 The final mud section was the last spot to make any sort of move, and at this point in the race it was pretty much dry, which meant that moving quickly through it was less about skill and more about raw power. Boswell led into this section, but I quickly passed him in one last ditch effort to try to establish some sort of separation. The Croats Handbuck 50 is a 150 mile or 240 kilometer gravel race on the coast of North Carolina, and given that this race is on the coast, it is a pan flat race. Over the course of the 150 miles, the elevation gain was just under 300 feet, and the course profile looked like this. Given how flat this course is, it may seem like a reasonable conclusion that this is a fairly easy course, but the DNF rate would beg to differ. I think that there is something about never getting a break from pedaling that is both mentally and physically draining. Nah, I was just ready for a beer after the first lap. Now usually the climbs that you hit during a gravel race, or really any type of bike race for that matter, are the key spots where the selection is going to be made and people are going to get dropped. But on this course, that had to happen somewhere else, and that tended to be the more technical spots on the course, particularly sector 4, which was a 2 mile section that was muddy and rutted out. There were two main lines through this sector, entire tracks where trucks had passed through, but even in these tracks, the ruts could often catch riders out. Deviating from the main line here meant that your wheel was probably going to get stuck in the mud, which meant that getting into good position before this section and then holding that position through it was critical. A small mistake here meant that you would probably be burning a lot of matches to catch back up to the front group, or drops from that front group completely. There was also a section of the course that took racers through a field that was particularly sandy and included a short section of single track as well. Again, this is a section where riders could force some separation, and only adding to how critical these sections were is how close they are in proximity to one another. You hit sector 4 6 miles into the lap, and then you hit the field section 11 miles into the lap. So these two decisive points in the race essentially come back to back. Now this race was a lollipop course, meaning that we went out, did a small loop at the end, then came back the same direction for one 75 mile lap, and then we went back out and did it all again. This would mean that we hit these critical sections of the course four times throughout the race, twice at the beginning of the laps, and twice at the end of the laps. And in fact, you make your last pass through sector 4 with just 6 miles in the race remaining, which would play an important role in the tactics later on. The rest of the course is almost entirely gravel with very few paved sections. The gravel is often sandy and is not particularly rough, but it is loaded with potholes. On certain sections of the course, we were constantly swerving from left to right and bunny hopping, trying to avoid these holes. And of course, sometimes when you're in a large group, you can't avoid just smashing right into them as well. The wind would play a large part in this race too, particularly on the long, slightly curved out and back section of this course, which for no apparent reason was as wide as a six-lane highway, but also not paved. With 15 to 25 mile per hour gusts on the day, we would experience a tailwind on the way out and then the dreaded headwind on the way back to really sap the legs before the last hour of the race. The competition at the race featured a whole host of local talent and East Coast crushers, including mountain bike legend, Jeremiah Bishop. Check this out, Homeboy's got another plate like a billboard. If anybody has any questions, raise your hand. I'll try to answer a question here real quick. Any emergency questions? Only good for the left side. Okay, now there will be medicals at the aid station and also here in the center. If you come back and you have a spray for abrasion or something like that, you need to get treated. Come see the medical folks. A man after my own obsessive compulsiveness. And pretty much the entire flow formulas team, but by far the man to beat on the starting line was the current defending unbound 200 champion and arguably the fastest gravel racer in the US in 2021, Ian Boswell. Boswell and I raced a couple times last year and when he's on, there's very little that can stop him. For those of you who regularly watch my videos, you may recall my BWR Asheville race report where Boswell completely obliterated the field on the final climb, averaging 450 watts for over seven minutes after nearly five hours of racing. Crucially though, that was on a climb and a very steep one at that. And this course had none of that, which gave me some hope that I could stick with Ian until the finish. I just have to play my cards right. Now that we have the background on the course and the competition out of the way, let's get into the race itself. The race starts and finishes on an oval car racing track with a neutral start until we get into the gravel. It didn't take long for the pace