I used molten speed wax on force chains. My plan was to exchange my chain at the first aid station, which worked well.
I figure that I am going to have to replace my chain eventually anyway, so might as well have a second one for this event that will be ready to go when my current chain needs to be replaced. Although I did notice some rust on the new chain after the event, so I’m not sure if it truly survived the event. Wasn’t too noisy though.
My chain was pretty rusty after the event. I’ve cleaned it off as best I can. But I assume there’s rust where I can’t see it.
Totally agree with you on this - I was only calling out the claim that the name/website are misleading or that we have a personal responsibility to contemplate the name.
Yep. I will say I’m always surprised when people show up at races whether it’s a triathlon or gravel event or running event and it’s clear they’ve done little to no research beyond registering for the event.
The Internet never forgets, so even deleting the post isn’t going to put that toothpaste back in the tube. That reputational damage is done. I wonder how many riders factored that post into their post race survey? I know it influenced mine.
This is spot on!!
Measured the chain last night. Wear between 0.25 and 0.5%. So good to go back on the bike after a thorough cleaning.
I had a freshly Silca Hot Waxed chain on, and fresh hot waxed ready to go at each checkpoint. I swapped after getting my drive train cleaned at CP1 and it was like riding a new bike. (having my missing cleat replaced helped too.)
The first and second chain will be deep cleaned and may be demoted to training chains as I’ve got some training chains that are due to be trashed, so that works.
Why would they? Getting into a public debate with folks who clearly aren’t fans of this kind of event isn’t helping anything. And while they didn’t address the decision making process directly, Kimo’s comments to the media made it pretty clear that they didn’t re-route because that’s how this event rolls and they are going to stick to their formula. There are always arm-chair race directors second guessing how things should be done (amateur and pro races alike). They send a survey out after their races and that’s a much better way to get feedback rather than engaging debate on social media. Or speaking with racers directly. These folks are accessible and I spoke to Ben briefly after the race and gave him my take on the mud section. If they get to a point where the cycling community no longer likes their formula, I expect they will adjust, but I think Saturday’s race will drive more demand rather than reduce it. If you listen to this week’s TR podcast, I think Jonathon’s comments are a good measuring stick. He basically said that the challenging conditions on Saturday make him want to do the race more, not less. Again, that’s how many people seeking out these kind of events are wired.
Totally agree that mentioning the possibility of the re-route at the rider meeting added a lot of fuel to the fire. Not sure why they did that, but I suspect it’s so people wouldn’t be confused with navigation if they did decide to re-route (garmin would be showing off course for several miles).
I don’t think it was so much to do a tear off. It was more so that the mud would stick to the flaps and then the flaps would “throw” the mud off the bike. So to reduce build up.
I’m not sure a high level athlete like Jonathan is necessarily the correct measuring stick for gauging greater or less interest in unbound. Maybe it is but I don’t think so.
Lifetime should have clearly stated their criteria for rerouting prior to the race. “that’s how we roll” from Kimo after the fact is not clarifying anything. It’s just some dismissive HTFU message. I liked the race had lots of fun. But I don’t think lifetime’s dismissive response is the correct way to handle.
It’s pretty simple IMO. Just clarify their criteria for a reroute of that section. Not even acknowledging they should have done that is a mistake on my view.
And addressing the running out of water at the water oasis. It doesn’t matter if it was their fault or not. It’s their race they should at least state what happened. As far as I can tell I haven’t seen them address it.
this is the part people I know who raced on Saturday really were upset about. To get delayed into the heat for so long by all the hiking and then to get to a water oasis without any water was borderline dangerous for them. Mud adventures can be fun. Heat stroke is not.
Agree.
I did put in my survey that they should have been more clear in the rider meeting that the mud was going to be in. I really think that would have made a difference.
The water issue at Oasis 2 could have been way worse if the cooler temps and rain didn’t end up happening. If it had stayed hot like it was in the morning it could have led to some serious problems for more riders. When I passed through Oasis 2 there was no indication that water was running low either. I still had a full 2 liter pack, but I opted to refill my two 1 liter bottles as this was my “race plan”. Had I known they were running low, I might not have filled both. I did mention the water issue on my survey as that is an important one to address for future years.
Lifetime doesn’t owe a public explanation on the sausage making any more than any other company giving details on why their product works the way it does. There is no negligence here, just a choice not to change a route that had been published for over a month with clear disclaimers about conditions. It’s a no-win situation for them to get into a detailed discussion of how that discussion was made. I didn’t see anything wrong with Kimo’s comments, he basically said they believe in their product. There was nothing personally attacking about it. Some of the other interactions that got personal were unacceptable, but I assume those were not official communications from Lifetime. Maybe I’m wrong about that, I never saw what channel those came from. If it’s just a lifetime employee getting defensive on their own social account and making things personal, I won’t defend that individual, but that’s very different than an official statement from lifetime. If those personal attacks were on an official lifetime/unbound channel, they should absolutely own up to that and make an apology.
