Race Report: Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder 2023

Race: Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder - Open Men

Date: 6/21- 6/25/2023

AVRT racers: Flo Costa

Top Results: GC - 16/71

Course: 5 day gravel stage race in Central Oregon totalling 360 miles and 30,000 ft of climbing over the five stages.

Stage 1: Sisters → McKenzie (75mi / 7200 ft // Strava) - 22nd

The Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder was one of my target races for the year. Leading up to the race I was able to put in a solid block of specific training, followed by a taper week that left me feeling pretty good on race day. With a lot of strong riders showing up, I didn’t have goals tied to a specific placement and instead was “simply” focusing on getting the best out of myself by riding as hard and fast as I could.

The beginning of stage 1 started out relatively flat, with no one wanting to drive the pace up front, on smooth red lava rock gravel roads. But as the road slowly tilted upwards, the group pushed harder and harder. This eventually turned into full-on attacks as people tried to break the field up every small hill. By the time we reached the bottom of the first climb, the group was completely strung out and I was fighting to stay in the top 10. On top of the climb, we turned onto the old Santiam Wagon Road, which turned out to be the 6 sandiest miles of the entire week. I felt pretty comfortable on this section despite my bike squirreling underneath me, but this required many repeated spikes of power. The sandy old Santiam Wagon Road ended with a rocky and tricky descent, which also ended up being the most technical part of the entire week, followed by a smooth, speedy descent on champagne gravel. A few minutes into the descent my heart sank as I felt my rear wheel going flat. I prayed for it to seal as I continued following the rider in 7th place ahead of me, but by the time we reached the bottom of the descent, it was completely flat. I suspected it had gotten sliced by the sharp lava rock on the technical descent. I quickly hopped off, put a CO2 in, and tried to get it to seal. By the time it finally sealed, I ended up using another half of a cartridge to reinflate the tire. I felt helpless as a handful of rides passed by, but had “only” lost 3 minutes on this 4+ hour day.

The second climb was less steep than the first and offered us amazing views on the snow-capped cascade mountains. Unfortunately, I didn’t have too much time to soak in the views since my only focus was to catch up to the riders ahead, one by one. I soon caught a couple of very strong triathletes, and together the 3 of us settled into a nice tempo while working together. After passing a couple more riders, we reached the top of the climb and I took the front. I dropped them in the descent and upped the pace on the penultimate climb to make sure I was out of sight and out of mind.

I had clawed my way back into the top 10 and was feeling really good on the day. Now all I needed to do was get over the real challenge of the day: the final 8 mile climb. I could slowly feel my efforts throughout the day creeping up on me. About halfway up, I caught a glimpse of 6th & 7th place up ahead. My motivation was higher than ever, but both of my legs were starting to cramp. I slapped them and kept going, giving everything to keep pushing. For some reason I thought of Gino Mäder, who had passed away in the Tour de Suisse the previous week. He, his family, and his friends would give anything for him to be racing through beautiful mountains like these. I was extremely lucky to be in this situation. Keep pushing.

At the top of the final climb I had 6th & 7th in sight. I was confident I could catch (and even pass) them on the final descent into the finish. I was ready to bomb the descent, which started out pretty techy. Approximately a minute down I had gained a lot of speed and opted for a rocky (but faster) line. I lost a bit of control and hit my front wheel pretty hard on the final big rock. A few seconds later it was completely flat. Shit. I hopped off, tried to get it to seal, and used the rest of my CO2 from my previous flat. By the time it sealed, it was too flat to ride so I hastily whipped out my hand pump. In this process I somehow broke the hand pump, which left me without a means for air. Luckily there was an aid station at the top of the climb about a mile back. I had no choice but to hike my way back to the top of the climb (seen in the elevation profile). Eventually I was able to fix the flat on top with some help from volunteers and was finally back on the bike. I was too frustrated to try to make up any time and descended gingerly to the finish. I finished in 22nd, 40 minutes behind 7th, upset and exhausted.