to heat up, especially with the sector four mud section coming so early in the race. I set myself up very well going into this section second wheel. We pushed the pace here and through the field section afterwards, but it was simply too early in the race to create much of a separation. Riders legs were still feeling good at this point and we kept that pace up pretty much through the long straight section afterwards as well. Some riders tried for small breaks here and there, including fellow flow formulas rider Logan Casper, who actually did stay away for most of the first third of the race. But these moves often only contained one or two riders and with 30 riders behind chasing, the numbers were not in their favor. During the first two hours of the race, I was actually kind of trying to do two contradictory strategies. I wanted to save my legs for a late race move and do as little work as possible, but I also didn't want the pace of the front group to slow down too much, because if the pace stayed high, that would mean more tired legs towards the end of the race and less riders to contend with. I tried to do this by participating in the front rotation, but when I got to the front, I wouldn't even go above zone two. However, I would try to get as aerodynamic as possible to not let the speed drop too much and keep the chasing morale high. This seemed to work too because the pace was kept high for the first two hours and riders slowly faded off the back. These first two hours required a normalized power of 274 watts and we managed to hold a very solid pace of 22.6 miles per hour during this time. I'll actually look at my normalized power mid-race because I know what's sustainable for me for various race distances. For example, for a seven hour race, which is about how long I suspected this race to take, a good day for me would be in the 280 watt range. And given that I was already below this and we hadn't even hit the mid-race slow down yet, I knew this was sustainable. I want to take a minute and talk about my bike setup for the race. As some of you may have noticed, this is a new bike in the background. This year I'll be riding factor bikes and my gravel race bike will be the Factor LS. I'll have a full video breakdown of exactly how I have this bike setup in the near future, but for the time being, let's answer the all-important question. What tires was I on? Hey, you know how you can tell what tires a gravel racer is running? Don't worry, they'll tell you. The tires I ran were the tried and true Specialized Pathfinder Pro in the 42mm width. I had experimented with the lower rolling resistance challenge getaway tire, and while I liked the tire, there were two main issues. The first is that they're not wide enough. They claim a width of 40mm, but on most rims that's a bit of an overestimation. And the second is that they just don't seem to hold up. After having flat tire issues the week before at Mid-South that took me out of the front group, I decided that these tires weren't worth it and went back to what I know. The Pathfinder still tests very quick in terms of rolling resistance and crucially they're very flat resistant as far as gravel tires go. Getting back to the race though, through the middle third the pace started to slow. This is pretty typical in long distance gravel races and long distance bike racing in general. Once the freshness in the legs wears off, people realize how much distance they have in front of them and the group inevitably gets more conservative. Starting hot and then slowing down is by no means the optimal pacing strategy, but this is not a time trial or a solo effort. You have to stay with the group to retain the drafting benefit. Over the next two hours the normalized power required was just 257 watts and the speed had dropped to 20.4 miles per hour. During this time the pace was a bit more steady, but the front group continued to get smaller and smaller. Going into our next passage through the field section and the sector 4 mud, we probably had about 20 riders remaining. Unsurprisingly the group ramped up the pace through these sections, probably sensing blood in the water and wanting to drop riders that were hurting. I was content to let other riders lead through these sections, but I stayed close to the front as to not lose wheels. Our second pass through the field required a normalized power of 336 watts for 5 minutes and then another 300 watts for 5 minutes through the mud section. Given that these sections make it extremely difficult to put out steady power, these numbers may seem a little bit lower than expected, just like the numbers from a mountain bike race are a little bit lower than expected. And during these efforts my heart rate approached 180 beats per minute, which is over my threshold heart rate for an effort under threshold power confirming this. These efforts also managed to split the front group in half. We exited these sections with probably 10 riders left and then we headed into the start finish area for a quick pit stop before heading back out. A few riders were dangling off the front group, but our next pass through the mud and field would solidify the front group for the remainder of the race. We hit it hard through both of these sections again with the mud first at 318 