Chris, Justin, and Heather all traveled to this 75-mile gravel event in Carson City, NV, with Justin trying to defend his winning title from the past two years in the pro event. The race is put on by current gravel pro Peter Stetina and contains many of his favorite training routes. The race has a somewhat unique format of timed segments, which means that you can ride and talk with friends during the untimed portions and stop at all the aid stations without feeling like you are losing time!
There were four segments this year, and the first was 8.5 miles of relatively flat gravel double-track with a tailwind, which made things extra speedy. The second segment is the longest at 18.4 miles with a 2000-foot climb on rock-strewn double track that really keeps the speed down and the suffer factor high. It concludes with a super-fast descent where you end up pedaling in your hardest gear while trying to avoid occasional softball-size rocks.
The third segment is 7 miles primarily on a paved road, which keeps the tactics interesting, and then it finishes with 1 mile of single track. The fourth segment is our favorite with a 9-mile single-track climb that is generally smooth with lots of turns and just a few technical sections.
Justin and Chris rode gravel bikes, and Heather was happy with her choice of riding a mountain bike, which kept the stability higher and the risk of flats lower. Chris ended up 2nd in the men’s 50+ category behind former pro Levi Leipheimer, while Heather took the win in the women’s 50+.
Justin’s race report is below:
I was familiar with most of the course since this was my third year racing, but the first segment was new to me, so I let others lead. The juniors were excited and went out fast, but then one of them barely clipped a metal pole, and a few minutes later, a couple overcooked a loose corner and went into a ditch. After that, I left a couple of wheels of separation to stay out of trouble until we hit the open dirt roads. By then, one rider, Kyle Ward, had gone clear, so I tried to motivate the group to chase. I put in some solid pulls to close the gap, but then we made a wrong turn and lost time. The group crossed the timing mat together, but Kyle had already finished about 25 seconds ahead.
Hoping to make that time back on the second segment, I took it out hard up the first little climb, and only Aaron was able to come with me. We sent it through the rockiest part of the course and opened up the gap, but Kyle was able to claw it back on the long climb. I pushed again about halfway up and made him suffer, but he was able to stay on the wheel over the top, and we flew down the tailwind descent together to the segment finish.
After a nice long stop at the aid station to refuel, a big group got rolling for the third segment. The long road drag race into a singletrack section made this one the most tactical of the day. I made a plan with my dad for him to lead me out into a sprint for the singletrack, but we mistimed it and went a little too early. After a few more accelerations, Jonathan Lee got the holeshot, but he rode the singletrack slow, and the lead group stayed together until the finish, keeping the time gaps the same.
Still behind in the overall, I had one more climb segment left to make up time. I saw Kyle and Lachlan Morton start and waited about half a minute ahead, then Aaron and I set out to chase them down. After an all-out effort for the first ten minutes, I was able to see them just in time to catch them on the short descent. When we hit the next pitch, I sprinted to the front, but Kyle was able to stay on my wheel as we slowly gapped Lachlan. I led into the final descent and tried to push the corners and force a mistake behind, which happened when Kyle blew the last corner and had to put a foot down. I sprinted to the timing mat and threw my bike, knowing that every second would count. Kyle finished just a couple of seconds behind, but when I checked the results, I had won the overall by just 0.7 seconds! That was the closest margin yet after 2.5 hours of racing, but I am happy I was able to take the win for the 3rd year in a row!
photos courtesy of Will Matthews @Visu_wil
