With IRONBULL’s Red Granite Grinder, Expect Everything You Wanted in Gravel, Including the Unexpected
Literally a screaming descent down Rib Mountain. Photo credit: Rob Hoehn
WAUSAU (Chris Schotz - Silent Sports Magazine) – If you ask me what to expect for the October 15, 2022, 144-mile Red Granite Grinder adventure, I’d say, “Everything,” and I wouldn’t just be talking about the weather, although any weather can happen in October. Shane Hitz and the IRONBULL crew have put together a far-flung expedition with epic extremes like a start that is as urban as it is remarkable. There are also 50 and 85-mile rides, as well as a 12-mile ride that’s free for kids. Events for everyone!
The mayor, Katie Rosenberg, starts the motley peloton in the heart of downtown Wausau. Photo credit: QCWilly
I originally thought it ridiculous to start a gravel grinder from the historic 400 Block in the middle of Wausau. How would our motley peloton get out of town to the rough roads of Marathon County? The logistical miracle of a start from the doorstep of the 95-year-old Grand Theater was made possible by a full-fledged police escort, leading riders down wide boulevards to the base of Rib Mountain before most of the city woke up.
While the racing doesn’t start during this escort out of town, riders sort themselves out as the group makes the turn at Marathon Park on the way to the McCleary Bridge. With 144 miles ahead, there’s no need to rush, but be prepared for the path to narrow on the meandering 51/29 boardwalk tucked into the green space behind Walmart. And watch out for fellow riders as you pass the Chevy dealer and take the hard right into the tunnel beneath I-39. It’s there where the reality of a 700-vertical-foot climb to the summit of Rib Mountain sets in.
2019 85 mile winner, Todd Meerdink, dancing in tap shoes on a tight rope on the hike-a-bike at Rib Mountain State Park. Todd has returned for each year’s event with his wife after introducing her to gravel racing. Photo credit: Gary Barden Photography.
Managing the Mountain
Ascending Rib Mountain, you’ll find the middle pitch is where it gets tough. Chair lifts and a spectacular view mean it’s about time to dismount for a one-mile conga line down the rocky Rib Mountain State Park hiking trail. Take your time, with everyone else hoisting bikes on their shoulders or bouncing on boulders. The advantage here goes to those wearing mountain bike shoes with recessed cleats. Walking the rocks in road shoes is like dancing your Conga in tap shoes on a tight rope. The hike passes a failed gold mine on the way to the quartzite quarry that produced sandpaper grit since 1893.
Be prepared to fix a flat if your tires are measured in millimeters on this eclectic course, as 2020 50 mile winner Andrew Arends learns. Photo credit: QCWilly.
It’s at the brink of the quarry cliff where riders are allowed to remount for a screaming descent down the mountain. Wheel choice matters here so make an informed selection. I’ve ridden the Grinder on zippy 700 x 40mm tires. In 2021, I made the fun choice of 29” x 2.6” wheels and was glad to rumble over the sharp rock and wooden beams past the carnage of flat tires. Tires measured in inches may not have been the fastest choice overall, but they had their moments on this eclectic course. Be prepared to use your brakes or fix a flat if your tires are measured in millimeters. To my knowledge, my plus wheels were the only setup to ride through Averill Creek, but I still fell victim to a blackberry thorn at mile 101. I have since gone tubeless.
To the Trails & Into the Wind
From Rib Mountain, it’s a short jaunt down famed Red Bud Road to the Wausau School Forest trails at mile 18. These trails are funky and fun on a drop bar bike with a techie descent to a winding boardwalk and plenty of corners to test your tires. Soon you’re through Nine Mile along a snowmobile corridor familiar to all mountain bikers. By mile 24, it’s time to play in the wind on open roads.
Author Chris Schotz leads the pace line on the railroad grade to Edgar with a group of eight. Photo credit: QCWilly
At the front of the race, you’ll see plenty of riders crouched over aero bars like they’ve entered some kind of rag tag time trial. For most of us, it’s time to work together. This is the moment when you’ll find out if your tires throw pebbles, useful information if you want to make friends with the people behind you. Get in a line when the course turns into strong headwinds. Don’t try to talk. Just take the strongest turn at the front that you can before sliding back to the slipstream. Don’t worry about gravel riders’ judgment if you don’t have the legs for a long pull or if you tag on the end for pure survival. It’s okay to be a passenger as long you remember the work being done at the front; don’t launch any silly attacks up the road. Battle the wind together. Those headwinds can’t last all day.
Getting Personal
When the course turns out of the wind, you’ll have your chance to figure out who you’ve been drafting. Groups of ten splinter into twos and threes, and you’ll have your chance to chat. I’ve rarely done a gravel grinder during which I didn’t make a new friend over hours of scenic backroads.
This year I hit mile 43 and the railroad grade to Edgar with a group of eight. It’s a wooded change of pace and the first solid chance for side-by-side conversation. Four miles later, you’ll have a chance for re-supply in Edgar before the Scotch Creek singletrack sends everything off the rails.
