Have a Goodride!
We didn't have many 'team events' on the calendar but this was definitely the one we were most excited/nervous for. Not only did we have a great crew (5 man team in the 140k and 3 in the 100k) we had lots of other friendly faces in the supporting cast. This was also an event that we thought played well to our strengths and really felt that we could bring home a pretty competitive result.
Not that results are the 'be all end all', we are really just some people that really really like to ride bikes, but we bagged a solid team finish in a really strong field and that's pretty dang rad.
140K
Mitch led the team to finish at 6th place, Adam and Joc not far behind in 9th and 10th respectively. Me and Oaks unfortunately got collected at the great Vedder Massacre and had a bit of gap before rolling home at 19th and 22nd in a field of 68 finishers.
Average team time of 6:15.
90K
Rich held the top spot on the podium with a 3:30 finish time with Jeff and Paul shortly behind at 4th and 5th.
We didn't have many 'team events' on the calendar but this was definitely the one we were most excited/nervous for. Not only did we have a great crew (5 man team in the 140k and 3 in the 100k) we had lots of other friendly faces in the supporting cast. This was also an event that we thought played well to our strengths and really felt that we could bring home a pretty competitive result.
Not that results are the 'be all end all', we are really just some people that really really like to ride bikes, but we bagged a solid team finish in a really strong field and that's pretty dang rad.
140K
Mitch led the team to finish at 6th place, Adam and Joc not far behind in 9th and 10th respectively. Me and Oaks unfortunately got collected at the great Vedder Massacre and had a bit of gap before rolling home at 19th and 22nd in a field of 68 finishers.
Average team time of 6:15.
90K
Rich held the top spot on the podium with a 3:30 finish time with Jeff and Paul shortly behind at 4th and 5th.
Early May doesn't give us much real-world training time here in the Okanagan, the snowline doesn't melt above our hilltop plateau until mid April at best. We did have some good simulations on our early season Gravel Gang rides and had lots of techy singletrack slaloms, which at the time we did not realize would prove to be very useful prep.
Even with proper training and well executed pre-ride and mid-ride nutrition - you really do just have to be willing to suffer.
I am literally not at all exaggerating when I say that it was the hardest thing that I have ever done. From my 2000+ Strava activities, it literally is #1. Notably beating out the Fernie Gravel grind and all years of the Okanagan fondo.
Even with proper training and well executed pre-ride and mid-ride nutrition - you really do just have to be willing to suffer.
I am literally not at all exaggerating when I say that it was the hardest thing that I have ever done. From my 2000+ Strava activities, it literally is #1. Notably beating out the Fernie Gravel grind and all years of the Okanagan fondo.
5,500 calories burned...Ouch
The Opener: away we go
Mass start open events are always a bit nervy. Especially in a post-pandemic world where there are so many people that are new to the sport and may not have the experience of racing or competitive group ride environments (More applicants for the WNR academy???). In all fairness its very easy to get overly eager or simply just making a bad split second decision that puts you in a bad place - it happens. Me personally, I try to either be right at the front or if thats not available I just drift back until I have a safe bubble to give some space from the general shenanigans.
It was really good to see that for this event, the opening 5km was neutralized with a pacecar (actually neutral pace) and greenflag racing wasn't even a full kilometre before we were knee deep in the opening climb. This really helps breakup that herd chaos of the inital sequence and 'sorting hats' everyone into groups that they will spend most of the day with.
It was really good to see that for this event, the opening 5km was neutralized with a pacecar (actually neutral pace) and greenflag racing wasn't even a full kilometre before we were knee deep in the opening climb. This really helps breakup that herd chaos of the inital sequence and 'sorting hats' everyone into groups that they will spend most of the day with.
Nothing too spicy here. A good first kick at ~10minutes is just long enough to really show who overestimated their starting gate or in my case, who had been playing it conservatively. This FSR was a pretty standard 'meat and potatoes' gravel road but there were certainly some nasty pothole craters that could catch you out pretty badly if you weren't careful.
The elite group wasted no time and made their move here, pulling a minute on Mitch/Adam/Joc never to be seen again the rest of the day.
The top 2 finished the day 40 minutes ahead of our best finisher lol. There are levels to this. There are no big fish, there are only small ponds.
