Cross Florida Individual Time Trial

 

Another CFITT (Cross Florida Individual Time Trial) has come and gone, and boy was it good. CFITT is one of the many routes created by the naked indian, Karlos Rodriguez Bernart. Check out all the Florida gems he is responsible for at his Singletrack Samurai website. 

This year, a good friend of mine, Chris Manis, had committed to doing the route with me; this was his first ultra race. We’ve done quite a few big rides together and he’s fit as a fiddle, so I had no qualms about his abilities. 

Together, we decided to keep the strategy simple, pack lightly, and just try to ride the 300 mile route straight through. In the past, I’ve stopped to sleep for 6 hours or so. So, this time, our gear consisted of only a sleeping pad (in case we wanted to lay down briefly), a warmer layer of clothes and extra socks/gloves, bar and helmet lights, and a cache battery for charging things. It was nice not having a tent/sleeping bag on the handle bars. I had two bottles and a 2L bladder trail running pack. I think Manis had about the same. The forecast was to be dry and hot, with near records highs in some places in Florida. I opted for some Handup jorts and wool boxer briefs, with a pair of chamois shorts in the seat bag just in case. Bad idea, since I forgot to put my Selle Anatomica saddle on, which is much more comfy for long rides.

Friday December 10th was upon us before we knew it. Chris arrived at my house around 5:30 AM and we headed out to catch the shuttle in Florida. Since this is a point to point race across the state, logistics can be a headache. Luckily, Karlos arranges a shuttle to get us from the finish to the start.

We arrived in Inglis, FL around 1:30 PM, quickly performed some last minute arranging of all the things, loaded our steeds into the back of a uhaul truck, and boarded the shuttle van, which is always a nice small reunion of bikepacker idiots, errr friends. I introduced Manis to some of the gang, met some new people, and put my ear plugs in as I knew Michael Rasch would talk for the entire ride. Hah, kidding Rasch. 

We arrived in New Smyrna Beach around 5:00 PM, unloaded our bikes, and headed over to the hotel to put our stuff away. We attended the riders meeting/dinner at a local raw bar at 6, scampered over to Publix for a few last minute items afterwards, and then turned in for the night in an attempt to get some sleep before the 7:09 AM start. 

We headed out to the beach, which is the start line, but only after a rear tire dip in the Atlantic Ocean. We found ourselves silhouetted by a blazing pink and orange sunrise backdrop. It was the best one I’ve seen. What an incredible way to start a race! 

We all took our start line photos, chatted, adjusted a few things, Karlos said a few words via the megaphone, and we were off! 

Now, I’ve learned from previous experience, get ahead of most people coming off the beach, because, without a doubt, there will be a shit show pile up as people start falling when the sand goes from packed to sugar; I made a break for it, had a clean pass, and looked back to see a pile of people in the sand, with guess-who being the culprit…yep, Manis came to a stop, couldn’t unclip from his pedal, and downnnnn he went, hahahaha. Sorry Manis, I had to. 

We hit the road, went over the causeway, and made our way towards the bike path. There was a big group of probably 10-15 of us early on, including Michael Rasch, Joe Wharton, Andy Roberts, Kevin Greten, Jason Vance, and Steve Baptiste. Also met some new folks, including Matt Borbley and Chris Hudson, who we later rode with for a while; awesome guys! Sorry if I forgot anyone. 

The first 40-45 miles are pretty uneventful and there’s not a whole lot to say. It’s mainly all paved bike path and goes pretty quick; I think we averaged 16.5-17mph and the lead group left us. Our goal was to just keep it conversation pace the whole time. We caught up to Rasch, Miguel, and Jason Vance and chilled with them for a while. Jason snuck away but the rest of us stayed together for several hours.

There was a cool new addition in Gemini Springs Park, which took us off the bike path and around by the water in a little slough off Lake Monroe.

