all of the routes, so please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions:
We visited a glacier this AM and then made our way over to the hotel (Hotel Ranga) and got squared away.
Did a quick ride from the hotel out to the course and the start of the gravel.
We then went to the dinner at Valhalla restaurant and had a great time w/ great food and beer!
Looking forward to the social ride tomorrow AM!
Group ride for this AM has been postponed until this afternoon due to high winds.
Time TBD.
We were out on the patio of our hotel room and Colin Strickland rolled by on his way to the ride and he did not know about the postponement so we gave him the heads up.
Shows the nature of the the gravel scene…a bunch of schlubs form Chicago were telling one of the best gravel Pro’s that the ride he was going to do was postponed. 
hehe. that’s good.
Has there been an update on group ride? It’s been a lot of fun this week. I’m sort of tired from vacation though and need a break.
Here’s some pics from my gravel ride earlier this week.
No update yet…wind is not letting up though.
If the ride gets cancelled, we’ll probably drive to the start of the gravel on route and get a few miles in.
I’m assuming everyone here knows this, but the social ride is now on @ 2:00.
Weather is……sub/optimal.
What a truly epic event……I can’t say enough great things about Iceland in general and The Rift specifically.
Incredibly tough challenge….the gravel is every bit as challenging as Unbound in many areas (but not as sharp), the views are stunning and the whole event should be a must-do.
I’ll try and post a longer review / recap later this week……briefly rode with @Harrisoncj13 yesterday and chatted with him today after the race and wound up riding with @bragifreyr today. Both those guys are incredibly strong!!
I took a pretty good header at high speed on a descent around mile 40….I hit some soft sand in the right side and it tossed me off the road and I landed on my head / shoulder. I had double vision when I got up but my buddies were up ahead and they had no idea I went down……so I gently worked my down the descent closing one eye at a time. Caught up with one of my buddies who went on to tell the other 2. Pushed my bike up the next climb and my vision was starting to straighten out. We set out to get me to the next aid station where I was gonna DNF, but within about 20 minutes I was fine. Likely a mild concussion, but I had no other symptoms so we soldiered on.
The whole 2nd half of the race was into a stiff headwind with more than a fair amount of cold rain. The weather today was definitely the worst since we have been in Iceland and it made a tough race that much tougher.
And my god,the unrelenting stutter bumps on the second half of the course!!! Brutal.
If anyone wants a epic adventure, The Rift and a trip to Iceland is the way to go. Simply fantastic. 
I’m impressed with the positivity so soon after.
I’m going to need a week or two to get past the nightmares of headwind+cold rain+washboard gravel that was the second half 
First 100km… probably the best continuous 100 I’ve ever rode 
Glad you’re ok after your fall. Even though minor, Rest up as concussion is serious minor or not.
I was buzzing and having an absolute awesome ride up until 110km bringing my Canyon Lux was a decision I didn’t regret. I broke my Crux a few weeks ago.
The rear sus soaked it all up, whilst the 2021 SID Ultimate SLs struggled with the wash boarding / stutter bumps caused by the tourist mega Jeeps (their name)
My chain got caught with the lower jocky wheel and then snapped which took me 15 minutes to fix, cold hands, gritty. A very dark place.
Finally got going but the next 60km were not so great, Cold and barely able to hold 230 watts. The last 30 km my body seemed to light up and finished strong (er)
Overall though - what an epic event. Otherworldly. Brutal but the most beautiful and scenic ride I’ve ever done.
I went back and looked at my data….I was going 30.5 mph when I went down.
I’m amazed I didn’t suffer something more serious….I had some scrapes on my lower leg and a few small tears on my GoeTex ShakeDry jacket (which sucks!).
Luckily I went down in a soft area with no large rocks.
This is now on my list. It Baader-Meinhof’d it’s way into my brain over the past few days.
Incredible looking experience.
