The 508: Stage One

Out from the city limits of Santa Clarita, the gap between houses, water wells, and trees quickly expands. There never was a better testing ground for an unforgiving, solitary life than the American desert. It was no surprise, then, that just 20 miles into the Furnace Creek 508, a bike race of 508 miles from Santa Clarita to Twentynine Palms via Death Valley, riders had already begun to put big distances between themselves.

The 508 miles are broken into 8 stages. As a 4x team relay, each rider had to ride two stages, following the same order each round. This was our order: Tom, Ron, Justin, me. By the look on Tom's face at the end of his first ride, the elements and mental anguish that the desert - by its very nature – exposes us to would be life-changing for each of us in some form or another. I still had several hours to wait before my turn on the bike.

Result at end of stage 1: 83.97 miles in 4:54:00