I wanted to take the Fargo for two reasons: 1) The Fargo is this year's official ExPo build project and under that project I had to use it at least once as a race whip. 2) My new bike isn't finished yet.
The biggest challenge I had was the constant jarring. That course has miles of rough, rough terrain. The Fargo is like riding a bridge truss. Even with padded tape, my little 2.0 tires were communicating every rock and bump I hit. I rolled into the barn after the second lap and felt like I had been flogged. In fact, I had to go extremely slow on the rocky descent just to keep my hands on the bars. On the first lap, amidst the dust of the first 10 miles, I hit a dip so hard one hand shot off the drops leaving me swerving into the brush, one hand in the air like I was riding a bull.
Next year I'll do it on a proper mountain bike and get that buckle. One of my training partners put in a 7:55 time and we're usually of equal fitness and tenacity. I will just say this - 78 miles on a Fargo feels like 156. I'm a tired puppy today. Not my legs, just my hands, arms, shoulders, neck, back....
