In his defence they both tried to drop him on the climb and he then spent five minutes clawing his way back up to them. Wtf would he then help them?
Also Bewls co-hosts a fun podcast called the social distance podcast.
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The tactics start when the gun fires and the playing field is level to begin. The core concept of mass start bike racing revolves around tactics to shift the playing field to your advantage for the next x hours of racing. Every time you stick your nose in the wind or push the pace should have purpose. The purpose might be to pull for the good of the group to keep a gap or catch a break up the road. It might be to soften up the wheel suckers in a cross wind. Itâs not a last 10k thing when the tactics start.
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I regret that I have but one upvote to give.
Thatâs not the game. Itâs not keep the playing field even until the last 10km, itâs get across the line first.
If youâre in the break and you donât like that somebodyâs not working, your options are:
- Try to convince them to work
- Also stop working and then try again with a different group after the catch
- Attack to try to split the group into a composition you like better
- Keep working, either because youâre confident that you can beat the rest in a sprint, or because youâre happy with any top-N place
Thatâs bike racing, and weâve all seen all of those tactics a gajillion times, in a gajillion races, in all disciplines, and I am still baffled by the expectation some of these guys seem to have that a bike race would not have bike racing.
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The finish of the race was kind of dumb. If it would have come down to a sprint with 3 or 4 guys, it would have been a mess. A hard right hand turn from tarmac to lose-ish gravel, then 30 yards to the finish.
Agreed. But it was a pretty good uphill drag with a tailwind to the finish, so good conditions to stretch things out a bit (especially after a long day). It wasnât likely going to get to the line shoulder to shoulder. Itâs also possible they saw the finish beforehand and agreed that it wasnât worth the risk taking that turn at speed and had a gentlemanâs agreement (doubtful). It really wasnât that tough of a turn if you hit it right. A solo rider a few minute before them decked it coming in though. I was in group of 3 at the end and had no interest in a fight near the line and hit it about 1k out which was perfect with the tailwind and slight uphill.
Obviously this is a thread focused on a bigger gravel race with pros and thereâs always discussion of Unbound and BWR. But Iâm always surprised when I hear somebody say âoh Unbound is my first gravel raceâ. It surprises me because there are so many small local gravel races all around the country.
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Iâd bet it depends on where you live. In central TX, you could probably race 3x a month between Feb and May and not drive more than ~2 hours to any of those events. Also, some of those races can be tough to find if you arenât already plugged into a cycling network.
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Really no different than people who do an Ironman as their first triathlonâŚmany people just want to to the marquee event.
But Unbound (then DK) was my first gravel race in 2019âŚbut I also had 30 years of racing experience (along with ~8 years of triâs) so it didnât really strike me as doing anything odd for it to be my first gravel race.
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I definitely met plenty of people when I was doing triathlons who did an Ironman as their first. For some, it works out fine. For others, less so.
Yeah. If youâve done a bunch of racing already then I beforehand then itâs not a big deal.
But also some people are less worried about long races than I am. At this point, Iâve done enough long gravel races that I know anything up to 100 miles (unless the course is super hilly) I can not worry too much going in. For something like Unbound 200, a lot of things can ruin your day
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I think thatâs true but itâs not too difficult to get plugged in. Iâm in Georgia and when I moved here first thing I did was connect on fb with all the local mountain and gravel cycling groups. Itâs easy to find small races year round.
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Except I DINFâd, sooooo⌠
But yeah, I agree overallâŚI donât think people who tackle bucket list races first often donât understand what they are getting themselves intoâŚbut I still understand why they do it.
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I canât believe the Denver Nuggets wouldnât let the Lakers score in the first half. I get that you want more points in like the last 4-5 minutes, but they should have been fair and take turns scoring points for the first three quarters. It just feels unfair and unsportsmanlike. They didnât even let them win a single game. They could have at least let them go to game seven. And now the Nuggets get to rest but the Heat and Celtics are still playing and donât get to rest. Thatâs not fair either. They should all be fair and play seven games and score the same points until the final minutes.
Sounds a little funny doesnât it?
The race starts from kilometer 0. End of story. If one rider isnât taking pulls, then itâs on the group to drop that rider. If you take more pulls than everybody else, youâre not racing smart. Itâs not a contest on who takes the most pulls or does the most watts. If it was it would be Zwift racing.
Period.
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A lot of people DNF Unbound, myself included.
I DNFâd 1 of my 2 Ironmans after having really solid training for the race.
I could âdumbâ my way through a half Ironman or a 100 mile gravel race. But for a full Ironman or unbound 200 it makes for an even longer day than it already is.
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Every time this comes up, I wish the winner would do a performance of Allen Iversonâs âpractice?â press conference, interchanging the word âpracticeâ for âracingâ.
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I find zwift racing and fast group rides to be a surprisingly good simulation of gravel racing. Itâs often mass start with wide variety of abilities. The starts are hard and selective. Middle of the race often settles in with folks trying to rip things apart at every course feature. The draft is real, but you canât just soft pedal in the pack and Iâll see NP numbers higher sitting in than Iâd typically see in a gravel race. As the hours wear on, itâs usually whittled down to small groups. Iâm not saying e-racing is the same as real racing, but the effort to hang with a hard zwift race/ride mirror gravel really close and the tactics are similar with the mass start and selection.
I suspect that location wasnât their top choice. The previous years finish location had some kind of cook off that weekend.
Unrelated to the topic, but that reminds me of the Lifetime Grand Prix Leadville episode. Some rando they interviewed said, âYeah, I got into Leadville then thought, âshoot, I have to buy a mountain bike!ââ
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Yep. See people get into unbound and say they now need a gravel bike.
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Looks like Ian back pedaled his comment on Instagram.
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