Stage 2: McKenzie → Oakridge (61mi / 5800 ft // Strava) - 19th

I woke up the next morning in my tent with my legs more sore than they’d ever been after a race. I had been over-eager the day before which led to poor decisions and bad luck. I had to be more patient and race my own race in order to make time up on the riders ahead of me in GC. Stage 2 started with a 15 mile climb, followed by a series of small hills before a final 3 mile climb. Similar to the first day, the pace was directly correlated with how steep the road was. About halfway up, I was pretty close to my limit so I had to ease up in order to have any hope of surviving the stage. Unfortunately, the group ahead still had over 15 riders left. I continued at my own tempo and was passed by a few more riders before reaching the top. Despite feeling like I was losing positions, I ended up setting a 1 hour power PR up this first climb. With the main feature of the stage complete, the rest of the stage was straightforward with a few descents and smaller climbs.

After the first descent, I started climbing the next (deceptively steep) small hill. As I started going up, my legs felt empty and I immediately knew it was going to be a long day. I struggled to push power and had run out of energy after only the first climb. I kept eating, hoping I could find some energy to carry me through the day. I got passed by more riders, but no longer cared. My only goal was to make it to the finish. I was in a hole and was still mentally frustrated from the previous day. In hindsight, I’m bummed that much of this day was a blur, but these gravel roads were awesome.

I slogged along until the final 3 mile climb, where I finally started feeling better. I was able to push a little harder and settle into a nice rhythm all the way to the finish, coming across the line in 19th place, 30 minutes behind the leaders. The result was not as bad as it felt, but I knew I hadn’t performed to my potential. Luckily, stage 3 would be much shorter and would provide an opportunity for much needed rest.

Stage 3: Oakridge → Oakridge (48 mi / 4100 ft // Strava) - 11th

The third day was a “rest” day featuring two timed segments: a 7.5 mile uphill and a 10 mile downhill. The climb started after 20 neutral miles around the Oakridge reservoir. After an easy start, we regrouped and we were off for the hill climb. Knowing that the second half of the climb was the steepest, I planned for a negative split meaning I would conservatively pace myself for the first half. This also meant that I had to drop myself from the group earlier than I would’ve liked and had to be strict about maintaining a pace I knew I could hold for 45 minutes. As the climb got steeper, I slowly increased my power and saw that I was catching back up to riders that had started out too hot. With 15 minutes left in the climb, I had been able to pass a few riders and was still feeling pretty good. I upped the pace one last time and focused on completely emptying the tank. In this final effort I overtook a few more riders and finished with the 12th fastest time on the day, with a solid 45 minute power PR. Negative splits are fun.

After refueling at the aid station on the top, we were sent off for the 10 mile downhill segment individually in 30 second intervals. The downhill was a bit bumpy and had some loose gravel corners, but wasn’t too steep. The segment itself was 20 minutes long and had a lot of sections you could pedal through. I definitely should have pushed harder out of every corner and on the flats. I did catch my 30-second man, but it wasn’t my best descending. I finished with the 14th best time, 1:10 down from the winner. Surprisingly the time gaps were pretty small on this long of a segment.

The combined segments put me at 11th on the day, my best placement out of all the stages so far. The shorter stage was also by far the most productive off the bike - I had extra time to sleep, eat, stretch, wash my bike, and jump in the river at camp. The camp vibes on this day were great; we had plenty of down time to hang out with other athletes and were even treated to a beautiful Oregon sunset.

Stage 4: Oakridge → La Pine (95mi / 10,200 ft // Strava) - 11th

This was the queen stage, with all of the climbing front loaded in the first 50 miles. We had a 15 mile climb, followed by a 5 mile climb and a 3 mile climb, before flattish rollers to the finish. After an easier stage the day before, I was mentally and physically ready to bury myself on stage 4. In a similar fashion to the other days, the pace of the group slowly ramped up as we began the first climb. About 10 minutes in, the top 5 riders broke away. Given the difficulty of this stage and given that the first climb was well over 1 hour, I made sure to ride within my limits. The chase group slowly whittled down as most people rode at their own pace. We made our way up this gravel road along a cliff which offered us incredible views on the surrounding mountains and forest. My legs were also feeling pretty good and I managed to beat my 1 hour power PR I had previously set on stage 2. Over the summit I found myself in a group of three fighting for 10th place.

The three of us worked together for a bit as we started the next climb. One of the guys who was clearly stronger took off, leaving me with one other guy now fighting for 11th. Midway up this climb I caught up to Simon, a fellow Alto Velo rider and Eganeer, who had started in the early wave of riders. It was nice and quite motivating to exchange cheers as we suffered up the climb. I continued riding with the other guy, Ulisses, as we worked together up the third and final climb summiting at mile 50. The hardest part was done, but we still had 45 miles to go. We stopped at the aid station for water and food, and continued our way on the next section on a technical “pioneer” road where we weaved between patches of snow, rocks, trees and puddles. Somewhere in this descent I dropped Ulisses and pushed on, hoping to power through the rest of the day.

The rest of the stage was uneventful as I trudged along alone through the flats and rollers. In order to stay motivated, I kept telling myself that the next rider was just up the road, just around the corner. Despite being able to take in a decent amount of food, I felt like I was slowly fading. My brain was getting foggy as I became a mindless creature pedaling as hard as I could through the forest. A true out of body experience. Was this real life? About 5 hours into the ride, Ulisses caught back up to me and woke me up from the haze, which proved to be life-saving. We worked together and kept each other motivated the rest of the way, while I was on my absolute limit. I finished once again in 11th, but I was wrecked.

Stage 5: La Pine → Sisters (83mi / 6300 ft // Strava) - 9th

The morning of stage 5 was really, really tough. My legs were sore, my body was tired, and my head hurt. Thankfully the food at camp was good and I was able to make it to the start line, fueled mainly by coffee and the fact that this was the last day. Stage 5 featured two main climbs - a sandy 7-miler followed by a 9-miler that started pretty steep and crested around 6700 ft.  The first 20 miles were relatively flat, but the racing was on from the gun. People looking to make up time and get a head start on the climbs were extra motivated to attack, which made the first hour of the day feel like a road race. The roadie in me found this really fun, but I questioned how long I would last with still the two main climbs to come. Eventually a break of 5 riders got away and I began the next climb in the chase group of about 10 riders.

The first climb was quite sandy and immediately split the group up. Riding uphill in sand is pretty discouraging, as you move so slow despite having to push even more power. I continued at my own rhythm and carried on, just outside the top 10. The first descent took us down some fun dirt roads close to the forest in Bend where I caught up to Simon once again, who I was really happy to see as we cheered each other on. In the rolling hills before the final climb I was joined again by Ulisses, which was awesome since it seemed like we were really close in strength.

Just like the day before, we worked well together and made our way up the final climb. Together we maintained a solid tempo as we managed to pass a couple more riders who had perhaps started off too hard. After clearing the steepest section, the climb felt endless but we made it to the top nearly an hour later. I felt empty but was motivated knowing the end was near. I also had an opportunity for a top 10 finish since we were gaining on another rider ahead. I attacked through the final downhill and rollers and was able to pass the other rider ahead in the final mile for a 9th place finish. I was stoked on the result and even happier to be done.

These five days of racing were a rollercoaster of emotions. Despite a rocky first couple days that put me out of GC, I turned things around and finished strong. I surprised myself with my fitness and found new levels of perseverance I did not know I was capable of. The event was really well organized, with food, tents, and showers provided by the organizers. I was so stoked to meet new people and ride through these backcountry roads with amazing scenery. If anyone reading is interested, let me know, I would highly recommend this event. I’m already looking forward to coming back stronger in 2024.

Thanks for reading,

Flo