I’ll be there!
Welcome to VT, baby!
It’ll be a fun day. Tracy Hill Road is a bear, though my experience may be skewed by the one time I did it was darn near 6 hours into a ride. The inclusion of Moretown Gap makes a lot of sense, though I really enjoyed River Road/Jones Brook Road last year.
Average of 11.6% for ~1.1 miles 
Y’all have fun?? I thought it was a great day. Fun course, fun people. Will be back next year.
Tracy Hill Road did me in! It was too much for me so I took a different route back and ended up around 73 miles for the day 
I’m sitting around 3.3 w/kg and just ran out of gears when the grades were 17%+
It was a great day out and happy to be dropped by @FergusYL 
What kind of power did you need to get up Tracy Hill Road and Roxbury Gap? Trying to figure out how many more watts (or fewer teeth on my chainring) I need for next year!
Looks like I did 319 W (4.2 W/kg) up Tracy Hill with a low gear of 34/34. The other time I did it was 283 W (3.7 W/kg). Roxbury is easier though longer: last year was 317 W; this year was 282 W (though that might factor in taking a short stop because the guy I was riding with got a puncture).
Yes, had a great time riding with you, @FrankTuna ! My power on Tracy Hill was all over the place, since I had to push it up fairly high just to keep moving on some of the steeper sections, probably 350-400ish watts, then I was conserving power for the rest of the climbs on the mellower sections. My power for the segment was something like 250.
There was a guy climbing up at the same time narrating his Garmin grade field, and it was kind of hilarious, “18% … 20% … 22% … 22% … still 22% … 21%, nope still 22% … down to 20%, we can rest!” on the steepest sections. Man, that thing was a wall.
I’m going to make this my A ride for next year, as I think it’s just a harder ride than my usual summer A race, VT Overland (Class IV sections notwithstanding). There are so many steep climbs and it skews so heavily towards w/kg that dragging my 94kg, 6’1" (FTP around 3.5 w/kg) carcass up the hills just ground me down over time and I didn’t have much left after Roxbury Gap. So my plans post-VT Overland are to switch to a focus on resistance training and weight loss for a while to try to tilt the w/kg scale up as close to 4 w/kg as I can get without burning out or giving up enjoying food.
Sweet Jesus. 
So a question for y’all… does someone with a 2W/kg FTP simply not do these rides? Or can they complete those rides at a MUCH slower pace? I seem to recall barely managing to crawl up a 7-8% grade when I attempted GFNY.
If there comes a point where riders below X watts/kg need not apply, how do you figure out what that point is for your power level?
I don’t want to sound like I’m gatekeeping, but there’s definitely a cut off that depends on your bike, fitness, and willingness to suffer/walk. There’s a point where suffering/type 2 fun stops being any type of fun and that depends on the person.
There’s a popular gravel ride near me (D2R2 in western MA at 65mi ~6k climbing) that has some big climbs but not as severe as those I experienced at Grateful Gravel. The first year I tried it I was maybe 2.5W/kg (but probably a little lower) and my gravel bike’s lowest gear was 34x32. I couldn’t make it up the first big climb and turned around with my tail between my legs! 
I probably could have done it if I had MTB gearing…so that ultimately inspired me to buy my Cutthroat. I finished D2R2 last year (4th attempt!) with plenty of gas in the tank with a low gear of 34x50 and I was roughly 3.2W/kg.
If you know what you’re getting into, and have the right gearing, these events can be fun for a broad spectrum of riders (especially if you have similar climbs you can practice beforehand). I can’t stress enough how important the right gearing is! I had a low gear of 38x50 at Grateful Gravel and that was not cutting it…I would probably have made it with a 30T or 32T chainring 
That would never sound like gatekeeping to me… it’s good advice in terms of not biting off so much that even trying to chew it becomes miserable and an exercise in futility.
My lowest gear for GFNY was 33x36, which was clearly not low enough for my 108kg weight and the hills. Most hills were 6-9% but there were short periods of 10-12%. Nothing crazy… just more than I could handle then. So when I see “I couldn’t do this 17% hill with 3.7 W/kg” it gets my attention.
I’m now at 103kg and 30x36, so both are moving in the right direction. But we’ll see how many attempts it takes me to finish GFNY NYC (136km +1980m). Hopefully I can get it done on the second try next year.
The takeaway for me is that I need to look at average and maximum grade for any event I want to do, and be aware of how much suffering it’ll require from whatever power and weight I currently have. Honestly, I also find it comforting to know that there’s always a hill out there that’s too steep, for most mortals. 
Basically…yeah. It’s something to work toward. As mentioned, gearing gearing gearing is the name of the game. But at a certain point, gravity wins. Maximum grade is important as is maximum sustained grade over certain distances (e.g., 0.25 mi, 0.5 mi, 1 mi)—might be more important than an entire climb’s average grade. You’ll figure out that you tap out at say a quarter mile at 12%, a half mile at 9%, etc. and use that to judge.
The other thing to consider with gravel is traction. At a certain point you lose it, which is not the case on tarmac.
Keep getting stronger! Start small and grow.
As others stated, you don’t need to be 4+ W/kg to do these climbs. I run 50/34 chainrings with 11-34 cassette on my gravel bike, so my gear ratio is suboptimal.
(I was once at a shop inquiring about the stated vs true capacity of the 11sp DA RD I had at the time. One of the fitters turned to me and said, “well, you know, you could just get stronger and not have this issue.”)
@AgingCannon , just to add to what @The_Conductor is saying: the steepest of the climbs are only part of the 60 mile loop, and the loop that includes Tracy Hill Rd and Oxbow Rd (shorter, but still pretty steep) are tacked onto the 40 for the extra miles. 40 mile riders still need to do Roxbury Gap, but it’s much more doable without the extra fatigue from the climbs just before.
For the steep sections, there are a few levers you can pull to make it easier. I’m going to really focus on weight this year (which, of course, I try every year to varying degrees of success) and also tinker a bit with my gearing. I ran a 40x50 low gear this year, but for next year I’m switching to a 10-52 cassette and probably a 38 tooth chainring for this event.
All that said, the fatigue you accumulate grinding at a cadence of 40-50 is still pretty freaking high, and it’s totally reasonable to walk some of these climbs, then hop back on the bike to avoid burning all your matches in one go.
Don’t sell Number Nine Road short…1.4 miles at 10% to start the day is a rude awakening 
Haha, yep. @FrankTuna and I were talking about that on the way down from the start. No matter how warmed up you are beforehand, the wait to start combined with the long downhill makes sure your muscles are fully chilled out and cold before it goes straight up.