Anybody doing this beast???
- 116miles, 14k climbing
- High Altitude
- Technical Gravel
- 2022 winning time ~ 7h
This might be the hardest gravel race in the country.
Take a hardtail. Not joking.
2 Likes
Say more pls
My faster half wished he had taken his MTB last year - and that was just for the gold course. There was some definite, large-scale under-biking on Switzerland.
Team Silver Course forever 
I haven’t done Ned Gravel but I have ridden up Switzerland trail. I was on my MTB. I saw many people descending on gravel bikes but it looked like a rough ride. If I did that on my gravel bike I would throw on my 650b wheels with 2.1" mtb tires. My redshift suspension stem would also probably help a little.
For me (pushing 5wkg) I am pretty sure it would be faster. I know a few of those guys in the top 5 and they acknowledged it is a very difficult course on a gravel bike. Nick was running a lauf fork and is an exceptional bike handler.
What is the most technical section?….I can pre-ride it and decide. Something tells me Boulder ppl are not used to chunky stuff.
Yeah Colorado has a real reputation for turning out terrible cyclists.
5 Likes
That wasn’t my point. I’ve partaken in some of those Boulder fast gravel group rides, it’s all smooth stuff….where I ride we can’t really call that gravel.
In any case, I contacted the organizers, they told me all the challenging stuff is in the south loop. I will pre-ride and see what this fear of yours is about.
So I rode the bottom first 50 miles. Aside from the chunky climb, which is faster in a gravel anyways, it’s just a regular gravel race ……
Nothing to see here
FYI, they took out the hard part from last year, Switzerland trail to sunset.
3 Likes
The most ironic thing….A guy on an MTB, wearing an EF education kit, split his face open pretty good. Scary stuff. I hope he is ok