Around mile 70, we hit Chuck Lennon State Park, which is a small intestine-like set of trails which is only 4-5 miles long but can be a little confusing, following a GPS route through a convoluted trail system. We popped out on the other side, where I was planning my first water stop, at their water fountain, which DID NOT EXIST. I guess I had one of those false memories because I can still picture the bathroom and water fountain, that was never there. A quick check of my notes, mile 85 was a gas station; around 13 miles till we were there. Off we went, with a half of a bottle or so left. 

A couple of miles of pavement and we entered the Lake George State Forest, at a big yellow gate, that said HUNT IN PROGRESS. Awesome. Glad I don’t resemble a deer, or hog, or, I dunno what the hell they hunt out there. Being behind on hydration, and probably nutrition too, I think this section put me a bit under the weather. It was right at 10 miles of gravel/limestone/no idea what you call it type of surface to the other side; a solid dig at 16-17mph the whole time and by the end, I felt like crap…I needed a lot of calories and water. Rasch did his usual and talked about this and that while the rest of us were silent. We hit the end and hung a right to go off route about 1/4 of a mile to a gas station, where we found Baptiste, Bohl, and Jason Vance. I had a slice of pizza, the juice from a pickle bag, potato chips, a coke, half a monster, and some CBD gummies. Oh, and Baptiste applied some chamois butter for me, thanks pal hahahaha. Kidding, but he did give me some…my butt was already really unhappy. Ok, back at it. 

Some road, some double track, some chip seal…I don’t really remember what all came immediately after this. What I do remember is feeling terrible, being slightly nauseated where I couldn’t really eat, and having some chill bumps. I decided it’s better to take care of myself now than implode later. The temp was about 81 degrees and I think that was my problem; I don’t do well in heat at all. I told Rasch and Miguel to roll on because I was going to stop and lay down in the grass for 5-10 min. They did, and Manis hung out with me. 10 min went by and we got back at it. I was watching the temp on my wahoo, ready to see it start dropping. It was about 3:30 PM and the sun was starting to dip. Maybe another 15 min and we were down to 77 or so and I was feeling much better.

I had committed mile 120 to my memory because there was some new stuff there and I heard through the grapevine that it was….’interesting’. It wasn’t long and we were there, in Welaka. It started as some unassuming double track but we hung a quick left onto the “blue trail”. We followed the blue blazes which took us right along side of Little Lake George. It was a hiking trail with tons of palm fronds to ride across, some downed trees, and other enhancements. It eventually led into some wet swampy trail but it was short lived. After a few of Karlos’s routes, you come to expect this and just get it done. Manis was a trooper and didn’t whine a bit; however, his ride was almost ended by a rogue palm frond. 

After this section, which was about 7-8 miles long, we had some road to ride to get to the town of Palatka, which is mile 150, contains a lot of food/resupply options, and is the last major resupply for the next 80ish miles. Now, I’m going to try to make a long story less long….while at a gas station in Palatka, Manis bought his stuff and headed outside to fill bottles and tuck food away and realized something was awry: he didn’t have his wallet. We searched every pocket, bag, nook, cranny, trash can, etc and it was no where to be found, and he had just used it inside. The only logical answer was that the guy behind him in line snagged it when he left it there. He performed the necessary tasks of card cancellations and what not, we grabbed some Burger King, put our helmet lights on, charged our devices, and hit the road.

We had about 10 miles of pavement before reaching the Buchman Lock, where we had to put a combination in a rusty lock x 2 in order to navigate our way across; we had no problems and were across in 5-10 min. 

After this, we briefly rode the Florida Trail for a couple of bumpy miles before going across the Rodman Dam into Ocala National Forest (ONF). We decided to pull off into the Rodman Dam Campground to lay down for an hour at about 11:30. We found a grassy field next to a pond with the glowing eyes of deer blanketing the tree line. Manis snored quickly, but briefly, while I just listened to the frogs, and the buzz of mosquitos in my ears. We were back on the bikes and headed into ONF by 1 AM. 

