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It was a full time job trying to keep the camera lens clean, which I was able to do for 95% of it!
The Waterloo G&G was a gravel race held in Grass Lake, MI on April 27, 2024. I raced the 100k version which consisted of 2 laps of approximately 30 miles. The rain the morning of made this a bit of a sloppy mess in places. My glasses were constantly getting covered in mud, along with everything else which made it all more of a struggle.
The race started off as well as it could considering the conditions. However, at 00:08:54, a rider turned into me with his handlebars hitting my hip. Luckily he bounced off me and watching the rear camera he narrowly was able to stay upright. I was able to hold onto the front group up until the first significant climb. At around 00:22:00 as the grade went up to 12% and sustained power over 450w for minutes, I thought it wiser to back off a bit and settle in. With over 55 miles remaining in the race, I wasn’t confident enough to stay with the front group and not blow up mid race. Eventually a couple miles later a small chase group developed 00:29:00. We worked really well together in this group of about 6 riders, as we gained a few and lost a few along the next 30+ miles.
Unfortunately, early into lap 2 the mud had caked and dried into my drivetrain, forcing my chain off the front chainring 02:03:15. I tried to quickly put it back on but the mud prevented it from seating properly. It took me over a minute to figure out what was wrong, clear the dried mud and get going again. Fortunately no one passed me, but I lost my group of 6 and I was in no man’s land all by myself. I pressed on but a couple miles later realized I had a front flat 02:14:35. The flat took another minute to fix and that was the final straw. My spirit to race dwindled knowing I had 20 miles to go into a 15mph headwind by myself. After about 10 minutes I could see someone was trying to bridge to me, so I eased off the pace even more and he caught up at 02:30:50. We worked together for a while until he cracked. I came into finish alone with no one in sight and a very soft front tire with only 16 psi when I checked it after the race.
In the end I finished 16th overall. I felt like I had a top 10 in the legs today and had a shot at it were it not for my mechanicals. However, that’s racing, happy with my effort and on to the next one!
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