I was on the other Oiz (Grey/Black) that was with both of you at the start! I believe all 3 of us were lined up together. Not only that, we all finished pretty close together, I was 6:16 as well. @Sulliesbrew, I think you were the guy that I was parked next to (White Lexus) that you borrowed the black jacket too! Thank you for that, complete life saver. I was also shooting for a time closer to 6:00 hrs, for myself, I think the conditions and some of the traffic played a factor in not hitting that mark. However, I’m not really disappointed in the day. Conditions are what the conditions are, and as with any race, you learn (hopefully!) from what you could’ve done differently or better.
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Well how about that @DStorm910, such a small internet world… Glad I could provide an extra layer of warmth when you needed it.
Some stats from the race:
L25er - 376 finishers, winning time 1:50:50 slowest time was 10:21:12 which has to be an error (so say 6:25:04) (we would have caught last place in this race)
L49er - 487 finishers, winning time 3:13:29, slowest time was 8:50:43 (we three in the thread would have caught up to about 390th place)
L69er - 274 finishers, winning time 4:38:37, slowest time was 9:41:03 (I caught up to 98th place in this race)
L99er - 566 finishers, winning time 5:02:46, slowest time was 7:25:38
So we would have passed 180+ riders in other races. the winners had to have dealt with a ton of traffic…
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@DStorm910 @Sulliesbrew @BCM
Impressive rides! Do you guys mind sharing some power stats (e.g., W/Kg, FTP, NP, IF, kj/kCal, HR, etc)?
I am new to bike racing and power. I rode it I’m 7:40 and trying to figure out how far I have to go to see your wheels, haha.
Thanks, and impressive work.
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My finish time was 6:18:02. 45 years old. That puts me right around 20th percentile. I’m right around 4 w/Kg FTP. On bike FTP 315-320, weight 176-178# depending on the day. I did it a little below 75% IF, and finished feeling good. Have done a similar length event at 83% IF (where I wasn’t in as good shape) and think I have at least that in me. Average HR was 78% of HRMax. Max HR was 92% of HRMax.
I put it this way though, because of the lap traffic, mud, and singletrack / descending - I had a hard time “realizing” that fitness at the end. My strategy early was to climb in sweet spot and limit any above threshold bursts (85-90% FTP) and then push a lot of 75-80% for the rest of the course. That ended up being a little conservative for me. I really needed to be pushing a little bit harder on the hills and flats earlier in the race, but there was no way for me to know that without having experience on the course. Net result, finished with gas in the tank.
My fueling and Hydration was pretty perfect for this event, but I ended up carrying a little too much fuel/water. 100-120 g of carbs/hour until the last hour when I slowed way down because of the terrain and how I was feeling (not fuel limited"). I had a drop bag at 42 miles and that was my only stop. Carried a 2L USWE and a bottle plus gels.
One point of reference though, I’ve been training with a coach this year with a lot of structure, and dedicating ~15 hours a week to training preparing for Leadville so I’m feeling my endurance is pretty good.
I consider myself decent on single track, but I’m not as good as some of the other guys here. That was like the second or third time I’ve ridden a trail like we had at the end (High Climber?), and I was on brand new Conti Race Kings that I had pretty much no experience on, so while I was passing people on the flats and uphills leading into it, and while I was passing slower lap traffic, I was getting passed by some of the other 100 riders on that last section.
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One more point. I view this as more of a proper MTB race than Leadville or some other courses I’ve run that are more fitness oriented. My opinion is that Bike Skills were important here. There were a lot of people noodling along on the loop singletrack sections before the halfway, and a lot of people weren’t super comfortable with the mud either.
Super fun for me, but I even realized I have to work on my descending and find some trails like that around home.
I never test FTP, but I do 8 on 4 off threshold efforts at about 320 watts, using 320 as ftp that puts me at 3.8 w/kg.
I paced fairly conservatively, and finished with an NP of 193, Average power was 180. Spent most of my time focusing on not going over FTP.
Average HR 153, max 177 (HRmax is 196)
IF .7
kJ 3630
Fuel/Hydration was:
2L USWE with 9 scoops of EFS Pro
2 bottles with SiS beta fuel (each with a packet of unflavored LMNT)
went through (i think) 7 never second gels and one Maurten
Filled bottles twice (one with fuel and one with water after the loops) and one with water at mile ~70 aid.
Same as BCM, I rode a shade conservative and finished feeling pretty good, even sprinted the finish only to find the riders I passed were 69er and 49er finishers…
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Thanks for sharing the details. Good luck at Leadville! I think you have a really good shot at a big buckle, rooting for you.
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It was my first time in Lusten and it is way nicer than I could’ve imagined. Mosquitoes are next level though. I raced on Race Kings as well but I rode them 3 times prior to the race so I had a decent feel for them, though in dry conditions not that slopfest. I pre-rode the single track on Thursday and I thought it ran way better race day…the dirt was fantastic. I agree that this race is definitely more of an MTB race.
The snowmobile/ATV/Jeep road really beat the crap out of you, especially the last bit before the singletrack at the end. Anyway, I went 6:03:50 w/ a flat in the first 10 miles (it sealed after putting CO2 in) and stopped twice for my bag and water at aid (10min of total stoppage).
FTP: 355
W/KG: 4.2
NP: PM was dead but strava estimated me at 256W no idea if that’s right.
HR: 152. I capped it at about 162 which is usually around threshold for me. Wasn’t always possible with the punchy nature of some of the climbs.
KCal:5262 but that is an estimate as well.
