This is my first year doing BWRs. I live in the Pacific Northwest, but traveled to BWR CA earlier this year, and will also be doing Montana. Couldn’t make Utah or Arizona work this year unfortunately.
I am very excited to visit Montana. Never been. Definitely need to do some research on the course and figure out proper tire setup. Looks like in the email they modified the course to be a bit more scenic and starting outside of Bozeman. That may affect my lodging a bit. The hotels they sent that were supposed to be at a “discount”, seemed kind of ridiculously highly priced.
Anyways, please feel free to throw anything in this thread about BWR Montana. Tips, tricks, meetups, jokes, or whatever
I am going back for year two. I have a post on last years thread of some of my learnings. Bozeman is beautiful, you will understand why they call it Big Sky.
I like that they are moving the start/finish, it was kind of a weird spot last year with some busy road crossings towards the end that were not closed. Standing at a red light trying to cross heavy traffic manned by a police officer who hits the cross button for you in a race is … ehhh odd.
For the waffle, tons of soft (like pea gravel) country roads, then a lot of unmaintained dirt roads, and it closes with some single track. I was pretty fracked during the single track and its not really my forte, so it wasn’t really my favorite part, but some people were gushing about it .
No good excuses, I kind of showed up for the race last year with no research or planning, didn’t realize that Bozeman is at 4900 feet. Its not super high, but you will notice it.
Lodging is expensive, it was last year, and is again this year. I stayed in Helena the night after the race as I didn’t want to drive all the way back home (ID/WA border) to save few bucks.
Tires: Last year I raced on 45 Terra Speeds, they were great. I have since switched to Tufo Thundero’s in 44, looking for a little bit of more durability, I wear out the rear Terra Speed in just a few months in training.
Hope they put more thought into the route this year.
Last year’s was noted as a “money grab”, that made heavy use of local MUT trails that mixed the race in with locals walking their dogs. Locals were not pleased apparently.
.