Black helmets and shoes are out
It's just a training blog bro
- Thread starter Pearl
- Start date
IDK if that looks good. They look like a school bus.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
We now wear white socks and throw them out after each ride
walter
Fourth Party
*cancels order*...........
DougTheDonkey
Member
Most races are lost for a simple reason like this. We put all the planning into our skills, bike prep etc but forget that the race is an hour longer than you prepared for.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
it got warmer than i expected by the end which didnt help... i thought 3 "regular" size bottles would have been good for 3 hours, but i must have wanted to clear some of that dust outta my mouth lol
i dont think i could/should take in more carbs than that in 3 hours, but maybe i can graduate to to an extra 10-20g more, or i just need more actual fluid then i thought!
Last edited:
DougTheDonkey
Member
Try combining with a gel. You can handle more carbs that when when the source is different.
Be like everyone else. Get a second job for Maurten gels.
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
BOOTLEGGER 100
When I finished the Bootlegger 60 back in 2019, I received a custom top cap with “Bootlegger 100” on it, it looked super cool. Somewhere down the line, I needed this top cap and put it on my gravel bike. I always felt kind of “meh” about it, since I didn’t complete the race. Kind of like wearing a Thrasher shirt and not skating. I decided this year that I need the conquer the 100 to prove my worthiness.
Back in my NJ days, I would always look at these old events and stalk Jeff Mandells times. I always figured, if I paced the climbs at the speeds he did, I would be happy with my results. The stalking started early. The leaders the last couple of years were in the 6:30 range. Doing 7:00 would put me right outside the top 10 and I would consider 7:00 a 1st for ya boy.
Oh yes, the event. You don't know about it. The Bootlegger 100 is a 107 mile, 12,000+ feet of climbing gravel race that heads out of Lenoir, climbs up to the BRP, and descends back down into town. The first 30 miles of the course is the same as the 60, so at least I have that going for me. The middle 33 miles is stuff I haven’t ridden, so besides some time stalking and results from strava, I’m going in blind.
Alarm at 4:40, but I wake up at 4:30, smash some eggs/rice/bacon, Celcius and I’m out the door at 5:20, parking in Lenoir at 7am for a 8am roll out. I like arriving extra early to just hang out and chill. Roll around to make sure my bike works and load up all my crap. The weather is absolutely perfect. Cloudy, 62, what more could you want for a day like this.
We roll out of town and its rather chill, as it was last time I did this. Everyone is happy to keep it chill until the elevation points totally up. Theres a couple small bumps on the road along the way, but nothing until mile 14 or so. Someone I’ve raced with before slides out in one of the first corners as he got into the marbles, just a quick reminder that at speed, everything is just a little more sketch. We hit the first short gravel climb I had pegged at around 6 minutes, and we are over it in 5:20. I didn’t know any of these details at the time, but it did sure seem like a hard effort. It’s hard enough that it actually splits the group, and I’m in the chase group. A couple of people pull like mad to make the bridge back up (not me obviously) and we all reabsorb into one big blob.
It's rather social on the pavement until the next gravel climb, which is around 4.5 miles. For the 60, this was the climb of the day, so I really let it hang out. My goal time was 22:30 @ 300w, and I actually pretty much hit that. In the 60, this was enough to stay with the front group. This year, I’m dropped. Obviously, there is tons of people behind me, but there’s no rush, they will come back to me at some point… right? The top of the climb is some fun gravel and it rips. It starts to point down and it’s a hoot. I see some guys by me lose some bottles and it reminds me how happy I am to have the $5 metal cages on my bike. I make it down this 4 mile descent and while I lost whatever group I was with, I was approaching the biggest climb up to the BRP today, and knew I was going to be in no place to chase anyone and just had to do my own thing. I was hoping to see ones and twos before the course split, but now I wonder if those people weren’t in the 100? Whatever, lets do this. Thankfully I brought some headphones and I turn them on at this junction. ~1:50 in and I’m alone.
This is 9 mile, 2400 foot gravel climb that I stalked some dudes that on another level did this in 55 minutes at a power range I can’t do. So I had no goals, just knew what I could sustain for an hour. I see more people come up behind me and pass me, but just kind of do my own thing. It starts to mist a little and it is kind of refreshing. You can feel the temperature drop and reminds me that years ago, it was 70 at the start, and freezing rain was coming down up this climb and a majority of people ended up qutting. I didn’t see that in the weather this time, but thought about it. I’m passed by a dude on a singlespeed just grinding away, sheets.