I consumed 4x90g of PH Fuel, 1x30g PH Fuel, 2 200mg caffeine pills (one at start, one about halfway). ~ 326 kCal/hr. ~19oz of Skratch superfuel or whatever it’s called and then about 4 packets of PH 1000 mixed w/ 3L of water. I stopped to refill my water, which, in retrospect, wasn’t needed as I only drank about 500ml from the 55mile aid (or wherever it was) until the finish
Breakfast was pancakes and 2 over-easy eggs w/ 12 oz of coldbrew coffee from Fika (that place is sooo good). I sipped on 12oz of water until the start of race.
How about that overflowing pond at one point? I couldn’t believe how deep that was…easily over my BB.
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+1 for Fika. So good.
I’ve never raced but reading this thread has me thinking about the SS HT in the garage…
Candidate for AI FTP detection! (I hate full on FTP tests myself, but when using TR/Coaches workouts on the trainer, having a ball park number is quite helpful.
100% Lutsen, Downieville, races with some proper chonk sections. Even Tahoe Trail can be more of a fitness test depending on conditions. (this year is likely to be heavy with runoff soup so more MTB, less FTP test.)
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Saw a couple of SS out there. Masochists! One guy was on a SS gravel bike…
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Yeah a buddy of mine was on his rigid Ti El Mariachi 
and he took second SS hahaha I am nowhere near that right now.
That section was 100x better this year than last year. It was mowed better this year and the rain softened it a lot. Last year it as rock hard and mowed 8" tall grass…
The over flowing beaver pond has been a staple of the race. I always walk it, usually have too much traffic to ride it.
SS gravel bike camped next to me, told him it was a bad idea. He was in the lead group until going OTB and having to fix his bars. I passed him, then he passed me at a stop. Caught him later on the single track, he only just couldn’t keep pace on the single track with me. Extremely competent bike handler, and the exception to the rule of riding a gravel bike at Lutsen.
That leads me to my one gripe, he did the 99er, but they put him in the 69er results, with the SS winning time for the 99er. For some reason the timing this year was a total cluster. I checked the results at dinner saturday night and I was 105th. Then the next morning I as 110. Not sure I have ever seen them have such issues with timing before.
Lastly, I think this year’s finish is about as hard of a finish as they have ever had. The old course finish up bridge run was brutal, but you had a lot of recovery before it. Last year’s long finish climb was the same as you descended down onion river road and finished up the single track we finished on this year, so you had a fair bit of rest before doing another long climb. With the finish this year, we did the horrible snowmobile trail, only a short chunk on the onion river road, then straight into the single track climb, which was pretty dang brutal. Was fun ripping that finishing descent though.
Does the updated course impact equipment choices? I’m planning on it next year - will run a Canyon Lux Trail with racing ralph/ray combo. Is that enough tire for the steeper snowmobile sections?
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You should be fine with that set up. The snowmobile trail they added at the end the last two years is just a long slog with some pitchy climbs, they were a little greasy this year, but I cleared them (except one when I had to go around someone struggling) with Mezcal/Mezcal XC casing.
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I mentioned this above, but I used the Race Kings this year. Cleaned I think everything I tried to ride on the entire course except maybe one or two places where I made a technical error. Wasn’t the tires.
I found them fine on the mud too which was surprising.
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It’s almost never a hardware problem. The software can always be improved. 
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In restrospect, what would you have all done differently to break 6 hours - training, pacing, race tactics, nutrition, etc.?
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For me, fitness and fueling was on point. And the cool weather helped there.
I didn’t pace aggressively enough early enough. My thought was basically that I wanted to finish strong, hammer on it and drain the tank over the last hour - 90 minutes. The problem was that by that point there was a lot of singletrack and lap traffic where I couldn’t just hammer on it. Net result, I finished feeling relatively good and could have gone harder. I was targeting an IF of .8-.85 overall, and finished at .75. Really that came from not knowing the course and what to expect.
Edit: I wasn’t bad, but I think I need to work on my descending skills a little too. The ability to be comfortable on singletrack and pass people off-line was a factor at Lutsen and I did ok there. “Descending” wasn’t as much except that last singletrack, but I noticed it when I went to Leadville for the camp the week after. I had people smoking me on the big descents for me to just catch them on the flats and the milder climbs.
All of you Oiz guys - I have irrationally found myself considering a 2023/2024 model with 120mm travel, and SRAM Transmission for next year.
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My nutrition was spot-on but I messed up my hydration just a bit in the last couple of hours which may have caused my battle with nearly every major muscle group in my legs cramping at some point. The fix to that would've been to drink more out of the pack on my back...chalk that up to race brain that late in the race. I had about 10 mins of total stoppage between my flat and refueling so reducing that time by having someone there to hand up my nutrition (my wife couldn't make the trip) would've helped.
Additionally, on the first gravel loop, I was with 2 others who were flying, allowing me to catch a significant draft. Had I not needed to stop or had a quicker stop, I would've made up significant time. It's also hard to say if that pace would've been sustainable as my PM was broken. It felt sustainable but that may have been masked by my excitement.
Finally, attacking the last bit of singletrack more aggressively may have allowed me to go under 6. I caught a group I had been riding with up until the big water stop at the end of the 2nd gravel loop where I stopped to refill my hydration pack. I sat in with them until we popped out of the first singletrack section. They were pacing conservatively at that point and it's hard to say if I could've made up the roughly 4 mins at that point. At the end of the day, I'm not in the white corral, which is what's important to me.