Le Grand Gratitude

Howdy

This was a very special edition of Le Grand du Nord with many firsts. Some were obvious like the first end of pandemic (I hope) race. The first chip-timed Heck of the North Productions event ever (thank you to Kris and team at Duluth Timing and Events. Check results here.) The first wave starts (thank you to the YMCA for being such gracious hosts.) Thank you Voyageur Brewing Company. Some were not so obvious. We miss family that are not able to be with us. Life moves on and we adapt and hopefully grow. So it goes.

A lot has changed since my first introduction to gravel cycling in 2009. I think many of these changes are amazing. There are now bicycles for every conceivable type of terrain and rider objective. There are gravel events both large and small all over the country. And there are opinions about these changes wherever you look.

I speak for Heck of the North Productions only. We continue to evolve with the times. But our core goals remain solid. Design and produce beautifully challenging courses and events. Welcome both seasoned veterans and brand new gravel cyclists. Work with community partners and businesses that see the benefits of cycling for all in the community.

Most of all, bring people, bicycles and landscapes together for powerful experiences.

Thank you for being part of Le Grand du Nord. Thank you for bringing your adventurous spirit. Your patience. Your determination. Your friendliness.

Thank you Avesa Rockwell for being an amazing co-pilot.

Thank you volunteers for making this all possible!

We have The Fox and The Heck of the North coming up later this season. Hope to see you there. Until then, Ride the Good Line!

Jeremy Kershaw

Sponsors!

(Alphabetically)

1. Bent Paddle Brewing Duluth’s finest brewers and hosts for our Tuesday, May 25 race bib pickup. They are generous donors to cycling in Duluth. They are also supplying us with Buy 1 Get 1 Free (B1G1) coupons.

2. Cascade Vacation Rentals Leaders in North Shore vacation rentals. They are doing major support for us at our 53 mile event Checkpoint.

3. Cedaero  Two Harbors based bike bag sewers and designers are the best in the business! CEDAERO would like to thank the gravel and adventure community for helping us grow through the pandemic. We are offering all the LeGrand Du Nord registered riders a chance to get 10% off their order at cedaero.com. In addition another 10% of each order will be donated to “Gravel for Good”, the charitable wing of the Heck of the North Productions. Use the code Get10Give10 at checkout before it expires on June 10th. 

4. Crushing Mechanics  Rich and Lynne are generous partners of Heck of the North Productions. From vehicle and storage support to basecamp hosting, they do it all. They also sell equipment for making gravel roads! Who could ask for more! Thanks Rich and Lynne! 

5. Embark Maple Syrup Our Wisconsin based maple syrup suppliers. They are new and really bringing it this year. They will be supplying our checkpoints with packets of their finest syrup. 

6. Epicurean Duluth based cutting board and kitchen tool company. A long time supporter of cycling and Heck of the North Productions. They are donating beautiful cutting boards and tote bags to our volunteer crews. 

7. Fika Coffee  Lutsen based coffee roasters are your go-to for coffee while traveling the North Shore. They will be supplying us with bags of their finest roasts. 

8. Fireweed Bike Coop Grand Marais’ bike repair shop. Owned by none only than the mayor of Grand Marais, Jay Arrowsmith Decoux, Jay will be offering repair service at the Marathon checkpoint. 

9. HED Cycling The leaders in bicycle wheels. Minnesota based HED has been a sponsor of our events from the beginning. This year, we will be giving away a pair of their Emporia GA Pro – Silver Edition gravel wheels. One of my favorite cycling companies and long time supporters of gravel cycling

10. Loll Designs Duluth based modern, outdoor furniture makers have been long time supporters of all things cycling in the region. We will be giving away one of their beautiful Lollygagger Lounge Chairs

11. Otso Cycles and Wolf Tooth Components Minnesota based bike, tool and component  builders. Wolf Tooth Components and Otso Cycles will be hosting a giveaway after the event, so take a few pictures and be ready to recap your event experience! You can win Wolf Tooth tools, accessories, and Otso swag. Stay tuned after le Grand du Nord for more details. 

12. Taiga Design + Builders Grand Marais based carpenters and designers. The best and most beautiful construction operation on the North Shore. Logistical supporters of the event.

13. Terrene Tire Minnesota based tires!  We will be giving away 5 sets of their very capable gravel shoes, Elwood Tire 40 mm tires.

14. Visit Cook County Original partners of Le Grand du Nord. If only every event company could have a county based resource like Visit Cook County. Your go-to for Grand Marais and Cook County travel, event and logistical information. 

Registration for The Heck of the North for 2020 Riders

Hey There!

To those that chose to push their 2020 Heck of the North registrations to 2021, we will be sending out instructions on how to re-register, for free, by this Friday. Don’t worry, you still have a place at the start line. Our switch to our awesome partners at BikeReg has caused me to relearn some race director magic.

We will email you those instructions by the end of the week. Thanks for your patience as we get dialed in for 2021.

Jeremy Kershaw

P.S. For those racers coming up to Grand Marais for Le Grand du Nord, we will be sending out final instructions, tips and the link to upload the route GPX files tomorrow!

Registration for The Fox and The Heck of the North

Original artwork done by Andrea Halligan of Duluth.

We are excited to announce that registration for The Fox (August 28-29) and The Heck of the North (September 25) will go live via BikeReg on Saturday, May 15! That’s tomorrow!

See “Register via BikeReg” buttons at the home page of this website.

For those that registered in 2020 and decided to push it forward to 2021, this season, we got you! We will register you with the help from our partners at BikeReg. Thanks for your patience and we will have a way for you to confirm this soon. Thanks!

