Book of Chad

I have done the Burnt Bridge Classic more than any other gravel race, and over the years, the long course has grown in both distance and elevation. What is now the medium course was the long course of only a few years ago. The long course is now the medium course of 78.6 km and 1191 m, plus an additional loop of 42.9 km and 960 m.

The race started off neutral behind David Dallin, which was nice for my pal Dave to lead a race, even if it was on a motorcycle. It didn’t last long though because he took the second corner a little too hot, slid in the gravel, and spun slightly, stalling the bike. Honestly though, props to him for keeping it upright. As a bit of a joke, I rolled off the front of the group and got low to make it look like I was attacking, mostly to rile up the likes of Rob, Evan, Ethan, and Carter. With the moto back in place at the front, I rolled back and got into a more reasonable position in the group. When the neutral ended, we rolled along at a fast but not unreasonable pace; however, moments later, when we hit the bottom of the climb and my power numbers went well north of 400w, I knew that I needed to shut that down and ride at a pace I could sustain for the entire first climb. I found a few like-minded, or at least like-powered, individuals, and we formed a group. Once we crested the climb, I was very vocal in the group, trying to keep it working together to not only help me go forward but especially to prevent the 60km solo ride I had last gravel race.

The group was great; actually, it seemed to work really well, and we kept the speed up for well over two and a half hours together until the Kapoor main descent. I have done this descent probably a dozen times, and with my setup of 2.1-inch tires and a 75mm dropper post, I thought that I would probably want to lead down this portion. So, I made sure to get in front as we crested into the descent, and I gave it pretty hard. I thought that it was going to string out, and it was possible we would lose one or two members by the bottom at that pace. When I looked back after the first few corners, they were all still on my tail; however, the next section was a bit tougher. I set up for the toughest corner on the descent, turned in, the bike leaned, and I made it to the apex when I heard skidding behind me. As I exited the corner, I peered back to watch the first guy sail straight off the corner into the trees, and everyone behind him slid one by one to the scene of the accident. Aidan, who had recently fallen back into our group since he was rendered single-speed by SRAM, managed to be the only one in the group to make the corner with me. As I hit the bottom, I yelled to the search and rescue team that there had been a crash up the hill, and they mobilized immediately. Since I missed what happened, Aidan filled me in, and we rode together to the last 12kms to the start-finish line, where I started my second lap, and he ended his day.

The second lap starts with a 7 km climb, and about 1 km in, I came completely apart. I have never cracked so hard in my life; I did the longest climb of the race at an average of 190W at 10 kph. It was awful, and I just kept looking back to see how many people were going to pass me. I was thinking about quitting and turning back; at this point, I was so wrecked and hardly moving. I just kept eating and kept turning the pedals. I made it to the top, and no one had passed me yet; I hadn’t even seen anyone else at this point. I started down the descent, and halfway down, a large black bear decided to join the road in front of me. Luckily, it was quicker than I was and managed to run down and off the road before I could get stopped. The final climb, I was even more cracked and only managed to find 166W for 5.2 kms at 10 kph. This is where I started getting caught; five riders had passed me up the climb, and I was just surviving to get to the end. However, the final descent was really technical and had some single track, which was apparently exactly what I needed to get back in the race. I caught 4 of the 5 riders that passed me and was left with the final 10 km flat time trial to the finish. I managed 190W and 32 kph to the finish on painful, completely drained legs. This effort awarded me 3rd in my age group and 14th overall.

Distance: 120.86 km
Time: 5:08:10
Avg Speed: 23.5 kph
Avg Power: 185 W
Normalized Power: 210 W
Elevation Gain: 2106 m
Place: 14th