Made his cash in the WT and now trying to stop others from making their cash in this off-road thing.
I didnāt get the impression that Sofia was portrayed as a āvillainā, or that she was disrespectful towards any of her competitors. At the time she was leading the series. She could talk with authority about what it means to be on a 4-year training plan for the Olympics (Hannah), and could matter of factly state that she should be able to win.
Itās totally appropriate for a pro, an olympian, winner of Unbound in an incredibly deep field to size up her competitors as well as herself in the moment. She was not there to play patty cake. I found Sofiaās balsy attitude well-earned and refreshing. Sheās a mountain biker, after all, not a wilting flower.
I donāt know if that was tongue-in-cheek or not (sarcasm detector currently in the shop), but until this year, there wasnāt any cash (in terms of prize lists) in gravel.
The money is in the sponsorship, not race results. And in gravel, they arenāt necessarily tied together.
Exactly. These are professionals. Itās their job.
Love the seriesā¦ great inside look at the athletes and the competitive drive they have. Awesome stuff.
One comment (I forget who said it) was something along the lines that they ābarely make enough from their sponsors to cover participating in the races.ā Are the top athletes not comped travel, hotel, food, etc.? And looking at the prize purse it seems really smallā¦ for the top races I. The US, I would think $25,000 would be the money awarded to the winner at each raceā¦ but itās the over-all series winner. For exampleā¦. At Sea Otter first place is $500. That probably doesnāt even cover the hotel! You can win that at a local road race most placesā¦ and this is a big MTB festival event.
I just hope the athletes are taken care of and the events grow to support larger prize purses!
On the latest Groadio pod Yuri suggested all the LTGP athletes paid there own entries in full on sign up at the start of the year. Iām surprised they got anyone considering some of these athletes could command appearance fees at other races.
Loved itā¦forgot Mo won that raceā¦
Prize money in cycling has never paid the bills, no matter the discipline. Road, MTB, CX, you name itā¦ā¦the money comes from sponsorship, appearance fees and bonuses.
Heck, the biggest race in the world only pays ~$500k to the winner.
And TdF stage winners are only getting around 10 grand as well.
It seems like we can all agree that Stetina came off as whiny about āthe spirit of gravel.ā But what about Paysonās comments after Unbound. To me, it came off as super salty that Ivar beat his buddy and a little whiny about his tactics. Keegan may have been the strongest that day (who knows itās a 200 mile race), but Ivar was tactically smarter and won. Thatās bike racing. Like because Keegan worked harder he deserved the win.
He said that exact same thing. I donāt think he took anything away from Ivar by saying Keegan was the hero of the day and he feels bad for him. Sometimes you have to give up the win for a chance at second. Keegan played it tactically perfectly, especially considering that in the end he lost to someone he wasnāt even competing against in the overall.
He was salty. No one likes a sit and kick. Thatās racinā but doesnāt mean you have to like it.
ālot of freeloaders in the group.ā [Ivar} āwas not the strongest, he just sat in the wheels a lot.ā And it may have been just the editing, but it definitely felt like he was a little salty about Ivar winning.
I get that, but all is fair in love and warā¦or bike racing racing in this case. Do what you gotta do to win.
Payson spoke out a lot during the course of the season of his displeasure with people not working in the groups, so his comments after Unbound are in alignment with that. He may not like it, but it is part of racing so the onus is on him and others to figure out a way to combat it. In some races they did, like SBT GRVL where they left Stetina standing around in the aid station. Payson was not able to lineup for Big Sugar due to illness, but it sounded like when Roberge was hanging onto Keegan and Finstyās wheels, they decided to take turns attacking him until something finally stuck and Finsty got away for the win.
For Unbound its hard to say what Keegan could have done differently. Like he said in the video, and early off the front attack would likely have been suicide. The late attack did shrink the group but Ivar stuck. In hindsight, Keegan probably would have handled the sprint differently because Ivar seemed to plan it perfectly how he came around Keegan right at the finish.
There are going to be a lot of lessons learned from 2022 LT GP and I think itās going to make the 2023 season that much more interesting. I really hope Lifetime can get similar episodes released between events to really add to the intrigue as the season goes on.
A lot of this was inevitableā¦as more money comes into the sport, the idea of everyone sharing workload, etc. was gonna go out the window.
But again, the double-standard issue rears its head for meā¦Keegan intentionally let Finsty win Big Sugar by not chasing down his buddy. I pointed out years ago that this was a likely scenario at some point when others were complaining about āteamsā showing up at gravel races and potentially introducing team tactics. Sure, Finsty and Keegan werenāt on the same team, but the overall question of tactics are the sameā¦Keegan purposely let someone else win by not chasing / doing the work.
Just to clarify, I donāt have an issue with what he didā¦just illustrating the double-standard. Payson and others didnāt complain about it because Keegan and Finsty are part of the āclubā.
Teamsā¦itās kinda unofficially here. Remember, in Unbound, Dylan Johnson recruited some friend to all ride together at a set pace from the gun to try to be more fresh at the end. Werenāt all wearing the same jersey, but sounds like a team effort to me. And stuff like that, is what will truly kill the spirit.
Totally agree.
Keegan, Finsty, and Griffin flipped gravel upside down. Payson, an early adopter of the whole gravel thing and the rules, is kinda flipping his stance and clinging onto Keegan/Finsty club.
Maybe Keeganās dip into road worlds brought some road tactics back 
Totally. That was the first thing that popped in my head. Keegan had nothing to lose and it let Finsty jump up in the overall. And honestly, I have nothing against it. Iām a big fan of Keegan bucking the trend and very vocally stating that he wants to win and will do what it takes, and I think itās funny that that mentality somehow upsets the āspirit of gravelā people. Like you are allowed to win, thatās ok, but you canāt āwantā to win.
Agreed, thatās the strategy part of bike racing I love. Itās not all power numbers.
Iām not sure what the āspirit of gravelā truly is or if it can actually work with a pro field trying to make bike racing a career.
What Iām pretty sure is not the āspirit of gravelā is complaining about aero bars, or that somebody āattackedā at the aid station, or a group decided to ride together at a certain pace, or somebody didnāt put in the work.
I feel like the āspirt of gravelā is or more show up and race how you want to race or chill in the back or whatever.
Fortunately most of this petty pro racing drama doesnāt trickle into the rest of the field.
I love seeing how fast pros can go on these courses but just roll my eyes with their petty squabbles