(this ride and report for Rasputitsa is about two weeks late and old. almost threw this one away, but #KEVIN from New England Devo asked me to finish this, which as desired #content puts this as a better than average website I guess???)
(thanks for the encouragement, #KEVIN . we should do this event together next time)
There are a couple of factors involved to inspire me to write about bike racing:
-The “epic-ness” involved, the good and the bad
-How unique the experience was. Which is getting harder to feel after doing *checks notes* two hundred and forty-ish race starts
-The Value Added to me
Photos are also an important factor, but in narcissistic age of social media, that’s kind of a given. Photo by Mark Washburn
Last point is a special word I use a lot in my bike life and professional life. It’s what comes after all of the diligence and technical attention to detail is done to make something worthwhile and special to someone. Professionally, it’s basically a quality Customer Support and Attention attitude. In bike life, it’s… basically a quality Customer Attention experience. If I want answers or a physically rewarding experience, there’s Google and free workouts to utilize. To justify the business value of my job, it’s important that want me specifically to help them. To justify paying for a bike race entry, I want to make certain I get something from specifically attending that event. The minimal justification for a bike race entry is groups of people to race against, a recorded result and whether do I feel like competing hard enough to earn the post-race beer
Sprinter_Krampus highlights it nicely in his piece here, on the nature of training and lining up to race to challenge yourself . Challenging your physical self is the absolute best feeling. I get from weight lifting, rock climbing, hiking, even simple yoga poses. They’re all ways of feeling the edge of my physical and mental limits. None of that though compares to pining on a race number and lining up against the clock and others. I’ve done it enough that it’s almost second nature and routine, and it’s so easy to get excited as race day approaches
Which is half the reason why I was willing to wake up at four AM to drive three hours in the rain to the top of a Vermont mountain in the literally freezing rain to ride a gravel ride, for free
Me trying to be clever and preriding my guess of the course one week beforehand. This is sixty degrees in mid-April
Every January the New England Bike Racing Association (NEBRA) invites race promoters and bike advocates for a day-long summit meeting. It’s advertised as an open forum to help cultivate the bike racing season for riders everywhere. In reality, it tends to turn into a shouting match between grown men having a *checks notes for actual quote*, “promoter dick-swinging contest” as everyone gets agitated about how high costs are and how few riders there are every year. An example of this is the churn rate: The percentage of new riders in the total pool of racers is sixty. The average number of years a bike racer stays in the sport is three years. Those are awful numbers to build a sports community and grow activity involvement. To highlight, here’s the Live Tweet Thread Judge_Upgrade_Plz asked me to type up the meeting minuets at this year’s summit
In an effort to make the discourse more productive this year, Judge_Upgrade_Plz invited Happy_And_Mocha to this year’s summit. Happy_And_Mocha are a unique fixture in New England, because most event promoters:
-Are USA Cycling Certified* races
-Have at most four hundred racers
-Maybe profit a couple thousand dollars. Easily can lose the same amount, depending on the weather or calendar conflicts
Whereas Happy_And_Mocha have:
-A non-USA Cycling Certified* event
-Has grown to over a thousand riders
-Can’t even imagine their budget but they talk about donating twenty thousand dollars to charity after expenses
*anyone that’s wondering what’s the point of being USA Cycling Certified, it basically the national governing body that officiates competition to build the pipeline of elite bike racing, nationally and internationally
Wrote a separate Live Tweet Thread about their part of this year’s summit. There’s a lot of volatile feelings associated with Happy_And_Mocha coming to NEBRA Summit. It absolutely pains me that two bright and cheerful individuals who- by all understandable means have enough going on that they don’t need more stress- had a difficult reception coming to what’s effectively an Old Boy’s Club. New England’s bike race promoters have been doing things the same way for a very long time; at best any change could be a lot of work, and at worst it’d be taking risks they can’t afford. Happy_And_Mocha both knew it was going to be that way, and as a gesture of good faith they offered everyone in the room a free entry fee into their event. Being paid to race my bike? Makes for a good second half of a reason to go. As far as I know, I was the only one in the room that ended up taking up on that offer
I mean, how bad could it be?
