Lazyass

I've never really followed the gravel racing scene, and I with all the talk in this section of running huge 40c+ tires I became curious about what size the racers are using. I came across this article about the Crusher in the Tusher:

Course Map and Description | Crusher in the Tushar | road + dirt

So in this race that is part paved road and part gravel/dirt I was surprised at what I found. Both the male and female winner rode CX bikes. Rob Squire ran 33c tires and Janel Holcomb went with 35's. I was expecting to see gravel bikes and big tires.

https://www.cxmagazine.com/crusher-t...rofile-di2-srm

https://www.cxmagazine.com/janel-hol...vel-cyclocross

shoota 

I guess it looks more like hard packed dirt than gravel. Cross bike make a lot sense for that race. Lighter and stiffer for climbing too.

Cool video: https://www.cxmagazine.com/2017-crus...-rider-preview

There are some serious pros showing up for this race. Wow.

RJM

Yeah, if you have a cyclocross bike that can take up to 40, you have a bike you can enter a lot of events with. It looks like on that event that the 33-35 tire size is probably a great choice.


Around my area I can safely use a 33 tire for much of the gravel and be quite fast, but on some it gets sketchy on because it is relatively deep and larger gravel over hard packed and a thin tire just bogs down in it.

Seattle Forrest

Is anybody surprised? Who wants to do a long ride with two miles of vert on fat, heavy tires? Nobody, that's who. And then it's a race? Of course everybody who's trying to be competitive wants to use the most minimal gear that will work.

HTupolev

CX bikes are gravel bikes, if you want them to be. Actually, I think it's pretty unsurprising; people who win relatively non-technical offroad races are often road racers, and it's my experience that road racers tend to have CX bikes laying around. CX bikes also tend to sit in the part of the "gravel bike" spectrum that high-level one-day racers are likely to sample from.

Courses with loads of elevation tend to make racers scramble to slash weight. If you were time-trialing this course at 200W, 1 pound on the bike would cost somewhere in the vague ballpark of 1 minute. Huge? Depends on outlook. Enough to make a roadie cringe on race day? Sure.

Also, pro roadies tend to be much smaller and lighter than the general population; they can often get away with considerably narrower tires in like-for-like contexts. Especially since they tend to "ride lighter" on their bikes.

shoota 

+1000 to everything you said.

Zurichman2

Yeah the pros for sure are much lighter than most of us. The other thing when they get into the rest stops I am pretty sure they get great care done to their bikes in the short time they are in there.

u235

People win races because of their ability, the small changes and fine tuning details to their equipment provides a minor edge in a very tight and competitive field, not the majority. On the flip side though.. People do misjudge like the wrong gear and end up doing a walk of shame or sliding around. I ride 40+ on tarmac and people look at me like I'm crazy. I've never lost a race yet

Zurichman2

You are quite right that people win races on their abilities/training. I still contend that a sponsored rider has somewhat of an advantage over an independent rider as when they pull into a rest stop if there is one everything is done to their bike and all they have to do is get some food/calories in them.

Zman