I end up doing this climb in 1:04 at 249w, 185bpm HR, which I must say now I’m pretty happy about. There is an aid station at the top of the climb which I was hoping to hit at 2:45 in to hit my 7 hour goal, but I’m 10 minutes off. Not horrible, but it’s in my brain I’m off my “winning” pace. Since I planned to only do one stop, I skip it. I regroup with 1 or 2 of the people who passed me. I see a rider coming up behind me on the Parkway and decide to wait a couple pedal strokes to get a free ride from him. After abou 30 seconds I realize I have no interest in doing someone elses pace and let him go. I take some time on the road descents to catch my breath and coast a bit. The good news is were going downhill for quiet some time.
I’ve never done this gravel descent off the parkway, but knowing it points down is exciting. Once again I am passed by a couple of people and I have no personal motivation to try and follow someone down this. Maybe I’m not as good of a descender as I think I am, but I don’t need to fall off the side of this mountain. My arms and back are starting to ache, which I imagine is par for the course at mile 50. I feel like I’m fueling well and on top of that.
We come up to an aid station and I make eye contact with a soda, and I decide I’m going to stop here for my mental sanity. I know we have a long, slightly downhill gravel straightaway before we approach our next hurdle.
I get caught by one guy and decide if there is any time to put in some effort, it is now. The false downhill flat. We gather 2 more people and end up doing some pulls. Now take that loosely, I’m doing about 200-220w on the front. It helps keep the speed up and we average about 22.5 down this stretch. I know that this will help current me. Climbing, it wont.
Mile 65 is the start of a Maple Sally Road, 17.5 miles, only 1,143 feet of climbing which doesn’t’ sound like a lot, but it is more like death by 1,000 cuts. It will climb for say 3-5 minutes, then descend for 1 minute, over and over again. I’ve ridden this with a buddy before and it was fun, but how different of a pace would it be when trying to race?
2 of the guys go off and climb faster than me, while another falls back. Now more than ever, you just need to do your own thing. I keep jamming to my own music and just turn the pedals. The goal for this is 1:48 @240w, but at this point, I’m really in a bad place. In the past I have done events and was the one that was on the gas at the end and feeling great, I’m hoping that pacing this somewhat is going to benefit me. I start seeing a few people in front of me, one of them being a local shop owner in Charlotte. I do my best to stay in my zone, but it being someone I know, I want to at least get to him. We link up for a tad and I eventually pass him, which is a little boost of energy for me. There is an aid station about halfway up and this was the one I planned to stop at, but since I stopped before, I was unsure if I needed to.
I decide to put my foot down and have another swig of Coke, hoping it will be enough to get through the next 10 miles of this road. Ben links back up with me and we end up chatting for a little. It’s about 5 hours in and I’m just about cracked. He eventually drops me and I’m just on my own again. The women’s leader passes me around this time, as well as the guy who was in our 4-man paceline at the beginning of the climb. I muster some words of confidence to them, receive some back, but everything just seems broken. I do my best ot maintain speed and almost fly off the edge a couple of times, having to unclip a foot and skid it out. Trying to maintain any momentum I can to shoot myself up the hill and save my legs.
The road becomes more populated with houses and I know that we are closer to the end of this section. The descent off Maple Sally is rather steep and brake bumped to death, which my arms are not happy about right now. It cheers me up knowing that we have a good section of road descending coming up. It turns to road and we are riding the next 18 miles or so the same way we started, so it kind of helps. I actually finish Maple Sally in 1:48, with a lower power number than I stalked. Which doesn’t make any sense because I was battling demons in my legs and trying to just survive.
It’s exactly 6:10 elapsed on my garmin, which makes me think, can I do almost 18mph solo for an hour? I mean it doesn’t sound impossible, but I’ve never tried to hold good power after 6 hours.
There is two small bumps I need to get over, which look like nothing on paper, but yeah, they are killers. I’m caught by one or two people here and I take a free ride from one of them, when the want me to pull through I just do my own thing. I find it isn’t enough for them and they leave me. That is fine. I unpause my jams and try and do something over 200w.
At Garmin mile 98.6, The clock strikes 7:00. I’m a little bummed but still close enough. Coast into Lenoir and the elapsed time hits 7:16. I cross the line to cheers as if I won the damn thing, roll over to some shade and chill on the sidewalk for a couple minutes to regather my thoughts.
I’m happy about this, that must put me 45 minutes behind the leaders, which I’m stoked on. That would be around 12-13th or so. Then I remember how many people dropped me and can only guess how big the front group was, there’s no way that is what place I am this time.
The winner did 5:45, a whole 45 minutes faster than the last two years. WTF?! I didn’t stick around for the full results and just stalked some Strava images to see I’m not even in the top 20. 20th was 6:33. Bonkers.
So I found myself in this strange situation where the result on paper isn’t really as important, but the time goal I did was pretty damn close. It makes you think, how can you even get better at this long-distance racing? What in the world is going on in 2024 in gravel races? Do I even think I can be good/betterer at this? I hit most of goals and power numbers. It really makes me think if I even want to do some of these. I like to challenge myself but man, these dudes are STRONG.
