I’m racing La Gravilla this year, but have many friends doing Fuego XL, so I decided to take advantage of this Sunny Weekend in Northern California to do a pre-ride of the NEW Fuego course with a buddy of mine. Here’s my pre-ride take-a-ways.
Overlap between Fuego and Gravilla is considerable, with Fuego having more new sections, so we did a single lap of Fuego.
Really great course. I haven’t had my Scalpel for a year yet, but the more I get it dialed in, the faster I can go and the more fun I have. Fort Ord is a great place to do it.
What to expect on the Fuego course in four weeks.
It’s still going to have lots of wet and goopy parts. I think there was only one puddle/crossing that was so deep it stopped my momentum. The rest just required one to keep a good spin going until the other side. Lots of places where there is water running right down the middle of the trail. That’s the line you want to take, because either side of that is mud.
Second part of the course has a LOT of deep speed sucking sand washes. Like a dozen at least. There’s one stretch about mile 25 where you take a hard left off of a fire road descent BOOM 200m sand wash right into a climb.
Ruts on longer descents and climbs going parallel with the trail. There was one descent like that where there was a single line. The rest of the drop is just crap and it’s going to freak less experienced riders out. The rutted climbs are going to be a handful. as they do have a couple of lines, but you’re gonna need to keep momentum as some of them are steep enough that a bump you don’t have enough to keep rolling over, you’re not going to be able to just remount in the middle of that particular freakshow.
Paved and fire road climbs/descents abound. There are a couple that have hard turns off into single track so managing the transition is going to be critical as momentum is still the name of the game.
Passing opportunities on singletrack = slim to none. You do it, it’s going to be a ballsy move.
The last 2.7 mile climb is going to be the test. about the first half of it is a sand wash riddled single track climb, that will drop you on to the same final fire road climb as last year, but the fire road is ultra rutted with a couple sections that have a single line because the road is best described as gone with ruts that are about 5 feet deep. So that’s lovely.
Two laps is going to be a test even for the Pros/Lifetime racers.
There were about 3 places on the Fuego route where it said turn and there was either no trail AT ALL or the area was closed for good reason.
Fort Ord being what it is, in some places there aren’t many reroutes available. There was a high school XCC racing going on that over lapped the course. We went through in the gaps, but it was a perfect example of the course marshall asking us it go around knowing full well that there was no detour to be had. It was easy enough to stay out of the way of racers.
Should be a better experience for all classes on race day this year.
XL course is good… could be better. I will say they got the first 11 miles right but then starts skipping some of the best trails in the park for cement road. Why ride down on Jacks road instead of descending Red Rocks? Why then go up Jacks instead of going up and over 49 to 82? (Only thing I can think of they are using it for enduro?)
Not sure why but they have you ride up 18 (it is a full on stream right now and will be for a long time) then 17 rather than take you up Itchy McScratchy → 51 ->52 → 23 → 16 → 56 to machine gun.
One of the worst parts is they have you going up 69. It’s a rutted beach. I guess if you like a mile of off & on uphill sand you’ll enjoy the challenge. They should have gone up Watkins Gate to Watkins Spur then cut over on 70 & up 92 and Mars hill. But again…trail choice… as they choose road and sand over some of the best xc singletrack out on the north side of the park. I will say this… once the course gets on craters (one of my favorites) it is back on track to near perfect. (Side comment, it would be nice if they make the most epic course possible and just stick with it).
As mentioned it is a tough course. I don’t think anyone will hit the sub 3 hour mark for the gold corral at Leadville.
For the short course… yes. For the XL there is an additional loop that includes trail 69 west (the sandy uphill known as “the beach”) out to eucalyptus.
Yep and this added section SUuuuuuuuCKS so much. It was tough just going through once, it’s going to be a real test with 50 miles in the legs. So glad I don’t have to do this for the Gravel race.
Thanks for all the info here! Would you say that the course is still suited for a fast XC tire (Aspen, Race King, Fast Trak/Renegade, etc.), or do the likely conditions warrant something else?