watts NP for 5 minutes and then the field at 309 watts. I actually led through the field and managed to get a small gap, but with over 60 miles in the race to go, I decided that it was too early, especially with the long headwind section still to come. When I slotted back into the front group, there were only 6 riders remaining, including myself, and it was clear that those last two efforts had solidified this group as I didn't see any riders within sight off the back either. This group contained Caleb Reese, Logan Casper, Jeremiah Bishop, William Harrison, and of course Ian Boswell. The majority of this lap was done at a relatively low but steady pace at just 223 watts NP. I think we all knew that there would be fireworks on our last pass through the field and the mud and we were trying to save our legs for that, at least that was my thought. And to be honest, my legs felt pretty good at this point. I felt like I had a solid attack in me, but sometimes when you're 6 plus hours into a race, you don't know how your body is going to respond until you actually get into the effort. So I bided my time and waited for those critical sections. Right before our last time through the field, William Harrison put in a hard effort and I think he did this more because he sensed that other riders were hurting and he wanted to take advantage of that. I locked right onto his wheel and then with the field in sight, I got onto the front so that I could enter the section first. Being that this was our last time through this relatively technical section of the course, I gave it everything I had on this section to try to create some sort of a gap that I might be able to hold until the finish. And that's exactly what happened. An NP of 331 watts for 6 minutes through this section was enough to establish a roughly 15 second gap. But when we got back onto the gravel, it didn't take long for Ian to close it. And when he did, he pulled Harrison back with him and then we had a front group of three. The final mud section was the last spot to make any sort of move. And at this point in the race, it was pretty much dry, which meant that moving quickly through it was less about skill and more about raw power. Boswell led into this section, but I quickly passed him in one last ditch effort to try to establish some sort of separation. I was not successful. 332 watts for 5 minutes and Boswell was still right on my wheel along with Harrison close behind. And it was clear that this was going to come down to a three up sprint finish on the racetrack. I've never sprinted Boswell before, so I didn't have a good idea of what his sprinting abilities were. All I knew is that he had out sprinted Lawrence 10 Dam to win the Unbound 200 in 2021. Not too surprisingly, he knew exactly what he was doing and he set himself up perfectly for the sprint. He led into the sprint and I was on his wheel. Now, first wheel is normally not the ideal position, but being that the finish line is pretty much immediately after a sweeping corner on the track, we would have to start our sprint in the corner. Boswell hugged the wall so that I wouldn't be able to come around on the inside, so my only chance to overtake him was to go the long way around the outside of the corner. This strategy clearly paid off because when we opened up our sprint, Boswell nabbed me at the line by about half a bike length. In this final sprint, I had a max power of 1,040 watts and a 10 second average of 845. Being so close to the win, it can be easy to leave the race not completely satisfied. And in fact, I think any race that you don't win, you think about what you could have done better and that reflection is good. But I am extremely happy with this result, especially considering the caliber of rider that Ian is and considering the fact that my body seemed to be responding really well, even late in the race, which bodes well for the season to come. Also, I've got to say that Ian is one of the coolest dudes in pro gravel racing right now in my opinion. Not full of himself or too intense, but just down to earth and wants to keep racing fun after his world tour days. And it was a pleasure racing with him, along with the other flow formulas riders, who made a great showing with four out of five of us on the podium. Y'all are just lucky that the Hypergain Beast Mode Mask Gainer Raw Edition team didn't show up. In the cupcake flavor. Before I wrap this video up, let's get into some stats for the whole race. The 150 mile course was completed in seven hours and 11 minutes with a normalized power of 252 watts and an average power of 228 watts. This is a bit lower than I would expect for a race of this distance, but because of the tactical nature of the race in the flat course, there was a lot of time in the race spent trying to conserve as much energy as possible. My training stress score for the race was 342. I had an average heart rate of 149, a max heart rate during the final field section of 183, and an average speed of 20.9 miles per hour. Thanks for watching. If you want to stay up to date on all of my racing, the best way to do that is by following me on Instagram. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like, subscribe, and share this video with your cycling friends. I'll see you in the next one.