Race Report: Cascade Gravel Grinder

Race: Cascade Gravel Grinder - Open Men

Date: May 12-14, 2023

Written By: Flo Costa

Result: 17/59 GC

Course: Three-day gravel stage race in the Central Oregon Cascades.

Stage 1 TT - 3.6 mi / 430 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9059959947

The first stage was a short gravel TT, with a 2 mile climb followed by a descent to the finish. The original TT course was completely snowed out this year, so the organizers ended up falling back to this course only a few days before the race. Although I didn’t get a chance to pre-ride the new course, the pacing plan was simple: all out 10 minute effort up the climb and rip the descent with whatever’s left. I stuck to this plan and felt pretty good the day of the race. My legs felt solid on the climb until I reached the snowy and muddy section at the top. This is where I think I made some mistakes, as the first half of the descent was a slalom through snow patches which my hypoxic self was a bit hesitant to bomb through. After that it was a techy but dry descent to the finish. My finishing time put me in 19th on the day, with less than a minute separating 5th and 20th place. I was happy with my effort, but knew I held back a little too much on the descent.

Stage 2 - 58 mi / 3600 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9066685799

Day 2 began with a 7 mile paved descent before starting the gravel, which consisted of a few short climbs through the ponderosa pines looping back towards the long 7 mile climb to the finish. As predicted, things were a bit cagey in the descent as the mass start group of 100+ riders jostled for position before the gravel. This is where being a roadie paid off ;) . I entered the gravel in the top 10 wheels before things went ballistic. We immediately began a VO2 effort up the first climb which left me wondering how this would affect me 3 hours later. I told myself it would ease up eventually (it didn’t) and kept hammering for the next 10 min before getting distanced from the top group of 8 or so riders. At the top of this climb we entered a mile-long section which was 50% snow slush and 50% ice. Since no one could tell which was which, this was an absolute slip n slide with people falling left and right. I hopped off the bike and ran a few parts, but boy was this fun. I felt good and continued pushing a hard pace hoping to find a group of stronger riders I could work with.

About an hour into the race I had found a group of 4 or 5 guys that were all riding pretty well. I kept putting the power down and motivated everyone to work together. I had settled into a nice rhythm of hammer hammer hammer, eat eat eat. At some point one of my bottles had jumped out, but I wasn’t too worried since I had packed a bit of extra food. With this group, we were fighting for a top 12 result, which would’ve been great in this stacked field. After a little over 2.5 hours my earlier efforts caught up to me and I got distanced from the group. This kicked off my downward spiral towards implosion. I began the long 7 mile climb by myself and couldn’t up the pace. My legs wouldn’t respond. I got passed by riders one by one but was all out of energy. I hobbled to the finish in 23rd place and lost almost 10 minutes to the guys I was with. This was the first time I’ve ever blown up like that in a race, but it was a great lesson to stay within my limits. Despite not getting a great result, this was still a super fun stage.

Stage 3 - 80 mi / 6300 ft - https://www.strava.com/activities/9073229930

The third stage was the queen stage with 5 main climbs that were 15-45 min long. This stage would be the last opportunity to make up time, and I was determined to not let myself blow up. My legs felt fatigued from the day before, but as soon as the race started I was ready to roll. For the first few miles before the climbing began the pace was surprisingly chill, dare I say sustainable. Sadly this didn’t last too long and as soon as we hit the first climb things got spicy. As things ramped up I made sure I followed the front to stay in good position as the bunch thinned out. Unlike yesterday, I was careful not to burn any matches this early and dialed it down before going too deep into the red. I eventually got caught by a small group of riders and together we made it to the top of the first 8 mile climb. After ripping the first descent we began climbing again, but this time things got broken up as we each settled into our own paces. We started passing riders that had pushed too hard on the initial climb, and it felt really good to still be in control of my effort.

The next couple hours were definitely some of the best gravel riding I have ever experienced. The roads went from perfectly packed dirt, to firm gravel, to loose gravel, to even looser gravel, to rocks, to sand, to snow, to mud, and back to dirt. The whole nine yards. Like a buffet but for gravel. All while cruising through the forest at the feet of the snowy Cascade mountains with beautiful blue skies. What an amazing place to suffer.

I continued pushing my steady pace, mostly alone, and was able to pass other riders here and there. Somewhere along the way I lost another bottle, but was able to stop at an aid station to grab more water, sugar, food, and pickle juice, the last of which relieved me from  an imminent cramp. The final hour felt endless. My legs were tired, but I still had enough energy to keep pushing all the way to the line. I finished in 17th place on the day and moved up to 17th in the general classification. I was happy with how I paced the day and glad I was able to regain some time in the overall results.

Summary

This was my first proper taste of the American gravel scene and it was quite a humbling experience with the likes of Ian Boswell, Peter Stetina, and Rob Britton lighting things up at the front. With such a strong field it felt nice to have no pressure on myself and just race my race. Over these 3 days I learned a lot of important lessons about gravel racing. I had approached the race as a tune-up race for the five-day Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder in late June and walked away knowing exactly what I needed to work on to improve for this next race. 10/10 would recommend.