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My first gravel race of 2024. Still getting over an illness and bringing in a bit of fatigue, but felt decent enough on race day. Start went ok, but took a bad turn around 15:30 minutes in, got gapped off and just couldn't slip into the draft to stay with the lead group. Sat up and settled into the chase group, but my early efforts had me struggling. Not to mention, I've had little of these efforts in my training up to this point. I almost lost this chase group on numerous occasions and was happy to be able to hang, but just barely. Ended up 4th in my age group and 28th overall. I didn't realize 2nd and 3rd in my AG were in my group and I lost them up the last hill. I was able to to just win out my 2 up sprint. Happy with my effort considering, was a big improvement from last year and a good start to the race season.
Somehow external battery didn't do it's job, so was only able to record the first half of the race before the battery ran dead. I'll have to get that sorted out going forward.
The Dirty 30 Gravel Grinder is a gravel race that takes place in and around Saranac, MI, just east of Grand Rapids, MI. The race was held on Saturday, April 13, 2024, and is the second race in the Michigan Gravel Race Series (MGRS). The Unclean 16 is part of the Mini Course MGRS Series. The STS Bicycles Dirty 30 is part of the Short Course MGRS Series. The Filthy 50 is part of the Long Course MGRS Series. The XDirty 130 is part of the Ultra Course MGRS Series.
I raced the 50mi version as part of my season in the MGRS long course series. Race conditions were pretty good considering how much rain the course got in the previous days. On this day it was mostly sunny, lower 50s and the roads were dry. Although the roads were dry, they were littered with potholes and braking bumps. I was a bit over dressed and was sweating quite a bit, particularly on the hills.