I’ll be at the shakeout ride tomorrow at noon near the expo. Be in a blue rapha kit, black lauf seigla. Say hi if you are around!
I did the 100k road fondo today. I think I was arriving as you guys were rolling out actually. 75 miles in the legs all told today. I might be regretting this decision tomorrow.
That was a doozy. Hardest, sketchiest, scariest, most fun ride I’ve ever done. Felt like a CX and MTB race had a baby from hell, then they made it 107mi. Even on 45s I felt severely underbiked.
BWR 100k Road Fondo Saturday: 3:30, 184 TSS, 65mi, 3600ft elevation.
BWR Waffle Sunday: 7:10, 367 TSS, 107mi, 7,100 ft elevation.
Happy with my efforts. Finished the Dubbel which I’m more than pleased with. I was scared my legs would feel terrible Sunday morning after the Saturday effort but they felt surprisingly good. Stay with the lead group until the first unroad sector, then dropped back a bit realizing that I did 10min at close to 400W and wanted to not blow up. Spoken like a true roadie, it was very technical. Super rocky and chunky, very steep single track climbs and descents. Boden Canyon was wild. Too many near misses to count. Beautiful if I wasn’t scared for my life half the time. I saw a couple -20% or steeper descents in my data.
My goal was sub-7 and I was on pace for it but 2 late crashes (minor) and a snapped chain pushed me over. The crashes were nothing, scraped knee but not bad. One was caused by my right leg completely locking up cramping. The snapped chain that did me in. I had the tools but it just took a bit of time. I was hearing some grinding noise for a while then on one of the super steep climbs it went.
Another thing that killed me was using road pedals. Looking back I have no clue what I was thinking. I didn’t think there would be that many dismounts/remounts. Must have been 20 all total. And each remount got worse as I tired and got dirt in my cleats. Probably lost 5min from that alone. Bonehead decision that I learned the hard way.
Also, gearing killed me. You need at least 1:1, probably lower but I didn’t. Just grinding up climbs at 40-50RPM.
My whole body hurts now. Neck, back, triceps, forearms, hands, fingers. My fingers cramped up which I have never seen before. My legs are probably the least sore muscles in my body. There was no let up. No relaxing. No breather. The descents were more intense than the climbs.
Overall, definitely type 2 fun. I just wanted it to end for the last 20 miles. It was my longest ride ever in time and distance. It was the hardest without a doubt. I’m super glad that I did it, but I don’t think I’ll ever be back. It’s a little too sketchy for me. Maybe on a full-sus MTB. Maybe in a few weeks (or months) I’ll have a different view but for now, it’s a one and done event for me. Great event, really well put on and attended (though most pros were at Traka). Just not my course.
As somebody who just did their first hike-a-bike (not at BWR) in road shoes. I’m with you… what was I thinking. Congrats on a finish, I saw A LOT of DNF on the results page.
Running 45mm Hutchinson Caracal Race tires was a big mistake for me. I didn’t realize that the course had gotten so much gnarlier than prior years. I should have ran with my normal 50mm G-One RX Pro’s or even Thunderburt 2.1’s. That being said, in hindsight I should have at least let some air out of the tires when I realized that the singltracks were better suited for MTB. I lost the front a few times and low-sided at relatively slowish speeds, just some scraps on the legs but nothing major.
That being said, the legs felt good but there weren’t too many places where I could really push without being paranoid about what kind of obstacles were around the corner and a lot of time was spent cautiously going down some of the steeper, looser singletracks. With about 30 miles left to go (we were doing the Waffle), I was riding with a couple of other guys and we were ALL sick of the singletracks.
A few things that were kind of weird. Having the Pro Men and then all the regular Waffle riders go BEFORE the pro women was weird. They caught up to me after about 12ish miles and they were coming up so fast to the point where it might not have been very safe for them to have to navigate through all the age-groupers. I immediately moved out of the way when I heard them coming up and pulled over to side to let them all pass for a few minutes. Might have been better for them to release the Pro Women 10 minutes after the Pro-Men and then the Age Groups after that.
My overall experience is Type 2 and sorta bordering on Type 3. Would have definitely been Type 2 if I had beefier tires.
Thanks. They say higher DNF rate than Unbound and after riding the course I believe it.
I ran the same tires. Was wishing for more grip. Granted, I picked them because I did the road Fondo as well. And even considered riding my road bike with 35s. But man, not the right tire choice for this course.
Maybe I was one of them.
Me at mile 90:
I’m calling it Type 2.5 fun.
