I watched this on the trainer yesterday morning, from what I remember it looked like Swenson went to front and drilled it, I assume to try to bridge across to the small group in front. But he couldn’t create the gap and was then looking for others to pull through to help. You’d be mad to pull through! Swenson’s probably the strongest guy in the field so why make it easier for him when you know he’s going to work to close the gap anyway, especially that early in the race.
I’m the odd guy. I seem to be the minority around here, I enjoy Dillman and Tyler Pierce (VC). I burn thru alot of YouTube gravel content on the trainer. Dillman is quirky, but he appears to be naturally himself on his videos and the Bonk Bros. Remember these guys are spending a ton of time pushing out these videos for us consume. I don’t understand the negativity. Better than no coverage at all. Not pulling/pulling is a race strategy. Race your race. Drop them if you can. I view it as pre-shotclock basketball. If you don’t have the horses, play ball control, pass the ball x20 times, take high percentage shots. Give yourself the best chance to win.
Dillman has a point, he literally doesn’t have to pull and that’s racing. People give him crap but hes trying to inform other racers that you don’t have to pull if your at your limit. As someone who has been in a break and pulled due to being yelled at and got popped his sentiment hits home.
I like VC (even if I find him a bit saccharine sometimes) and watch most stuff he puts out.
As for Dillman, I fully agree that not pulling is an entirely valid race tactic and that’s not really my issue with the way he conducts himself. It’s the way he frequently seems to engage in name calling, patronising behaviour and condescension towards most other competitors, particularly in his commentary post-race. I’ve tried to watch a few separate videos of him and really find myself completely appalled by his attitude, especially toward people he considers not worthy to be on the same course as him. My hope is that nobody new to our sport stumbles across his videos and extrapolates his attitude out to everyone else.
However, I’ve read enough comments in here from people that seem to love him to realise that my distaste for him might put me in the minority.
Just interesting how we all have our own internal filters and perceive people differently. I do watch a fair bit of VC mostly cause I watch alot of Youtube cycling content on the trainer. But I am always on the verge of shutting his stuff down. Why is he always showing me his weight, his muscles, or whatever he is into this week? Your boy’s “not-so-humble” brags turn me off in a big way.
I watch Dizzle and I just think he is kinda funny dude, who says things mostly joking, and part of that humor is that I don’t think he even thinks through what he is saying half the time, and if he did, he wouldn’t say them. Not that they are that offensive, but yeah, maybe not the nicest thing to say.
That’s my read of Drew as well. He’s kind of goofing around all the time and joking. He’s not just telling us what happened at a race because that would be fairly boring, he’s trying to make it funny and entertaining. The guy is pretty religious and doesn’t seem to actually have ill will towards anybody. He’s just having fun with it.
I agree here. I don’t watch him YouTube videos but I find him really funny and enjoyable on BonkBros. At first he rubbed me the wrong way but as I followed along and got to know the personalities I started to understand his humor and appreciate it now.
+1. I can see how if all you do is sit and then smash the guy whose wheel you’ve been sucking the last sprint could cause some heightened tempers and choice words but that’s not the case here. The guy hit his limit with 15 miles to go and the field rode away from him.
You’re mixing up Joe and Drew. Joe made it to 15 miles to go and then got dropped. Drew got dropped around mile 50 and then quit at 90.
Did he just take a dig at Lancy going OTB in the sand? 
ETA: Just made it to excuse territory. I was already tainted by comments in the thread before, but I can now see why his style doesn’t agree with some …
Yeahhhhh. Don’t be calling out people for going OTB when you’re tapping out at mile 90.
Especially calling out Lance for his technical riding abilities… of all the people 
Yep, Lancy totally had too much weight on the front bars. He was just pointing it out to his followers so they don’t make the same mistake…totally a public service announcement/educational moment.
Dillman certainly says some stuff that makes me question watching him, but he’s pretty equal opportunity, in that he won’t hesitate to make the same type criticisms about himself. Yeah, he makes excuses, but he comes right out and says “ok, here are my excuses, for you guys in the comments”, and he’s not lying about them. So, when you boil it down, he has dry humor, he’s providing buddy/buddy valid criticisms in a play by play fashion, that make his ride videos not silent for us non-sensitive types.
Definitely, it adds to the cost, especially if you’re not participating in other USAC-sanctioned events.
I’m seeing a lot of people don’t understand Dizzle’s schtick. Met him a few times and he’s a great dude. Team Dizzle. He was down at the amatuer start line for Chequamegon this weekend talking with people and hanging out.
So crazy that anybody takes Dizzle Dillman seriously at all. He’s a total class clown and if you listen to him, he’s just being outlandish for the sake of being funny and entertaining. He’s a total goofball. He was on Amanda Nauman’s gravel podcast a while back and I think he comes off as being very genuine in that podcast. I met him briefly at BWR SD after he finished his race, and he was polite and easy going. As for his racing tactics…he’s just trying to do what it takes to get a good placing so good on him.