Book of Chad

This was my first time racing the River City Gravel race, and although I had ridden mountain bikes in the area a handful of times, I had never ridden much gravel. I was told that it would be fast, not have any singletrack sections, and not a lot of climbing. I went to the race with two wheel sets, one set up for champagne gravel, super fast low grip 45s, and the other set up for something a little more gnarly with 2.1s. I had the faster set on when I arrived in Campbell River the afternoon before the race and pre-rode the first climb. The gravel was not smooth, and I felt that although it might be the faster wheel set, it would be faster if my body wasn’t exhausted, which made me decide to go with the bigger tires for race day.

The next morning I rolled in and got ready for the start. Talking to others who had raced here before, they were all pretty unanimous that the bigger tires were the best choice, and if they could fit bigger tires, they would. Thanks, Rodeo Labs. The field was stacked, and I was pretty sure it was going to be insanely fast at the beginning. I was actually quite wrong; although there were a couple of attacks, it was mostly comfortable for the first 15 minutes or so, and then it started to ramp up as we started up a false flat. When we reached the first climb, I was already on the limit, and it wasn’t long before I pulled the plug on the belief I was going to make it over the top with the front group. I got dropped 28 minutes into the race and was looking for the next group, as it was a long way to go alone.

A great group of 3 plus me formed, and before long, we caught another 2, one of whom was the women’s leader, Sofia Donnecke. As we caught them, I called out to make sure they were up to speed and able to add to our group. The group was working really well, and everyone was contributing. Then we went through a rutted area, and Sofia got bucked right in front of me. It was a truly scary crash, and although I am admittedly probably extra sensitive to crashes, especially women crashing at this point in my life, this one really shook me. The good news is she was up and walking by the time I got stopped. She remounted but needed a minute to recompose herself, and the group started moving slowly back up to pace. She was dropped not long after, along with another guy. The group then picked up another 2 guys, and we soldiered on. I started to fade on the climbs but just managed to stay with the group until I didn’t. Even still, the total time that second group was 1h15m.

And then it was just me all alone with my own thoughts trying to keep the pressure on the pedals and the speed up. It was working mostly as I clawed back a couple of the guys that were in the second group with me as they must have blown up. For the next 1h17m I was pretty much alone until, from behind, Sofia and another guy caught me. I was pretty happy to see and talk to her to see that she was actually okay. It didn’t last too long though; Sofia and the other guy she was riding with were just a little too strong for me, and 11 minutes after seeing them, they were riding away. From there, it was a mostly lonely 52 minutes to the finish where I neither lost nor gained any positions.

All in all, it was a successful race, and I was only a few minutes off an age group podium. I am happy with this early season performance, especially considering I hadn’t really recovered from Moab yet.

Distance: 113.43 km
Time: 4:00:57
Avg Speed: 28.2 kph
Avg Power: 205 W
Normalized Power: 224 W
Elevation Gain: 1147 m
Place: 24th