When the winner of the first big race of the season crosses the finish line and immediately tosses his cookies you know it was a ripper. Following the race on Instagram we got some sense of the speed and, for some, the danger, but we thought we would reach back out to our pair of Gravel Professionals to find out what it looked and felt like on the ground.
"Overall I had a solid day," said Syler Taylor. "I nailed the start and found myself quite comfortably with the leaders in the first half hour. Unfortunately I didn't quite have enough to hang over the main climb and spent lap 2 and 3 in chase groups."
"It was indeed a ripper of the day," said Brennan Wertz. "All the kids seem to have a good winter of training in their legs, lots of speed and voraciousness. I suffered like crazy. The pace was a system shock."
You indicated the decision you made about tires and tire pressure in our last journal post about your recon trip. Can you remind us of those decisions and how they went for you on race day?
"I went with the monster truck setup and I was quite happy with the choice," said Taylor. "I think it saved me quite a bit of energy in the first two laps and then I was able to put people under pressure late in the race."
"I fortunately stayed upright, unlike some of my fellow racers, running the Rene Herse 48mm Oracle Ridge knobbies," said Wertz.
If you had to do it all over again is there any single thing you would have done differently?
"I would bring just a few more watts," said Taylor. "If I had just a bit more in the tank up that main climb..."
"Next year I would probably go with a little lighter casing on my Rene Herse tires," said Wertz. "With all the sand and the constant accelerating."
What's up next on the race calendar?
"I'll be giving the skinny tires a go at Levi's this weekend," said Taylor. "I haven't raced on the road in a few years so this will be an interesting change of pace. After that I'll be heading to Arkansas for Highlands gravel which will be my first UCI gravel race."
"Next up is Levi’s Fondo with 130 some odd miles, 220km and 4000 meters of climbing," said Wertz. "Going to be a doozy of a day. And then all eyes turn toward Unbound."
(Helicopter and Brenna Wertz photos by Kyle Thornhill @kylethornhill and Skyler Tayler photography by Dan Hughes/Life Time @dhughes101)
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