Stillwater, Oklahoma
Mid South 100 – 2026 Race Report
Mid South always carries a reputation that hangs over the start line before the race even begins. Some years it is mud, hike-a-bike, and broken drivetrains. Some years it is wind and survival. In 2026, it turned out to be something different — fast, dry, warm, and deceptively hard. On paper those sound like perfect conditions, but Mid South has a way of making even the good years feel honest.
This year’s amateur 100-mile race went off under clear skies with chilly temperatures climbing into the 80s by the afternoon. With the pros racing the day before under the new format, Saturday still had the big Mid South energy, but the race itself felt more like a pure endurance test. The roads were dry, the speed stayed high, and instead of the usual red-dirt mud slowing things down, the course forced you to manage effort for more than six hours with nowhere to hide.
The opening miles were quick but controlled. With good conditions it would have been easy to burn too many matches early, but a hundred miles in Oklahoma is never decided in the first hour. Around mile ten, the race was still strung out when we passed one of the classic Mid South moments — a guy on the side of the road handing out licorice on the end of a fishing pole for riders to grab as they went by. Only at this race do you see something like that, and it was a reminder that even when the pace is high, Mid South always keeps its personality.
Warhawk setup for Mid South
This year was also the first big race for the new Warhawk, and the conditions ended up being a perfect test for what the bike is meant to do. Mid South can go either direction — deep mud one year, fast hardpack the next — so the goal with the setup was versatility more than outright speed.
With the dry forecast, I went with a faster tire than I would choose for a mud year, but still something with enough volume and side knob to handle loose corners and washboard. The he Schwalbe G-One R 700x45 was a perfect fit- fast and with enough volume helped reduce the fatigue of a long gravel race. Mid South rewards confidence more than low rolling resistance, and the Warhawk’s clearance makes it easy to run a bigger tire without giving up speed. The extra stability late in the race was worth it, especially once fatigue starts to set in and the gravel feels rougher than it really is.
Gearing was another decision that mattered more than it looks on paper. The course doesn’t have long climbs, but the rollers never stop, and after four or five hours even small rises start to feel steep. Running a wide-range setup meant I could keep the cadence steady instead of grinding, which makes a big difference late in a race like this. Mid South isn’t about one hard climb — it’s about a hundred miles of small efforts that add up.
The Warhawk felt exactly right for this kind of day. Stable on the rough sections, fast on the smoother roads, and comfortable enough to stay consistent when the race turned into a long grind.
Settling into the race
By the middle part of the course the speed was still high, but the effort started to feel heavier. Without mud to slow the field down, the race became more about pacing than survival. Groups thinned out, riders started to settle into their own rhythm, and the focus shifted to eating, drinking, and keeping the effort under control.
Somewhere after halfway the race became what all long gravel races eventually become — a steady grind where the terrain never looks hard but never really lets up. The climbs stack, the gravel buzzes through your hands and legs, and every change in speed costs a little more than it should. I raced with bottles and planned to stop at all three aid stations to fill up with Infinit Go Far, my go to for endurance events. An USWE pack would've been a better call and saved me the time at the aid station but it was fun to stop and refuel with the cheer crowds and energetic volunteers.
Around mile seventy-eight, after hours of rough gravel and steady effort, reality started to show up in a different way. I found myself digging out the chamois butter and applying it while riding just to keep things from going sideways in the last part of the day. Not exactly part of the race plan, but at that point the goal was simple: keep moving and don’t let small problems turn into big ones.
The Oasis
Aid Station 3 — the Oasis — showed up late at around mile ninety-five, and it felt exactly like the name suggests. Instead of a quiet bottle hand-off, it was a full-on party in the middle of nowhere. The SRAM tent had music going, food on the tables, people cheering, and volunteers handing out drinks like it was a tailgate instead of the last stop of a hundred-mile gravel race. The had a griddle with quesadillas and Fireball shots if you were in the mood.
Rolling into that scene after six hours on the bike felt surreal. For a minute it was easy to forget how tired the legs were. But stopping that late can be dangerous, so after a quick reset it was back on the road knowing there were still a few miles left to earn.
The finish
The final stretch into Stillwater always feels longer than it should. The terrain doesn’t change much, but after more than six hours every roller feels steeper and every straightaway feels longer. In a fast year there’s no mud to blame, no mechanical chaos to slow things down — just the simple fact that the course keeps asking for effort until the very end. I had to stop three different times to put air in my rear tire- the slow leak was frustrating and forced me to lose solid groups to help share the work.
The day finished at just over 105 miles in a little over six and a half hours, steady from start to finish. No mud epic this year, but in some ways that made it harder. Fast conditions turn Mid South into a pacing race, and pacing races reward discipline more than anything else.
Mid South in 2026 didn’t deliver the legendary peanut-butter roads, but it delivered exactly what makes the event special. No matter the weather, no matter the conditions, it always finds a way to make the finish feel earned.
And this year, the Warhawk proved it’s built for exactly that kind of day.
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