My FIRST EVER Gravel Race was...HARD (FULL Rasputitsa Gravel Race Story)

Hey VC here I want to talk about my first ever gravel race and how it was insanity so let's just jump right into the story of the rasp a tooth brass patoot SIA Rasmus I don't know how to pronounce it first-ever gravel race [Music] the forest it is something we can't run taystee all right so the plan is to do dirty Kansa in June but I've never done a gravel race so I was really trying to do more than no gravel races before dirty Kansa so then doing Belgian waffle next weekend and I was had the opportunity to go to Vermont to do the Roth spot - it's very cold the name of it means mud season I believe so it's always usually very muddy it says it's only 40 miles it sounds like 40 miles it's not very that's not a very long race should be easy no big deal so now I flew into Boston and then from Boston we drove towards Vermont area like northern I mean we're not far from the Canada border Canadian border waiting around baby let's just pretend I want to stay like this forever wanna stay right here would you that's the rest we fall until it all breaks down but I need him so I will stay when your almond it's a great we get into Berk which is a very very small town and we're staying in this house that's like two hundred years old very old house 100% haunted we were kind of exploring around and like in our room there's a little baby crib super baby crib with like a rocking chair that's like right next to the crib so for sure mama ghost is like protecting the baby ghost and it's like right at the foot of my bed and then we check out this door which goes into the basement and look where I lived I don't have basements I don't never had a basement open this door - just the scariest place on earth and so we go in town there and exploring this basement which has like this rock wall that's like blown out demon gremlin babies living in those rocks I could just imagine every time I looked in a corner there's just like a black figure standing there ready to kill me very scary okay so then we don't have bikes and I brought up my tub my friend my friend and coach Tony Wolfe to do this together cuz I didn't I wasn't gonna know anyone I kind of wanted someone to bounce a story off of a little bit so he's there with me will that's the guy who brought us out that's our main contact he's from Clif Bar Clif bars a sponsor of the event will had provided specialized the bouncy ones diverges like it's those like shocks in it that's what we were gonna write we're gonna ride specialized diverges and we made sure to get there on Friday with enough time that we could dial in the bikes and go for a ride I really wanted to explore the surrounding area so then we went to the bike shop that we thought they would be at and they're like no we don't have your bikes you know they had probably have been shipped to the ski resort so we go over to where registration where the party's gonna be where everything is gonna be happening for this gravel right we get there and they're setting up everything like they have this hot making machine or you could make your own hats like you get these patches you put them on this hat and then they press them and then I try to be an innovator and just do all the patches I kind of collage thought I was gonna come out really good it didn't come out as good as as what was in my mind and they had like a farmers market a part of the event I mean just inside this like ski lodge there was just so much going on it was it was amazing there's a restaurant in there we kind of hung out in there for a little while waiting for our bikes to come we're waiting we're waiting waiting specialized lady tells us your bikes are in New York they're not here along with a whole other fleeted demo bikes from specialized so then we're like okay oh no and my coach is like you know Stretch Armstrong so he has to ride a 61 so we have like 61 bikes are really big bikes they're not common it's gonna be very hard to find one for him so one of the guys that works for Clif Bar he's on the phone with a shop so then he arranges bikes to come to us but they'll be here at like 11 o'clock at night that's not ideal but at least we have bikes right so we have a back-up plan but we have no bikes and I see Canyon I see Canyon out there unloading some Grails so I go over and I'm talking to Jeremiah Bishop I believe is his name and I was like dude I'm in a pickle I don't have a bike to race tomorrow I see you have a van full of them okay what can we do I was trying to get - there wasn't any sizes he didn't have all the sizes so I could only get one but I got one I got a Grail I was very big the freakin grill is a massive bike feels like a mountain bike without suspension so we head back to the haunted 200 year old house I start kind of fitting my bike for me for the canyon grill getting my pedals on there getting the GoPro on there getting the seat adjusted but I'm not very picky man I don't care it felt like a bike I loved it felt great we moved the haunted chair in the haunted baby crib out of our room so we're not haunted but do you see what we were moved out of here but you might have disturbed go both ways don't really piss them off but it also might save us okay Mike they might stay on out there now at least you guys won't have the horror of knowing it's coming it'll happen you know like things will start rocking beforehand new boots weird no just [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i me and Tony got to start in the very front and bro there was so many people I've never seen so many people it was crazy but we're like you know third row me right there on the front pouring rain it's freezing cold I am like not very confident in my setup or anything and I know I'm gonna freeze but like bro full set let's go we go down the road it's like a neutral roll out go through the town of Burke it's so cold I mean literally in the first minute I was like I can't feel my fingers already boy this is gonna be difficult and I had honestly been anticipating a very technical race it's just slopping through mud lots of hiking bike single trail that's what was in my mind so we're we hit basically where the race starts and