BWR Montana - June 29th

Racing
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Anyone headed to Bozeman to try out the this new event?

I’m signed up for the Wafer and am very eager to learn about the course and begin the process of selecting tires and such. Waiting for those details is interesting as I’ve never done an inaugural event.

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I am in, will be my first BWR ride, I saw another thread earlier asking about tires, so maybe check it out.

I get the sense that we are not going to get many details till right before the race. I will be riding Continental Terra Speeds 45s with Orange Seal.

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The course notes have been released now… I live in Bozeman and it has been pretty dry this spring. Count on fast graded county roads and only 1 real single track section which is downhill on a groomed trail. There are some punchy climbs including one paved section over 10%. Should be a really fun course and I wish I was in shape to ride it.

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Just noting a quick notes and recap for anyone looking toward a future BWR Montana.

Race Organization: Check in and parking were excellent.

Elevation: Don’t forget Bozeman is at 4800 ft, and you ride up to 5500 feet numerous times which you will notice if you don’t normally ride that high.

Course: The waffle section (north loop) is beautiful, the views are incredible, its much more scenic than the wafer and wanna sections of the course (you complete all three). 60 % is unroad, lots of gravel country roads. Many long sustained climbs, with a total of 7900 feet of elevation gain. I had a total of 19 climbs on my head unit, with only 1 punchy section that was 11 percent, but it comes around mile 90. The last 4 ish miles is single track. This was advertised as being awesome, but It was open to the public, and was pretty rocky. Got caught up with some riders walking the steep section in the middle, ended up having to walk, and a few non racer were using the trail riding against the flow.

Aid stops: Were well stocked and appropriately placed, roughly at 22, 39, 67, 98. Had cold coke which was a bonus.

Finish line: Decent vibes, nothing that makes you hang out. You get a beer and coozy.

Overal I enjoyed the event, I would do it again.

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Thanks for the recap. Sounds interesting. How smooth/chunky is the gravel?

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A lot of it was loose over hard gravel, most where riding in the thinned out tire ruts or over to the far right edge for there was little gravel. If you got out of the ruts you were surfing around in the soft stuff.

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Nice Summary Mike!

My two cents (I did the Wafer):

  • I really enjoyed the event as well as spending in and around Bozeman.
  • I am already planning to do it again.
  • The elevation was definitely a challenge for a number of people.
  • The level of competition was higher than what I’ve seen in other events. It seemed as though a good percentage of the racers had participated in other BWR events this year.
  • I found the gravel roads to be of much higher quality than what I’ve seen anywhere in Oregon or Northern California; very few potholes, some loose gravel but not scary thick, no big sharp rocks, a little bit of washboarding but more baby washboards, and some sections were near paved quality.
  • The single track near the end was pretty special.
  • I ran Pathfinders and outside of a couple short chunky sections on the single track felt like it was the perfect tire choice.
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