Sunday, November 8, 2026 · Pisgah Forest, NC

Ride the Swank 65 on a plan, not a hunch

Twenty-eight miles and nearly five thousand feet from the Black Mountain trailhead, capped at 200 riders, with cutoffs at mile 16 and mile 22. Redline Athlete forecasts your finish from your own numbers, prices every climb against your reserve, and puts the plan on your head unit.

No card. No account needed to try it.

01 · The course

Twenty-eight miles that climb like fifty

28.1 miOne loop from Black Mountain
4,872 ftTotal climbing · 173 ft per mile
3Aid stations · miles 7, 16 and 22
200Riders, by Forest Service permit

A hundred and seventy-three feet of climbing per mile is the highest density on this list. The organiser's own words: rugged mining roads, fun singletrack, tough climbs and hell-raising descents. Figures from the Blue Ridge Adventures event page (28.1 mi, 4,872 ft, aid at miles 7, 16 and 22). When you load the course file, the app measures it for itself.

02 · What it asks of you

Two cutoffs, and the second one is the real race

The 1:00 PM cutoff at mile 16 and 2:00 PM at mile 22 turn the Swank into a pacing problem with a clock on it. The plan tells you what you will have left at both.

Climbing density

At 173 ft per mile there is no flat to recover on. The fatigue curve steps up on every climb, and the plan shows where the descents actually give something back and where they only feel like they do.

Mining roads then singletrack

The climbs are largely on old road, which is where watts pay, and the descents are where they stop paying. The plan separates the two so you know where to spend.

Aid at 7, 16 and 22

Three feeds on a course this short means the fuel plan is about timing rather than quantity. The plan places your carbohydrate against the climbs, not the clock.

November in Pisgah

Cold starts and warm climbs. Set the temperature you expect at the top, not at the trailhead, and the plan adjusts your sustainable power to it.

03 · What the plan tells you

What the plan tells you about the Swank

Your finish time

A forecast from your weight, fitness and the course file, with a pace target you can hold rather than an average someone else rode.

The climb that empties you

Every climb ranked by what it takes out of your anaerobic reserve, not by how tall it looks. With this many steep pitches, the climb that empties you is often the third one, not the biggest one.

Fuel that covers the effort

Carbohydrate burned against what you can absorb, hour by hour, with a warning when the plan runs short. Three to five hours with three feeds: the plan says which feed to skip if you are ahead and which one never to skip.

Markers on your head unit

The longest climb, the hardest one for you, the recovery window before it and the technical stretch late in the day, sent to your Garmin, Wahoo or watch as waypoints.

04 · Proof

Fitted against real race files

The model is fitted against recorded races, not lab assumptions. On a Chequamegon 40 validation ride it predicted 2:24:28 against an actual finish of 2:24:20.

Predicted finish2:24:28
Actual finish2:24:20
Difference8 seconds

Your prediction comes with a confidence range, because honesty beats a single flattering number. The Swank has not yet been run through the model on a recorded file. When a rider shares one, this page gets its own numbers.

Three steps before race morning

  1. Load the course. Blue Ridge Adventures publishes the course before race week and prior years are on Trailforks. Export the GPX and upload it.
  2. Say what the ground is. The trail’s own corners suggest where the ground changes; you name each section or describe the course in a sentence. Worth 13 to 17% of a finish time.
  3. Set the pace and get the plan. Weight and fitness once, then one slider drawn on what each pace costs: finish forecast, reserve at the line, fatigue curve, a fueling schedule, and the markers that matter sent to your head unit or watch. No power meter required.

Swank 65 questions

How long does the Swank 65 take?

The front finishes in a little over three hours and the cutoffs shape the back of the field at five. The calculator forecasts your time from your own numbers, and tells you what you will have at mile 16 and mile 22.

What about the cutoffs?

Mark them. The plan's markers go to your head unit, so the cutoff points beep as you reach them along with your predicted state there.

Is it really free?

Yes. Run the full analysis as a guest, no account. Pro ($9/month, or $59/year) adds saved rides, a saved athlete profile and the head-unit export.

Other race plans

Same model, one page per course.

Every race on the calendar

Find out what mile 22 is going to cost

Same course, your fitness, your pacing. Two minutes of setup now beats twenty-eight miles of guessing.