Montana Gravel Challenge 2024

 I generally write up a little summary of most of my races but rarely post them on here. They just go in a dumb forum thread even though I could easily just copy and paste here too. So I'm going to try to do that more.

I did miss a gravel thing up in polson a few weeks ago I think because I was tired and felt bad and it was raining. This weekend was the 3-day montana gravel challenge, and it's raining. Friday we were out setting up the course for the afternoon time trial plus the Saturday course. Between this morning when I decided to shorten the TT a bit and when we actually raced it got a lot wetter so definitely good call to avoid the twisty descent that was already pretty fucked before it rained more.

Ivan won, followed by Will, another young person who is a speed skater from butte. The actual pro MTB racer was 4th. Then Dan, a damn junior, fucking Ben, then I came in 8th, but 1st in 40+. I think if I hadn't slowed down for a car at an intersection that was headed toward me really fast (but the course marshall did get it to stop) I possibly would have beat Ben and Porter but oh well. First time racing outside with a power meter and am ok with my numbers - 338 average and 361np for ~20min. I can average a higher HR for that amount of time and was asking myself if I should be pedaling harder some of the time but it's rolling and and uphill finish so having something left for that is good.

Rode my new orbea terra with road wheels and 34mm corsa n.exts at like 42/46 psi. Felt pretty decent on the slippery descents and corners. Going to ride same bike setup all weekend I think. Tomorrow is mainly road but with a few dirt parts and it'll be wet and there are potholes and stuff. One of the dirt sections might get cut out depending on how much it's raining. It was greasy this morning then will only get worse.

Then days 2 and 3 happened. Day 2 has been the long gravel stage of the race with 3 being a more road circuit. This year we didn't do the long gravel loop because it's a lot of logistics and probably kind of dangerous especially toward the end of the 1 lane gravel road where you're descending around blind corners. Anyway, 2nd day more pavement, with a few out and backs, one pretty gradually uphill for like 10mi, the next shorter with more climbing. The 2nd section was muddy and slick and I was out of position, went super hard chasing onto the lead group, then was almost immediately dropped up a short dirt climb near the end. Our 2nd group of 3 stayed away and Ivan won so at least there was that. So I think 9th overall but Matt beat me to win 40+. Was a little disappointed because I spent the race not really where I wanted to be, plus dressed for cold and rain which was forecast but didn't really happen, and by the time the hard pedaling began I didn't really have an opportunity to try to take off my gloves and jacket. Essentially my race summary could be "hot, flappy, bad tactics, bad positioning."

Day 3 was the "road race" with an out on dirt to a 10mi circuit that's mostly paved, with a climb on mud but thankfully the descent side was dry. This mud climb is a section I cut out of the TT on friday morning because it was a little iffy and it has only gotten worse over the last few days of periodic rain and cool temps. Andrew was there, who has some pretty good pro road and cx results, and with fresh legs, and definitely wanted the win. Ivan had the overall GC pretty locked down and just wanted a good result and a fun, hard race. We had a good team of like 5 of us, with Ivan's dad, Porter (the jr who beat me in the TT), Brian, and myself. Ivan's dad went off the front early with 2 others and we caught them at the top of the climb. 2nd lap, I find myself riding away with Cory and hold that for over a lap, and then I see a small group chasing us down on lap 3 (of 4). It's Andrew drilling it on the front, along with Will from butte who got 2nd in the TT, Carter the pro MTB racer, and Ivan and Porter. Awesome. I hop on and then Andrew goes up the climb super hard. I'm on the back behind Carter and he gets dropped so I guess I'm dropped too and a small chase group with Jake, Dan, and a couple other guys picks us up. Ok cool I get to sit in for the last lap. After the climb and descent on the circuit, which we took fairly easy, it's about 2k generally uphill to the finish. Things slowed down a bit and I went up the side, not attacking super hard, but getting a gap and going for it. Everyone had been working except me and I kind of blew things up, but Micheal (3rd in TT), got up to me and then another guy Shawn from canada put in a good dig too and just barely got me at the line for 5th. Andrew won, porter 2nd, ivan 3rd, and 6th for me is pretty good for the team. Then Ivan won overall plus I got the 40+ win.

I think I'm happy with my power numbers but also don't have a lot of "not zwift in the winter" numbers. Got an email from intervals.icu after every day of racing. Yesterday I had a pretty good but not good enough average power for the last 40min, today I had a normalized power of 305w for 2 hours plus a best 1min, 2min, and 5min for the season. Also yesterday morning I felt like garbage and my watch told me my "training readiness" was 14. This morning it said 7 but I felt better and had more sleep.

Next weekend is a mountain bike race in helena, then our wed night xc series gets started although I'm not sure what the plan is for that. Usually it's a whole thing for me setting up all the courses and gradually getting the pro xc ready but it's apparently a lot lower profile this year.

Also did a really good job of fucking up my bike. Really hoping the headset bearings are ok because guess where the brake hoses go. The bike, wheel, and tire setup was perfect all weekend though. The guy who hosts the race had bike wash stations in his yard so after every stage I hosed off my bike, put it in the stand and wiped everything down good, then put some silca super secret on the chain every night once it dried out. Even after the nasty slick mud section on day 2 my shifting felt good and drivetrain seemed quiet.

Pirelli cinturato gravel follow up

 Last year I put up a little review of the Pirelli gravel H that I was using. It's here.

I rode those all the rest of the year and was pretty happy with them, although by june-july, as the tires wore and road and trail conditions got drier and looser, I was starting to notice a pretty good lack of grip especially up front. At garden city gravel especially I felt like I was really lacking traction on the final descent, where I got dropped and then just barely chased back on to our group. Not long after that I bought a new front tire- the gravel RC, which is a pretty good match with a little more aggressive knobs. It's a mini version of the XC-RC (which tbh I didn't like that much) and shares the double edge knob thing you see on some other tires like the maxxis aspen and ardents etc.

This combo I like really well when you want a little more traction. The front end bites better and gives you better turn in response.

I rode the gravel H f/r for about half the year and then put that RC up front in the late summer, and overall was really happy with these tires. They don't have the most supple feel, like, say, a handmade challenge tire, but they roll fast and have good durability for all the gravel and forest road type riding I do around here. I had plenty of those impacts where you think "uh oh that might be a puncture" without issue.

So I bought a fresh set of the gravel H tires for this year, although I do also want to try some other things like the conti terra speed, or maybe a challenge getaway, which both test faster than the pirellis by a little but I do like how well these have held up. Anyway, I guess review summary is they get my "would buy again" seal of approval.