Originally Posted by Sierra_rider

I just got back from doing Stetina's Paydirt today. I'm at the tail end of a difficult couple of weeks of cycling and didn't not taper for this event at all, so my plan was to just show up and treat it like a supported ride. I even rode my XC bike, as the tires on my gravel bike would've been terrible for this race(S-works pathfinder pros 42mm. Also, the XC bike was going to be my excuse for not racing well.

Anyway, I kept feeling better as the race progressed and I eventually was flying(for me) up the final climb of the day. I eventually finished 15 O/A for the men's long course(out of 300+,) which is by far my best gravel finish to date. I consider myself a very good XC racer, but I've been struggling to cross over to gravel and almost always have pretty "meh" finishes. I'd say the only damper for me, is that I realize the format and terrain probably suited my strengths really well. The race is broken up into segments, rather than just one long race. This meant a lot of the course that really would've disadvantaged a MTB, wasn't actually timed. Out of the 3 timed segments, the first(and longest) was the only one that heavily favored a gravel bike. The other 2 segments were mostly non-technical singletrack, and I felt at no disadvantage to being on the XC bike. In fact, I heard some guys grumbling that it was too MTB-friendly.