For the past two years, I have faced injury or illness before my singular “A” race. This year, I was not going to allow that to happen. The result? I made a family race calendar very early, and each of us threw our names on a variety of events.

I’m not done yet, but my primary race events are now all complete and I had a great day for each. That’s right — three for three!

Pavement Ends

Henniker, NH (April 12) — An unforgettable one. Any outdoor event in early April up this way is a gamble and this race “lost” that gamble in a big way. On the way down the sky began falling. By the time we began there was a minimum of 3″ snow and by the time we ended? Closer to 6″ in spots.

Attendance overall was weak, I was properly attired, but there is no escaping a few hours biking in snow. FRIGID.

Fortunately, mountain bike tires are all the rage for rough gravel and I was going to give that a shot this season. Most bikes can’t fit them, but mine can! It was an incredible advantage as I finished ahead of folks who would beat me handily in the following races. Regardless of the traction advantage, the day was mostly about staying upright. There was a lot of walking and a lot of falling, but fortunately it was into soft snow. I only went down once, but the number of times I lost traction on my front tire? Countless.

They did end up forcing everyone to the “short” course, which I initially was bummed out by, but by the finish it was clear that was the right move.

GPS – 30 miles, 4652 feet, 33 degrees felt like 25, 248w weighted power
Results – 2:32, 9th in age group, 21st overall

Guilford Gravel Grinder

Guilford, VT (July 6) — What a difference a few months makes! This race couldn’t be more different than the last. Hot, humid, super smooth gravel and terrain nearly identical to home – I would be in my mind’s comfort zone, but perhaps not the best for my body (lots of climbing).

Not too much to say here. I had a good ride with an incredibly strong finish. My placing was much worse than the previous race, but I think that was mostly because other people finally had traction.

I unfortunately couldn’t find myself a good pace group as it was just too lumpy. Either I was way too strong for the folks around me on the flats and too heavy on the hills (both up and down).

GPS – 40.7 miles, 5079 feet, 88 degrees, 258w weighted power
Results – 2:42, 22nd in age group

MAINEly Gravel

New Gloucester, ME (August 9) — One that suits me! “FLAT”! I wish I had done some amount of recon to know that beforehand, but ultimately it probably didn’t matter.

This turned out to more or less be a road race that happened to be on gravel. 19+ MPH on the day, rotating pace line for a lot of it, the winner was on a road bike and 32C tires. Bonus: the final 3 miles were pretty much cyclocross in some woods. Great memories.

There was a 13-mile neutral start, which was insane. Following that some small bumps, which broke us apart a bit. Had I done better recon I probably would have tried harder to stay attached to something faster, but I found myself in a group of about six that grew to 10-15 as the day wore on and folks dropped back to us.

I took my share of pulls at the front, especially early on, but once it was clear these were the folks I was finishing with and when I didn’t feel like I had much left to contribute to our overall pace, I tucked in and spent 15 miles in Zone 2 (barely breathing more than normal).

With around 10 miles to go we came to the only significant collection of hills on the day. I was feeling alright, had pretty much been resting for the past hour, and had a good idea of the power I could put down for the next 30 minutes. I moved to the front of the pack just before the climb, carried my speed into it, didn’t go too hard, but also didn’t back off, and found myself with a gap! This was surprising because likely being the heaviest rider in the group I had been yoyo’ing off the back at every climb all day, but with mass comes a bit more energy in the stores, and I suppose it was time for that to come into play.

Halfway up the climb, the fellow I had recognized as likely the strongest came up to me, made a joke about being Simon Yates, and we continued powering on. By the top of that climb (only about 10 minutes) and into the next we turned back and found ourselves alone. He was a much better climber than me (probably 30lbs lighter) and suddenly I was also alone… I never saw the group again.

Following that set of hills was some solid downhill in which I caught that guy and several others who had clearly gassed themselves riding with a group too fast.

In the final wooded section I had mentioned above, that fellow caught back to me and put in a nice gap. I was happy with where I was going to finish and let it happen, but regardless that probably meant I didn’t have enough to beat him.

Ultimately, I ended up putting 2-3 minutes on the group I was with, which felt awesome.

GPS – 55 miles, 4029 feet, 74 degrees, 261w weighted power
Results – 2:51, 15th in age group

The Triple Crown

It is done! I was healthy for not only one race, but THREE! As you may have seen, my weighted power also increased with each race so my fitness is coming along.

Despite the races being quite a distance from home, they were really well done and I loved facing the stiffest competition New England has to offer. Overall a great experience.

An added bonus to them being far away is that we were able to make a family weekend out of one of them – a long weekend spent in Portland, although I’m not sure how much sharing a bed with a toddler helped me perform.

I ended up 5th of 15 in my age group of folks who did all three races. Depending on how you do things, that’s a podium 😏

The biggest surprise over the course of the series was how well I closed out each event. I don’t know if it is experience telling me to “negative split,” or knowing my heart rate and power capacities a bit too well, but I was super strong and making loads of passes over the final hour of every one of these rides.

I do think I have my nutrition pretty dialed after over a decade of multi-hour events so that’s a bonus as well. So… knowing my body, good nutrition, … equipment?

My Lauf Seigla does not feel fast. It has front suspension, I have beefy tires on it (did swap to 48C after the first race — I simply haven’t been doing enough gnarly stuff), and I struggle to set my best times up local hills since having hung up my old racy/light/fast cyclocross bike for gravel duty, but with that comfort perhaps comes fatigue resistance? It is hard to measure, but I feel so many fewer bumps than my competition and that all equates to energy spent… I think the bike matters and I’m so sold on it.

Will I do the series again next year? Yeah, probably… hopefully, although I know Rebecca is champing at the bit.