everyone's kind of battling for position to get up front and we're on the road and did we're full gas I mean I have a power meter on but just on perception I would say we're probably doing something 300 to 450 watts for the first while everyone's trying to be up front everyone's trying to be up front and guys and I'm like dude this is this is intense now I downloaded the map to my wahoo so I can see the route and I can see the profile so I can I can see where climbs are but I don't know the terrain and that's the biggest part of it's the terrain you're on so we're going over the road and then finally we turn onto the first dirt road but I mean it's been pouring rain it's not really muddy to be honest I mean it's soft but it's not it's not technical it's not it's not difficult but man the front group of like 20 they started taking off and I when I look back on this I wish that I had had the wherewithal to go full gas and stay with that front group but I had no clue what I was in store for I had no idea I thought we were gonna be doing some serious technical stuff later on so I kind of wanted to save my energy I don't know dude I had no clue but for sure now I look back on it there was so much just you know this road or fire road you know that meant staying with a group like you roll so much faster as a group I should have been with that front group I should have bridged to them but I didn't so the front group goes and then me and like a couple guys are sort of stuck in no-man's land and then I ended up bridging to another little no man land group but the first day the first 20-30 minutes were just I mean you were oh did you it was very Fitness II not technical like you you had good fitness you're gonna be doing a lot better and also the bike choice even if you were on a fat bike or a bike with really big tires or your pressure was low you know dude you're it's such a huge disadvantage but my bike set up I had 60 psi and the tires I felt great I if it rolled good rolled fast so me and like two guys are chasing the front group and we hit the first really technical section super muddy you really got to pay attention to your line if you if you unclip it's so difficult to really get back on and going when the mud so sloshing it so then I'm thinking dude this is it like this is the rest of the race you know it's only 40 miles because 40 miles of it's like this then there's a whole section with like hard pack ice snow road so I'm trying not to ride on the snow because it's super snowy and slick so then I'm like in the gutter on the right it was so much fun though just so much mud and like crazy chaos and this is what I had been expecting is so much of this right where it doesn't really matter if you're in a group or not because it just all comes down to skill we get out of that section and then I don't know man for the rest of the race wasn't really anything else like that and now they did change the course last minute because of some of the roads were just so bad and so you know maybe they cut out some other technical sections but me and the two other guys were with ended up getting caught by a huge group of guys like 35 guys and I was like oh man I thought we were going fast and we just got caught by these guys so then we're like in a group of 35 and we're not really gonna catch the front group I think the front group was a couple minutes up the road but we are in a group that is racing maybe any other group behind us maybe they've kind of given up on racing they're just trying to survive but we're racing you know we hit climbs there's some like attacks or some efforts but the roads are not are not bad I mean for the weather conditions it's not it no big deal like anyone can ride this row bro we're climbing and we're climbing and we're climbing and it is starting to get really cold and then starting to snow and then we're getting closer and closer to the top as climbing bro it's just like we're forging our way to the north to defend the wall gets the white walkers who's coming [Music] into his going into his car [Music] oh that's alright I'm fine you're not you're freezing and it's just one of those things over it's like god this socks but you're also like god this is such a good story and this is epic and I I almost wanted to-- snow more just because i feel like we're going into battle it was very it was very very cool but it has been pretty much raining or snowing the whole time and so my gloves i would squeeze my gloves and water would just pour out and now we're gonna go downhill my fingers smoked to the point where I really feel like a lot of guys had to think I'm willing to cause permanent damage to my hands to stay with this group just keep keep on racing because out of like something close to 2,000 people you know we're we're top twenty to thirty top twenty to thirty five something like that it got so freakin cold that my like my brain wouldn't work it wasn't working I had to watch my hand shift because I couldn't feel anything so I was like yeah just like my whole arm just trying to shove the shifting there's nuts did but the other thing is I'm thinking it's only forty miles and like we're cooking like we're not I mean we're going pretty fast so I'm in my mind thinking bro like two hours three hours maybe I mean I that's not that bad right that's not that hard just get through this cold and so then we sort of get to maybe the last like ten fifteen miles of the race and there's a pretty good little climb and then there were some attacks that started to come out of that and that's when our group of like thirty five blew apart and I just barely made like the front six guys out of this group and I was in my head just thinking this is the race is the race like you've got to go you got to go you got to go so I got on their wheel and man they were so good at descending I could not feel my hands though so I didn't know how to like modulate pressure on the front brake so we got over this climb were flying down the hill I don't you know I might be full front break and I'm just gonna friggin send myself into Bucks Ville it's just very cautious on the descents I lost their wheel several times and so then I had to kind of like power back on get back onto the wheel but I felt great felt really good on on climbing and and fitness was was totally there because it's like either you're climbing and you're going pretty much as hard as you can or you're just surviving because you're freezing to death so I don't really know what place I'm in at this point but I can see on the profile what's coming up and I see there's a massive climb a super steep climb and then that's pretty much the finish we hit the climb and it pretty much just sort of breaks apart there there's like six guys to go pretty much up the road I tried to just settle in because it's such a long climb really tried to settle into a pace that I knew I could finish strong with there were signs along this final climb that was like remember you paid for this remember bikes are fun you know the quicker you finish the quicker there's beer and the finish is just right there but then it takes you on this left through a very technical section super muddy I plow through that but I'm just like I'm so cold and I'm kind of in no-man's land like I'm always always them and so then I kind of get off the bike and I'm pushing and I see the finish I'm like oh my goodness I'm so ready to be done and so then I come around like the last turn and this guy just all of a sudden from nowhere like bumps me up on the inside and and now it's like a two-up sprint to the finish for 25th and you nipped me at the line by half not even half a wheel like a bike throw it's crazy but he got me and so I got 26th out of whatever it was like 1,500 people we go guys the offside oh my god oh my god other okay hands are frozen hands are frozen here hi I'm frozen everything's frozen oh my god my feet are good I had Bella toes on actually everything about me was was decent it was just my hands completely numb so then I go into the bathroom and I turn on the water and I just stick my hands and in like what essentially be cold water like I didn't really put on the hot side it was ooze you know if you were just normally you'd be like oh this is pretty cold water but since I was so cold it felt like it was piping hot and I just stuck my hands in there and pretty much experienced very high levels of pain as I started to death ah I I was like it was so painful that I tried to walk around I kept walking around to get away from my hands because they were so painful but I couldn't get away from my hands so it's so funny because I'm just walking around like ah my hands but once you come out of that once you defy is that you're full of all this I hate life but when those feelings go away what's replaced is just pure joy and just like euphoria and so then they had some food which they did have a vegan option they had like this vegan bean thing that was really delicious they had french fries and they had some kind of vegan salad so like I was stoked I was eating that I had some coffee shivering uncontrollably though just shivering like a splashing coffee everywhere I was so frigging cold and this is after I'm like starting to warm up just my core body temperature just plummeted it was awesome like this erasers mechanical issues with their eyes was the hardest part it was harder last year a lot of guys lost their brakes like my coach Tony he lost his brakes as well and he had to try to fix him I didn't lose brakes I had no mechanicals whatsoever I didn't even bring a tube with me I just thought if if my brake bike breaks down food would you probably call it you know I'm not trying I'm not trying to fix my bike in the snow and the rain and the mud so but I didn't I had no issues the Grail has like a two bar setup I didn't really use the top bar very much I don't know it felt great it's a good bike is very beefy you know the Grail seems like more of a bike for single trail or some really aggressive gravel road not not just like farm roads the the area which this race is is phenomenal I'd love to go back there when it wasn't snowing raining mud cold because I bet it's just some of the best riding ever I will 100% be back next year and I will be looking for top ten for sure but if you're thinking about doing the Savannah I guess my takeaway is that it's honestly not as technical as maybe it it was made out to be I was very worried about that said that a few times oh there's in like two sections wasn't that bad there's a lot of climbing it's definitely a climbers thing but if you have if you have power if you have endurance it's not that bad it's just the weather it's just the elements so if I had really nice gloves on I might not have had any issues whatsoever right better gloves makes this whole event and whole experience ten out of ten but I really like this one Ross spotted SIA however you say it phenomenal event next time make it non snow but I don't know I almost feel like the fact that it was snowing just makes it's such an amazing event like that that is that is so much more a part of it is battling the elements also a huge thank you to my coach Tony for coming out and hanging with me will from Clif Bar for arranging this whole trip and getting me out there the rat's patoot SIA sorry if I'm butchering it yeah event phenomenal and Kanyon thank you for getting me a bike last minute dude what's funny is that what I got done as as soon as I cross the finish line the guy from Canyon like ran over was like pulling my stuff off the bike almost immediately right like they were they were like no extra miles is gonna be put on this bike they they took it back from me real quick house kind of open maybe that was let me take it home they did not they did not anyway this is my first gravel race is a proper one thanks for watching as always [Music] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: VC Adventures

Views: 227,928

Keywords: vegan cyclist, vegan cycling, health and fitness, bicycle riding, road bikes, cycling, bike racing, cycling tips, the vegan cyclist, go pro cycling, cycling go pro, bike hacks, cycling racing, tips for cycling, vegan athlete, cycling videos, cycling workouts, sufferfest cycling, gravel racing, gravel race, gravel bike, Rasputitsa, Rasputitsa Gravel Road Race

Id: UnRNDSscp5U

Length: 24min 53sec (1493 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2019