Can he make it? Riding “ALL BRAITH”!

I’ve known Andy since my days working at Ibis, as he became an Ibis employee after his career as a professional road cyclist ended abruptly with a poorly timed broken collarbone. Today, Andy works as an engineer remotely for Ibis, and has moved his family to Bellingham, WA. When I’m not out breaking my pelvis with Andy (true story), I can be found far behind him wondering how he is pedaling so fast.

My previous video/podcast all about Andy and his story:

Welp, Andy wanted to set a goal for himself to get in shape, so 5 months ago he schemed up the idea for “Allbraith”. You see, our local trail network, Galbraith Mountain, has about 70 miles of trails. Andy (and pretty much no one else) thought it’d be a good idea to ride all of those miles in one, giant day.

Here is the route that Andy put together: https://www.trailforks.com/route/all-braith/

This video roughly documents Andy’s ride. This was not a simple feat- the man put a lot of thought and strategy into the route. And it was not a solo effort by any means! Andy’s wife, JoJo, made him a cherry pie, juggled the kids, and helped support him on this big, wild ride. Thanks Jojo!

Follow Andy on Strava here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/743320
Follow Andy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ajmiac

Riding across the mountain to climb its south side. If you haven’t noticed yet, I really like to wheelie. That’s Kevin in front, he’s on his Trek Stache 29×3.0 hardtail, a super cool bike with a big cult following.

Kevin Wisenbloom and I joined Andy at 6AM for the first leg of the ride. We rode from the north side of Galbraith over to the south side, with a quick supply drop near the Cedar Dust jumps, then up the Three Pigs climbing trail to Kaiser. We rode that to Bottle Cap to Happy Hour, where Andy dropped a second supply cache. Jason Moeschler, vice president of Evil Bikes, joined us on our climb up. Jason and I worked together at WTB, and many years ago, Andy and Jason were both racing NORBA cross country national and world championship events with the likes of Floyd Llandis and Ryder Hesjedal.

Jason re-counts the story of Ryder Hesjedal’s “bike doping” (electric motor hidden inside frame- or not). Jason and Andy both raced against the famous road cycling legends of the 2000s.

We all headed down Vitamin R and The Finger, and made our way over to the Bears. These trails were among the most beautiful on Galbraith until they got logged in early 2018. Now they are a wasteland that are best ignored. Anyhow, we cycled through these mellow trails and then Jason had to head home. The three of us made it out to Devil Cross, where I promptly bonked. Kevin had to get to work by 10am, so he and I left Andy and headed back north.

Some of these trails I go to great lengths to never ride. We knocked out a big chunk of the “bears” early in the AM, during the rain, as they are pretty miserable to ride when it’s hot out.

I caught up with Andy at his car a few more times through the day. Highlights include Jojo bringing him a spare bike, as his chain and freehub started creaking really badly. I loaned Andy my trusty Light and Motion Seca light from 2009 so that he could complete the final 10 miles of the “SST Hill” as the sun went down. Eric Oleson and his buddy joined Andy for the final miles- at least, until it got too dark, as they were without lights. Then around 10pm, just as my kid fell asleep, Andy FINISHED!

One of my favorite trails on the mountain, Devil Cross, at medium pace. I was bonking at this point- only 2.5 hrs in! I had done a massive moto ride the day prior, and the delayed onset muscle soreness was starting to set in.

These long rides are what we call “type 2 fun”. Not exactly fun like most would think, but fun in that they provide life long memories, as well as make for a good goal. Setting goals in life is key- I know I need to set better goals for myself at the moment, and I’m still searching for those. It was neat to see Andy create this wild idea, and it was even better to watch him pull it off. Well done Andy!

My new athlete page over at Jenson USA: https://www.jensonusa.com/blog/rider-profile-JKW

My riding tutorials posted through June 2020: