Why is my post formatted weird?
No clue, but it looked normal in my email alert. Congrats on the solid race @rbean01!
I just didn’t ride hard enough early, I have fallen apart enough towards the end of lutsen to know I didn’t want to do it again.
Maybe could have had a couple more gels, and really was craving water in the last 20 miles.
Nothing irrational about wanting the new OIZ. I think it is a marked improvement on the previous model. Not sure how it would be on the less technical races like Lutsen though. It is pretty slack, I really want one as I prefer racing XCO and just do Lutsen because it feels like I should have an “A” race on the schedule.
It may not be an “advantage”, but I’m not sure it’d be a disadvantage at a race like Lutsen either. Still has lockouts, weight supposed to be the same, and maybe just a little loss of quickness / agility? But I think the travel / stability make up for that in most scenarios, and I like what they did with the semi-internal cable routing.
In any case, I want one too. Not sure if I actually follow through with it though.
Solid questions. That being said, in my case I’d be looking to shave roughly 15 minutes off of my time (I think all of us in this thread are in the same boat on that range, give or take), which is a substantial chunk of time, but not impossible. In my case, I think having additional exposure to the High Climber section would definitely help me shave a good chunk of time off. That section alone (on Strava) is 5 miles long, and I rode it it 33:50. I feel that if I had the opportunity to ride this section a couple more times outside of competition to get more comfortable with it, I could easily knock 5 minutes off of that. Take in mind, the top times for this segment on race day were all under 24 minutes, and a few were under 23. You also need to consider traffic on this section as well, as it will always be a factor. Aside from that, I always seem to hit a rough spot during longer races, it doesn’t last terribly long, but it definitely seems to impact my day. For instance this year, I hit that rough spot around the 90 min mark, and I think it lasted for roughly 1 hour. I bounced out of it, and felt completely fine after. When I say I hit a rough spot, I just couldn’t continue to stick w/the group I was with, and felt like I was getting passed a lot! When this happens, and this year at Lutsen was no different, I just stayed with the plan during this time and kept pedaling, and kept eating. When it happens, you just have to say “F” it, stick with your plan, and don’t panic or stress, as it’s a long day. What I’m still trying to figure out, is this happening as a lack in my fitness, not consuming enough carbs early on, or just simply going a little too hard early. Who knows, maybe it’s a combo of all 3? That being said, I felt my fitness was pretty solid heading into race day, but as we all know, it could always be better! My take, feeling more comfortable with the High Climber trail, taking my fitness up another notch, continuing to stay on top of fueling, and lastly, one of the biggest factors, always taking advantage and making the most of the race situations you find yourself in, i.e., catch that group of 5+ riders before you hit the gravel sections as you are leaving one of the ATV/Snowmobile sections. Being in those groups on those gravel roads are key to having success at this race.
All that being said, the course has had many variations over the years, this year being no different with the addition to the High Climber trail (which I loved), and this was the shortest the race has ever been at roughly 85 miles. So, it will be interesting to see if they keep this same course for next year, or if they will make any changes.
Lastly, could I break 6 hours next year, on the exact same course, I don’t think there is any reason to think that I couldn’t. As always, it’s a race, and as much of the variables that you can control, there are just as many that you cannot.
Traffic on high climber is a total crap shoot, I rode the almost exactly 5 miles (from the road to the hard right turn onto the lutsen mountain trails in 30:08.72. A chance to pre ride the rock gardens would have been nice, but the ones I didn’t clear were because of traffic. The first few guys finished the last 8 miles in 33ish minutes, it falls off to 40 minutes for that last section pretty quickly. Josh finished 12th and was only 5 minutes faster than me on the final 8 miles. And he will lap me a few times in a cross race.
My IF for the full race was .7, I could make push that up to .75, but then you risk mega cramps which would have added a lot more to my finish time. Nothing tacks on time like standing trail side for 5 minutes then riding at 100 watts instead of 200.
I only had 4 minutes of stop time, a short pee break and 2 stops to fill a 2 bottles, then 1 bottle. I could have pushed my luck and skipped my first fill (leaving the loops), but that group only finished 5 minutes ahead of me, so might not have been worth the gamble.
I just didn’t do enough long hard rides leading up to the event, and wasn’t comfortable pushing a harder pace for as long as I needed to.
If you want to go faster in at lutsen, you need to get in a fast group at the loops and hold on for dear life until high climber.
This will vary some per person. I finished at .75 this year according to my Garmin, and I had room to push higher based on how I felt. With the cool weather, fueling and cramps wasn’t going to be an issue for me. I did a 6 hour event in .83 last year and wasn’t in as good shape (but was also fading fast and running on empty at the end), so was targeting trying to come in around .8 this time but probably wouldn’t have had much more than that.
(Edit: Was likely a little lower than the reported .75, maybe .73, my on bike FTP is probably 5-10W higher right now, but point still holds)
I just want to know how 2 dudes from MA finished within 10 seconds of each other at a race 1,000 miles from home?
@BCM I love my Oiz! I purchased it last July and I have the TR version, so 120 in both front and rear. It took some time to get use to as I was coming from a hardtail, but I absolutely love it. The full 120 may be more than what is needed around the TC area, but I love it, and who’s to say it’s more than what you need, if it’s all you know and or don’t have anything else to compare it to!
I actually have an Oiz with 100mm travel, love it. It’s the slight redesign, 120mm travel, and SRAM Transmission being out now that has me thinking about a 100% gratuitous upgrade 
It’d definitely be a better all-around bike, the “not needed” comment was more for races like Lutsen.
Also, not sure if I shared this with everyone here. I did get a little muddy water inside my Bottom Bracket at Lutsen (If you haven’t checked, you should at least pull it apart and re-grease). Not a lot, but when I pulled the crank out I also tore one of the O-rings, so said, why the hell not, replace the whole BB.
Went BBInfinite because of their reputation, and so far it’s been a pain in the A$$. Bottom line is, my chainline is now off, cranks about 2mm too far to the right, and their only solution for me is to send me a grab bag of inserts / spacers that I can sand to fit. Not all that pleased.
That’s interesting. I’m running bbinfinite as well on my Blur TR. Had to install a 2.5mm spacer on the drive side BB bracket and then have 2mm on the axle (per e*13 guidance)…works great. Also, my BB was trashed after Lusten so I emailed bbinfinite. They had me send the BB in and rebuilt it no charge. Did you check with the crankset manufacturer as to what they recommend?
For my Oiz it’s a PF92/BB92 and comes with a 5.8mm Drive Side spacer cup, and a 1.5mm non-drive side spacer cup. One piece bottom bracket. No easy Adjustability. SRAM DUB SL Crank, Spider, SRAM XSync-2 chainrings so nothing exotic. The hard part is that the stock SRAM parts lined up fine and the problem was introduced with the BBInfinite. Nothing else changed. And, the spacers on the stock SRAM bottom bracket I removed appear to have been correct to SRAM spec.
I don’t want to rule out something on my side, but we couldn’t find it and I spent the better part of two days on something that should have taken 30 minutes and it’s currently being solved by extra pedal washers on the non-drive side.
I have one on my road bike that went together fine, but on the Oiz it’s been a crappy experience. Both product and I’m not thrilled with the customer service either.
My headset was shot after lutsen, and front wheel bearings. BB seems okay. My hard tail is my “wet weather” bike and it has a ceramic speed BB with lifetime warranty. I should have rode that at lutsen, but there weren’t any puddles in the camp ground so I didn’t think it was going to be that wet out there…
Super happy with my ceramic speed BB, granted, it doesn’t have a ton of miles, but it is dang smooth.
Actually, now that you mentioned it, my headset bearings did have some surface rust and even the interior seemed like there may have been some moisture intrusion and were feeling just a little rough through the bars. No idea if that was Lutsen, but I just removed the seals, blasted them out with brake cleaner and then re-packed with new bearing grease.
Haven’t pulled apart my hubs. Wondering if I should, but everything is spinning nice and smooth so may not until after Leadville.
I know there are a lot 25-100 slots for the Leadville entry at this event, but did you gain it through your finish or the lottery? I am starting training for this event with the hopes of finishing to qualify for the '25 Leadville 100. Thanks in advance.
Depending on how many people are in the age group class, I’ve seen as few as the winner and as many as top 5 getting coins. If someone on the podium doesn’t want the coin (already has entry) then the coin offer goes to the next people in finishing order.
After the podium coins are given out, the rest of the coins are awarded via lottery. anyone that finished before the cut off can put their number in for the draw.
That’s how you get in AT a qualifying event.
Then you have to get on top of corral position. That’s where I am right now as I finished Tahoe Trail with 2 minutes to spare before the lottery cut off (I had a mechanical on course that cost me a LOT of time and momentum.) So I’m in white corral. I’m doing Sea Otter, Lutsen and if needed Tahoe Trail to improve on that.
(did I miss anything?)
Lottery, blind luck.
Unless you’re really at the pointy end of the field for your class, most people won’t have a shot based on finish time, and I’d have to wager its less than 10% chance of getting a lottery token, maybe less than 5%.