From the sudden drop-off the grade, we knew this part was going to get interesting. Scotch Creek is a tight system of old-school trail over roots and narrow boardwalks with grassy slopes and sliding turns in the leaves. I was on a burly bike so I loved that mile and a half. Others took a gentler approach, but all survived to the Highway 29 rest stop at mile 51.
Hitz weaves in featured sections that are a hoot for riders including Angela Engel (256) and Tina Cleveland (336). Photo credit: QCWilly.
IRONBULL volunteers are caring and well-supplied with pop, peanut butter, and pickles for those who didn’t send a drop bag forward. Three miles later, you’ll pass temperamental Rib Falls and enter the land of the burnt-orange brick that means the race has reached the town of Hamburg, home of Pomeranian farmers who flooded the area after their migration from Germany. Marathon County changed the names of many rural roads in the area in 2019 so that emergency services wouldn’t get lost chasing duplicate names. Be aware that your GPS device might still show different names than the road signs.
Mink Road means the ride has passed the estates of the Fromm Brothers, who revolutionized ginseng exporting over 100 years ago as a way to fund the country’s largest mink and silver fox production back in the roaring ’20s when fur was still in vogue.
In Lincoln County, the Grinder really gets remote. Hitz took the time to scout the grassy grades through the New Wood wilderness that breaks up the straight lines of Tower Road gravel. He’s negotiated access to private land from the site of Rib Lake Lumber Camp 26. That grassy path can be a grind, but it’s well marked and a welcome shortcut along an isolated lake only accessible for this one day of the year, thanks to a half dozen generous landowners.
Conservation Drive passes the old Joe Schmitty homestead, heated by steaming cows in the basement, but not as enigmatic as the nearby cabin of Hank “Boom Decker” Becker, who would walk all the way to Merrill with a backpack full of suspect fur. Adolph Goetz was somehow able to acquire hundreds of tax delinquent acres on the nearby New Wood River just after Baby Face Nelson stole his mail truck in 1934 on his way to becoming Public Enemy No. 1.
Two miles north, the race makes a short jaunt on Whiskey Bill Road at the site of the log church which stood at the terminus of the passenger rail line run by the Milwaukee Road until 1943. It seems that Whiskey Bill’s descendants couldn’t abide such an intemperate name and tried to change the sign to Sprague Road. That revision just didn’t stick.
Riders experience a full-fledged adventure with bridges, trails, hills, and even creek crossings. Photo credit: Coates Photography
At 100 & Beyond
Mile 100 brings the bikes to a final chance for drop bags before William Averill’s Creek, which can be crossed on rocks with any luck. The three-mile fire lane intrudes on the territory of a well-established wolf pack and the lake of Trapper Morrison, the warden who once chased my father through the brush in a Model A Ford. Camp Road ends at the homestead of Newwood Hassel, who moved to Milwaukee where he was swept from a pier and drowned with his father and brothers while fishing Lake Michigan.
The descents are scary, but the climbs are worse on Billy Goat Hills. Photo credit: Gary Barden Photography.
Hitz snagged the only Rustic Road in either county, Tesch Road, for the course. It passes the 19th century fur trading post run by Bill Cross at the mouth of the New Wood River before hitting the abrupt climb to the rock cut rail line of the Milwaukee Road. Tesch Road ends at the former Copper School, where undulating farm roads begin once again.
Hilly Road, though classic, is not nearly as hilly as three roads yet to come. Nasty Naugart leads to the Red Granite Bar, where gravel goes for a drink and riders get their last pit stop. Farther east, riders go nearby a rotten granite quarry that gives Marathon County such a distinctly fast road base. Minnesotans may call this dirt because they’re used to rough quarry stone, while a morbid few may call it “gravement.”
The race turns north on 28th for the plunge down the Billy Goat Hills. Descents are scary, the climbs worse. Hold your nerve and you can hit 40 mph at the base and start the climbs with enough momentum to coast to the extremely steep pitch.
The urban finish line party is the perfect way to end the season. Photo credit: QCWilly.
Riders descend across the Wisconsin River to the former village of Brokaw, its population evaporating since the mill closed in 2012. Noteworthy to cyclists is the ascent of Brokaw Hill that starts at mile 136 and ends at 137. The summit means you’re home free. Just a descent to flat city streets and paved path before the finish line and a welcome at the IRONBULL celebration.
Awaiting you: An outstanding carry-out chicken and rice paired nicely with Red Eye Brewing Company’s specialty IRONBULL Amber, and that’s before I get out of the chamois. That ride was tough, but so interestingly epic. I’ll have to do it again. Read more and sign up at ironbull.org/red-granite-grinder-details. No doubt once done, you’ll come back again, too.
Originally published by Silent Sport Magazine July 2022 - if you liked this article, consider subscribing at just a couple bucks per issue here.
Banner photo: Featured sections on labyrinth trail networks were signed to direct riders. Photo credit: Gary Barden Photography.
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