My 2.1 and 2.25 thunder burts were perfect on the course. plenty fast too! highly recommend that setup
That was a crazy race! Significantly harder than I expected when looking at the numbers. In my mind, it felt like 50% Single track, 30% gravel, and 20% road.
The hard start was really rough for me. I wanted to stay in the front group, but lost it a few miles before the unroad sector. Tried to find a group to catch back up, but at that point nobody was working cohesively. I burned too many matches early on. It was very interesting to me the elites and amateurs start at the same time. Seems like that caused lots of amateurs to roll with pros and then probably crack really early. I think they should let elites go first, so people aren’t fooling themselves thinking they can keep up.
Anyways, my biggest mistake was forgetting my hydration pack when I flew in. I grabbed a third bottle and threw that in my back pocket, but at about mile 25 I looked down and one of my other bottles had popped out! That was a bummer.
I’m pretty confident in my off road skills, so did well overall. Agree that 45 mm tires were not a good choice. I could’ve easily kept the 50s on or even moved up to MTB tires because so much of the time was spent on endless single track with windy turns.
Going in, I had no idea what time to target, but I definitely bonked at the end section. Tried my best to keep power up but it was a struggle. I had a lot of fun though and am glad I had no mechanicals or wrecks! I definitely rimmed out a couple of times but never flatted.
So, I guess I’m in the market for some new and better bottle cages. Any recommendations???
Dude I know the feeling. That switchback section in the sun was rough. I kept thinking “where is that damn road to finish this out??”. Was thinking it was 20 miles or so of road, but it was only 7. I was running on empty at that point.
Congrats to all you that did BWR this year. I’ve never done the the full waffle because I like not feeling totally wrecked after a day of racing 
I’ve only ever done the wafer and that distance is the upper end of my sweet spot as far as pushing myself on the bike goes.
I’m also really surprised that pretty much all of you feel like 45’s wasn’t enough. I haven’t done the newer sections of the long course so I can’t comment on the roughness of those trails. I’m curious as to how heavy you guys are. I’m 150 and 45 were great for me last time around, although I just mounted some 50mm Spec Terras on my Crux and boy they are sweet on the dirt. I just figured with the amount of road, that 45 would be a good mid-point.
Once again, congrats and if you were to ever come out again, I’d suggest the Wafer route if you want a little less of a good time. Cheers!
45s weren’t enough in the same way that on a steep climb I’m clicking my shifter praying for an extra gear that isn’t there. 45s were fine for the most part. I was just wishing for it to be easier or more comfortable so I say I wish I had bigger tires because in my head that sounds nice. I could have been on 2.2s and I would have been wishing for bigger tires. I was wishing for my full suspension MTB actually.
And I feel ya on the distance thing. The Wafer would have been the perfect distance. I didn’t even touch my bike until today (a week later). Just wrecked. If I ever do it again I’d do the shorter distance for sure.
Granted I don’t know the brand new section (Boden Canyon), but I’ve ridden everything else over the last 4 years. If you are confident in your handling abilities, 45s are fine especially with some tread (Caracals are too loose, would not do that again). Terraspeeds or the new Tracers would be perfect either in 45 or 50 (or a mullet setup, which I’m running now to use up tires for training).
Black Canyon / Ysabel / Black Mountain section is technical, but I did it on a road bike with 30mm slicks a few years back (would not recommend), so not that bad. 
Last year I used 40mm Caracals and my biggest complaint is simply that they have very little grip in corners. They’re an incredibly fast tire, but I lost it many times in corners at speed. The new Tracer in comparison is far more capable and still quite fast. So is the G-One RX in theory, which I’ve yet to try.
tl;dr I wouldn’t sweat the tire choice too much past 45.
Wafer vs. Waffle? C’mon, you’re already paying for the travel and the race, go all out and get your money’s worth out of it.
edit: 2022 was my first year, and boy was I underprepared and under-biked. Showed up on a road bike, 30mm Strada Bianca tires, with a 48/35 crank paired to 10-33T cassette. And then I talk to people on 25-28s with rim brakes, and any morale I have left is gone. Really glad they chose to shorten it.
BWR CALIFORNIA COURSE BY THE NUMBERS
~129 miles
~10,000 ft of climbing
24 off-road sectors
Nearly half unpaved (61 miles)
18% more dirt than last year
I was living there for the last few years, but still anything over about 70 miles with dirt in it is just too damn far for me. At this point you’re seasoned veteran of the course @sasa. I hope to be out there in the next couple of years for the wafer :).
Hope to be back next year! Say hi if we are there at the same time again!
I’m hoping to go back next year! Although it was a rough day, I have lots of room for improvement! I will also be at BWR Montana