Holiday inspiration

[Erik Bakke]

Gents,

This isn't randonneuring, but it certainly is in spirit.

I met Cam Jones in 2023 at Single Track 6, the event the TransRockies puts on (6 days of mountain biking).

He's a real gem.  Smiley and gregarious.  He's from New Zealand, but races summers out of North America.  He was an "up and comer" at the time.  

He figured in the problem solving of youth that his most affordable and practical way to do his ST6 and other racing for a few months in Canada was to rent a U haul van (~$20ish/day), got a mattress, and just loaded his bike and camping gear in the back and found parking lots or friend's driveways.  Shawn and I befriended him and let him use washrooms in our hotels a bit, plug in his phone, etc.   He'd cook up camp meals on a little stove, like a full big pot of rice or pasta.  He was destroying the field by wide margins with what appeared to be little effort, in a friendly way.

His trajectory has been nothing but upward since. In 2025 he was awarded a wildcard entry to the US Lifetime Grand Prix big gravel series, by definition an "unknown". He won the overall.

So finally, arriving at the festive aspect, like many people it appears he signed up for the Rapha Festive 500, the Zwift tradition of logging some miles to offset holiday eating. This year they made it compatible with outdoor rides too... so he didn't waste any time breaking it into chunks.  Legendary!

May all your 302W intervals be this long in the new year.

[Jeff Shmoorkoff]

Truly amazing and inspiring!

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 25, 2025, at 10:54 AM, Erik Bakke <bikin...@gmail.com> wrote:

Gents,

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