Race Report: 2024 Low Gap Grasshopper - Open Men

Race: Low Gap Grasshopper - Open Men

Date: 01/27/2024

AVRT racers: Flo Costa, Cam O’Reilly, Greg McCullough, Riley Chapman

Top Results: Flo 20/51

Course: 47 miles, 5700 ft of climbing - Gravel Race in Ukiah, California immediately starting with a paved 4 mile climb. Fast descent and flat section before the gravel portion which consists of a series of rollers and a 3 mile climb before the final descent.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10642443180

Nutrition: Clif Bloks and gels with malto + gatorade in the bottles.

Race Recap: Low Gap is quickly becoming one of my favorite ways to kick off the racing season. It’s a shorter gravel race, making it more intense, especially with a 20 minute climb right out of the gate. After the “off” season, everyone is eager to dust off the cobwebs and see where they stand against some stiff competition. The competition never disappoints - this year we had the likes of Christopher Blevins, Sean Bennett, and Peter Stetina all lined up and ready to explode the race on the first climb. Low Gap is a fast race and being nearly 50% paved, I was stoked to bring out my Schwalbe G-One RS 35mm tires and throw it down.

We started with a neutral rollout to the base of the climb, before officially starting the race. From the gun, the pace up the climb was hot, and I quickly had to dial down my effort after the first 4 minutes at VO2. My legs felt good and I focused on my own effort up the climb and brought the pace down again for self-preservation after 10 min. Near the top of the climb I was joined by Cam, who gave me some encouragement, and we summited together. Cam had to chase the group after dropping his chain in the rollout and treated the climb as a FTP test, so I forged onwards. I had also set my second best all time 20 min power on this first climb - not a bad way to start the season.

After a quick descent, I found a group to work with in the flat section, and we then began the gravel section. This section had a bunch of small hills, so I would push the uphills knowing I could catch my breath in the downhills. I slowly caught up to several riders that had either punched above their weight on the first climb or had less confidence in the wet gravel descents. By the time I reached the final climb I was pretty cooked and could only push a steady tempo.

The final descent was by far the muddiest portion of the course and had a series of perpendicular mud water bars that would suddenly grab your wheels and slow you down. Luckily, on most of these I could follow the tire marks from previous riders, but on one occasion I hit one with way too much speed and completely scorpioned over the handlebars. I wish I could have seen the perspective from the guy behind me, who had the perfect view of this epic feat. I caught a few more riders in the downhill and kept pushing on the pedals to the finish.

I was quite happy with this effort, but at the same time humbled by the competition. There were a couple chase groups of really strong riders only 30-60 sec up the road on top of the first climb - that’ll be the goal for next year. For now, I’m looking forward to more gravel racing this year!

Thanks for reading,

Flo