Team St. Louis completed the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes in Death Valley on Saturday in one long and torturous day in the saddle.

All five St. Louis riders completed 100 miles, led by six-time D.V. ride veteran Rodger Brand of Glendale and highlighted by 13-year-old Turner Rapp of St. Louis and his mom Emily hitting the century mark for the first time. Tom Kissinger of Ramsey, N.J., a Rapp family friend and long-distance member of Team STL,  was the strongest rider in the STL group, and 10 Speed was the lantern rouge. Emily’s daughter Helen opted to not  ride, but she served the event as a volunteer and received acclaim for raising $14,000 - the third most of anyone on the D.V. ride.

Turner’s performance was impressive for one so young. The lad’s a champ! And a shout out to Emily Rapp for her diligence in following the coach’s training program and also serving Team St. Louis as the ride chairperson.

Brand is a story unto himself, the antithesis of Emily Rapp when it comes to training in that his training is to not train. He said he ran a leg in the St. Louis Marathon relay in April and took  three bike rides — two recently! —  which was the extent of his training. This is not unusual for him, in that his five previous D.V. rides were accomplished with the same “training” regimen. So, to ride 105 miles in Death Valley six times with virtually no training is a tribute to his dedication to the cause and his Zen-like approach to riding, just putting his head down and turning over the gears — an approach that was particularly important this year.

Twas a long day, primarily because of the 21- to 28-mile per hour headwind on the return trip from Jubilee Pass - a 5-mile climb at 6 to 7 percent gradient to the midway point of the ride. The first half of the ride took just about 5 hours, and the return schlog took a leg burning 6-6 ½ hours - the wind was so bad there wasn’t much difference between the downhills and the uphills, and gusts reached 43 mph and kicked up a dust storm on the last 7-mile stretch from Artist’s  Drive to Furnace Creek. Brand and Kissinger completed the entire 105-mile course. The others did 100, springing forward late in the course  with motor assists to finish before dark.

Fortunately, the temperature sort of cooperated Saturday, with a high in the mid-90s, so it wasn’t oppressively hot as it was last year when Brand and St. Louisan Mark Peterson endured 115 degrees on the May ride in D.V.

The thing about the desert, though, is that the dryness sucks the moisture right out of you, and that, plus the wind, made it tough going on the return trip … except for the racers, who finished before the wind kicked up - in about 5 ½ hours, or just about the time Team St. Louis was rolling down Jubilee Pass and into the wind for the return trip to Furnace Creek.

The five-person STL Death Valley team joined the four-person STL White Fish squad in completing JDRF rides this year.  Ride veterans  Mark Peterson and Chuck Avery of St. Louis, Avery’s son Eric of Roseville, Calif.,  long-distance member Tim Rollins of San Francisco, and James Ambrose of Springfield, Ill., completed a JDRF ride last month in White Fish, Montana. Former St. Louisan Andrea Hulke also completed the JDRF ride in Asheville, N.C.,  as well.

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