2023

This year we had two group starts! The Sideshow rolled out a week before the Grand Depart. Brendan wrote a nice recap of that ride on our blog. Sandwiched between storms, it’s a miracle either event even happened with the wild winter we’ve had in SoCal. The Sideshow riders built a bridge over Hurkey Creek, and made first group tracks down the singletrack out of Idyllwild, which had been out of commission since the fire in 2012. Riders were encouraged to finish our “Winter Soldier” Sideshow edition as safely as possible, before a huge winter storm coming in Monday 3/20. Options were given to cut off San Diego, take liberties with general shortcuts, or get picked up at some point before getting caught out there. Everyone had a blast, it was super fun to ride with friends, have campfires, go to the hot springs, etc. while still putting in big mile days. Many riders chose not to use trackers- if I missed you on the list, please lmk.

The storm hit… and it really hit. It rained for days, and Idyllwild got another layer of snow. The pre-ride meeting for the Grand Depart was comical, with sleeting snow-rain beating down on everyone huddled by the flagpole. Perfect weather! That being said, the weather itself for the grand depart was sunny and damn near perfect on paper- but the trails were so wet, with so many water crossings from snow melt and all, that riders were generally soaked and wishing for warmer weather. We used the “Winter Forever” edition of the route, which uses small reroutes such as Proctor Valley instead of Sweetwater, and Boulder Creek Rd to get to Cuyamaca Lake to avoid ruining saturated singletrack. All in all, the route has almost identical mileage, elevation, and elapsed time. Jesse Reeves and Dana Ernst finished first together, in some really rough conditions! The Seasoned Bikepacker has a fun interview with Dana with some footage from the ride as well.

RESULTS

ITTs (all spring ITTs for 2023 were on the Winter Forever route):

Tom Schwemberger 03-28-2023 7:00 AM- 1d13h57m (second fastest SC time ever!)
Patrick Smyth 03-31-2023 7:00 AM- SCR
Neil Richardson 04-05-2023 8:00 AM- 2d10h10m
Chris Burkard 04-12-2023 7:00 AM- 2d00h55m

GRAND DEPART finishers:

Dana Ernst – 2d5h25m
Jesse Reeves – 2d5h25m
Adam Haughey – 2d7h30m
Sarah Didier – 2d10h3m
Mateo Paez – 2d12h3m
Florian Schleich – 2d12h35m
Edyn Teitge – 2d12h55m
Will Hawkins – 2d12h56m
Steve Briley – 2d13h10m
Jacob Hora – 2d13h49m
Ian Murray – 2d14h00m
Katie Dolan – 2d14h41m
*Magnus Verbrugge – 2d15h13m (took hwy up to IDY)
Dylan Turner – 2d17h15m
Creigh Godson – 3d6h00m
Jerry Olin – 3d7h22m
*Emily Elliott – 3d8h55m (took hwy/McCall HAB up to IDY)
Gregory Dyas – 3d9h34m
Ric Vanderlinden – 3d10h55m
Jan Heath – 3d10h55m
Joey Mangan – 3d11h34m
Rafa Torres – 3d12h9m
Chris Buonomo – 3d12h9m
Graham Goff – 3d12h56m
Kevin Emery – 3d12h56m
Billy Nixon – 3d12h56m
Stu McMorrow – 4d9h00m
Laurel Smith – 4d12h15m
Paul Turner – 4d15h55m
Randy Antonio – 5d7h35m
Dan Wheeler – 5d7h35m

DNF:

Jeremy Nolan
Clayton Stich
Stefan Herkewitz
Pat Hurter
Sam Johnstone
Timur Turisay
Sean Martin
Nicholas Faught
Erick Podwill
Mark Pruitt
Edgar Solis
Mack Martin
Casey Rhea
Darlene Usi
Travis Richardson
Brian Smith
Matt Davis
Maxwell Olmos
Cannon Shockley
Patrick Smyth
Sammy Crane-Solis
Troy Sykes
Wesley Wright
Mike Ingram

STAGECOACH SIDESHOW March 17 8am finishers:

Drew Raney- 3d8h50min the only person to finish the entire published route!

Several riders made it back to Idyllwild under their own pedal power using suggested shortcuts or skipping big/small sections to beat the dangerous winter storm coming:

These guys got almost all of the route in! Minor changes/shortcuts to ensure getting the loop in before Monday’s storm:

Collin Foxley 3/20 9:50am
Jesse Salisbury 3/20 9:59am

These riders finished some variation of the Sideshow Winter Soldier Edition, cutting off San Diego:

Mike Dobransky
Michael Rabe
Blake Bockius

Didn’t pedal all the way back to IDY but still had a rad adventure:

Gregg Dunham
Jason Shafer
Cedar Kyes
Jeremy Tullo
Mikey Hanrahan
Jon Dominy
Carlos Garcia
Brendan Collier
Meg Knobel
Sarah Mulholland
Ed Mason