I’m going to miss the live feed of Paris-Roubaix tomorrow because I’m doing a 100+ mile gravel road race here in Kansas called Gravelleurs Raid.  It is a unsupported (mainly), gravel road race that uses the beautiful hills north of Lawrence Kansas.

I’ve never really done a gravel road race before, but I’ve ridden a ton of gravel, so should be fine.  I haven’t messed much with my bike.  I am riding my Eriksen cross bike with Hutchinson Bulldog tires on them, sealed tubless.  My tires are pretty good and worn, so they should roll okay.  They had been pretty bombproof, up to last weekend when I got a pretty big sidewall cut in the front tire on a fast descent.  I patched it and sealed it up tubeless again on the road with a CO2 cartridge.

Brian Jensen, my team mate who won the Dirty Kansa, DK200, has ridden the course a couple times.  He says I need a bigger chainring than a 46, but I am a little too lazy at this point to change it.  I’d have to put on a new chain and change the bottom bracket, which seems like a lot of trouble for one race.  I guess I’ll just be spun out if it is super windy.

And it might be just that, windy.  It is supposed to be raining all morning tomorrow, until 1 pm, just when we should be finished.  And in the 50’s.  I was worried about it being too hot, but that isn’t going to be an issue.

I’m going to ride over to Lawrence this afternoon, on gravel, and register at Sunflower Bike Shop.  There are 150 guys pre-entered, so it should be a good group at the start.

Brian rode the course a couple weeks ago in 4:53 training,  and he was going pretty hard.  And his hard is way harder than mine, so we’ll put the winning time around 4:45 maybe.  It just depends if we get a good group working together, or it just splits into pieces on the new gravel climbs.  Brian is never much into waiting around to go hard, so I’m assuming it will be pretty quick start to finish.

Bazaar Road Race is tomorrow too.  It was the first race I ever did as an Junior.  I finished 2nd out of 20 or so.  I hate missing the race, but feel like this gravel race would be better.  I’ve been riding a ton of gravel recently and I’m sort of into that mode right now.

Okay, heading off to ride the Farmer’s Market held in downtown.  It is the first one of the year.  It is nothing like the Farmer’s Market in La Jolla or Dillion, CO, but it is fun.

Okay, the race starts at 8 am tomorrow.  A bit too early for my liking, but that is just how it goes.  It is better to be racing bikes than watching bike races anytime.

When they dump new gravel, it is thick and not good for keeping air in your tires at speed.

New Bulldog.

Mine are just worn enough that they should be pretty bald by the end of 100 miles on thick gravel.

The title is pretty accurate.  I have only raced twice since I broke my hip a little over 10 months ago in May.  I should have been racing a month ago, but got sick and then my dog, Bromont, got sick, so I put it all on hold.

Today is not the way I would have picked to get back into it normally.  A 100 mile gravel road race.   Now, it is 100% change of thunderstorms for the start.  Boo on that.

The promoter told me that the river levy, where the race starts, is super spongy when it gets went.  That means a slog–fest from the start.  Not to mention having to race 100 miles on gravel all wet and muddy.  It might turn out to be an epic day, which it would have always been, just in a different way.

This will be Bromont’s last bike race, I’m pretty sure.   I put a mattress on the backseats so he can lay out flat and maybe the ride won’t be so bumpy.  He has been to a ton of bike races, probably 500 or so. I hope he enjoys it.

I rode to Lawrence yesterday on gravel to enter the gravel road race. Seemed appropriate. Roger Williams has done an awesome job putting this race together.

The weather now, a couple hours before the start.

I was watching the Redland’s criterium on my iPhone before dinner last night at Freestate Brewery in Lawrence.