Yesterday, I did something a little bit different - the Gravel Grovel in southern Indiana (official host town was Norman, IN, which is near Bloomington):
http://www.dinoseries.com/gravel-grovel/
For the TL;DR crowd: Try a gravel race. It's fun.
60 miles of mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, tandem 'cross and MTBs, and a couple of fat bikes taking on the hills of southern Indiana. 1 cat 4 and 3 cat 5 climbs. Overall, I did pretty poorly, and that was the hardest 6 hours 20 minutes and 43 seconds I've ever spent on a bike. To add to the crazy, this was my first real ride on the new hardtail 29er I built last week. But, I had a blast and I'm ready to do it again.
The days leading up to the race have been rainy. Most of the course is gravel roads, which became soft, slimy and slow. There are a few sections of un-maintained fire road, and a few sections of single track MTB trail. Under normal conditions, the MTB trails would be closed to prevent trail damage, but they were open for the event. The whole thing was difficult and relentless. It seemed like one big 60 mile CX course, with some difficult MTB trails mixed in. If it wasn't so wet, I think it would have been considerably easier. Some sections were just slimy mud. Lots of time in the granny gear. There were probably 20-25 water crossings.
Race day was low 40s and rain. Colder than a witch's tit. We took off at 10 am. There was a bit of asphalt to start us off, but it wasn't long before we were on gravel. It wasn't much longer and we were climbing a big hill. I felt strong in the beginning and was doing pretty well, staying with what I thought might be the front of the MTBers. The 'cross guys had the advantage on the gravel, but those of us on mountain bikes were better equipped for the single track. Even then, it was so wet, downhills were extremely hairy and there was a lot of wheelspin on climbs. It was just brutal. Unfortunately for me, my bad back lasted about 25 miles before it was done for the day. I started getting passed a lot after that. Today, my legs aren't even tired - my back is definitely my biggest limiter.
I had one incident crossing a wooden bridge. A guy had wiped out on the slick wood. So what does he do? Stand up and turn his bike 90 degrees to the bridge right in front of me. I had nowhere to go and came skidding to a stop on my side. My head did a good job of stopping my forward progress by coming into contact with the side of the bridge. I tore up my clothes and kind of laughed it off as I got up. The guy says, "hey! You did the same dumbshit move I just did!" Umm, was there a person standing in the middle of the bridge with their bike turned sideways when you wiped out? I don't think so...
After the race, they had semi-warm showers available, some great food from a local Cajun chain, and beer from one of the local breweries. There were 208 people registered before race day, and 120 finishers. I don't know if they had any race day signups, but that's a 42% dropout rate. Kind of indicative of just how hard this race was.
Anyway, if you're looking for something fun and different, check out the Gravel Grovel or a gravel race in your area!
Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador
http://www.dinoseries.com/gravel-grovel/
For the TL;DR crowd: Try a gravel race. It's fun.
60 miles of mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, tandem 'cross and MTBs, and a couple of fat bikes taking on the hills of southern Indiana. 1 cat 4 and 3 cat 5 climbs. Overall, I did pretty poorly, and that was the hardest 6 hours 20 minutes and 43 seconds I've ever spent on a bike. To add to the crazy, this was my first real ride on the new hardtail 29er I built last week. But, I had a blast and I'm ready to do it again.
The days leading up to the race have been rainy. Most of the course is gravel roads, which became soft, slimy and slow. There are a few sections of un-maintained fire road, and a few sections of single track MTB trail. Under normal conditions, the MTB trails would be closed to prevent trail damage, but they were open for the event. The whole thing was difficult and relentless. It seemed like one big 60 mile CX course, with some difficult MTB trails mixed in. If it wasn't so wet, I think it would have been considerably easier. Some sections were just slimy mud. Lots of time in the granny gear. There were probably 20-25 water crossings.
Race day was low 40s and rain. Colder than a witch's tit. We took off at 10 am. There was a bit of asphalt to start us off, but it wasn't long before we were on gravel. It wasn't much longer and we were climbing a big hill. I felt strong in the beginning and was doing pretty well, staying with what I thought might be the front of the MTBers. The 'cross guys had the advantage on the gravel, but those of us on mountain bikes were better equipped for the single track. Even then, it was so wet, downhills were extremely hairy and there was a lot of wheelspin on climbs. It was just brutal. Unfortunately for me, my bad back lasted about 25 miles before it was done for the day. I started getting passed a lot after that. Today, my legs aren't even tired - my back is definitely my biggest limiter.
I had one incident crossing a wooden bridge. A guy had wiped out on the slick wood. So what does he do? Stand up and turn his bike 90 degrees to the bridge right in front of me. I had nowhere to go and came skidding to a stop on my side. My head did a good job of stopping my forward progress by coming into contact with the side of the bridge. I tore up my clothes and kind of laughed it off as I got up. The guy says, "hey! You did the same dumbshit move I just did!" Umm, was there a person standing in the middle of the bridge with their bike turned sideways when you wiped out? I don't think so...
After the race, they had semi-warm showers available, some great food from a local Cajun chain, and beer from one of the local breweries. There were 208 people registered before race day, and 120 finishers. I don't know if they had any race day signups, but that's a 42% dropout rate. Kind of indicative of just how hard this race was.
Anyway, if you're looking for something fun and different, check out the Gravel Grovel or a gravel race in your area!
Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador