re: tOfficial Cycling Thread

I’m racing again tomorrow for the 5th week in a row. It’s a little 6.5 mile 700ft vert short course XC race(2 laps). I sit in 3rd in my category but it’s more of a product of showing up every week vs. being actually fast. This is my first year doing these and I’m making up some ground on the leaders but still probably 4-5 minutes behind them in an hour race giving it full gas.

I did get into a little 1v1 back and forth with a guy in my category a few races ago, took it to him on the final climb and beat him. He dropped himself to the lower category the following week Big moral victory for me

After the race I’m taking one day off before diving into a heavy 4 day solo training camp starting Thursday to prep for Crusher in the Tushar and Leadville- and then racing again the next Tuesday to close out the series.

Pray for my arse fellas. Will post some stats once I wrap it up.

I bought a gravel rig this year to use for road riding and Crusher. Riding a full sus XC bike for Leadville. Had been exclusively mountain biking before January which seems pretty wild in hindsight. I got a Lauf Seigla(Icelandic DTC brand) and it’s been an awesome do everything bike.

Yep it’s got full lockout and I use it pretty often. Helps a lot on smoother climbs where you don’t need the added traction and road sections on Leadville.

I did Leadville for the first time last year(got a 12 hour buckle, but not by much). Hoping to drop an hour this year. I just started racing last year and had no clue what I was doing. Still don’t, but better than a year ago.

I live at sea level so the altitude is a big challenge. I get to ride at altitude a few times a year but never for more than a few days in a row. My brother is racing it for the first time and we’re gonna spend the full week before up there. That’s how I did it last year and it worked well enough.

Appreciate it, I had myself at about a 50/50 shot to go under 12 so it felt really awesome to get in done. I now fully understand how people get addicted to these races, it’s such a rush.

Wrapped up my solo “training camp” yesterday. From Thursday night to Saturday midday I put in 176 miles and 11,000ft of climbing. 60/40 split between pavement and trail. 4500 on-bike calories consumed, 1 flat tire, 2 rattlesnakes run over and zero bloodshed.

quote:

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Dude hell no. Get some GP5000s and call it a day

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Yeah I couldn't bring myself to leave it on. Already swapped to another non-slick I had for tomorrow morning's ride. But damn I'm tired of tire shite. Looking up GP5000s now

ETA: mountain bike 26" rims, but I just cruise on asphalt these days

Any of y'all having problems with Zwift controllable resistance? I have an Elite Direto XR trainer and the wattage is showing up fine but it never changes resistance for uphill or downhill after a recent update. I've tried Bluetooth and ANT+ and nothing works so I sent Zwift an angry email

12/24 hours Iron Maiden race is this weekend. I'm racing 12 hour single speed. Race day prediction is 99 degrees. It's been so mild so far this year I think yesterday was the first ride in 90 degree weather. I'm not sure if I'm 100% heat adapted yet. I was shooting for 6 laps which was a reasonable target. But 99 degrees throws another variable into the equation I've never dealt with. 1-2 hour rides in 99 degree weather is one thing. But racing for 12 hours is something else all together.

I've been pleasantly surprised how well my Panaracer GravelKing's have held up. The tread is a low rolling resistance pattern. I went with it because I use it for urban as well as gravel.

daggum that dude shreds.