Gravel, Road and Cow Pastures!

Very well organized event, emails were sent out a couple of days ahead of time with our staging area number, row and spot number. This allowed for enough distancing between folks, and about 20 people per starting time, firing off every 3 minutes. All of this due to the Michigan COVID guidelines. The Cow Pie folks also capped each distance to 100 individuals. At our start locations was a bag containing some samples from Hammer Nuitrition, a face mask, water bottle and race number. The weather was nice and cool this morning at 68* for the start time and at the finish it was right around 75*.

We rolled out at our 9:33 start time, all participants wearing masks for about the first mile. At 1.7 miles in we officially rolled over the start line and the race was on. This was nice since it cut the first steep little climb out of the timing and mainly focused on the gravel areas. After a few more miles we hit the cow pasture, 1.5 miles of grass, two track and some farm road. It felt more like a cross country race during this time than a gravel grinder. The was not really a group to trade pulls and draft with, but more of a find a riding buddy and take a go at it. I did make one wrong turn and ended up losing about a minute having to re-route.

All things considered it is a fun track, even without the cow pasture (I rode it two weeks ago). The pre-ride definately helped out with planning, I changed wheels and tires and ended up going a bit narrower with Kenda Alluvium Pros in 35c.

Strava link to the entire ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/3982526746

Results:

https://www.racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16371&RId=287&EId=1