[ptourkin]

In response to the closing of the National Forest Service sections of the Furnace Creek 508 due to the government shutdown, Jason Pierce (Pudu) rode the Furnace Creek 508 (retitled the Trona 353) on a townie with toe clips, finishing in the classic (Merckx class.) Making things even more epic, he crashed while screwing around and clearly broke his middle finger fairly early in the race and continued on having a great time and raising everyone's spirits.

Stage one had some of the more extreme Santa Ana headwinds the race has experienced, somewhat making up for the lost 205 miles. I'm not sure of the exact details of the bike, but I believe it was a 6-speed with only one chainring. He climbed over 20,000 ft (edit: looks like around 18,500) and was smiling the whole time. Something for us to consider as we obsess over equipment for the weekly group ride. This is a shot I took from my team's van around mile 300