Well I ran the Ray/Ralf combo and they were great. there are lots of sand washes and it’s still going to have a fair number of mud crossings too. I reconsidered running Thunder Burts, that won’t happen.
I’m doing the gravel race. I will NOT be running GK SS or SK. I’m waffling between WTB Nanos and Maxxis Ramblers. I can get a wider Rambler to fit on my bike, but Nanos have better lug even if they are a tad bit narrower.
Kinda tough to describe the trail conditions right now because it’s such a mixed bag (and will likely change by race day anyways). Vernal pools are full and overflowing onto the trails in some places (trail 18, 57, 56, etc). Other places it is straight up hero dirt. Expect LOTS of ruts and sand (because, well, that’s Fort Ord) but if we get a break in the rain the trails could very well be the best you’ll ever see out here. If we get hit by a few more atmospheric rivers expect a muddy mess.
Did another pre-ride, this time of the La Gravilla course. More fire road/gravel than the XC and XL courses, but still just as much climbing.
Overall conditions are much drier with the exception of low points that are all gonna still have mud and puddles even two weeks from now.
I’m not convinced that a drop bar bike is the best choice for the gravel course. I may kit up my XC bike for it instead. I’d like to finish under my own power rather than get flown out in a helicopter after going over the bars because my drop bar handling skills aren’t as good as my XC skills.
Well it’s on a Friday this year so that’s good… but it looks like the course is nearly the same as the xc course but skips 50 North and heads down the road. What is crazy is they actually add some singletrack off crescent buff but but then skip the singletrack in the xc race to stay on the fire road. I’m sure pros can handle it but couch canyon, 82 and a few others would be sketch on a gravel bike in my opinion for a participation event like sea otter. Can you ride a mountain bike in this race?
Seriously… why even do this event with this course? If you are riding 65 miles might as well do the XL cross country race. There’s good gravel out there but you’d need to do loops or go out on county, CSUMB land which may be permit issues. But it seems pointless to have a gravel race the same as an xc race.
Well they are doing both and wave starts for each age group in all XC and Gravel races.
IMHO this is like the Rock Cobbler in that there are some sections where a Gravel bike IS the right bike and other sections where an XC bike is the right bike.
I’m just asking myself if the sections that are better on a gravel bike are long enough that I personally couldn’t make it up on the rutted technical bits on the XC bike or that my XC bike wouldn’t leave me less beat up and better equipped to face lap 2.
That said, both bikes weigh about the same and have droppers, so that part is a wash. MTB has full bounce, less aero, smaller water bottle capacity (2x500ml vs 2x800), wider tires (Nanos are my tire of choice for the course in a 53mm vs 40mm)
I’m leaning towards the right tool for the job over “the spirit of gravel”
Well in the course talk they did say they might remove Couch from the route. Either way I’m coming down Thursday and I’m bringing both my gravel and XC bike. If they cut couch out, that might be enough for me to swap from XC to Gravel.
I was hoping this was mistake, and they would fix it… guess not. We are also from Reno, have 2 kids in Reno devo, by the time we finish, hopefully eat lunch pack up the camper and start heading back we are going to be on pace for a very late night.
And faster riders of older age groups pile up behind slower riders in other age groups… And last year MTB riders were stuck behind gravel riders (who they put on the XC course). As you said it is just the way it is there.
That said a rotation of who starts first is fair and should have been implemented a long time ago. However in years you are a later start it is my understanding anyone can sign up for the pro division and start before the age groupers. So a fast woman can go before the age-group men every year and vise versa.
Since they stopped being USAC sanctioned, the racing events seem to have dropped a bit in quality -road too. Road had standard age categories in addition to your USAC category and XC felt like 2-3 year brackets in the larger fields. I guess seeing 130+ riders in a single field dice it up on the racetrack is fun to watch.
The Fuego still starts on the track this year but you do the entire paved climb to just before the corkscrew descent before dropping into the single track. Last year, it was only the first half of the climb so things were still pretty bunched up at the gate.
Warning: The first singletrack descent has one section about a mile from the start where water has eroded a central channel that felt like about 12" deep at its deepest. A few inches rideable on either side of it. I expect there to be some bodies scattered about at that spot.
