TL;DR
An epic adventure warrants a proper report. Qualifying for and getting to race my age group at UCI Gravel World Championships this year, representing my country as a member of Team USA, was the privilege of a lifetime. In short, I’m happy with my performance but of course there are things I hope to do differently next time, which means yes, I hope there will be a next time. This race was unlike anything I’ve ever done in my 18 years of bike racing experience in all the best ways possible and I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
How the Race Went
The first few miles of the race were on city roads as we made our way to the dirt. It felt much like a road race, and I focused on sitting-in, protected from the wind and work. As we hit the double track that weaves between plots of farmland things became more strung out but manageable. All of the women in the field were excellent bike handlers and never once did things feel sketch. It was, however, hard to maintain position as things became narrower and the semi-technical downhill into the first real climb left little room for more than 2-women wide. When we hit that first real climb in Raar, the first real attack came and shattered things apart. It was the last I would see of the leaders as my legs imploded. Immediately after that climb was a steep dirt downhill with washboard section littered with water bottles from the groups ahead, further stringing things out. For the next couple of hours it would be repeated efforts to catch onto trains of riders as they passed me, struggling each time to maintain their pace through my pain. The second time we went up that climb in Raar my legs started cramping so badly that I knew I needed to be very careful.
Not long after the muscles in my legs started to get torn apart by cramps, which was only halfway through the race, I was caught by an old friend Sara Malm who was riding comfortably with a few other women in her age group. I was crumbling inside and could barely utter a “hello” as she passed. Her group got about 100 m up the road from me when my mental fog cleared. I knew I needed to get over the pain, dig deep, and stay with that train. For the next hour and a half I focused on a single goal: stay with that group. Stay on that wheel. We hit that paved climb in Raar for the final time and I just couldn’t push any harder and a gap emerged. Thankfully I was able to close it after the technical downhill, rejoining them before the next climb, which was much steeper and more technical on a rocky double wide trail. The cramps hadn’t really gone away and when I got out of the saddle they reacted with anger, forcing me to cry out in pain. I had to back off. Only 18 km to go. Thankfully the next downhill gave me another chance at redemption. I fought again to catch back onto their train, succeeding until the next and final climb.
After dropping back from Sara’s group on the truly final climb of the course, I was at least rewarded with a slight downhill into the finish with one final chance to achieve my season goal of staying with a group. With each pedal stroke I kept an eye on my power meter readings to help myself push harder than I felt possible, knowing the numbers I could hit given the conditions. For about 10 km it was just a solo mental suffer fast, until a group of three riders came fast from behind. It was one man, who had likely gotten a mechanical based on his fitness and position, pushing at nearly 20 mph with two women hanging on. I was motivated to achieve my goal. After they passed I jumped hard and got on that wheel. For the final 4 km I gritted my teeth and just didn’t let go. I came across the finish line at 4 h 52 min after the start. Twenty-two minutes shy of my stretch goal but with seven minutes to spare on my “within reach” goal. Thirtieth out of 39 in my age group.
What Went Well
Even if I didn’t place very high in the pack and wasn’t among the fastest ladies, I am still happy with how many things went well and that they reflect the work I’ve done this season. I’ll focus on the three main goals that I had set at the start of the year and which I definitely achieved based on how the race went.
- Riding with a group — To be successful in gravel racing requires riding with others. We go so much faster as a group that you are hard pressed to overcome the advantages gained from riding with others for large stretches of the race. I’ve been riding/racing mixed terrain for a long time, but this was the first year that I “focused” on gravel. Last year I targeted our local series and learned the hard way that I needed to get better at riding at other people’s pace. Even though I couldn’t maintain the pace of several groups at UCI Gravel Worlds, I did try. I never gave up and eventually I did find my people. This is what enabled me to achieve my time goal.
- Race nutrition — Another major weakness with regards to endurance racing that I had noted last season was my nutrition. Part of this is due to general digestive issues that I’ve battled my entire life. Part of it was a lack of planning. Early in the season my Cycle-Smart coaches (big brother on the bike Adam Meyerson and official coach Jordan Villela) made it very simple for me. We broke down the numbers for how many calories I could actually digest during a race, what that meant in terms of carbs, and how to time the delivery. On my own, I tested what foods worked best during a race over multiple events and came prepared with exactly the race foods I needed to prevent bonking. Side note: The cramping was absolutely due to a lack of high-end fitness (more on that in a moment) and not because of a lack of electrolytes.