The first climb led into more rolling gravel trail, this more of an OHV trail with the racing line weaving from left to right wheeltrack to avoid the deeper puddles. A first taste of the technicality of the course appeared with some very tricky rocky pitches and variable surface grip levels on the descent back to road level.
That brought us to the foot of FSR climb number 2
The elite group wasted no time and made their move here, pulling a minute on Mitch/Adam/Joc never to be seen again the rest of the day.
The top 2 finished the day 40 minutes ahead of our best finisher lol. There are levels to this. There are no big fish, there are only small ponds.
The first climb led into more rolling gravel trail, this more of an OHV trail with the racing line weaving from left to right wheeltrack to avoid the deeper puddles. A first taste of the technicality of the course appeared with some very tricky rocky pitches and variable surface grip levels on the descent back to road level.
That brought us to the foot of FSR climb number 2
This one was more of a 30 minute effort and had to be paced carefully, with quite a few steep switchbacks ramping up to 20%+ something you wouldn't expect just looking at the overall grade. There was a good boost to morale as we summited the top to see some very nice mountain valley views across Chilliwack lake road. There was also a refuel water stop too - but the heat hadn't yet really set in either. After taking the twisty /turny muscle/burny way up we also did get a nice treat of a very well maintained gravel FSR descent back down to the river. Very well sighted corners, relatively smooth surfaces, it was a very speedy way back down.
Unbeknownst to us merrily making our way along the valley - the course was about to get dialled up to 100....
Unbeknownst to us merrily making our way along the valley - the course was about to get dialled up to 100....
All photos by Chris Dutton
The singletrack (oh boy)
Oh man the singletrack....
We had some intel on what to expect, and we knew the singletrack was going to make a substantial portion but we had tremendously underestimated the technicality of it. Looking at the Strava map of this section you would think it was sketched by a blinfolded person while on the back of a moving truck. Seemingly neverending twists and turns and pumps and dips and roots and rocks. The unseasonably warm weather made the traverse even more difficult with an accelerated melt leaving several sections of trail completely flooded. Some brave souls decided to enable 'amphibious mode' but most and 4/5 gravel gangers opted for the boot-soaking hike-a-bike.
There's no pictures to do it justice, you'll have to just take my word for it - when has anyone ever lied to impress people on the internet?
In a vacuum, this singletrack was a blast and it truly proved what you can do on a gravel bike with good handling - but in the middle of a 6.5hr race, it was absolutely draining. Not only physically taxing with the core, upper body strength and balance work required but also mentally taxing to place both wheels in the right lines to keep momentum and not pedalstrike or slip a wheel.
Positioning ahead of singletrack is always so important as you often are very limited in opportunities to pass, this was no different but fortunately things had been blown wide apart long ago so traffic impeding wasn't much of an issue.
We had some intel on what to expect, and we knew the singletrack was going to make a substantial portion but we had tremendously underestimated the technicality of it. Looking at the Strava map of this section you would think it was sketched by a blinfolded person while on the back of a moving truck. Seemingly neverending twists and turns and pumps and dips and roots and rocks. The unseasonably warm weather made the traverse even more difficult with an accelerated melt leaving several sections of trail completely flooded. Some brave souls decided to enable 'amphibious mode' but most and 4/5 gravel gangers opted for the boot-soaking hike-a-bike.
There's no pictures to do it justice, you'll have to just take my word for it - when has anyone ever lied to impress people on the internet?
In a vacuum, this singletrack was a blast and it truly proved what you can do on a gravel bike with good handling - but in the middle of a 6.5hr race, it was absolutely draining. Not only physically taxing with the core, upper body strength and balance work required but also mentally taxing to place both wheels in the right lines to keep momentum and not pedalstrike or slip a wheel.
Positioning ahead of singletrack is always so important as you often are very limited in opportunities to pass, this was no different but fortunately things had been blown wide apart long ago so traffic impeding wasn't much of an issue.
VEDDER: IN OVER MY HEAD (BETTER OFF DEAD)
By the end of the singletrack Oaks and I had recollected and were rolling well with a group of 4 others on the brief road section and back on the FSR from the opening sequence. Both of us were obviously weathered, as expected after 3hrs of race pacing in heat, but otherwise spirits were high. Then we met Vedder lol. We knew the moment the route was published that Vedder would be the final boss. You don't need to have a PhD in cartography to notice the very ominous spike at 85km, we were also forewarned by locals to really drive it home. Despite all of this, we still did not realize just what we had signed up and paid for.
