Last February and March I competed in my first gravel races. The Rock Crusher in Ackerman and the Bentonia Burner in, well Bentonia where each about 100 miles and roughly 80% gravel. I DNFed in Ackerman. The first 50 mile lap took over 4 hours (partially due to a wrong turn and an extra 6 miles), and I simply wasn't prepared to ride 9 hours that day. Also, the field only consisted of about 8 riders and got completely strung out in the first 5 miles, so it just didn't feel much like a race. After the first lap I opted for an additional 25 mile loop just to get in some extra miles. But overall, I had a pretty good time and that's all I was really after. Bentonia was a few weeks later, and I was prepared to redeem myself. It was a single loop with no real option to bail out. I got pretty tired and hot after about 80 miles. I knew I needed to eat more but wasn't all that hungry due to (I think) eating too much peanut butter and other slow digesting foods. Next time I'll opt for more quick energy during the race. But finish I did, reasonably exhausted after 6.5ish hours.
Both of these races were done on the Inbred single speed, running 38x17 in Ackerman and 38x16 in Bentonia which worked well, along with some wide/flared drop bars, the legendary Brook's saddle, and my home-made frame bag. I think this was a great setup, and yet, I still find myself wanting a gravel/cross bike. Would a gravel bike be easier? No. Would it be more fun? Not really. Would it be faster? Eh, a little, but who cares? Will I eventually get one anyways? Maybe, depends where I live next and how much gravel is nearby. There's a lot of gravel around Oxford, but getting to it requires a lot of paved roads which aren't much fun on a mountain bike, single speed or otherwise. Additionally, gravel isn't much fun on a road bike with 25mm tires. So I would certainly use one here if I had one. But this raises another concern. I currently use each of my bikes roughly equally: since using Strava, I've put 3600 miles on the road bike, 2600 on the full suspension, and 2400 on the single speed. The addition of a gravel bike would probably mean my road bike would gather dust and may only get used for the occasional group ride.
Endurance racing (and racing in general), for me, has never been about beating the other guy but about testing my own limits. It's always a personal challenge to see how far and how fast I can go. And that, I think, is one of the fundamental differences between roadies and mountain bikers. Road racing is about winning; mountain and gravel racing is about finishing as fast as you can. Others may see things differently. In any case, I look forward to the next round of gravel.