Believe this style of picture is called “Bike Racer Dress Up”
Had a lot of fun prepping for Rasputitsa. I’m no stranger to riding hard and bad weather, but a gravel ride is different in the sense of variable terrain surfaces and minimal pack riding. A bike race can be really dependent on drafting and team tactics and neutral support. A gravel ride is basically survival on two wheels and whatever the event promoter throws at you: You’re on your own for finding the fun and challenge. So, for me it was getting to pick tire and clothing choices to slog. Did a reconnaissance ride slash finding adventure on Off-Fridays the week before on 38mm tires. The dry conditions and frozen ground was fast- thought I’d then chance to go narrow on 31mm tires, adding bike handling experience to add speed and risk flatting. Reasoning was even with rising temps and rain, the frozen ground would hold and this would basically be a fast ride against the weather.
I’m no stranger to racing in bad weather, but these are all new factors I get to fiddle and work with. That novelty alone made taking that free entry very satisfying to me
You can watch the elevation gain/loss and grade percentages to realize this is what the promoter can “throw at you”
Weather being a factor at Rasputitsa 2019 turned out to be a large understatement. With an hour to go to the start, the parking lot was getting pelted with hail and rain. At the start line, it was maybe forty degrees- high likelihood that the weather could change to snow. The permafrost beneath the dirt roads was still frozen enough that everything was sliding off the road and raising the river level. Ever noticed how it get’s cold when you move by a river in the woods? That was everywhere on course, which created pockets of cold air whenever the road dipped down
It’s nearly May, but anyone that lives north of Massachusetts knows the weather in New England does whatever it wants, seasons and sensibility be dammed. At least this made clothing selection easy: One foul weather jacket, one set of fleece long bibs, winter boots and gloves. Also broke open six chemical warmers for my hands, feet and hips, and wore nylon gloves underneath my riding gloves
Me feeling very not-clever. This is thirty-five degrees with rain/hail/snow in Late April. Photo by Katie Busick
I still can’t tell if any of that made a difference. The rain got everywhere, the roads were so steep for 36x28 gearing, and the cold was bad. We’re talking about a hundred racers quitting halfway through and getting driven back to the start kinds of cold. Of course that’s on them for not dressing properly- but it’s just bike racing. Within reason, it’s fine to push yourself to the edge of your comfort level to perform
There’s strangely little to say about the race itself to make it a narrative. Frankly speaking, the weather and course conditions made me focus so hard I want to sell that kind of laser precision to my defense contractor job. It makes it a bit hard to remember and recap for a usual race report. Some relevant race highlights and numbers were:
-Skipping over potholes and slick dirt at forty miles per hour, basically making my tire choice of going fast and narrow insane. This is fast enough that cars had a hard time keeping up
-Climbed over four thousand feet, one of which included a section averaging four percent for six miles. Finishing climb was one mile and eight percent grade. This is steep enough cars had a hard time going up
-We climbed so high the rain turned to full-fledged snow
-On immediately finishing I went straight to my car to strip off the wet layers, dry off and inhale a beer simply because it was calories I could replenish off of. Which I needed about two thousand of, after racing for 2.5 hours in New England ‘spring’ weather
That’s all I really have to say about the race itself. Got my epic ride challenge, unique experience and satisfying post-race beer. Simple, like every other race. Ten outta ten, would do a-gain You can tell that this post is a lot less about the race and way more about the future of the sport: how to get more people involved and excited to race bikes
Was too tired to consider what kind of picture trope this was, but it felt right to take it post-race
What’s really amazing to me about Rasputitsa is so many people willingly came to race bikes. I went by myself and came across lots of friends during and after the race. So many other people as well. I’m sure most of them don’t line up for fifty races a year like me, or muse poetic about the implications of sports community and physical challenge (if you do, hit me uuuuup at @bensanrides , lets talk bikes) There were people riding from Manhattan that have never been to Vermont, and afterwards they were so excited talking about how thrilling it was being out in the weather and next year they were going to prepare doing X Y and Z. To me, that’s more impressive than getting the European Champion of Cyclocross to line up
Nobody’s making these people exercise in bad weather. Maybe they’re chasing that feeling of challenging yourself. Maybe it’s for completely different reasons. In the end, it’s their choice to engage in this same activity that has so few people that puts them in a special place in my heart
What I’m trying to say, is thank you, Happy_and_Mocha. Rasputitsa is a very good example of in getting more people excited about bikes that I’m looking forward to applying. This was both a great first time event for me, and a national race that gets people excited about bikes. Puts everyone on the same team: I’m glad we’re here together
I am paying Katie Busick for every tongue-sticking out picture she catches of me. It’s the little details that make life satisfying