Diaries #2: Racing Craziness and Next Stop California

From the GravGrav back to the Road.

Apr 09, 2024

It’s the morning after the race day before. I’m currently in the passenger seat of the DNA Pro Cycling van, en-route to Redlands Cycle Classic in California.

Yesterday, I raced the Belgian Waffle Ride (BWR) Cedar City. It was one hell of a day out. BWR courses are characterised by never having the correct bike. You’re always over-biked, or under-biked. There were parts that I wished I had a road, or even a TT bike, there were other parts that a full suspension MTB would’ve been better suited. That’s the beauty of this race series.

This article is going to be a race report mixed with privateer diaries. I’m en-route to Redlands and in my role as Team Director//Rider while riding for GC at the race, I think I’m going to be pretty short of time next week.

Note - I’m just editing this the day before Redlands, I’m very short of time this week!!

There was no hiding that the course didn’t suit me. To start with, it was at altitude, and historically I’ve always sucked at altitude. The goal of this race was mainly to see how I went physically at the 2000m of elevation point. I’ve previously avoided races this high, and if I was okay in this one, that maybe it’s something I’ll look at in future.

Though, if I’m honest, altitude wasn’t my biggest fear, it was the thirty minute single track which was going to be the race’s deciding factor. It was rocky, it was sandy, it was twisty, it was off-camber, it was slow, it was fast, it was an absolute nightmare for a rider like me who has no MTB experience.

My background is in dual carriageways and TTs, not single tracks!!

The race was a funny one. To start off with, it was bloody freezing. There was snow on the start line and a feels like temperature of negative four. There’s no surprise that kit choice was the main topic on everyone’s agenda. The organisers shortened the course a few days before due to the inclement weather, they also moved the start time back by 2hrs. I was grateful when my alarm went off at 7am to wake up, rather than it being stood on the start line.

There was a head-cross wind for a majority of the opening 60km. It split once, but none of us in the front were motivated to ride into a block headwind so we all sat up and chatted. It was like a road race after the break had gone, actually quite pleasant.

DNA Pro Cycling, my girlfriend’s old team, were the MVPs of the first half of the race, they saved my arse with a bottle. After 15km or so, I looked down and noticed that my front bottle was missing. This was a pretty large issue as that was my “super charged” bottle with 90g of carbs. I’d organised with Cathy, DNA’s team owner, for her to pass me up a bottle at the final feedzone if I needed it, but told her I’d probably be okay as I’m pretty self sufficient in gravel racing.

As soon as I realised my bottle was missing, I took my phone out and texted her: “Lost Bottle. Need at FZ2.” - the team were life savers, I took the bottle in hand with a smile and a thanks.

I was chasing my tail for most of the day. It was relatively chill for that first 60km thanks to the wind, but once we turned left onto the double track, it was carnage. It was on that left-hander where I decided to crash myself out too. There was a pretty steep up-and-over cattle grid which I decided was the best line. The only issue was I came into it too slow. There was a bit of a bottleneck and I just didn’t carry enough speed. I put my foot down to save it, but it was a cattle grid and my foot had nowhere to prop itself. I went head over the handlebars.

Bar a dead leg, the only thing that hurt was my pride. It was a dumb crash, when I stood up to gather myself I saw the whole race was taking the left line through the open gate, that would’ve been the easier option. I dust myself off and as I look into the distance I see the front group taking off. “For fucks sake, race gone”, I think to myself. I flip into the “monkey just pedal” mode and set out chasing.

While it’s never ideal as it means you’re on the back foot, there’s something pretty fun about riding through groups when you’re chasing. I reckon I was in group seven or eight after my tumble, there was a lot of work to do. We were on double track too, making passing pretty hard.

I grafted through group after group, and eventually hit the third group on the road. This was full of people I knew, and thought it’d be a good ‘home’ to work with. I was feeling good, great in fact and went to the front to drive it. I looked back after a minute or so and everyone was gone.

“Damn I must be on a good day”, I think

I crack on after the second group on the road. I knew I was never catching the lead group, but finding a spot in the first chase group would’ve been a nice compromise after the crash. I catch them on entry to the first single track after a bloody long chase. I managed to just hold on through the first single track but I knew my days were numbered going into the second one just a few minutes later.

The second single track section was the thirty minute beast I spoke about earlier. Looking back I lost almost four minutes in this section. Granted, I got lost twice, and I had to jump off my bike once to fix my rear mech after a tree got stuck in the jockey wheels. But, I was embarrassingly bad there.

Justin’s video, around the 2h25min mark, shows the single track.

It was bonkers, and I was just happy to see the thing end!!

I get out the other side in a small group and we crack on riding. We’re heading into a cross-head wind and I’m feeling good. We’re driving the chase, knowing that we’re miles down but if we get straight on then we’ll catch up stragglers along the way.

We’d pass broken men here or there, they’d try to jump on the back of us but we were MOVING. We hit the final climb, and I see the first chase group which I got dropped from all those kilometres ago in the single track. Would’ve been a much easier day if I could have just stayed with them, I thought…

We push on up the climb to catch anyone left who’d been dropped out of the front, then a group of 5 of us roll in racing for 15th place. There’s the odd person being a little annoying. Skipping turns claiming to be tired and then putting in attacks, I mean come on, we’re jus trying to get to the line at this point.

Somebody puts in a stupidly early attack, I hop on their wheel and use it as a launch pad for the sprint, finishing in 15th place. Not a great result, but okay enough. I know where I’m lacking.

It’s a quick pack up, so quick that I even forget to grab the famous Belgian waffle you get after finishing, as it’s straight on the road with the DNA squad. We’re staying in Vegas overnight before heading to Redlands. I’d have loved to go out and experience the Vegas life, and if I was with the boys I probably would have done. Instead, we settle for a drink in the hotel bar and an early night, what a day.

—

Writing this, my brain is a blur. I have the post-race monkey brain, mixed with analysing how to get better at single track mixed with trying to figure out the logistics for Redlands. As I type, four of the road team are sitting in LAX, about to head to the race too.

Once everyone gets to the race, we’ve got to do a big shop, build bikes, we’ve got a new team kit to launch tomorrow, then I’ve got to go to Directors meetings, sign the team on, we have a school visit organised and a whole lot more. There’s headache after headache everywhere I look!

We’re a couple of hours out of Redlands as I write this, and I’ve got a whole concoction of emotions inside of me. There’s the happiness with how I’m riding physically, and then the pure frustration of being weak technically. There’s the pride that the whole privateer project is working, and the excitement that I want to keep cracking at it, and that there’s so much room for improvement. Then on the road side, there’s the underlying stress that I’ve forgotten something, and that I’m kinda responsible for the whole team, there’s the nervousness that it's actually finally happening and again, there’s that sense of pride that we’ve pulled it all together.

I mean, bloody hell, I’m looking forward to getting on the start line and pedalling on Wednesday - that’s the easy part, monkey just pedal!!

Trip Stats So Far:

Days on the Road: 29
Beds Slept In: 8
States Visited: 8
Race Days: 3
Good Cafes: 3

Next Races:

April 10th-14th: Redlands Cycling Classic, California - Road
April 20th: Sea Otter Classic, California - Gravel
April 25th-28th: Speedweek, Georgia - Road

Joe Laverick

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