I am so happy others think the “spirit of gravel” is as ridiculous as I do. Granted the series could have exaggerated how much riders care about it, but still a laughable point of discussion. IMO.
It’s ok for individuals to have different motivations or feelings regarding purpose or spirit of these events.
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“The spirit of gravel” has lost all meaning. It’s now just something for people to shout to dismiss American offroad racing. Same sort of thing as all the right wingers screaming about wokeness.
I rode a hard/ fast road century with Lauren on Saturday. Front group was a solid 20-30 master’s men. From mile 40 on she was taking 10 min pulls and shredding the group. I popped at mile 70-75 and final A group that Lauren towed in was only 4-5 guys and Lauren. Oh we were all on road bikes and she was on her gravel, and had done a century the day before. She’s going to be a strong contender at Unbound.
The funny part is a couple of guys at the end who said, “who was that woman that just kicked our ass?” Guess they don’t follow gravel.
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Yeah, I aspire to hang with any of those pro women. I raced La Grind in Emporia last weekend, 100 miles of gravel in the heat on Saturday. Paige Onweller went to the front and rode all of us off her wheel about 10 miles in. She rode the remaining ~90 miles solo and won by about 30 minutes. Hot day and winds over 20mph, tough conditions to be solo. No pro men were there and it wasn’t a particularly strong field, but still an impressive ride. Looking forward to see her ride at unbound, I think she is parked in Emporia and doing a bunch of training on the course.
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Keegan needs to find a sunscreen sponsor. Dude’s skin does not look happy.
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Late to the convo but I’ll drop in my thoughts too…
What didn’t sit right with me was how Keegan was talking trash about LTD’s “suicide” move off the front “that would never stick” and then at the end Payson complaining that Slik wasn’t the strongest on the day because he sat in and whatever.
You know who the strongest on the day was? LTD! Mad respect! He should have won! But that’s bike racing… 
So what are they going to do about riders just sitting on the group this year? If they aren’t Lifetime, I can see the LT riders not caring, but not winning after doing the work just sticks in the craw.
Hmm… Isn’t this pretty much the deal for any mass-start bike racing that includes drafting? If you don’t want someone hanging on without working, drop them. If you can’t do it yourself, organize with the others doing the work to do so. I personally find it pointless and whiny trying to shame or imply that someone isn’t deserving to win just because they didn’t work as much as the “stronger” guys. Giving wheel suckers some crap during the race to get in their head is fair game, but any decent bike racer isn’t going to get sucked into that. I’ll race my race, you race yours. I’m a guy that has no shot in a sprint and I’m a pretty strong (but not fast) rider, so I do get frustrated when folks suck wheel all day and beat me in the end, but it’s my fault if I let that happen. I find it happens a lot less in gravel racing compared to road, sitting in isn’t as easy on the gravel as it is on the road and people get worn down (especially in the long races).
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Preach.
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If you’re a weaker rider trying to win a race is a viable strategy to win. No one doing the work likes it but you implement the strategy you need to put you in the best spot to win. I mean isn’t that why you race?
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If you don’t like doing the work for someone, don’t, hop on their wheel.
It’s a tactic(a valid one at that), find a way to counter it. Whining about it just looks petty IMO.
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That’s kind of what I was trying to think out loud here. What are they going to do to counter it? Make a super fast stop and then just floor it and go solo? surge going up hill hope to shake them? Hope that there are some spots where the road isn’t forgiving and takes a less experienced (someone who doesn’t live in the dirt) out of the mix?
Pondering…
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I’m not a big “spirit of gravel” guy, but I’m not a fan of the feed zone rush job tactic when the entire group is stopping. If there are only a couple water sources, you need to be civil and give folks a chance to fill their bottles rather than fighting for who gets to fill first an leave the others behind. That said, I’m totally good with blowing through a feed zone completely when others are stopping. If I was smart (or dumb) enough to carry a bunch of extra weight and skip a stop or 2, that is my payoff (balanced with the risk of getting dropped early with the extra weight).
As you mentioned, hills are a common place to drop folks. Every corner is a gravel race seams to turn into an attack, particularly when you are turning into a cross wind section. Then you have sandy sections, washboard sections, technical/chunky sections, water crossings, those are places where the race often gets ripped apart. A lot of this is course dependent, but most gravel races are races of attrition and people fall off and smaller groups often form. I’ve never done a gravel race where a pack of 100+ rolls into a sprint finish (not uncommon in a road race). I’ve done a couple races this year rolling in with groups of 10 and 20, which are some of the biggest finish groups I’ve seen (at least at the pointy end), so I think some of this is being influenced by more road racing tactics.