Author
Rob Whittier on Oct 26, 2013
Race name: Lowell 50 - 57 Miler Race date: Saturday, Oct 26, 2013
In my short time racing bicycles, I’ve already developed a love/hate relationship with gravel racing. One of my best results was in the Cone-Azalia gravel race this spring but I knew going in that the Lowell 50 gravel race had the potential be as hard as any race out there – physically and emotionally – and I was right. Eight xXx’ers made the commitment to this little sufferfest in Southeastern Michigan and I think we all had unique but great experiences so here is a little bit about mine.
The prologue: One unique challenge of gravel racing is gear selection – road bike or cross bike (or mountain bike!), which tires, knobbies, grasstreads or road tires (but that would just be foolish), what cages will hold bottles best, skinsuit for warmth or jersey for pockets for the possibly critical tubes and CO2. I had good beta on this course from Bill Barnes and Jim who had done it the year before on CX bikes but it sounded like having road gearing was a possible advantage and that there was a lot more hardpack dirt than “gravel” so burly 25mm road tires run at 90 PSI might work. I thought a lot about this and decided that since my CX tires were full on mud tread (Clement PDX) that as long as it was dry, the road rig with the Conti 4-Seasons was the ticket. It was NOT dry, it rained all night and was raining in the morning when we woke up…
Another bit of intel that was shared with me was the importance of getting up in the lead group from the start as a few hundred riders of very different abilities would start en masse and make their way pretty quickly to one of the more technical hills with a lot of loose gravel, sand and mud. Well I didn’t do that very well either…
Lining up mid-pack as I’m prone to do in road races where I’ll usually have time to sort things out I quickly realized just after the start that a complete messy cluster was developing in this huge pack of riders on slick mud and gravel and I started working my way toward the front but as we hit the aforementioned hill I realized I was already in trouble. Riders started losing traction and going down, some weaving their way up this short steep slowing everyone down and I saw up ahead that a lead group was getting away. I grunted and SAT DOWN to maintain traction on my skinny tires and by the time we crested the rise I had moved up 20 or more spots but the damage had been done, things were stringing out already with a few small packs at least 200 meters ahead and I had work to do.
We hit a flat and I dropped the hammer, putting in what I have to believe was one of my hardest 5 minute efforts in a race to date (Powertap didn't sync), I passed some teammates and urged them to grab my wheel but I may have been moving a little fast for that with late notice and soon I bridged up to a small group pulling 3 or 4 guys with me. Within a minute I realized that this group wasn’t organized or going fast enough to catch the lead group so I grunted again and pulled out and put in another one of my hardest efforts. I guess I passed a couple more teammates who later shared that wished that they had made the move with me but my head was down and I didn’t notice much except my breathing and the pain. It felt like a TT for another 4 minutes or so and when I bridged up to the next group, a couple guys that I had dragged thanked me for the effort but I was utterly cooked and couldn't say you're welcome. I sat with this group for a few minutes but I could still see a lead pack of 5-6 riders a few hundred meters ahead and gaining distance on us and I knew that I had to act. I waited another minute to recover then worked my way up to the front and dropped a cog and made one more desperate attempt to bridge to the lead group. This time one rider came with me and the two of us made a hard push for the next 8-10 kilometers, swapping pulls and giving it everything we had to bridge to the lead group but I felt heavy legs coming on and we weren't gaining ground so I made a decision that I'm convinced kept me in the top 10. I looked back and saw 8-10 riders from the last group I had been in two minutes or so back so I sat up and let him pull away, I took in food and water and I lived to fight another day…
The next 50k or so I worked with a good, strong group of riders, all of whom were from Michigan teams (Einstein, Bissel, Haggerty) and had done the race before. We caught the guy that I had tried my last bridge with and he joined us for a bit but was too gassed. I imagine I would have been too. But I regained my legs and with about 20k left a couple guys started to push the pace and I felt good enough to help them. One-by-one we started cracking riders and when we hit the hills again we dropped another few guys and my wolfpack was down to three. I was mentally and physically beat but I knew now if I could hang with these two hardmen I’d be close to a top ten. The next 10k were among the toughest I’ve done; a mix of sticky mud and hills and cold weather and fatigue and these very strong dudes had me deep in the pain cave but I took my pulls and we never saw those guys behind us and when we rounded the final corner onto the asphalt I took one last hard pull and then stood up to sprint beating one guy and just missing the other by a few bike lengths for 8th overall and 5th in the 30+. USAC tells me that both those guys I jumped and stuck with race Cat 1/2 so I’m sure not ashamed about that and all of the guys ahead of me in 30+ were all Cat 1/2 as well so there’s that.
Lessons learned – 1) Take the advice of those that raced before you 2) When you decide on a setup, commit to it and don’t second guess yourself when the race starts; adapt on the course if you must 3) Go with your instincts and make the hard move, if you hesitate you might not get a second chance 4) Know your limits and when it’s time to change strategy commit to that too 5) Go like hell and believe you can hang with anyone; who knows, maybe you can…