Gravel Ride of the Week: Stokesville Strade Gravel Grinder
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It’s gravel racing time! Oh yes, as the weather begins to turn and the world slowly reopens for business, so too the gravel riding scene is returning to normality. I finally got to reawaken my competitive side when I lined up at the start of the Stokesville Strade Gravel Grinder, Virginia’s very own version of the famous Strade Bianche race. Along with a few other hungry-for-racing riders, I got the opportunity to race around a 100km (62mile) mixed surface course that tested not only my fast bunch riding skills, but also my gravel handling skills. Rolling hills and intense winds made this an exciting, yet extremely challenging ride. Let’s take a look at how this day unfolded.
The Stokesville Strade Gravel Grinder started at the Stokesville Campground, which sits just outside of Bridgewater, Virginia. Tucked away at the base of the mountains, this campground is well-known for its involvement with the local cycling scene. Not only is it surrounded with great gravel roads, but the property itself contains lots of MTB trails that can satisfy all of the off-road riding desires that one might have. The Stokesville Strade Gravel Grinder would not include any of the trails, but instead consisted of a lap along some of the country roads in this area. The course for this event contained a good mix of both paved roads and gravel roads and took riders around a loop of about 31 miles (~50km). The longer distance event covered this course twice, giving riders the opportunity to complete a metric century on the day.
Lining up at the start felt strange in some way, especially given the long time since I was last able to compete in a race. The start grid did look a bit different and wasn’t the normal pile of riders that usually line up at the beginning of a mass start race. Instead, the organizers opted to enforce some form of social distancing, which spacing cyclists out along one long procession. Numbers based on the order in which participants registered were pinned to the ground, indicating where to queue up. This system served well to achieve its social distancing goal, but it would have worked much more safely and smoothly to base the order on each riders’ anticipated pace for the day. I was positioned 70+ riders back on the grid, a gap that I would have to frantically close once the gun went off.
Frantic it was indeed! Riders were clearly super eager to get back into gravel racing and started with guns blazing. The pace could not have been any more intense during the first part of the ride, with the average speed over the first 5-6 miles hovering around 29 mph / 47 kmh. With my 36T front chainring, I found this tempo to be well outside of my gear range and I was left spinning like mad to keep up with the front group. I was burning way too many matches early on in this race - something I would pay for later on!
As we hit the first gravel section, I could feel that the fast start had pushed me into the red - something that would catch up to me later in the race. Not only was it the first gravel sector, but it was also the part of the course where the road surface was in the worst shape. Bottles went flying and chains were dropping! The elastic finally snapped, and I could no longer keep up the constant efforts to stay near the front. I simply had to back off and settle into my rhythm.
At least the beautiful Virginia countryside still provided amazing scenery, even as I slid back in the field, while looking for a wheel to grab on to. I was, at least, not the only one battling with the sudden accelerations as riders scrabbled to get over the rolling hills. I eventually regrouped with a few other riders who had also fallen off the front group and this provided some much-needed shelter against the relentless head wind along the open roads.
Unfortunately, on a fast downhill containing lots of loose gravel (my biggest nemesis in gravel racing), I once again lost contact with the group and was spit out the back. The remainder of my race would consist of getting into a small group of riders and then getting dropped... again and again! I was certainly paying for the intense efforts that I put in at the start of the event.
Towards the end of the second lap, I found myself in a small group that I could keep up with while going over the last climb. However, I had to make a quick pitstop to swap out the GoPro battery. This made for an entertaining finish to my ride when I decided to chase back the group with whom I’d lost contact. I was putting in everything I had left in the tank as I jumped from one group to the next, trying to make up lost ground. After about 4.3 miles (~7Km) of chasing, I eventually caught back up with the group that I was with before the battery swap. Be sure to watch the highlights video to make all my efforts worth the while!
The last challenge of the day came in the form of the steep uphill going into the Stokesville Campground. One last big effort was required to see this one through. As I rolled across the finish line, I felt a weird mix of emotions. There was the usual sense of accomplishment and satisfaction of having completed the ride, but at the same time, there was a realization that I was no longer in the shape of my early twenties when I could easily hang with the front of any race. Taylor Swift might be feeling 22, but I surely wasn’t at the end of that race! There are at least a few key lessons/take-aways that I can build upon before the next race: 1) It’s early season and race fitness will return with more opportunities, 2) My gearing needs to change if I want to hang with a fast-moving bunch and 3) Pacing is key - once you hit the red zone it’s very hard to come back.
Overall, the Stokesville Strade Gravel Grinder was a great experience and it felt so good to be back in a competitive environment. Iron sharpens iron. I’m sure that as the racing calendar continues to open up and more opportunities present themselves to rub shoulders with better racers, my performances will only improve. Watch this space!
- Wiehan
