Jbr

People will never be happy, if there's tar then it's not a gravel race, if there's gravel only, then the x sections where the gravel is a bit *** will make people not want to come back. Each race is different, all the races I've done so far were full of challenges (the real races, not the strava timed ones that are just fun ;)), either because there was a ton of mud, or some technical sections, or death climbs, or or... I think that's why I like it. I may not always like it in the moment, but it's great memories afterwards. I want to believe all the people who say they won't come back will eventually look back at it and think differently once the discomfort has gone

Alex Miller won last year from a small group of strong Mountain bikers (including Beers) I must say this years finish took me by surprised twice. I expected the last 10/15km to be on a long downhill tar section, which was perfect because I had less than a bar left in each of my tyres and every rock was a risk of having a race-ending snakebite, so I pretty much had to ride in the front to avoid all the rocks or try save energy but feel every rock in my butt through my rims. 2nd surprise was how twisty and lose the last turns were before the finish, and how short the finish line was, I lost my race there overcooking one of the last turn and couldn't make up the gap to the line. Fair enough, all the aero in the world can't make up for poor skills 🤣 All in all the route wasn't too bad in my opinion, the two sections with very soft soil (before and after the KOM) were death for me as I was the lightest rider/least powerful in my group. Since my tires were really low in pressure from quite early in the race (despite having to stop at 40km to re-inflate my front that was completely flat), corrugation didn't kill me too much.

Maybe because there are people on the hub that race their bicycles and dont "just have a bicycle and ride it"

Good to know that I've done a 2h35 CTCT on a CX tyre, and Road SA's, and part of Killarney ! Not a bad tyre ! I would consider a 36 maybe for a easy gravel race like Eroica, don't know Gallows

I was watching bwr content recently, blows my mind to see some of the tyres used there… some used almost the same I race road with (gp5000 32s), and some of the sections looked properly challenging on road tyres.

Ok I'm putting GP 5000s on then

I usually also do, but I want to see him do this week three of TdF, not day 3 of Giro 🤣

Please someone tell pogi to stop burning huge matches for pontentially 2 secs on GC 😢 Why would he try so hard to outsprint the bunch?

I rode through quite a few MTB riders on that last single track climb and then on Katpas. I may have not had to think too much at that railway crossing because I saw that arrow that pointed left, and when I saw a guy push his mtb on the other side of the rails, I just figured that's where the route was. If nobody is in front of you it's easy to miss it. We saw on flybies that there's another section were people took different routes, the bit of road before that single track to the finish being one of them, apparently there was a gravel trail there where the arrows pointed right... We didn't see any and figured it meant turn right on the road. We thought it was a bit weird that the intersection wasn't marshalled and we had to make our way through incoming trafic EDIT : we took the right route, according to the GPX : Some ended up on two different paths, I definitely saw an arrow like 20, 30m from the road, but no trail, seems that's where some turned, but those who turned early, I don't know what they followed 😅

Everything was pretty much packed up when I arrived too, I think they were put off by the drizzle. No vibe at the finish, our podium was just us three and fran to take photos. But it's cool I don't care too much for those things especially when the weather is ***, I just want to get it over with and drive home. I appreciated that I could give my bike a quick wash as well. I also heard about that one guy that knocked himself out, I home he's alright, seemed like a scary/traumatizing one 😕 Down Katpas I didn't really understand the lines thing drawn on the road so just made my own, I got a big fright when I went through soft sand at speed just next to a cliff, I really thought I was going to go over, then I went extra careful to the bottom. Had another big fright mid race as we were speeding though some field in single file and suddenly there was this big gap that I just just managed to jump over, it was right before a concrete bridge. That section was tricky with lots of rocks to navigate around, which isn't easy when you're not first wheel. The descent before the last climb was also a bit scary on very racy tyres, had to really squeeze the brakes with a lot of caution. Usually sketch is fun, but maybe it was a little too sketch for me to enjoy, that and the long headwind section, I was pretty much over it after 80k I was looking forward to driving my car back home. Then the last climb with the single track was nice again. Seems they could've indicated a bit better that you were supposed to walk accross the train tracks there, some people missed it and took another section along the rails, that eventually connected back to the route but seemed much slower.

I think I'm extremely lucky to go home with two collarbones, and two rims still intact 🤣

yeah no stress Dan also advised strongly against 46T and 50 cassette all together 🤣

Seems that in comparison even my 46-50 wouldn't be that bad of a grind... I'm in the process of sourcing a 52 cassette and a 44 chainring just because Malcolm stressed me 🤣

That's why I run 45 🤣

nah I don't think so. I'm on 45c now and it doesn't make a difference on corrugated roads, at least it didn't make it any less *** than 42s and 40s that I had before. I think only suspension takes care of that, and even with suspensions it's a *** ride. But on the crux oof, it's really rough, guess I'll run pressures as low as I can and hope for the best...

Do you know where exactly ? Corrugation scares me as my bike is stiff AF, the sand not so much

oh yeah ? why ? I'm looking for info about the course, mostly for tyre choice

ok that's what I thought. Damn this gravel thing is so much fun once the race is on, but such a head scratcher before then to figure out gearing and tyres 😭

eeeeish, 1x ? How was that 40-10 or 11 on the flats?

Aleix espargaro placed really well in elites at Epic a few years ago as well ! also beat me in a couple of zwift races during covid (not that it's an accomplishement 🤣)

Jah so it's pretty much like Ventoux 🤣

https://www.strava.com/segments/9309316 Galgeberg vs Tokai mast : meh, if I could win my age cat and arrive fresh as a daisy that would be ideal 🤣

I was actually looking his strava up but power numbers are hidden for the last 3 weeks. I had a doubt but I thought last time I saw his data his zone2 ended at my threshold indeed 🤣 You just confirmed 😜 EDIT : yeah, found a ride where his zones show... 259-352 zone 2, that's actually over my threshold 😭

yeaaaaaaah... considering his zone2 ends where most other athletes metabolic/tempo zone ends, not that slow 🤣

mmmh, will try the 40T the cranks came with after SA champs then, might save me a few bucks rather than having to buy/borrow a new chainring/new cassette