It's Monday and I no longer want to sell all my bikes, but happy I don’t have anything gravel related for a couple months now.
When I finished the Bootlegger 60 back in 2019, I received a custom top cap with “Bootlegger 100” on it, it looked super cool. Somewhere down the line, I needed this top cap and put it on my gravel bike. I always felt kind of “meh” about it, since I didn’t complete the race. Kind of like wearing a Thrasher shirt and not skating. I decided this year that I need the conquer the 100 to prove my worthiness.
Back in my NJ days, I would always look at these old events and stalk Jeff Mandells times. I always figured, if I paced the climbs at the speeds he did, I would be happy with my results. The stalking started early. The leaders the last couple of years were in the 6:30 range. Doing 7:00 would put me right outside the top 10 and I would consider 7:00 a 1st for ya boy.
Oh yes, the event. You don't know about it. The Bootlegger 100 is a 107 mile, 12,000+ feet of climbing gravel race that heads out of Lenoir, climbs up to the BRP, and descends back down into town. The first 30 miles of the course is the same as the 60, so at least I have that going for me. The middle 33 miles is stuff I haven’t ridden, so besides some time stalking and results from strava, I’m going in blind.
Alarm at 4:40, but I wake up at 4:30, smash some eggs/rice/bacon, Celcius and I’m out the door at 5:20, parking in Lenoir at 7am for a 8am roll out. I like arriving extra early to just hang out and chill. Roll around to make sure my bike works and load up all my crap. The weather is absolutely perfect. Cloudy, 62, what more could you want for a day like this.
We roll out of town and its rather chill, as it was last time I did this. Everyone is happy to keep it chill until the elevation points totally up. Theres a couple small bumps on the road along the way, but nothing until mile 14 or so. Someone I’ve raced with before slides out in one of the first corners as he got into the marbles, just a quick reminder that at speed, everything is just a little more sketch. We hit the first short gravel climb I had pegged at around 6 minutes, and we are over it in 5:20. I didn’t know any of these details at the time, but it did sure seem like a hard effort. It’s hard enough that it actually splits the group, and I’m in the chase group. A couple of people pull like mad to make the bridge back up (not me obviously) and we all reabsorb into one big blob.
It's rather social on the pavement until the next gravel climb, which is around 4.5 miles. For the 60, this was the climb of the day, so I really let it hang out. My goal time was 22:30 @ 300w, and I actually pretty much hit that. In the 60, this was enough to stay with the front group. This year, I’m dropped. Obviously, there is tons of people behind me, but there’s no rush, they will come back to me at some point… right? The top of the climb is some fun gravel and it rips. It starts to point down and it’s a hoot. I see some guys by me lose some bottles and it reminds me how happy I am to have the $5 metal cages on my bike. I make it down this 4 mile descent and while I lost whatever group I was with, I was approaching the biggest climb up to the BRP today, and knew I was going to be in no place to chase anyone and just had to do my own thing. I was hoping to see ones and twos before the course split, but now I wonder if those people weren’t in the 100? Whatever, lets do this. Thankfully I brought some headphones and I turn them on at this junction. ~1:50 in and I’m alone.
This is 9 mile, 2400 foot gravel climb that I stalked some dudes that on another level did this in 55 minutes at a power range I can’t do. So I had no goals, just knew what I could sustain for an hour. I see more people come up behind me and pass me, but just kind of do my own thing. It starts to mist a little and it is kind of refreshing. You can feel the temperature drop and reminds me that years ago, it was 70 at the start, and freezing rain was coming down up this climb and a majority of people ended up qutting. I didn’t see that in the weather this time, but thought about it. I’m passed by a dude on a singlespeed just grinding away, sheets.
I end up doing this climb in 1:04 at 249w, 185bpm HR, which I must say now I’m pretty happy about. There is an aid station at the top of the climb which I was hoping to hit at 2:45 in to hit my 7 hour goal, but I’m 10 minutes off. Not horrible, but it’s in my brain I’m off my “winning” pace. Since I planned to only do one stop, I skip it. I regroup with 1 or 2 of the people who passed me. I see a rider coming up behind me on the Parkway and decide to wait a couple pedal strokes to get a free ride from him. After abou 30 seconds I realize I have no interest in doing someone elses pace and let him go. I take some time on the road descents to catch my breath and coast a bit. The good news is were going downhill for quiet some time.
I’ve never done this gravel descent off the parkway, but knowing it points down is exciting. Once again I am passed by a couple of people and I have no personal motivation to try and follow someone down this. Maybe I’m not as good of a descender as I think I am, but I don’t need to fall off the side of this mountain. My arms and back are starting to ache, which I imagine is par for the course at mile 50. I feel like I’m fueling well and on top of that.
