Thanks for the quick replies. No easy solutions. On my own, I figured I'd be all set with a compact 50/34 chainring and 12-29T cassette, but the other guys that have done this ride say that only the pros can do it with gearing like this. The rest of us really need something lower than 1:1, which is why I was looking at options. This will be my first time in this race. The race finishes with a stretch of 22 degrees. 7.6 miles total, winners finish in under an hour, middle of the pack in the 1:20-1:40 range (about 5 mph avg!).