We really got delivered a full 3 Michelin star dining experience of gravel pain. An eyewatering average of 12% over 3.7km on FSR, with pitches yet again above 20%, heavily trafficked with shuttletrucks and motos frequently giving out free dust showers and of course it was fully exposed in the peak heat of the day.
Oaks and I were both at our breaking point and pushing our bikes on steep pitch looking at eachother like 'what the fuck are we doing here?'
Credit due to Mitch/Adam/Joc for powering thru and collecting another +13minutes on us over the climb but even just getting to the top was an accomplishment at that point.
Shout-out to the girl that was also trying to and stoically proclaimed that 'this was not a Goodride, this is a bad ride' - that was awesome.
Oaks and I were both at our breaking point and pushing our bikes on steep pitch looking at eachother like 'what the fuck are we doing here?'
Credit due to Mitch/Adam/Joc for powering thru and collecting another +13minutes on us over the climb but even just getting to the top was an accomplishment at that point.
Shout-out to the girl that was also trying to and stoically proclaimed that 'this was not a Goodride, this is a bad ride' - that was awesome.
The snacks and water at the summit gave me just enough of a boost to convince myself to keep rolling, in part knowing that i barely would need to shift above the bottom 1/3rd of my gears the rest of the ride.
The Vedder FSR, I actually spotted a pretty meaty looking Black bear poke their way out onto the trail from 200m away. Fortunately for both of us, they decided that their afternoon would be better spent continuing to search for fresh berries so they scampered off as quickly as they had appeared.
Before coming back out into the Chilliwack farmland, we did get one last dish of loamy singletrack in the trees, again with some pretty technical sections of streams over loose rocks and some steep chutes. Certainly found out my gravel bike has more mountain bike DNA in it than I care to admit.
The Vedder FSR, I actually spotted a pretty meaty looking Black bear poke their way out onto the trail from 200m away. Fortunately for both of us, they decided that their afternoon would be better spent continuing to search for fresh berries so they scampered off as quickly as they had appeared.
Before coming back out into the Chilliwack farmland, we did get one last dish of loamy singletrack in the trees, again with some pretty technical sections of streams over loose rocks and some steep chutes. Certainly found out my gravel bike has more mountain bike DNA in it than I care to admit.
the closer: flatlining
Once out of the trees, we were out onto the Dyke Trail, where the FSRs and singletrack couldn't hurt us anymore. A 40km section of dead flat out and back light gravel trail meant that we could keep a consistent pace, rationing what food/fuel was left to make it back to the finish before our legs seized up entirely. It was an interesting way to end a race as it gave an opportunity to see the gaps and cheer on the homies as they made their way back on the return. There was enough of a headwind to make the 'out' mildly infuriating but that was soon forgotten at the turnaround and the bonus watts to bring it home were greatly appreciated.
At this point i had figured I was somewhere in the top 25, based on my loose mental math of how the previous 6 hours had gone, but I was just focused on keeping a steady cadence and power. I was counting down the kilometers by the decimals, my legs were flat and my stomach was screaming after a day of nothing but sugarwater,, electrolytes, energy gels and fruit gummies.
At this point i had figured I was somewhere in the top 25, based on my loose mental math of how the previous 6 hours had gone, but I was just focused on keeping a steady cadence and power. I was counting down the kilometers by the decimals, my legs were flat and my stomach was screaming after a day of nothing but sugarwater,, electrolytes, energy gels and fruit gummies.
All complaining aside, I am really grateful for the event, the great people I get to call teammates and the fact that I persevered through the day. As advertised, it definitely was a Crazy Good Ride and its only days like these that will make me a better cyclist and give me memories I can proudly look back on.
Signing off with a thank you to the sponsors of our program and Cyclepath Kelowna for helping get us the parts we needed for a day without any mechanical issues!
Already looking forward to next year.
-Breezy
Signing off with a thank you to the sponsors of our program and Cyclepath Kelowna for helping get us the parts we needed for a day without any mechanical issues!
Already looking forward to next year.
-Breezy