Not to downplay Jonathon’s abilities, but he’s an amateur cyclist with a family and full time job. I know really fast people who were unhappy about Saturday’s conditions and really slow people who absolutely loved the experience. I don’t know how much of this is personal mindset vs. background. Maybe if you are a MTB’r or have a lot of off road racing experience, Saturday’s conditions were a positive. If you’ve only done “normal” gravel races that are basically road races on dirt, the mud section was probably a slap in the face that you feel shouldn’t have been included the race.
Should make a poll asking whose signing up for 2024
A bit of a race report and some thoughts on my experience riding the XL course:
I rode pretty much the whole way with a good friend / training partner and it was a good decision to stick together. We were just trying to finish the thing. I could not go into such a long event planning to podium or stay with the lead group, etc.
We were targeting an IF of 0.65 and for the first couple hours we were both well over that pace, but it was good to see it and recognize that it was going to have to come down. I flatted at mile 20 so that was the point where I got dropped from the bigger groups and we pace the rest on our own.
People were really cool early on. A number of riders asked if I needed anything when I was repairing my tire. I did the same thing later and stopped around mile 40 to lend my pump to someone who had already exhausted their repair supplies (yikes!). It was unfortunate to see a few people shred tires and have to scratch early in the race.
We scouted the first gas station stop at mile 75 the day before and noted there was a water spigot behind the store as well as a Dollar General across the street to provide some other options if the gas station was mobbed. We filled bottles at the spigot and had plenty of nutrition to keep going to the second checkpoint at mile 151. It seemed like there were people who had support crews at the 151 mile gas station. I don’t really care, but it might be against the ethos of that event.
Once we got into the mud sections you could see some riders start to struggle and get frustrated. Though the mud sections did require some walking, stopping, cleaning bikes, I feel like a lot of people have exaggerated the amount of walking or how bad it really was. The main challenge was just staying patient and positive. I’m sure there were people who went out too fast and the fatigue likely contributed to the frustration. I was surprised to see later how many people abandoned the race prior to the 225 checkpoint. Some of the things I saw on Insta later didn’t align with our experience in the race. I expected it to be difficult and while the mud sections weren’t fun, we were both feeling good and just kept moving forward. What else you can do? It’s a metaphor for life.
During the evening and through the night we tried to help another guy who had wrapped his chain very tightly between his BB and cranks… like you have to pull the cranks off tight! Others were walking with broken rear derailleurs. We had no one to pick us up so we reminded each other to ride with care and take the time to clean the bikes when it was needed. I don’t know how to convert a geared bike to single-speed in the field.
Most of the non-mudded roads were fast rolling, the weather was great all night and there was full moon. It was a beautiful night and fun experience. Some of our lights died, but we had enough to make it until dawn.
One of our friends texted us in the morning that we were in the top 10. What? We saw the lead woman Kristen Legan at the last two stops (miles 271 and 315). She was really cool and not concerned about racing us. We were still in just finish mode, but at that point I was ready to paceline and get it done.
The pros doing the 200 started to pass us after to the gas station at 271. It was cool to see mid-race. The lead group of 7 or 8 had a big lead over an assortment of chasing groups. It got hot over the last 50 miles. The course was overlapping with both the 100 and 200 at this point so there were a lot of other riders on the course and a lot of people out encouraging the riders. That was cool to see. Someone gave us a Coke hand-up. I tried to thank everyone for coming out. People in Kansas are cool. I hope the positives of the event outweigh the negatives for them. I grew up in a tourist town so I know what it’s like to have your town invaded by people who aren’t all well-behaved.
We got a cold rain over the last 10 miles coming back into Emporia so it was chilly at the finish and we had to find a place to get warm. We ended up 6th and 7th place overall, around 26 hrs total, 23:11 ride time with 0.64 IF.
After a warm shower the weather cleared and the evening was again really pleasant. It was fun to have a beer and get some real food and enjoy the atmosphere with the other riders coming in. I wish I would have been able to stay down there later but I needed the sleep.
Gear-wise we both ran S-Works Pathfinders and had 3 flats between us. They were all pluggable and I had 12 dynaplugs on me, so plenty to spare. The pathfinders are nice riding tires, but might be a little on the thin side for Unbound. We carried one spare tire in case of catastrophic damage. My left shifter got jammed with mud and stopped working. I had to use the shifters on my aero bars for a while, but eventually it started working again. The Wolftooth chain lube was fantastic. I’ve never had strong opinions on chain lube, but this stuff really seems to last and hold up in poor conditions. I think I reapplied just one time during the ride.
All in all, it was a good experience. I doubt I will do the XL again, but I’m glad I did it this time.
I would disagree because they talk about the “Spirit of Gravel”, inclusion of all, and the gravel family. If that is part of your message to racers and riders, then those racers/riders don’t want a one way conversation. I feel like people are not asking for people to be fired or apologize, but just simply admit that mistakes were made on the day or they will elevate what could prevent the lack of water, etc… I’ve personal seen many RD do this at the races I have attended address racers concerns, because you want people to have a good experience. This is an expensive race that requires a lot of time dedicated to prepare for. I have only done it twice, but this year left a very bad taste in my mouth both from all the mud I swallowed and they way the are brushing/attacking the criticism. The attitude just rings of we are biggest around, so we don’t have to answer to anyone. Just my 2 cents.
Congratulations, that is huge ride and accomplishment!