Could the other women not have rode with her?

I actually did hear Shimano had a development team go to Almonzo this year to demo their new derailleur for gravel. From what I heard, 2nd hand a lot of the lead pack was pissed because the team had a support vehicle. The only support they were allowed was from aid stations so the Shimano guys were given a lot of heat for taking aid and I guess ditched their aid as soon as everyone called them out on it.

Gravel racing is very similar to road racing and it will continue in that direction as more p/1/2's race gravel. DK might be the one exception because of the distance of the event and the road/weather conditions. DK tends to have such a high attrition/mechanical rate that it naturally implodes. Other gravel races are becoming very similar to road races.

I had a closer look at the timing splits. Alison also had her own support rider who rode with her all the way. He was smart enough to drop off for the last few miles to not make it so obvious.

Couldn't find any obvious support for Amanda or Kae. They came into the checkpoints with different riders each time.

Looks like you do what you have to do to win. The lack of rules means just about anything is permitted as long as you pedal your bike and ride the full course. Turning it into a derny race is a legitimate tactic, as is using checkpoints as means of gapping others. Choosing the best support and pace riders is decisive.

Farcical.

It has been a long time since I have posted on this forum (or even been on it actually), but a friend pointed me at this thread. I left triathlon a few years ago and switched to gravel or monster-cross racing and have long dreaded the modern tri scene migrating over to gravel and monster cross racing. In the gravel/monster cross area the entry of UCI/USAC is discussed frequently. I've even known people to refused to go to races just because the promoter chose USAC insurance and let the promoted know why. Those in the genre now seem pretty strongly against that type of race mentality / organization / sanctioning coming in. I would say I'm not as worried about UCI / USAC as I am about the WTC and probably more so a lot of their clientele moving into the sport without changing their current mindset.

Right now, gravel and monster cross are at the point triathlon was many years ago, where the general thinking is typically along the lines of "Hey here is a hard course. Setting up / doing a race on that would be either epic, stupid or both. Lets do it!" When stuff goes wrong or the weather goes bad, or the course is even harder or a longer etc, that just feeds the original sentiment. I think this follows closely with the concept of 3 guys sitting in a bar arguing over which of 3 local events was the hardest and deciding to put them all together into 1.

If you look at the current situation with triathlon, it is the opposite. People complaining if a bike is 112.5 miles, complaining it is hot on the run for a half iron, complaining that tech support was too slow to come fix their flat that they themselves had no clue how to change, starting GoFund me campaigns for their race fees instead of to help locals when portions of races were cancelled due to natural disasters, aid stations every mile on the run (walk) and Ironman explicitly picking the easiest course for any given venue. I'd blame WTC for this as NordicSkier alluded to above, but to be honest, I think it is a self feeding circle. WTC is a for profit company. They need people to go to their events to make money for Dalian Wanda (or Providence in the past). You don't do that by excluding people. And their customer base have voted with their wallets on how they want the courses set up. I call it "The easiest version of the Hardest One Day Event in the world." Let's be honest, if WTC announced today a full distance race on a hot, humid, windy "small" tropical island in the middle of the ocean where you run through lava fields, have to swim in open water with no assisting current and no wetsuits, the race would die from lack of participation very fast.

I'm not just trying to insult WTC's customers (I'm glad they are out there trying to better themselves and not sitting at home watching tv etc), my worry is not WTC, it is the commercialization and watering down of the events to appease these people. Whether or not this is done by USAC or WTC or by businesses like DK Productions. I'm not looking forward to race directors having to deal with people whining when there aren't volunteers at every turn because they can't read a map or cue sheets or program their GPS units, when the course is muddy, when the finisher's medal isn't big enough or bright enough, there wasn't tech support on the course and they had no clue how to fix a flat or deal with a broken derailleur etc.

With Dalian Wanda getting involved with Breck Epic and the scale and publicity that DK is reaching now, it might just be a matter of time before the sport heads that way, but hopefully like Dan said, maybe we will have a "that shit stops now" moment and it won't happen.

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Tim Anderson
"It's the nature of the internets that you get some dweeb who knows nothing about (insert topic here) pontificates about (topic), believing that his/her opinion is worth the same as opinions from those who actually knows what's going on." --Echappist

Ironically, one of my motivations for not doing BWR this year (I did it in 2013, 2016, and 2017) was the changes to it over the past few years. Not the course changes (the full Waffle - I liked those changes), but in some of the other things. Specifically, in the things added to try to make it a bigger event (e.g. adding the shorter Wafer course) and their effects on the experience for non-"front pack" riders of the full course. It's not so much the fact that the shorter course was added...it's how it was added.

Basically...it's already "blown up"...IMHO :-(

And as far as "gravel racing" goes...I don't really consider myself a "racer". I'm more of a "gravel event participant".

