... worst case, 50+? Other than Kanza, of course. Extra points for East Coast, but willing to travel as far as say, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska etc. for a nice event. There's a shortage of them, and its totally understandable ... and mainly I just dig going hard and seeing new places....but it's def nice to race apples-apples once in awhile. Thoughts?
thanks! solid suggestions. and many of them fairly close. You should look at Croatan Buck Fifty, Love Valley Roubaix and Bootlegger in NC, depending on the dates and nature of rides you're looking at. No 50 classes but great rides and very different from each other.
thumper88 wrote:thanks! solid suggestions. and many of them fairly close. You should look at Croatan Buck Fifty, Love Valley Roubaix and Bootlegger in NC, depending on the dates and nature of rides you're looking at. No 50 classes but great rides and very different from each other.
Thumper I did 8 gravel bike races on the East Coast this last year. Here is how I would rate them.
1. Cabot Ride the Ridges. Cabot VT. probably 85% Gravel and you could blast on the downhills. 2. Grusk(Gravel Race Up Spruce Knob) lots of race awards here but I don't know if they had a 55+ If you go stay in the dorms and for sure do the food package as there are no places to get food. 3. Bootlegger Lenoir NC. I did the 60 miler. Great ride but had nasty hairy descents 4. Funks Bottom Circleville Ohio They have the 100k and 200k I did the 100k.
Rest of the rides on the East Coast had too much macadam in them for my liking. If you wanted a grass roots gravel ride the best one I have done so far is the Pony Express ride in Marysville Kansas 2 Sept's ago. Only 2 miles of macadam the 1st mile and the last mile. Great support from the town and you had your own drop bags. I did the 75 miler and have an article write up over at Gravel Cyclist under the racing thread. Probably 4-5 pages back now. He did add some to my report.
I have heard that the Hilly Billy Roubaix in WV is a blast and a little bit more techy.
