Congratulations to Daniel Stuart – who set the Oregon S-N Unsupported record in the following categories: Male 18-49, Upright bike – Daniel beat the supported record by over 30 minutes!

Record Attempt: Oregon South to North

Name: Daniel Stuart

Earlier this year when I was thinking about what athletic goal I should am for this year. I looked at what endurance cycling records existed in Oregon where I live. Besting the record at the time for crossing Oregon south to north at 15:36 for 290 miles seemed achievable.

I was excited to see an option for competing as a self-supported rider. I liked the idea of crossing a long distance without relying on a crew. Having to make quick stops for food and water without stopping the clock made me think of the café raids I’ve heard about from the old days of the Tour de France.

For equipment, I mostly leveraged an old road bike I already had with several upgrades for aerodynamics and gear storage. The bike is a ’09 Fuji road bike outfitted with clip on aerobars, a Redshift 2 position seatpost, 55mm deep aero wheels, 25mm Continental GP 5000 set up tubeless, 8L Apidura full frame bag + 3L triangular bladder, and a 1L between the arms feed bottle I customized with a straw. I rigged up a bracket so both the hydration hose and nutrition hose were near my mouth while in the aero position so I could vary my eating and drinking rates as needed.

The route followed highway 97 for the entire length. I started off from the California/Oregon border in twilight and clear skies at 06:26:55. It was chilly with a low of 37 F and no wind so I was bundled up with 4 layers on top.

I started with a conservative pace so felt good for the first 200 miles or so of the ride. As the temperatures warmed up, and I stripped off layers, I was very grateful for deciding to bring the large frame bag and jerseys with pockets so I had places to store all of my extra clothes. I wouldn’t have had enough room with a skinsuit.

I planned on water stops around 100 miles, another around 200 miles, and carrying everything else with me from the start. The temperatures ended up warmer than I had expected topping out in the high 80s, so I had to add a third stop when I ran out of water at mile 180. Total stoppage for the day was around 23 minutes. I ended up drinking about 8L of water with Salt Stick electrolytes, 800g of carbs from homemade simple syrup (2:1 sugar to water) and 200g from Carbs gels.

The weather was good all day, the mild headwind wasn’t too bad, no mechanicals, and I was enjoying the beautiful scenery that eastern Oregon offers. Things were going well until mile 215 with a big 1700 ft climb. I thought I had about 20 minutes up on the record pace at the time. With the uphill, my pace dropped off substantially. I misgauged the length of the climb and ended up losing a good amount of time. As the sun set over Mt. Hood, I starting to do math in my head, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it unless I averaged 25-30 mph for the last hour. 

I cranked hard to keep the pace up and was fortunate that the remaining miles were all downhill. Sprinting up and across the bridge over the Columbia River, I made it into Washington at 21:28:31, 15:01:36 after starting. Unsupported, I was able to best the previous supported record by 34 minutes. It turns out, that fatigue makes one bad at remembering times and doing math, so I really had more margin than I thought.

I want to thank my parents who helped make this attempt possible with the early drop off at the start, bringing some warm and solid food for me to eat at the finish, and capturing start/finish photos.