Just trying to find other fellas who were out there this weekend and validate or not my opinion that organizers should have made us take gravel roads instead of the top-soil mud trails 3 + 8 miles sections they made us take.
I am of the opinion that 6+ hours of hike a bike straight is out of the range of what I signed up for, and that it’s the responsibility of the organizers to keep the race a bike race, and not an « adventure » hike a bike contest, but happy to hear counter arguments
it was a glorious first 200 miles, even with the rain and mud, a very enjoyable experience. But the added top-soil section was just totally unnecessary and 100% avoidable
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I rode it. I’m still processing it, to be honest, and need to think on this topic. It fucking sucked in every way, but then I guess I signed up for it? My mind is fried. Probably the part that was sktechiest was just the wild thunderstorm that hit us (my group sheltered in a barn.) Some quit to avoid screwing their bikes. I will be interested to see if they make changes, but I also guess it’s part of the game. The main challenge they face is that, if someone were to have been hurt, they could not get a vehicle down those roads
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So an order of magnitude less in terms of distance, but we have a gravel race here that does veer into farm fields and wooded areas. And there have been 1-2km of ankle deep chocolate frosting that destroys your bike and adds 40lbs of mud to it. And yeah, I’ve basically decided it’s stupidly unnecessary and am not doing it again. Easily bypassed with gravel roads.
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Yeah the morning storm sucked, thunder was hitting very very close and we didn’t have any shelter. Their rescue team was definitely undergunned, but unclear how capable 911 would have been would they have been needed.
I guess the « I signed up for it » part is where I feel the most split. And that’s interesting to hear your opinion. To me, it is outside of the range of expectations (and outside of anything i experienced in past editions of the XL) in the sense that #1 it wasn’t clearly enough communicated by the organizers at the Thursday meeting that we would potentially have hours and hours of hike a bike given their routing choices at 3pm on Thursday. And #2 I would have planned differently would I have known that (probably cyclocross tyres, bringing a strap to carry bike, mentally and operationally prepared for a 32+ hours ride instead of a 24h ish one, and delaying my return flight, etc…).
My opinion is that they should have decided to bypass that 12ish miles section of top soil trails on Xavier rd, and make us ride the gravel Yarrow rd parallel to it instead.
And to Scott’s point, that’s exactly it. Gravel bikes have become very capable, but no bike is made for going through ankle deep mud. If it is for few hundred feets at a time that’s fine. But purposefully picking an 8 miles long of it is not what a cycling race organizer should do. There was a guy riding a Salsa Fargo with 76mm clearance!!! He had 40mm tyres, and still, fully clogged up with mud and had to push/carry like everyone else. There is not a bike capable of handling that. It stopped becoming a bike race at that point.
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Guys riding mtb’s were basically pushing a sled. They’d find a creek and just tip them in to try and restore some functionality to the wheels and derailleurs. It just becomes a death march at some point and that’s not what I’m there for. It’s not supposed to be a Tough Mudder. I finished, great, I’m a hero. Then I had to undo the damage to my bike. No thanks.
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I agree. Lifetime has tremendous resources and popularity for this event. One might cynically argue that unridable sections serve as entertainment value, but there are real costs to amateurs. Spending significant money on registration, qualifying through the lottery, and then destroying bikes on deliberately chaotic terrain seems unacceptable.
Beyond equipment damage, I’m concerned about a public health dimension. Throughout the race, riders unintentionally ingest mud from farmland, which carries high concentrations of fecal matter. As a physician, the infectious disease risk from this exposure troubles me and deserves more attention from race organizers.
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I read these sorts of reviews and think I’m very glad I did my local grassroots gravel event (Gravel Cup R3G3) on Saturday morning instead. 168km/2750m of climbing. Lots of fantastic forest roads and nice gravel roads. Some good technical bits, a bit of sand. But the only thing requiring getting off the bike for were maybe 15 or so trees that blew down across the roads in a storm the night before.