We come up to an aid station and I make eye contact with a soda, and I decide I’m going to stop here for my mental sanity. I know we have a long, slightly downhill gravel straightaway before we approach our next hurdle.
I get caught by one guy and decide if there is any time to put in some effort, it is now. The false downhill flat. We gather 2 more people and end up doing some pulls. Now take that loosely, I’m doing about 200-220w on the front. It helps keep the speed up and we average about 22.5 down this stretch. I know that this will help current me. Climbing, it wont.
Mile 65 is the start of a Maple Sally Road, 17.5 miles, only 1,143 feet of climbing which doesn’t’ sound like a lot, but it is more like death by 1,000 cuts. It will climb for say 3-5 minutes, then descend for 1 minute, over and over again. I’ve ridden this with a buddy before and it was fun, but how different of a pace would it be when trying to race?
2 of the guys go off and climb faster than me, while another falls back. Now more than ever, you just need to do your own thing. I keep jamming to my own music and just turn the pedals. The goal for this is 1:48 @240w, but at this point, I’m really in a bad place. In the past I have done events and was the one that was on the gas at the end and feeling great, I’m hoping that pacing this somewhat is going to benefit me. I start seeing a few people in front of me, one of them being a local shop owner in Charlotte. I do my best to stay in my zone, but it being someone I know, I want to at least get to him. We link up for a tad and I eventually pass him, which is a little boost of energy for me. There is an aid station about halfway up and this was the one I planned to stop at, but since I stopped before, I was unsure if I needed to.
I decide to put my foot down and have another swig of Coke, hoping it will be enough to get through the next 10 miles of this road. Ben links back up with me and we end up chatting for a little. It’s about 5 hours in and I’m just about cracked. He eventually drops me and I’m just on my own again. The women’s leader passes me around this time, as well as the guy who was in our 4-man paceline at the beginning of the climb. I muster some words of confidence to them, receive some back, but everything just seems broken. I do my best ot maintain speed and almost fly off the edge a couple of times, having to unclip a foot and skid it out. Trying to maintain any momentum I can to shoot myself up the hill and save my legs.
The road becomes more populated with houses and I know that we are closer to the end of this section. The descent off Maple Sally is rather steep and brake bumped to death, which my arms are not happy about right now. It cheers me up knowing that we have a good section of road descending coming up. It turns to road and we are riding the next 18 miles or so the same way we started, so it kind of helps. I actually finish Maple Sally in 1:48, with a lower power number than I stalked. Which doesn’t make any sense because I was battling demons in my legs and trying to just survive.
It’s exactly 6:10 elapsed on my garmin, which makes me think, can I do almost 18mph solo for an hour? I mean it doesn’t sound impossible, but I’ve never tried to hold good power after 6 hours.
There is two small bumps I need to get over, which look like nothing on paper, but yeah, they are killers. I’m caught by one or two people here and I take a free ride from one of them, when the want me to pull through I just do my own thing. I find it isn’t enough for them and they leave me. That is fine. I unpause my jams and try and do something over 200w.
At Garmin mile 98.6, The clock strikes 7:00. I’m a little bummed but still close enough. Coast into Lenoir and the elapsed time hits 7:16. I cross the line to cheers as if I won the damn thing, roll over to some shade and chill on the sidewalk for a couple minutes to regather my thoughts.
I’m happy about this, that must put me 45 minutes behind the leaders, which I’m stoked on. That would be around 12-13th or so. Then I remember how many people dropped me and can only guess how big the front group was, there’s no way that is what place I am this time.
The winner did 5:45, a whole 45 minutes faster than the last two years. WTF?! I didn’t stick around for the full results and just stalked some Strava images to see I’m not even in the top 20. 20th was 6:33. Bonkers.
So I found myself in this strange situation where the result on paper isn’t really as important, but the time goal I did was pretty damn close. It makes you think, how can you even get better at this long-distance racing? What in the world is going on in 2024 in gravel races? Do I even think I can be good/betterer at this? I hit most of goals and power numbers. It really makes me think if I even want to do some of these. I like to challenge myself but man, these dudes are STRONG.
It's Monday and I no longer want to sell all my bikes, but happy I don’t have anything gravel related for a couple months now.
ekuhn
Well-Known Member
You held your own until the last half lap. Don't be ashamed of that!
Dude I totally missed this....but goddam that sounds awful. Nice work on finishing that!
ChrisG
Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
That was entertaining.
Dudeman with the water pack needs to buy some rollers. Maybe loan them to his teammate, too.
And ditch the water pack.
asm
Well-Known Member
The water pack can be more aero. Dylan Johnson did wind tunnel testing with Silca but the equipment was gravel focused.
Hydration Pack or Feed Zones, Which is More Aerodynamic?
Does skipping the aid station make up for the extra weight of the pack, how does aerodynamics play a factor?
silca.cc