- Endurance — I am not a natural endurance athlete. I have mixed muscle fiber types and my best power is in the 1-5 min range. I have some theories on how this results in me suffering from higher baseline levels of pain during endurance events. However, I wanted to push myself on the bike and improve on my weaknesses. This was partly why I targeted gravel racing this year. For the past ten months I put effort into increasing my average weekly ride time, doing more and more 4 hr rides than any year before. The race-course passed through the start area twice, giving me two chances to easily drop out and pedal the short ride back to my hotel and bed. Despite how beaten I felt during the race, I hung on until the finish. Racing for more than four hours after blowing up only ~25 minutes into the race means I definitely achieved my endurance goals for the year.
On Limitations
I know exactly why I blew up when I did: I was deconditioned and not prepared for high-paced intensity racing with repeated efforts above threshold. By the time we hit that main climb in Raar for the first time, I had already put in about 4-5 “all watts combined” efforts to stay with the group. That’s not much compared to a typical cyclocross race, but it was a lot compared to what I’ve done over the past two months. I got sick one month before the race and lost about two weeks of essential training. I had planned to be at Rochester CX racing at high-intensity but was instead trying to regain health at home. For the week and a half leading up to the race I was on honeymoon trying to find time for rides amidst just living up tourist life in Paris. It was far from ideal race prep and I have to accept that. I don’t have a lot of free time to go on trips like this and the only way to both take a honeymoon and race gravel worlds this year was to make them one trip, coming to Europe early to adjust to the time difference. Being a woman who’s trying to “have it all” requires accepting limitations. When you stretch yourself thin, it’s inevitable that not everything can be the top priority. I’m happy that my top priority on this trip was my marriage. That’s the only reason I could go into this race already feeling whole as an individual with nothing to prove to anyone other than myself. Before the race I made it clear: my goal was to prove to myself that I could finish the race.
My Bad
One of my favorite stress management techniques is reflecting on what is or is not within my control. By focusing on what I can actually control, I put my energy where it counts. The one aspect of this race that was a major weakness and which I could have done a better job with was my pre-race nutrition. I mentioned above that my race nutrition was on point, and that’s true. I had the calories on board that I needed and stayed consistent with forced feeding on a timely schedule. That said, I did not do a good job of carb loading ahead of time and that’s my bad. Within thirty minutes of racing I was starving, and that really shouldn’t happen.
The main issue is that I’m gluten intolerant, which has made getting enough carbohydrates a constant challenge in life. This got better when I found and fell in love with calrose rice thanks to Allen Lim’s nutritional guides. At home, I eat cups of this in the days leading up to the race. I pair it with New England maple syrup and 5% Fage Greek yogurt to achieve the perfect pre-endurance race macro balance. I didn’t realize it would be so hard to find gluten free carbohydrates in France and the Netherlands. At home in the USA it is also an issue, but because I have a kitchen I just cook the food myself. Traveling in hotels meant not being able to cook the gluten free pasta or rice that I could find at a grocery store. Instead, I was limited to smaller items like gluten free meusli bars and sandwich bread. It’s just not the same.
Thankfully I had the good sense to bring a packet of gluten free instant oatmeal with me for the race day. Unfortunately, I wasn’t smart enough to realize this wouldn’t be enough calories for preloading. I probably should have brought enough packets to have 2-3 every morning leading up to and on the day of the race. The night before the race I did find a meal with plain white rice, but it wasn’t enough. I can’t do anything about it now, but hopefully it’s a mistake I won’t make again.
What’s Next
The morning of the race I wasn’t nervous. I felt happy to be done with “serious” racing for the year, to be done with “serious” training, and to be done with tapering. Now that the race is done, I feel even happier about still having a few cyclocross races on the calendar and about trying to qualify for UCI Gravel Worlds again next year. All of the feelings are a true mélange of being ready for relaxation, ready for fun racing, but also ready to get back to training next season to push myself harder and harder. Since finishing my PhD work in 2021 I’ve had a little more free-time to invest in my bike racing hobby and it’s paid off in big ways–on and off the bike. Most importantly, all of this (waves hand to above) has expanded my capacity for work, and I love the work. I love the challenge and the surprise that comes from finding out what I’m capable of achieving. I’ll never know if I never try.
Curious to learn more about the race?
You can check out my race file on Strava at the link below
https://www.strava.com/activities/16107162024
For the best race footage of the course, check out the official Instagram page. The organizers did a great job of capturing aerial footage that shows the beauty of Zuid-Limburg and the awesome fans that made this the race of a lifetime.