Book of Chad

Burnt Bridge, the Final instalment of the three-part series of gravel races on Vancouver Island. This year the race was longer and had more elevation than the other two. 120km and 2300m of elevation is one heck of a day on gravel.

I led out the group from the start chute but kept it super calm and wanted to slide back into about the 5th wheel. I slid back as planned and the group started to increase the pace. The pace was fast but friendly at this point and it stayed that way right to the bottom of the first climb. As soon as we hit the climb the power numbers increased and the group started to fracture. The climb is long, but I tried to stay in position and force myself to fight through this first surge. After just a few minutes I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain this pace and allowed myself to watch my own numbers and climb to something a little more manageable.

The climb flattens out in the middle and then pitches up again. In that flat section, I was already Isolated but I put my head down and just kept turning the pedals over. In the second half of the climb, I kept the power up and focused on getting to the top and then finding a group to ride with. At the top of the climb, I couldn’t see anyone in front or anyone behind. The numbers are below.

After an hour of racing down and I needed to find someone to ride with a group of three from behind were slowly catching and I sat up for them to catch me as I didn’t have any desire to do the next 100k on my own. I would be faster in a group anyways right. As the four of us rode I noticed that two of the riders were not descending well and I found myself frustrated with the group’s dynamics.

That didn’t last long though as shortly after we ran into the back of a group of five guys that were off their bikes to go through a ditch area. As soon as we got through the ditch I latched on and went forward with that group. At this point we formed a pretty strong group of seven and started to move forward at a pace I was happy with.

It didn’t last long though as I hit a rock on a decent and the front tyre started hissing and spraying sealant. The tyre did seal eventually but I had lost quite a bit of air and I was struggling to keep in touch with the group. As we climbed up the next pitch I started getting my CO2 out and my plug kit. At the top of the climb, I hopped off the bike jammed the plugin and put half a CO2 worth of air in the tyre. I jumped back on the bike and started pedalling away to catch back up to the group. Not a chance it was one against six after all. Two riders were back a bit and once again I sat up to join them. As they caught me I realized it was Brenna Pauly and another female racer (Adele Wyk). I like riding with Brenna, she is strong and determined and also just really nice. Our group of three set off and worked well I felt very much like the weakest of the three every time then we started to go up a gradient. We managed to pull back a guy who had fallen back from the group in front and with four we were going even better.

It didn’t last long though, as we came around a right-hand bend I hear a hissing sound and saw the spray of sealant. This time rear wheel I had to pull over immediately for this one and pull out the plug kit. With a plug-in, I topped it up with the other half of my first CO2 container and started pedalling. That didn’t last long though, and a few minutes later the rear had spraying sealant again. my final plug and half of my second CO2 container and I was off again. Two riders came from behind right as I got up to speed and I joined them it was the first two riders that had caught me after the first climb. We rode together for a while and the group dynamics didn’t work for me again. When we got to the long descent I just went at my speed and by the time I got to the bottom, they were not there anymore.

I started up the single track portion of the course and noticed I was losing a fair amount of air in the rear, another puncture and although this one didn’t require a plug it did drain my last bit of CO2. I went down the single track decent and onto the Cowichan Valley Trail without further incident. I turned onto the finish straight to complete the first loop. 77km down and 43km to go, only now I had no plugs and no CO2.

The second loop although much shorter has almost the same elevation and it’s all in the first 25km. Shortly after I entered the second loop I saw Brenna again only this time she was walking backwards carrying her bike. She had snapped her derailleur off and was calling it a day. The climb was long and I took it steady the only person I saw on it besides Brenna was Claire Townsand as she pedalled by me. I got to the top of the climb and descended to the last aid station and into the bottom of the final real climb where I caught a rider. Jon Hillier had stopped at the aid station and I had rolled up on him. We went into the final climb together both broken men. We reached the top of the climb and the bottom of the descent together. Through the final single track, my front and rear both suffered small punctures the front lost some air but the back decided it didn’t want to hold air anymore. I was riding fully on cushcore and even like that, I was still able to keep going at a reasonable pace. We worked together on the final trail section and hit the finish straight together. With my flat tyre, I wasn’t able to follow his acceleration and I rolled over the line a few seconds behind him. 

Distance: 121 km
Time: 5:35:43
Avg Speed: 21.7 kph
Avg Power: 209 W
Normalized Power: 241 W
Elevation Gain: 2019 m
Place: 20th