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

well, i launched a gravel bike triathlon brand earlier this year, you're going to see the races next year, and i really don't think you have to worry about what you're worrying about. i did this in response to your fears. and, while i'm a fan of WTC, what i'm launcing is as far away from that vibe as you can get. there are some things money can't buy, and my interests, my own events, are among them.

i raced my first 3-sport event in 1976, my first swim-bike-run in 1980, ironman in 1981, and all that got done, as well as my starting a wetsuit company and a bike company, before there was a WTC. so, i remember how it was and husbanding that vibe is the dual responsibility of the industry and the consumers. personally, i think you have more to fear from the governance crowd.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I agree with this sentiment- Part of what I like about gravel events is the low key vibe.
Race directors take note- Please don't turn your event into a USAC-like road race.

I am an old man- I'm done with "racing". But I still like events where I can go somewhat hard in a self selected sort of way ;)

Unfortunately, all race owners eventually retire or move on, and that if the event is popular enough (DK) a big bag of money from an events corporation is hard to pass up.

We'll have to agree to disagree on what to fear (or resign ourselves to) more. I'm ok with some level of governance / best practices. This is a very litigious society and as the sport grows, it will be necessary to have some level of minimum safety standards or no events other than Facebook "meetups"will occur because no insurance company will cover the races and land owners / managers won't permit the events after a few high profile tragedies. This has been covered and discussed in other gravel groups quite a bit already. And even though you've had "Freedom" for a while, Slowtwitch is still the newcomer to the community [As evidenced by your newsbraking tidbit on top tube storage bags at DK this year :-) ] With the past issues of disqualifications at DK and reports of course cutting etc this is not a new topic.

I hope we never get the arbitrary equipment rules of UCI, and the level of "heavy handedness" by officials you see in USAC or UCI races, but my worry is still more the attitude of the people who come into the sport. Hopefully it retains the "lets do this because it is hard" mentality for as long as possible and not start pandering to the "I want my hard events to be easy" crowd too soon. I guess it is a balancing act between keeping the genre / community as laid back as it is now but not becoming the UCI/USAC Categorized racing scene where if you aren't already one of them, they don't want you there (no matter how much they claim they do and USAC complains about losing millions with decreased participation).

On a different note to educate triathletes considering trying out gravel / monster cross events, I'll paraphrase what were the best ways to describe them that I have heard:

• One of the event producers in my area said "Our races are 'Mullet' races. Business up front and party in the back
• And I think it was Eldon Nelson (Fat Cyclist) said on the Paceline Podcase, these are still races, but not so much against each other (except at the front), but they are an opportunity for each of us to bury ourselves against the clock. That is why you see people waiting when the person at the front of a group misses a turn, or people stopping to help when others have mechanicals or crashes etc. We're almost all racing, it is just that we are racing ourselves. I think this was more in line with how triathlon was when I got involved (not as long as you Dan, but still when my bike had downtube shifters.)
  

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Tim Anderson
"It's the nature of the internets that you get some dweeb who knows nothing about (insert topic here) pontificates about (topic), believing that his/her opinion is worth the same as opinions from those who actually knows what's going on." --Echappist

Can't argue with that, except from what I have seen the last few years, the DK transformation might not wait until Lelan and Jim move on. They already have the "paid camps where you get entry if you go, and the prices of those rose significantly. Leadville 100 (not technically a gravel race, but not too far removed) already has qualifying races etc. The WTC business model is already beginning to be adopted to some extent. Capitalism still reigns and in general has made life better on the whole for all of us.

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Tim Anderson
"It's the nature of the internets that you get some dweeb who knows nothing about (insert topic here) pontificates about (topic), believing that his/her opinion is worth the same as opinions from those who actually knows what's going on." --Echappist

no disagreement. just, i don't think you have anything to fear from the triathlon community. the parts of that community that will be interested are the parts you'll enjoy.

don't conflate govt with safety. i'm all about good insurance. i'm just not all about having regional and national gravel championships, and the attempt to get gravel into the olympics. that's when things go to hell.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Oh yeah, I'm a capitalist. If my race took off, I'd cash in too. I even do the odd WTC race, although not my first choice.

I guess the next frontier is ultra bike packing events... I getter get in fast to get my bag of money in 10 years.

Yep, Already a thing :-) http://www.bikepacking.com/events/

A ways from being a cash machine at this point though I think :-)

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Tim Anderson
"It's the nature of the internets that you get some dweeb who knows nothing about (insert topic here) pontificates about (topic), believing that his/her opinion is worth the same as opinions from those who actually knows what's going on." --Echappist

you're going all lavendar room on me.

It's good to hear the Waffle Ride has jumped the shark and is already going downhill;) I don't want to have to enter a lottery to get in for 2019, so as long as it doesn't get too popular before then I am okay. I tried to sign up for this Grinduro event in norCal in September and it sold out like 2 hours and I couldn't get in:( Luckily we have a bunch of awesome gravel events in Oregon that are still off everyone's radar.

My plan is to go to Flanders week in 2019 and do the full Ronde Sportiv and then come back and do the full Waffle. I hope you reconsider for 2019, I was looking forward to the opportunity to ride with a slowtwitch legend like you and see one of your bikes.