Odd. I think both sizes mount up bigger 1-2mm for me.
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I might mount them this weekend again and just call it good with us 4 weeks out
I put mine on a couple weeks ago. All week in emporia last week and I’ll be riding them at rule of 3 in Bentonville next week. I’m already at 4 plugs and Bentonville can produce some flats as well. The only spot that concerns me is the sidewall cut that required a couple plugs. After rule of 3, I’ll pull the tires off and patch those spots from the inside. If I don’t like the look of the sidewall, I’ll get another tire (if they are available). It’s always nice to go into a race with fresh rubber, but I think a flat or 2 is highly likely no matter what I roll in with. I watched a couple of the race recaps from 2021 (similar course) recently and it seemed like the majority of the pros had at least one tire issue. Just hoping I don’t run into anything more serious than a quick hit of co2 or maybe a plug.
I ran inserts and 42 pathfinder pros in 2021.
I still have those tires and they are in good condition.
I might only get one gravel ride prior to unbound. Besides being there the week before the event
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what kind of inserts?
Thundero 40 vs Thunder HD 40 vs Pathfinder Pro 38. Discuss.
Vittoria
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2021
This year looks mostly the same with the main difference being the section between Alma and Alta Vista via Little Egypt.
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I’ve never been to UB, but the toughest/most climbing section of the 200 course looks like checkpoint 1 to the second water stop. And about 80 miles between checkpoints.
Anyone have experience to know where the roughest/chunkiest sections of road are located?
I haven’t ridden some of the new stuff they added, but I rode the 2021 north 200 course last week. Divide Road out of Eskridge was the worst stretch I saw and is extremely chunky and washed out in spots and was a mud pit in places about 24 hours after a decent rain. Average speed while moving was under 11mph for that first hour out of Eskridge (and that’s not counting my stoppage time to clear mud). That entire northerly part of the course is a good bit of chunk and climbing, I averaged about 14.5mph on ~210w NP.
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Pretty big total elevation difference between RWGPS and Garmin for the XL350 route. Garmin has more than 20k ft and RWGPS has 16k.
I would trust RWGPS on this one
They definitely added some challenging roads to the 200 course on the northern section. Not just chunky, but looks like an extra ~2k feet of climbing as well. Rougher roads, more elevation, and a later start compared to 2021. Assuming similar conditions, it looks like beating the sun will be ~60 minutes harder than it was a couple years ago. Just a guestimate on my part, but the 25 minutes later start is a given and those chunky roads and the climbing really drag your average speed down.
On an unrelated note, I blew up spectacularly on my long ride today. Was trying to do 7 hours at ~.80IF on a hilly route (lots of threshold climbing). Felt pretty good for 5.5 hours, started getting hard to make power, then totally imploded at 6 hours in and limped home. My target might have been a bit ambitious coming off a rest week, but it felt more like a fueling/loading issue rather than fitness. It was a little hot, but nothing crazy. I did bigger numbers racing last week, but it was a different type of effort on a cooler day and I had carbs coming out of my ears I was so loaded up before the race.
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Knocked out 135 miles in 8 hours riding time, 9 hours total….had to improvise my route as the mud on the trial down in Cook County was pretty bad. Flipped earlier than I planned and even then it was too late….my waxed chain was trashed. Within a few miles it was squealing something fierce. Stopped at my house and hit it with some Synergetic and got going again. A good chance to test my race day lube strategy. 
Got done at 115 and stopped again at the house to grab a charging block because my phone was dying. Went out for another 20 and bonked pretty good after about 7 miles. Crammed some food down, got sorted and finished feeling pretty good. 458 TSS, .74 IF and my longest solo ride ever.
Put in a pretty good effort after my first stop at the house and rode a pretty high tempo for a bit over an hour, definitely higher than I ever would in race day and still finished reasonably well. But I am definitely gonna ride more conservatively than I originally planned on race day and try to stay below .75.
At 1000 TSS for the week, with tomorrow still to go. From Sunday - Saturday, though, I am at 1400 TSS. Next week I am at our Global Disfributor Meeting, so I’ll be able to recover a bit.
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I had almost 11,000’ in 2021, so I’m not sure where their 2k more comes from. Even the cyclingnews article on the race had 2 different elevation totals to show how “extreme” the day was going to be. The promoters are prone to hyperbole so who knows.
The later start is a real drag. It feels like they’ve lost the plot a bit with all this focus on the pro race negatively impacting the other 98% of their actual paying customers. And the pro women are still (rightly) unhappy! Let the pro women race on Friday and then mass start for everyone else on Saturday 
.
Also, you would think they’d more clearly announce the time change but other than the schedule on the website I haven’t seen any proactive communication about it.
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The later start is a big contributor to isolating the women’s race. Not perfect or complete, but another step in the right direction after breaking up the starts last year. I don’t mine pushing my race back 25 minutes if it does a decent job of keeping the amateur men from mixing with the pro women. A little more sleep for me in the AM…
I’d like to have been in the room when they discussed the proposed drafting rule. It seems like it would be worth a try, but I understand their apprehension where there is no reasonable way to police it. Still, just having the rule with a stiff penalty seems like it would at least address it to a large extent. But then the cheaters. And "he said, she said, word against word, etc.). It’s a potential can of worms for sure.
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Ironman races have done it for decades…can they police every rider and catch every drafter? Nope……but the deterrent is there and that helps massively. I would wager no top women’s rider is going to draft if it is declared illegal. The wrath of her fellow racers would almost be enough to prevent it.
Is listing the start time in the published schedule & race bible (which are on the website and linked in the email sent to registered racers) really not enough? Tough customer…
Yeah, I thought about that. But I think it’s a pretty different dynamic (I say that having never done an Ironman). Sure, you could have moto’s out there policing, but riders would be able to see the motos coming from miles away. And there are times where it can be hard to avoid being in a group for a bit at unbound, can take a while to pick your way through a group, would look like drafting at times while waiting for lines to pass, etc. I don’t think the triathlon rules (minimum distances, time required to pass, etc.) would work on a gravel course, but again it seems like something worth trying. I agree with the deterrent angle, but I bet valid concerns were raised. What happens when some dude’s go-pro footage shows up 3 days after the race and it “sort of” looks like drafting with a podium woman was going on? All of a sudden you have everyone on the internet playing race official based on a 30 second video that may or may not tell the entire story.