It seems like it’s always Stetina complaining, he complained at unbound about aero bars. Now he’s complaining about something else. These guys want rules but don’t want rules, how about make rules, so we don’t have to hear anymore complaining. Gravel races are races and people should be able to do what they can to win even if it’s some unwritten rule. The whole point is to win and self supported races shouldn’t have pacts. It’s up to you and what you decide, that’s just me. If someone was more prepared and has a better set up than me. Damn right I’ll look at what I can do to beat them next time. I can’t get mad someone had more water than me, and had to stop and lose time.
The whole gravel thing is great til this rule or no rule stuff comes up. Just my 2cents.
The vast majority of gravel racers are and will be social racers, but then there is the pointy end or that think they’re going to be on the pointy end.
Yes, I get it. Like the Gran Fondo scene and Ironman, but as the sport grows it gains athletes that want to race for the outright win, and whatever they deem as their own win.
If the course isn’t hard enough for extra bottles to be a problem, then that is a strategy Stetina played incorrectly. There is no mandatory feed. You wouldn’t see people carrying extra water on a climbier course. As an amateur, I carry as much water as possible until it is a penalty versus stopping.
They also had a break to catch. It isn’t like they established the break by using a feed zone advantage. Should they stop and wait for a teammate of one of the guys up the road who is dragging their feet through the feed?
SBT GRVL feeds are a hot mess for sure. Again, I think the course lends itself to bigger groups than most gravel courses.
There is not a trivial amount of money at stake for wining the 2022 race series. Unless there is something in the race agreement that you signed, why wouldn’t you use PEDs?
Edit: Not accusing anybody of anything. I actually fall along the side of I don’t even care what the pros are taking.
Doping Control (under the “Rules” section)
- No participant in the Life Time Grand Prix can be under a current doping ban
- All athletes are subject to random doping controls at Life Time Grand Prix events
For the Lifetime Grand Prix, yes there’s some money on the line. I only did Unbound and did have to sign a “I haven’t done PEDs” affidavit.
A couple things:
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The drama - not sure what specifically it’s about at this point, but if it’s that some people in the CHASE group didn’t want to stop at aid stations (you know, maybe because they wanted to close the gap?), that’s hilarious.
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There was a lot of talk going into the last two seasons that the current/previous crop of domestic gravel pros were in for a rude awakening once some World Tour (or WT-level) riders started coming over in numbers. So far, that’s not really been the case. There were quite a few current or recent world-level road riders in yesterday’s race, and Keegan still won (and Payson in 3rd). They were certainly “up there” in the results yesterday, but not dominating the field like some thought.
Alex Hoehn - Drone Hopper 5th
Niki Terpstra - Total Energies 6th
Ethan Villaneda - EF Nippo (development team) 8th
Dennis Van Winden - formerly Israel Cycling Academy 9th
Nathan Haas - formerly Cofidis / Katusha 10th
It’s pretty interesting to see who can (and who can’t) hang with the roadies.
Thanks! I was looking for that. Anybody know if they are following through with random controls?
Thanks Chad (first time seeing that icon next to a post notification 
)
Exactly, if you have water, no reason for you to stop, If you stop then take off while the rest of the group refills, thats where the gentleman’s rules comes in. Ive certainly been dropped from my group because the feed didnt have enough water refills, i was last in line and everyone left me, while i filled. Not a great way to lose the race.
This should be a rule-less, free-spirited event…as long as everyone races just like me and I win 
SBT has graduated from lady drama to dude drama 
I can see feeling miffed at someone taking advantage of your misfortune - you crash into a cow and they jet instead of making sure you’re still alive - but not your strategy. At some point, you gotta own that.
LDC mentioned on Instagram a while back that she was tested 4x in two weeks.
You need to Trademark that and you can make a killing on t-shirts
I’m not sure that this has been the case historically but this year at Leadville USADA was testing riders. I do not know all the protocols in place, though. I was a finish line volunteer at this year’s Leadville and was made aware of where the testing was occurring and that USADA was present in our area.
I wonder if Stetina stopped at the two neutral water oasis stops at Unbound?
Rhetorical question. I know he didn’t.
Keegan’s instagram was all like “you know, if you roll up to the start and see a whole lot of people with hydration packs and big bottles, it’s probably a clue that we aren’t planning to stop.” Seems fair. Stopping at aid stations isn’t exactly required.
I find this comical…
I’m not at their level or racing with them, but I have done tons of 5+ hr endurance races including 3 full ironman’s and 16/24hr MTB races.
I try my absolute hardest to carry as much nutrition with me as possible and bypass any water stop… They don’t have what I want/train on usually anyway.
If a peloton is with me, either they are strong enough to catch up or should have planned better to carry that extra 3lbs with them haha.
Congrats to Keegan on a fantastic pair of results.
Regarding doping controls for the Life Time Grand Prix events, VeloNews had a couple stories with details.
The drama with the feedzones in these races is ridiculous and as a nobody who is often at the pointy end of these races for the majority, I can tell you most of the big social media players who preach this stuff don’t give a **** about anyone other than their inner circle. This doesn’t apply to everyone but most of these guys who talk loud on instagram act entitled to a result every time. It’s super lame.
The feed zone in question was in the middle of an hour-ish long, exposed climb and if you didn’t have water there you were pretty screwed. I stopped there because I just ran 2 bottles and I think my elapsed time at the stop was less than 30".