For those new to our gravel races, The Heck of the North is the event that started it all for us up North. It will be our 13th edition and we are ready for it to go this year!

For those looking to try bikepacking in a race format, The Fox is just the ticket. Two days of racing with a night camping in Grand Marais. Each day is a new 60+ mile course. All racers are required to travel with their sleeping kit and race gear for the event. It’s a perfect introduction to this style of racing.

Now…for those who are wondering about our newly renamed “The Wolf “ (was The Heck Epic) we made the difficult decision to keep it a free, individual time trial event run in the spirit of the Tour Divide. Due to limited camping options, mainly because of Covid 19, we opted to focus our energy and resources on The Fox. We sincerely hope to make this a shared, group event in the future. For now, we will offer the GPX file as we did last summer and have Trackleaders.com manage the SPOT side of things. Stay tuned for that information.

The Covid 19 pandemic has forced us all to be creative and patient. We appreciate your understanding as we navigate last minute decisions, fluctuating case levels and ever-changing protocols. We strongly encourage everyone to get their vaccination. This is the right thing to do for the health of our families, communities, country and beyond. It helps protect our vulnerable citizens. It also helps businesses like ours do what we love to do.

As always, we are here to field any questions. Email me at jeremybkershaw@gmail.com. Or, ask one of our Gravel Go-To’s.

For now, stay safe, find a bike and Ride the Good Line! And register tomorrow!!

Jeremy Kershaw

Le Grand du Nord Route Scout

As you may know, scouting the courses for our events is one of my favorite things to do. Last week, I rode key sections of the 110 mile course and also the entirety of our new, “Marathon” route. Here are a few thoughts from the day.

• I rode the 40 mile “Shoe Lake Rd” loop of the 110 mile event. Overall, the gravel was fast, firm and ready to go. There are approximately three miles that I call the “Powers Lake Rd” sector that is the roughest and rockiest of the whole 110 course. But my 35 mm tires handled it fine.

• There were wolf and moose tracks for miles. I love this element of the event. Maybe you will be fortunate enough to see sign of these creatures, too.

• There are no gas stations. Almost no houses or homesteads. There’s just a lot of wild Northwoods. But all routes are open to traffic and please ride to the right of the road. On blind hills and corners, please ride as if there is a car approaching. Stay safe, visible and predictable while riding.

• We will have gpx files for the Marathon distance available today and the 54 and 110 mile courses next week. You will see an email from our BikeReg partners about this data.

• If you are sure you are not riding, please email me to remove you from the start or wait lists.

• The Governor’s orders may be loosening up the state guidelines which is great. But we will be following our more strict policies for this year’s event. Please keep a bike length apart, wear a face mask while not riding and practice good hand hygiene.

• We strongly believe in vaccinations and encourage you to get yours before being part of Le Grand du Nord. It is the right thing to do for yourself, your family, your community, this country and the global pandemic. It will help our businesses get moving again. It helps protect our most vulnerable members of the community. Thanks for doing your part!

• We will send out one final communication via BikeReg about race day logistics, parking areas, etc. Please read when you get a letter from them!

• If you have any questions about gear or gravel cycling, please contact one of our Gravel Go-To’s. We’re happy to help!

We can’t wait to have you up North again. Stay safe and Ride the Good Line!

Jeremy Kershaw

The Ragnarok 105 Experience

Way back in 2009, Farrow and I drove down to Spring in Red Wing to partake in my first gravel race, the Ragnarok 105. Rumor had it was hilly, really hilly. And the weather could be anything in early April. I was riding a singlespeed, woefully geared (good on the hills, spun out on the flats.) But that’s how it starts. Farrow berating me for how inexperienced I was. Me riding my first 100 miler ever, I think. I finished and that was all that mattered that year. The course lived up to its reputation of beautiful and steep (for Minnesota.)

I came back in 2010, 2011, 2012. Then life somehow got in the way.

Flash forward to yesterday, 2021. Back to where it began for me, and in many ways, for Heck of the North Productions (a huge part was also Chris Skogen and his Almanzo…sleeping in his backyard, pancakes and race packets that looked like a designer wedding.) The Ragnarok is still amazing. In fact, just about perfect.

I camped out the night before at Frontenac State Park. I’m a bird guy and the Driftless area is in full Spring fever in early April. I was awoken by eagles screeching along the shore of the lake. Pheasants were calling in the corn stubble. Cardinals were dutifully calling out their territories. Turkey vultures were wobbling above the cliff sides catching the first warm thermals of the day. Kestrels perch hunting from the power lines. Mourning doves singing namesake sad songs. Swallows, killdeers, chickadees, swans, Canada geese, sandhill cranes. All were serenading my thawing Duluth Winter brain. I can not think of a better Spring ritual.

But this Ragnarok course. It is perfect. The hills are steep and long; long enough to get into a good rhythm. Sometimes so steep, with one gear, it is all you can do to turn one more revolution of the crank. The valley rivers are flowing thick with Spring rain. The turns are just frequent enough to keep my hyper brain occupied; sometimes head down into the wind, then another mile and a quartering or, if you’re lucky, a tail wind. The beautiful brick farmsteads, swerving around roadside chickens, goats and manure hauling tractors.

I caught myself wishing there were a few more miles. I am already looking forward to next year. That is the sign of one well designed course. A simple thing of beauty in the world of cycling. Here is my official ‘thank you!’ to the good people that have made this happen since 2008.

***And the green “chore boy” gloves were a checkpoint buy in Zumbro Falls. The temps were just on the edge of cold and my trusty wool gloves were carefully forgotten in the car. Life savers! And traditional cue cards are the best!