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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
Gravel
racing seems to be a quickly growing bike racing event. Just a couple years ago, I had never heard of
gravel racing, now these races are popping up all over the place. Being an adventure racer, this type of racing
caught my eye, because in adventure races, we do a lot of gravel riding.
Chuck and I
had been watching this sport grow from the sidelines, but last summer Chuck
started building a gravel bike, you might have seen his gravel bike build posts. Well, as soon as he finished his bike, I of
course did not want to be left out, so I started shopping for a gravel bike. Chuck
built a true adventure bike, so it’s a bit heavy, and like a tank, it can go
anywhere. Me on the other hand, I was
thinking about trying some cyclocross this year, so I went with a
gravel/cyclocross bike. It’s much
lighter than Chuck’s, and since I’m not as strong as him, it helps me keep up.
Chuck and I
showed up about an hour before race time, did all our pre-race rituals,
checked-in and picked up our schwag. We
both got a bottle of wine, Chuck picked red and I chose the sparkling grape
juice. I don’t drink much wine. We also got a jar to fill with gravel, which
was kind of cool.
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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
We rode over
the bridge and out of town, and then turned on to the Katy Trail. For a few short miles we were on the flat
trail, and everyone just took off, I on the other hand hung back, I was almost last
at that point, but I knew it was going to be a long day and I just didn’t have
it in me to ride fast that early. I have
to warm up for a long time, I’m more of the endurance rider and less of the
sprinter. Chuck was pretty far in front
of me, but when I made it to the turn on a paved road section he was waiting
for me. I told him not to let me ruin
his race, so drop me and go on, but he said this was just training for him, not
to worry. I do worry though, I don’t
want anyone holding back just so I can stay on. He stuck with me though, the good thing was as
the day went on I got stronger, so I didn’t slow him down as much as I thought
I would.
We soon hit
all the gravel roads, the rock on the first lap, was mostly small and only deep
in spots, most of the time we could pick a line that wasn’t too bad. The hills on the other hand, SUCKED, they
were so steep and so long, but every hill we rode up we would see someone
walking, I would think to myself, “you will not walk this hill, even if this
bike falls over, you will not walk this hill”, and I didn’t. Chuck of course made it up all the hills too,
there were even a couple hills I beat Chuck up, not many, but a couple. The down hills were probably more treacherous
than the uphills. They were so steep and
the gravel made it really sketchy coming down.
My max speed on the downhills was 40 mph and Chucks was over 41
mph. On one hills we both hit some deep
gravel and started fish tailing. I think
my life was passing before my eyes at that time, but somehow, both of us kept our
wheels on the road. I was so scared that
I was shaking at the bottom of the hill, but not to worry, there was another
uphill right in front of us, so I was quickly in oxygen debt again and didn’t
have time to start crying.
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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
I wish I
could explain how big these hills were, the pictures just don’t do them
justice. I was thinking, that riding
hills is much easier in the dark because you can’t see how big the hill are,
you just keep grinding away until you come to the top. Chuck and I discussed how we had ridden to
the top of the LaSalle Mountains in Utah during the CPT National Adventure race
championships, it took us over 6 hours and it was uphill the entire time, but
we did most of it in the dark and I think that is what helped us make it to the
top.
We finished
the first lap, and refueled at the Adventure Jeep, we probably wasted a little
time, we were taking off layers, eating, filling water bottle and packing our
pockets with food. We headed back out
for loop two which had longer steeper hills and deeper bigger gravel than
lap one.
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| Lap 2 |
I felt
pretty good though and I think Chuck was in good shape too. We were somewhat worried because we thought
the cutoff to start lap 3 was at 3:30, but at the start of the race, the race
director said it was 2:30, I was thinking he probably just said that in error,
but we knew we wouldn’t make it back by 2:30.
Right from
the start of the lap, it was uphill and it seemed to last forever, but it was a
paved section of road so at least we wouldn’t have to worry about spinning
tires.
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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
After the
first hill the roads turned to gravel and it was a chunkier, thicker gravel
than what was on lap one. It reminded me
of the gravel that you see in a river bottom.
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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
The gravel
went on and on, the downhills were getting tougher and tougher, plus I was so
tired from the uphills, I just didn’t have the strength needed to really
control my bike, so I just started loosening my grip and hoped the bike would
take me where I wanted to go. We stopped
at the top of a hill where we rode through a small town, and grabbed some food
from our pockets, and took off more clothes.
The day was getting warmer, but the wind was making it cool on the
downhills. It was really a hard day to dress for. We looked at our watches and
the mileage, and knew that we would not make it back by 2:30, but maybe we
could be there by 3:30. We hoped that
3:30 was the cutoff for the third lap.
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| Photo Credit - Dan Singer |
Once we were
back on the road we started passing people, some were just slowing down, others
were having mechanical problems. No one needed help, so we just kept riding. As
we rode into Hermann, I knew it was going to be really close to the cutoff, but
didn’t know just how close. We made the
turn to ride the last hill into the chute and as we were just about to the top
we heard the announcer say, “we have just reached the cutoff time”. We finished in 6:30:30, just 30 seconds too
late to start the third lap.
On one hand
I was upset because I wanted to do the full 3 laps, on the other hand I was
secretly glad because I was so tired that the last lap would have been
brutal. The good thing was, when we rode
back to the jeep there were racers everywhere who did not go out on the third
lap, so we didn’t feel like real losers at all.
We stopped and talked to our friend Wendy, who is in great shape and she
made the decision not to do the third lap, so now we felt a lot better. Chuck made a good point too, we could still
walk after the ride and we had a really fun time with good memories, so maybe
not riding the third lap was a way of keeping the memories good because I know
I would not have finished that last lap with any good memories.
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| Photo Credit - Wendy Davis |
So our first
gravel race went really well, we both want to do more. I do need to have my brakes looked at and Chuck
needs to learn that it’s ok to drop me, but all in all, it was a beautiful day,
spent riding bikes with good friends, you really can’t ask for more than
that.
Oh, and one
last thing, I love my new Cannondale SuperX, I will have a bike review coming soon.
Thanks to
the race sponsors for having this race, and having such great support out on
the course, I think I saw the race truck about 50 times, it was always around
when someone needed help. Like the guy
on the ground that looked like he broke his collarbone. See neither Chuck nor I
broke anything and we didn’t have any mechanical problems, well Chuck dropped
his chain once, but I don’t think that counts.
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