I had about the same average on my scouting ride. The cows were either not there or I missed them focusing on lines. On the sbt shakeout ride we saw 5 going up.
Supersapiens had marked my package as shipped to home. Momentary despair as I wouldn’t have this invaluable data from my new device just in time for race day. They gave me a kit from someone who was afraid of needles so I have double the sensors if the package really did ship to my home.
20.1 mph average for Cow Creek in 2021; 17.2 mph in 2019 which was on 35mm tires, and included a dropped chain. Don’t hit a cow. A friend of mine has done that, and another missed by inches. Not on cow creek, but other fast descents in the area. They sometime zig when you think they’ll zag.
Did the Chamois Butt’r pre-ride and then we rode up Cow Creek to the junction. Avg 21.8 coming back down for the segment and didn’t think it was too bad at all. Keep your head up, pick the right lines and just let the bike flow.
Nerves are setting in for tomorrow….which they shouldn’t since I am just riding my own pace and don’t plan on trying to stay with the front. My guess right now is that I go out the back on the climb up to the Honey Stinger office, right out of town. Plenty of riders are gonna go full gas up there and I’m just not gonna dig that deep at altitude. 
Apparently I averaged 38.5 km/hr down there the other day and I’m normally a terrible descender (especially on gravel) but I think the cows focused my mind a lot more than usual 
Bruh Keegan just won SBT after doing Leadville in 6 hrs yesterday. What a freak of nature.
That is FREAKING NUTZ!!! I’m thinking Tadej who?
Hope everyone got to ride their own race today!
Finished the Red course only 8 minutes slower than my “unattainable” goal 
Last year, I walked quite a bit of the last two climbs at green course distance… This year, only had to push it 1/3 mile of the last climb. That felt sooooo much steeper than it looked but expect to be able to ride it completely next year 
Got lucky with no mechanicals. If I got to ride it all over again, I wouldn’t change anything. Tires were great - hit that deep sandy section a little hot and back tire fishtailed but stayed right side down. Saw a couple of unlucky riders waiting for moto-med support. No PRs down Cow Creek today - it was faster Friday when it was just me and the cows.
And that was the best chicken burrito and chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had in my life 
Finished the Blue right on my expected pace despite the wind and rain for the last 15 miles. the first 85 miles were beautiful weather. Did the last climb in a hard cold windy rain. Then hit a wet muddy Cow Creek. Managed to PR it in spite of the mud. Last few miles in on pavement were cold and rainy. Bike was great - the Open Wi.De really handled the rough patches and single track well and was fast on the hard pack and pavement. Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H tires were perfect. Fast on pavement and grippy - even on the muddy Cow Creek.
All in all a great day on the bike. Beautiful, challenging course. Met alot of people having a great day. The volunteers were OUTSTANDING - plenty of them and they were really helpful getting people in and out of the aid stations and cheering everyone on.
About 15 minutes or 45 minutes slower than my goal but I couldn’t stomach more carbs and the climb in Oak Creek just took forever. Thankfully the rain had passed by the time I hit Cow Creek and it had dried up quite a bit. We did encounter like 8 cows and the poor confused baby brought me to a stop. Thankfully we were past the worst of it and that caused 5 of us to work together into town.
I had an absolute blast. Aid station volunteers were awesome and almost everyone was super friendly.
Having the leaders pass on the downhill rollers from the last aid station while you’re climbing there was a bit demoralizing since they’re just flying. Keegan is incredible, back to back days.
So what is the Stetina beef? He seems throughly pissed at someone
So apparently I put my number plate on wrong- and I didn’t get an official time. But it’s on Strava, so it counts!
Fun day out. Temperatures were great. I rode for an hour and a half in thunderstorm rains and wet gravel on the Oak Creek climb and descent. My bike was making noises it shouldn’t have been making.
At the last aid station, I cleaned my drivetrain and reapplied Squirt. That sorted things out.
I rode most of the last 4 hrs solo. After the blue and black course separated, the black course riders were few and far between to pace line/draft with.
Came in a little faster than last year, and given how little I’ve been riding this year, I’m pretty happy with my result.
Would have liked to finish in under 9 hours but it wasn’t to be. Ended up at 09:40 as I had a miserable portion coming back from rounding the lake to the 40. Got caught in the hail storm climbing Oak Creek which made things very interesting.
I was wearing the Flamingo jersey today. Thanks to everyone I talked to or who helped pull me round the course. A great day
Velonews article alludes to some words between Stetina and Keegan about chasing the break, but not sure if that is related or not. Super interested to know what this is about. #graveldrama
Yeesh, so Stetina wanted to sit up and Duke it out later rather than let the group ride hard/help out.
Spirit of Gravel eh.
Shame that part of the course was so patchy coverage wise. The SBT IG page was doing great updates/coverage with Matt Lieto prior to that part.
We really don’t know any details, and PS has his own perspective that the other group was rude (as he sort of cryptically alluded to in some Insta stories without naming names). Athletes (including teammates) get heated with each other all the time in the heat of battle. Let’s not make such a huge deal out of this.
Definitely rode the struggle bus today….just never felt good at any point. Thankfully two of my buddies nursed me to the line for the last 25-30 miles. Somehow still managed to come in sub-9 (8:56).
I don’t know if it was the altitude or what…but pretty disappointed. My time beat my goal, but I just couldn’t push the watts, especially late in the race.
However, it is not everyday when you have to yell out “COW!” as a warning during a bike ride. Actually happened twice today!! (And this is why the final gravel descent is called “Cow Creek!!)
Just an absolutely brilliant course…the gravel was superb, the bits of singletrack were great, etc. Could have done without the trek across the cow pasture before the first rest stop though. 
If you are thinking about signing up, do it.
Also, not pictured, but if you look at the black / white cow that is facing me, you can see white ears behind it. Literally as soon as I put my phone away, he tried to mount the black / white cow in the middle of the road. 
No other race has such up close and personal animal husbandry does it?
First, I never reserved that beer for you… my bad. 
As to the above, did you have the race number curved around a HB bag? A volunteer came up to me in the chute and said that affixing they number like that would block the signal. So I undid my bottom tie and just had it hanging in front of my HB bag.
