How I learned to stop worrying and love the granny gear (Gravel Grovel 2012 Race Report)

Turns out, I’m not an endurance racer. Not that I didn’t already know that as the 6 hours of DINO was a pretty clear shot across my bow. But after Saturday’s Gravel Grovel, I realize I need to train more to ever hope of competing in these races.

But, despite this gloomy intro, I was fairly happy with my race overall. This year’s edition of the GG had a change in start line from the Maumee Boy Scout Camp to the Midwest Trail Riders Camp. This venue was conveniently located right of 446 which made for very easy access from Bloomington. Also different from last year was the weather. Saturday was partly cloudy but with temps in the mid 20s, with a projected high in the 30s. A slight change from last year’s 50+ temps. The course also changed slightly but the mileage was still set at 62. 

A view of the riders behind me at the start. Not sure why I didn't take a photo in front of me as well.

My weapon of choice was of course my mountain bike, only with the cyclocross tires I have been using of late as opposed to my standard Maxxis Ignitors.  My primary goal was to finish the race in under 5 hours. Luckily, my knee issue form earlier in the week was a non issue for the entire ride.

The roll out was fairly orderly and I was in the front half until the course hit a hard left turn onto  a slight hill and the first of the gravel roads at which point everyone freaked out. A few people hit the dirt, while some weren’t in the proper gear and lost momentum in the gravel and had to hike out of the traffic jam. I was properly geared and I stayed upright but I still got caught in the jam and had to dismount for a short run.

 The first hill was at the end of Hunters Creek Road, a straight up paved climb. Not too bad, and I managed to spin past several people. Once up on level ground  (Tower Ridge Road) many of these people I had passed caught me and there was some more loose pack riding leading to a turnaround at Todd Cemetery.

Just before the next turn south there was a short downhill followed by a slightly longer uphill. I proceeded with caution due to my skinnier than normal tires, and upon hitting the bottom of the descent I began to get a little squirrely and found myself drifting to the far right and onto the shoulder. Kind of a controlled drift, but still kind of uncontrolled because you know if you try to correct the drift too abruptly you will crash. I recovered but had drained my speed and was starting to go uphill. However, while focusing on not flying off the road, I had forgotten to downshift, so I hit the climb in a terrible gear and was forced to stop halfway and run. I lost the pace line I had been in and was passed by a few other riders including a tandem.

 The route turned south towards Hickory Church and followed some generally rolling terrain until hitting a sizable climb on the eastern side of the Maumee Boy Scout Reservation. This was followed by some pavement, then more gravel which took everyone back to the Tower Ridge Rd. This was followed by a descent down to Maumee Bridge.

Around this time I began to hate my cyclocross tires. Maybe they were rolling faster but I could nto tell. All I could tell was that they were sketchy on the gravel, shaky on the descents, and the ride was terribly rough, even with the lockout off on my Reba. Next time I will use my Ignitors and save the cross tires for…cross races!

Just before Maumee Bridge I ran into a rider pulled off on the side of the road. Usually if I see someone stopped I will slow down and ask if they are ok. If they have a tube out or are otherwise repairing the bike I figure they can help themselves. This guy was just standing eating a power bar. I slowed and asked him if he was ok, and he responded with the quote of the day: “Yeah, I’m just sick of all this gravel.” Amen to that. Crossing Maumee Bridge leads to Combs Road, the most mountain bike-ish section of the ride which includes a brutal climb. Liberal use of the granny gear allowed me to conquer that hill without walking.



Gravel Grovel self portrait. Still early in the race since I'm not
gasping for air yet.



Following Combs was the climb up Elkinsville Rd. hill which was just as bad as it has always been. Upon declining on the other side I was heartened to see that almost every rider coming back from Story was walking their bikes of the hill. Good, I wouldn’t be the only one walking when I come back that way. 

After that downhill was a flatish/windy section over to the Story Inn SAG stop. Following up on my pledge from the 6 Hours of DINO, I availed myself of a banana since I had felt some cramping start just after Combs. As I expected, it was terrible. BUT, I had no cramping problems for the remainder of the ride.  While at Story I called my wife to let her know my progress, loaded up on some snacks, and made a quick bathroom break, and was off again. Save for the hike a bike up half of the Elkinsville Road climb, the route out of Story was fairly uneventful. After crossing the Maumee Bridge the route went south of the scout reservation and followed Polk Patch Road to an intersection just north of the metropolis of Norman, Indiana. There was one large, and several slightly smaller hills in this area. Nothing to worry about, except the Forest Service had just laid brand new gravel along this section which made riding extrmely difficult.

I had been riding with another guy for a few miles through the aforementioned new gravel hell when I heard a tinkling sound coming from the back of my bike. I remarked that I thought I had a broken spoke and after listening for a second, he seconded my diagnosis. I rode for a few more minutes but began to worry the spoke might get caught up in the chain and foul up my drive train. I pulled over, and sure enough, broken spoke. I had a spoke wrench but for some reason I could not unscrew the spoke. I wrestled with this for several minutes before in my desperation seeing if I could bend the spoke to loosely wrap it around the spoke next to it. It would still make noise but at least it would stay out of my drive train. I tighten the adjacent spokes a bit and took off. About 10-12 minutes had been wasted and I had been passed by about 5 riders.

Crossing my fingers the rear wheel would hold I continued and eventually arrived at the Hickory Church SAG. As I rode by a volunteer he said six miles left. I gritted my teeth and accelerated into the best section of the course which consisted of smoother than normal gravel roads (sometimes almost a dirt road), short easy elevation increases, and then a rapid descent to a flat valley section leading to the finish line. I was pushing hard and was at 18-19 mph almost the entire time.

I came into the finish line with a time of 5:08. So much for my sub 5 hour goal. I had a feeling I would not make it, even with the speed in the last 6 miles. But, if you consider the time I spent trying to deal with my spoke I would have likely been well under the 5 hours. Ah well. That is life. Once again, despite a mid ride hate thought (just like last year) that I was never going to do this race again, I had a great time and will come back for more. The post ride food was great as always, although next year  I hope Yats serves Chili Cheese Etoufee.

I was hoping to win a few door prizes, but the awards ceremony which was supposed to start at 3:30 did not start on time and my wife and I had to leave at 4 to get back to Indy to get our dogs out of the kennel. Too bad, since there seemed to be a relatively small crowd hanging around for the awards and I liked my chances.

Full race results may be found here. Looking at some GPS tracks of the race it appears there was just over 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Not a  bad day in the woods. Except for a cross race next week I have no more races until sometime next year. I’m flirting with doing the Sub 9 Death March for a second time, and I’m also thinking of trying out the Barry-Roubaix race in my old stomping grounds of Michigan. Sounds like a fun race.