ONF kind of hung over my head prior to arriving; it’s about 50 miles of dirt roads, a lot of which have plenty of sand, and just a bunch of nothing. You can find unruly locals who like to be ass holes to cyclists in the middle of the night. Luckily, it was uneventful. About 10 miles in, we came to the 88 Store & Pub, which is the only option for water/food in ONF, and our only checkpoint. It was about 1:45 AM and they were closed, surprisingly. I hear it’s usually pretty rowdy there until 3 AM or so. Matt Borbley and Chris Hudson had passed us while we laid down, and we found them here, chilling in some chairs next to the worlds largest ash tray and some empty PBR cans. We plopped down and chatted with them for a bit and then we all got up and headed further into ONF together.

After 6 hours or so in ONF, we emerged on the other side, around sunrise, and arrived at Marshall Swamp around 8am. They had water fountains and a pavilion where we sat down on the tables. I just ate a bit and Manis tried to snooze, to no avail, I believe. We filled up on water, which was much needed….I forgot to get water from the spigot at the closed 88 store so I went about 10 hours on 4 liters of water, since Palatka. 

We started the 5 miles of Marshall Swamp at 8:30 AM and it was a nice reprieve from the monotonous straight roads of ONF; it’s about 3 miles of easy hiking path through a swamp, followed by 2 miles of paved bike path to a main highway in Ocala. 

Once we finished that and found ourselves at baseline trail head in Ocala, near Santos, we went a little off route to grab coffee and donuts at a Dunkin’ Donuts. 

Finished up and hit the new singletrack connector over to Santos, which took about 30-40 minutes. It was around this time that I got a phone call from another friend on route, Graham Skardon, who called to say he had Manis’s wallet; he had found it in the trail at the end of that long bumpy Florida Trail section before the Rodman Dam. We were/are completely baffled on how the wallet was  nowhere to be found yet was somewhere that it hung on for 15 miles then fell off; I guess we will never know.

So santos is about 35 straight miles of single track, which starts at mile 235 of the route. It’s no where near difficult but after riding for 26-27 hours, it wears on you. And it takes every bit of 4 hours to complete. We meandered our way through, stopping for a micro break here and there. We got a major monsoon about half way through, which made the trails about 2” of standing/running water, briefly. The last section is tricycle trail and the fatigue was evident as both Manis and I started to externalization our dismay with the never ending trail; it literally seemed like we were going to be stuck on that trail for an eternity. 

We exited the far western side of the trail system, maybe around 4:00 PM. A couple of miles of pavement, a couple of miles of horse trail, a few miles of the Dunnellon bike path and we were at the Sonoco gas station for some much needed calories. It was about 5 or 5:30PM and holy crap my butt was on fire! No chamois for the first 14 hours was a bad idea, since I forgot to put my long distance saddle on. Anyways, we had an amazing Cuban sandwich and some other wrapper foods, put our helmet lights back on, and headed out into the light rain shower to finish the last 25 miles out.

 We rode a few miles of pavement through some neighborhoods, with some climbs and descents, feeling like the remaining miles would be fast…wrongggg. Immediately into the sugar sand roads for the next 5 miles or so. Ride a little, unclip and walk a little. Repeat. Repeat. With the rain we had just had, there was a nice wet crusty layer of sand on top which made the drivetrain sound like it was on it’s death bed. 

We finished the sand and had maybe 10 miles to go. We made our way through more neighborhoods to the Withlacoochee bike trail, which is the finale. The kicker is, our shuttle pick up was next to this path, so that was where my car was, but the finish was 4 miles past the car, at the western terminus, where it meets the gulf. I took advantage of this. I had some terrible hot spots on my toes where it felt like someone was holding a blow torch to them, so I stopped and kicked my shoes and socks off and put my flip flops on to pedal the last 4 miles to the end. Great idea! Nope. Pedaling 8 miles (4 out and 4 back) in flip flops, after 296 miles of riding, was a terrible idea! 

We made our way to the end, took our pics with the front wheel in the gulf, and headed back to my car. We finished aroun 8:30 PM, around 37 hours after we started. We saw Borbz and Hudson roll through once we were back at my car; we gave them some congrats, loaded up, and headed out for some Taco Bell and a hotel!  

I appreciate everyone who took the time to give this a read…happy trails! 

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