North Star Bicycle Race 2020: Event Recap

Words by Kate Ankofski (@katiebug56), photos by Aaron Ehlers (@aaronehlers)

The North Star Bicycle Race, No. 3: A 629-mile unsupported bikepacking race across Minnesota from St. Paul to the Canadian border and back. One stage, continuous clock, with a starting line 12 miles from home. A roster of friends, fellow randonneurs, ultracycling heroes. An ideal testing ground for The Big Goal: Trans Am.

Last year’s North Star will forever be known as the Windy One. Sustained gusts of over 20 mph greeted us northbound, before shifting just in time for our return from Grand Portage; only the leaders were able to bask in the tailwind. Four days of rain altered my original plan to bivvy; I opted for hotels, draping my soaked wool on the radiators before heading to the shower to eat cheeseburgers in the steam.

Still, even with the weather fighting us every mile, it was easy to find the motivation to forge ahead: Trans Am finishers Jon Lester, Keith Morical, Mark Seaburg, and Keith Rahn were out on the course with me. To have my name appear on the same finishers’ list? It was the tastiest carrot I could hope to have.

At the finish, we veterans looked to 2020: The conditions had to be better. Right?

It became clear even before the end of the neutral rollout that 2020 wasn’t going to be a given for any of us. Mike Henderson realized he’d left his wallet in his father’s car. Mike Nichols’ SPOT tracker flew off his saddle bag before we’d even left St. Paul. Norman Ehrentreich, who had done multiple overnights to Duluth and back this summer in anticipation of the race, lifted his loaded bike at the start only to break his carbon saddle rail. North Star vet Aaron Ehlers, who rode to the start to take photos, saved the day, offering Norman his own seat.

As the women’s course record holder, and the only woman competing this year, I arguably had the least at stake. While the guys debated strategy on training rides, I was able to focus on my own goals: Shave as much time off my record of 88 hours and 40 minutes as possible. Finish strong. Still enjoy cycling at the end of the effort. Push as far as I thought I could go, and then a little farther.

Given the pandemic had destroyed my structured training schedule, some of these goals were more realistic than others, and all were at risk when I arrived in Two Harbors at the end of Day 1 to realize that every hotel from there to the border was booked. With so many schools and offices now remote, families were taking advantage in droves, making the narrow shoulder of Highway 61 harrowing and lodging hard to come by. Race rules dictated I couldn’t book a hotel until the race had started, and while I’d had all day to do so, the realities of a pandemic spike in bookings and limited availability hadn’t sunk in. I had bet on last-minute availability and bet wrong.

Ryan Farrell arrived minutes behind me, both of us shivering as we talked over options. Local post office? Locked. Library lobby? Locked. Possibility of camping out in a hotel conference room? “Above my pay grade.” Running out of options, we piled on every layer of clothing we had and made our way to the 24-hour Holiday gas station, where, thanks to night manager Scott D., we stayed warm on one of the first below-freezing nights of the season, resting our heads on the small bar tables next to the pastry case.

As the sun rose, we made our way back into the cold with renewed hope: a fellow racer offered us the room he’d be leaving behind at the casino in Grand Portage. The original plan had been to go farther – to climb Mount Josephine and boop the Canadian border, turn around and climb again, then continue south toward home. But the promise of a warm bed and hot shower in Grand Portage tore that plan to shreds. Home could wait another day.

While I have a running list of my inabilities as a racer, one strength is that I will not let myself run out of matches. No, I didn’t have last year’s fitness, and no, I didn’t shave 24 hours off the record as I had hoped. But I was able to push on, waving at my southbound competitors across the rumbling RVs, commiserating with each other on the winding Gitchi-Gami about the 40-degree drop in temperatures, making new friends with the construction crew in Grand Marais, seeing my first wolf in the wild.

And 87 hours and 2 minutes after that ominous rollout, I set a new women’s record, with enough juice left to pedal those last few miles toward home. What a thing, it struck me, to wake up there and end up here.

Keith Morical finished in first place with a time of 48 hours and 2 minutes, followed by Brian Rhea and Rob Moismann at 55 hours and 5 minutes and 55 hours and 22 minutes, respectively. The 4th running of the NSBR will begin on September 15th, 2021. Learn more here.

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