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.
Anybody doing this beast???
This might be the hardest gravel race in the country.
Take a hardtail. Not joking.
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.
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.
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