With the new year underway and some events/races picked out, I was wondering what people in the general Midwest area are training for this year in the hopes that people can discover new events/races to think about attending. New rides and challenges are always fun. I’m signed up for the following for the first time:
Coast to Coast Gravel Grinder 210
Gravel Worlds 150
The Driftless 100
What some great rides/races to sign up for?
I strongly recommend the Dust Bowl 100 in Indiana. It was a new event last year and was exceptionally well-run… and exceptionally brutal due to heat!
If you like brutal, I recommend Spotted Horse Ultra. Sarah Cooper designs a brutal course and the 150-mile course is the sprint addition. It is always my end-of-the-season goal.
By the way, thanks and I will check out the Dust Bowl 100.
+1 for the Dust Bowl. Very very well ran for a first year event, this year should be awesome!
Although, I wouldn’t classify the course as “brutal” at all. Maybe the heat and the pace up front though.
If you want a tough course, the GPS 100 is up there. It’s a smaller event and last year was the first year, pretty fun.
I’m also excited to check out the Black Fork Gravel Grinder for the first time, I hear it’s good.
Fair point. The course itself is relatively easy, but my day attempting to stay with the front and ultimately cracking in the extreme heat was what made it brutal.
Not much in the Midwest unless you’re looking for gravel. Even prior to COVID, road racing was pretty much dead here.
haha i just linked this to my team last week and a few of us are seriously considering it!
it looks absolutely savage, have you done it before?? any advice?
if you’re into crits it’s solid though! intelli cup, tour of america’s dairyland, gateway cup late in the season, a decent amount of one offs too!
also race the lake Race the Lake 2022 - Fond Du Lac,, WI 2022 | ACTIVE is really fun, i had a blast last year and learned that these chicago legs are absolute garbage when it comes to climbing any sort of hill! i’m doing it again this year
I did Barry Roubaix for the first time last year and that was a blast. So I’m doing that again this year though the late March race will be much different than the Early October of last year.
Michigan Cycling still hasn’t come out with a road calendar except for our local club’s spring crit series. So hoping for more crits and road races with in a couple hours. Otherwise I’ll be doing a lot of training and weeknight races with some mid distance gravel races around Michigan thrown in.
I have attempted it a couple of times, never finished. Weather can make this race a long day (rain, wind, mud). Honestly, the best advice is to prepare for the worst conditions, like bring a spatula to clear off the mud and sling to carry your bike. Get ready for a day of repeating short punchy climbs. Sarah Cooper, the course designer, makes a course to challenge the strongest and no drafting. It is a very well round grassroots race. People I know that have done Unbound/Kanza say this is much harder.
I did the Chequamegon40 last year for the first time - looking forward to that again. Also signed up for the Lutsen49er this year for the firs time. As someone who rides road 99% of the time these two MTB races work well and are not very technical at all.
That was a great race. I almost won
I’m looking forward to Tour of Central Iowa’s Mann Powered 380 the most for 2022. 380 miles. 70/30 Gravel to Pavement. Supported class is a RAAM Qualifier.
I’ve done Spotted Horse 3 times(4 if you count 2020’s IWAR attempt)
Finished the 150 in 2018 and 2019 and managed 2nd in 2021 in the 200. 2021’s route had 200 miles and almost 16k feet of elevation gain.
best advice is to keep moving. There will be moments that you want to stop, and you will need the mental strength to push through that urge.
I’m hoping to do unbound
I’m signed up for coast to coast
I’m signed up for dust bowl
Michigan gravel series has stuff all over the state. https://www.michigangravelraceseries.com/
Just signed up for watermoo myself as my first try at century+ gravel distances.
maumee valley wheelmen puts on a weekly crit series near Toledo that covid and work kept me from checking out last year that I really want to try out.
The biggest one by far, is I want to get down the lexus velodrome once they get it fixed. They had a major power failure in a big storm a month ago and the dome collapsed onto the track and it looked pretty bad but now it seems they might, just might, be back up and running in the next month. To have a world class indoor track racing facility an hour away and not give it a shot seems wasteful.
Nice! Where’d you finish?
I was 4th overall, 3rd age group.
Tire side wall split caused me to fall out of the lead break with 23 miles to go
Ah bummer.