For those of you interested in the Dirty Kanza 200 gravel race, here is some race footage from the start of 2017 with my power file overlayed on top.
My first race was in 2016 and I did terrible after my bike broke at mile 6. Between the two races I learned a lot and hope to share that knowledge here on this forum.
That looks like a blast! What tires are people running? Look like fat road tires?
I ran Panaracer GravelKing SK 38s. Tire selection is the single most important choice you make. Need to balance weight and puncture protection.
Looks like a lot of fun. I read the SK tire goes up to 60 PSI. On these races, do people have any suspension?
The top finishers do not. It’s rough for a gravel race, but the weight and wind resistance from a suspension setup would outweigh the benefits.
Normal PSI for this race is below 40. Tire selection and PSI are super tricky. The gravel is flint rock. It’s like riding on arrow heads.
Thanks for sharing Drew! I didn’t make the cut for the event this year, fingers crossed for next. I’m not worried about the distance as I have that endurance, but you wouldn’t expect that elevation in that area. All my friends that have ridden say that and tire/psi combo is are the big gotchas . Looks like people were hammering up those rises. Nice work man!
ya - pretty cool to see the numbers. For the first 6 hours of this race I rode harder than I’ve ever ridden for a 6 hour ride. After 6 hours things started to settle in. After 8 hours people started to implode. For the last 3 hours it’s just grindo and everything hurts.
Hopefully I’ll see you out there in 2019.
Drew
Yea, thats the plan. We might take a trip this year, just to ride some of it. We have some good Gravel stuff here in the Carolina’s into Tennessee. I totaled my gravel bike in a crash last month. Waiting on a replacement.