I decided to get the fall racing season started by trying my hand at some gravel road racing near Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa. Racing on gravel is sort of an odd concept, considering there are perfectly good roads to ride on, however I wasn't feeling like a solo training ride, and knew gravel road racing was a gauranteed leg burner (slogging through gravel mile after mile really takes it out of you).
Bike gear plays a big factor in a gravel race. In fact a lot of people had two bikes with them, or at least two wheel options so they could make a last minute decision based on the gravel conditions and what their competitors were lining up with. I only brought one option... my cyclocross bike with cyclocross wheels, as I wanted to get some training on it.
This was a good choice for the 6 lap and 4 lap events (Cat 4, 5, women, single speed, masters, etc.) as most of them had traditional cyclocross set-ups, however everyone in the 8 lap event (Cat 1/2 and 3) had more of a super-hybrid set-up going on, with durable road wheels, even a set of zipp tubulars.
Ok, the turnout wasn't great, there were only four competitors in the first wave: Paul Deninger (Zoom Performance), Dave Lippold (All9Yards), Jared Osterloh (All9Yards), and myself. So, I ended up being the only Cat 3 that showed up to take on the gravel. The ref indicated that if I made it at least 10 feet, I would have the Gold state championship medal wrapped up... Ok, that shouldn't be a problem.
So, now the task was to see if I could have some fun mixing up with the other three riders. There were some rollers on the backside of the course, and huge slogfest of a hill at the finish each lap. After some attack/counter attacks by all nine yards, I could tell we were in for a long hard race. Paul didn't help matters by executing his patented uphill 'super-smoooth sneaky slog slope attacks'. They are so slow and gradual you can't even see them happening, however he slips further and further up the hill, and you can't do anything about it.
The dynamics changed when Jared's chain broke. That left three 'Time Trial Types' who potentially thrive in slogging situations that drain the power out your legs, to battle it out. I noticed Dave stalled a little bit on one of Paul's sneaky slog attacks, so when Paul hit it again on the never ending finish line hill I went with him and we had a good gap.
It seemed like me and Paul were going to be able to work together to take home some Iowa 'East Coast' glory, but Dave rocketed past us, a few miles later, using the slight downhill slopes to catch back on.
Lesson learned, as the rest of the race was painful, but attacks escaping seemed futile, considering the nature of our riding strengths, so we all basically just kept each other in check the rest of the race.
The race finished with all three of us hitting the hill together, and then it slowly strung out with Paul winning, then Dave, and then myself.
Man, that gravel eventually gets your bike very dirty:
That was a good workout, and I feel better prepared for any future events I may or may not enter this fall. I am still holding onto to just enough time trial fitness to try my hand at the Harvest Hammer duathlon next weekend. I really haven't been able to run, so the trick will be to see if I can catch up with everyone on the bike leg. That will be a fun occupation regardless, as I know having targets up the road will push my pace beyond what is usually possible.
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