This is an exclusive insider look at the race report Matthew Wiebe writes for his community, the San Franscico Cycling Club, after each racing effort. As a former President of the organization, Matt has deep roots with the cycling club and what they represent within the culture of high-end performance cycling.
From Matthew's Eyes:
Real West Gravel
Bike - Argonaut GR3
Tires - 45mm Schwalbe G-One RS. Very happy with this choice today. Was descending better than anyone else in the mud since most people ran narrow, low tread tires.
Gearing - SRAM XPLR Transmission. 48T front, 10/46 rear
Nutrition - (2) bottles of 100g MNSTRY powder. (4) MNSTRY gels. Did not use (1) gel, consumed everything else.
Real West Gravel is put on by Mudslinger Events and from everything I could tell leading into race weekend the vibe would be pretty similar to the Grasshopper series that I and everyone else in NorCal is familiar with. Argonaut had invited me up to take part in the event as they are one of the sponsors and I was pretty excited to get to hang with the crew for the weekend, spend some more time in Oregon, and get a feel for the grassroots racing scene there.
Then, about a week out, I started looking at the weather. In what seems to be a theme for spring bike racing of all kinds this year - we would be experiencing some weather. Forecast showed, some big winds, a nice dusting of rain, and temps that would dip into the mid 30s at points on course. Clothing choice, tire choice, mental fortitude all suddenly became a lot more important. Personally I do kind of enjoy a good poor weather race and I do plenty of training in the rain so this was more about making the right choices and psyching myself up to go play in the rain for a few hours.
Ok, race day - the weather turned out to be a bit better than expected. I go bare legs and lots of embro, it’s gonna be fun. We show up to the start line and I make note of a few guys on some pretty skinny, bald looking tires. I also notice that the pro field isn’t packed. Course is only ~65 miles long too so with a smaller group that means basically any major move will be important.
We set off with a neutral roll up the first road climb and then as the gravel really gets started we hit a spot at mile ~6ish that I had made a mental note of on the route - it’s a nice steep kicker before a truly long and arduous false flat starts. With only three of us really rotating on the front at this point and the rest of the field playing passenger I figured I would give it a good wack here to see who was serious. Over the top of the riser I pull off and then there were only three of us. We set off onto the long false flat that had a few kickers thrown in for the next 20ish miles.
Our group of three gets to the top of the false flat onto a large, exposed plateau. Here the temps dipped down into the mid 30s with a very strong headwind. One of the guys in our group pulled out of the race after this section because of the cold. After that it was just Max (last year’s winner) and I. Max and I chat a bit and kind of silently agree that we’ll be trading pulls into this crazy headwind for the rest of the day.
We send the gnarly mud section into Aid 2, my 45s were a big win here and I gapped Max by quite a bit. I didn’t attack but I didn’t slow down - I figured he had chose the little tires so he could do a bit of work to get back up to me and then we could work together again. We pass Aid 2 and get to the bottom of the descent and the lowest point on the course before crossing a couple train tracks and turning left onto another ~10 mile false flat “climb” section with some kickers stuffed in there. Here is really where the bike racing kinda started. Max and I keep trading pulls but they get a little harder and I start watching for an attack. I knew if I could get over the top of this section I might be able to send it on the 13 mile false flat descent into town.
We get to the top together and I take the lead into the decent. I get a gap but then it starts to flatten out a bit and Max is able to get back into my wheel. We start trading pulls at ~35 mph now and I identify one hard climb on my Garmin between here and the finish. I decide to give it a go there one more time and see if anything snaps. The climb hits and I send it on the first riser but Max claws back to me and comes over the top of my attack. I reel him back in on the rest of the climb and now we seem resigned to wait until the final .75 mile steep finishing climb.
I’m in Max’s wheel as the right turn onto the final climb happens. He stands up to let it rip for a good quarter mile and I’m barely able to cover the attack. My legs are about to cramp when he looks at me and slows down. We do a bit of cat and mouse and then I decide it’s better if I just lead it out. I go to the front and lay down a hard pace. I can hear him breathing hard behind me now and I see the top of the ridge come into view. I click up a gear, push the pedals harder and hear the breathing get a little further behind me. I look back and have a gap - I stand up and try to sprint around the next bend only to see another small bend before the finish line. Fuck. My legs start to die and Max finds it within himself to close the gap right at the line. Fair play and a great effort by him to start the attack at the bottom and still finish it off with a winning sprint. In hindsight I think I should have lead into the climb and laid down a hard pace right from the start - I think that would have played to my strengths a bit better.
