Did GMSR in 2023 and would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to make the trip. Races were well organized, well attended, and courses are tough without being insane. I raced as Cat 3 and had a blast, other than starting at the back of 70+ field at the crit and being pulled with half the field some 15 mins into the race 
I don’t think I’ll go back this year, too many other events to travel to, but it is on my list of future events along with KSR.
Other listed events: would do D2R2 if I don’t go to Steamboat. I signed up for Natchaug but it seems like I’ll have to work overnight into that morning.
Non-event fun ride goals: Six Gaps in under 7:15 moving time (current PR: 7:21, having better gearing than 36/30 should help), riding from Boston to the summit of Mount Greylock
Season long series with ~10 races. The hillclimber vibe is very similar to the gravel vibe, a bunch of people nerding out on tech and excited for the opportunity to ride on mostly empty roads.
Well, you could do a lot worse than working Rasputitsa. It seems like a genuinely fun group of people across the board. I’ll be the, uh, middle-aged dude with a beard.
Muddy Onion should be a lot of fun. The Middlesex/Worcester bits may still be a bit funky, even though pretty much everything has been repaired. It’s a really beautiful ride through some big rolling hills. Onion River Outdoors puts on the race, and they could definitely use the support. They lost their entire store last July and moved to a better location with no basement. They ended up selling a lot of their old inventory at the farmer’s market along with a lot of other downtown retailers who had their locations go underwater.
And yeah, I get it with VT Overland. I wasn’t able to make it this year because of a family emergency, but the volume of ill-prepared people squeezed into the Class IV roads can get super sketchy in normal years. With last year coming so close on the heels of the flood, that part of the state getting hit especially hard, plus heavy rain the day of sounds like a washed-out nightmare. I think people are noticing, though - it normally takes about 20-30 minutes for it to sell out on BikeReg, but I think it took something like 4-5 hours for the Men’s Open to sell out this year.
Do you know if this one usually sells out quickly? I keep checking the site because I don’t want to miss it.
I’m not brave enough to ride the VT mud in April for Muddy Onion or Rasputista 
Hah, I wish I were working AT the event. I meant that I am working my normal job on the day of the event.
Hard to say, this is only the second year they’re doing the event.
If you’re trying to avoid the mud bog, this may be the year. I live on a mountain in Washington County, and looking out the window at my snowless yard when we usually have a foot and a half to two feet of snow, I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up with the Slightly Damp Onion or the Bone Dry Onion this year. Obviously, a lot can change in three months, but we’re missing a whole bunch of base at a key part of the season. I don’t even want to talk about the foot deep ruts in our road that we got during our Christmas mud season and are now frozen solid.
and @The_Conductor - sorry to hear you’ll be missing Rasputitsa! Should be a fun one back at Jay this year, but there are definitely plenty of other fun events to be had.
Quick update for @FrankTuna and @The_Conductor and other New Englanders: The Grateful Gravel organizer got back to me - looks like the registration will go live end of this month. I’ll post in here when I see it.
Both of those rides look awesome. You’ve got me thinking if I should use them for training rides. How would you get back from Greylock - ditch a car?
Even though I probably can’t “race” most of these in this thread, maybe I enter a handful and run them on either the XC Bike or the Road Bike as training rides. Gravel Bike N+1 is for 2025 for me.
I’m also going to do one of the NER 200K Brevet Rides as an endurance training / volume ride because it leaves from about a mile away from my house in Medford, and I have a friend who’s interested and doing a bunch of these. (In the back of my head I’m considering a trip to France and PBP in 2027…)
I’d ask my partner really nicely to pick me up in Williamstown. The key to this ride is to do it the day before a nor’easter comes so you actually have a tailwind. Realistically, when I end up doing it, I’ll probably start in Concord so I don’t have to faff around leaving the city.
Another fun-ish training ride is Boston to P-Town and take the ferry back. I did it once but don’t feel a huge need to do it again. Boston to Portland, ME and train back would be good, too.
Germane to events:
Muddy Onion April 27 - Montpelier, VT
Decent chance I show.
Is Battenkill riding gravel or pavement? Is it hilly? I may use my Canyon Grail since I use that bike for everything. it has speed and 1by. So it can climb almost anything. Is it a good event as a firstcomer? First time going to a bike event. I went to a bike event in 2022 but the course got canceled due to not having enough people doing that route.
Yes it’s very hilly. I did the 75 mile route and it had 5k ft of climbing. Looks like ~17 miles of gravel, but many of the roads aren’t great too so you’d be comfortable on the Grail. People will ride road bikes with 700x25 tires all they way to gravel bikes with beefy tires.
While there are always people racing up front, it’s a fun fondo for most. I think it would be a great first event.
The year I completed highlands i did the 100 or whatever the longest distance is. The area is super pretty but it was brutally hot and you are exposed to the sun for quite a bit towards the end. Definitely worth doing but plan accordingly. The beer at highpoint brewing hit the spot after.
For folks doing Grateful Gravel in Vermont this weekend (@FrankTuna , @The_Conductor , hopefully others!): We didn’t get as much rain as expected (for once), so the course should be pretty fast and dry. Looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day tomorrow, too.
Also it’s a totally new course, now 60 miles, 8746 ft of climbing. Should be a fun one!
Can’t wait! 
If you see a tall, slow guy in a tie dye jersey on a Salsa Cutthroat be sure to say hi 
Almost looks like a MTB course with all of those climbs > 10%!!
Yeah, Strava compresses it a bit, which makes it look a lot scarier. I loaded it into RWGPS and it looks a bit less scary. That said … whew, boy, it’s going to be a day.
Anyone else doing the Irreverent Road Ride tomorrow? Looks like perfect weather for 165 miles and 16,000+ feet of climbing 
Yikes 
kudos to anyone who can do that and live to tell the tale
