As you can imagine in cycling we have 2 big key components. Primarily physical. If you don’t have the engine you aren’t going to win. My preparation for this race was my best ever. I was ready to compete at the front among the most talented riders on the planet. I didn’t expect to beat all of them, but I expected to be competitive. The second big component is equipment. This race is demanding on equipment. I’m sure you’ve heard the hype, but as much hype as there was I think it was still underrated. This isn’t the world’s premier gravel race. It’s the world’s premier rock race. My teammate Justin that also raced this weekend says the new course was much more physically demanding (hills) and much rockier….big rocks. Everywhere. We process our gravel around here. That doesn’t happen in Kansas.
Here’s how it went for me. I lined up right in front. By some very unlucky twist of fate the instant we hit the gravel I hit a pothole and dropped my chain. That required dismounting, standing in the muck to reinstall my chain and restart in dead last place out of 1300. Ouch. I chased hard and believe it or not dropped my chain again. I’m still at a loss as to why that happened, but it did. I chased hard again for about 20 miles and made it back to within about 100 yards of the front. That’s a decent place to be. Bad luck struck again. The first “bad sector” was about mile 26 lasting a few miles. Big rocks and very minimal maintenance road. As you can imagine a group of 1300 makes it very challenging to see. I got my tire caught in a rut at 25mph and crashed hard. My helmet saved my life. First time I can say that. I stood up, gathered my wits, bloodied and thankfully Justin was right behind me so the field didn’t run me over. Incredible and I escaped with no bike damage. I did destroy my kit, my helmet, and have a few cracked ribs. But I continued as I felt physically strong. Literally 2 miles later I flatted the first time. Again stuck behind so many other riders I couldn’t see the massive rock until it was too late. This was the first of 6 flats for me. So my day was basically pass 100 riders, flat, pass 100 riders, flat…..over and over. I saw more folks with flats spread over 400 yards on this course than I saw in 112 miles at Ironman Wisconsin when I did that. So you can imagine how many flats there were on this day in total….over 201 miles!
At mile 130 I had it calculated out that I could still go sub 12 if I could ride in without flatting again. That was wishful thinking for the last 70 miles, but sub 12 would have put me in the top 20. I flatted at mile 133. The baseball sized rocks are impossible to see while descending at 30mph and just incredibly frustrating to flat over and over. I was out of spare equipment in the middle of nowhere. Physically strong as ever, but I was ready to be done begging for equipment from my competitors. I called my wife for a ride at mile 133. It wasn’t meant to be.
Justin made the same decision when he arrived into checkpoint 2 at mile 151. He had flatted 5 times and his hands were cramping from changing tires.
I’m a competitive guy as you know and it usually eats me up to underperform. In this case, I am pretty at peace with the lack of result. I was very ready for the race physically. I had a ton of bad luck and maybe a little off on equipment choices, but it was not meant to be on this day. I really did everything I could. I put more into this one race than any race in my career. I was all in. It just didn’t work out.
My nutrition and fueling was perfect. I had my 6-ounce flask of syrup (with 1 oz coffee) and it was fantastic. I never felt lousy. I supplemented that with a few energy bars and some energy drink. I had that dialed well. Had I finished the race I’d have consumed 18 oz of syrup. I still got 12 oz in during my ride 😊 I never get sick of it!
I’ll be back to get redemption here…..can’t wait for the right time! I bet next year!
Chris