Gray Duck Grit 69 mile race report: Best of the rest
Air temp was about 50 F at the start, 8-10mph wind, partly sunny, conditions which certainly suit me as I like it colder. The course was mostly Category 2 & 3 gravel with some short connecting stretches of pavement. With the rain on Friday, dust was low and the course was pretty fast. I rode a 2015 Stigmata with 40c Tufo Thunderos at 30/32 psi and a 40t oval with 11-40 cassette. There were 1 or 2 hills where I could have used lower than a 1:1 gearing.
After a 2 mile neutral rollout, a young kid with aerobars attacked immediately and proceeded to annihilate the field by 30 minutes. Found out later he’s an 18 year old Cat 1 racer, so he was clearly the strongest by a ridiculous margin.
For the rest of us, a group of maybe 20 formed of those who briefly considered chasing the kid and then decided better of it. The pace slowly whittled that group down to 5 by the first large climb at mile 18. One rider couldn’t hang on the top and then there were 4. Even before the aid station at 38, there were some tactical games being played, which surprised me since the 2nd half of the race was going to include lots of headwind stretches, but we ended up staying together until the aid at 38. 3 of us stopped, and I got a mini Coke that was absolute rocket fuel for the next hour. The 4th rider rolled through the aid and said we’d catch up to him. We did, but it took 30 minutes or so. We caught him going up one of the 4 big climbs on course and proceeded to drop a different rider. The 3 of us in front rotated cohesively enough and the 4th rider dangled just a few seconds back until he couldn’t anymore at about mile 48.
The 3 of us continued to rotate and based on the strength of the pulls, it seemed likely I was the strongest of the 3 left. We rotated smoothly from mile 48 all the way until about 66. At that point, I realized there weren’t many selective sections left and I put in a hard effort on one of the last gravel hills. I had about a 20-30 second gap at the top and I just stayed on the gas for the last 2 paved miles to take home 2nd place! It ended up being a race of attrition rather than tactics and I was fortunate enough to be the 2nd strongest.
Mechanically, it was a successful race for me. I had a 22oz bottle with 10 scoops of Flow Formula Gel mix, another 22oz with 2 scoops of Skratch, and just water in my USWE pack. I used it all, so close to 120g carbs/hr, plus some pickle juice and the aforementioned Coke. I normalized 259w, averaged 223w, averaged 18.5 mph for 69 miles, and finished in 3:42 or so. It’s definitely a smaller race, being newer, maybe 70-80 people in the 69 mile distance, but it was a fun course with some fast, flowy sections. I would certainly recommend it for anyone considering it next year!
