Race Report: 2024 Cascade Gravel Grinder - Elite Men

Race: Cascade Gravel Grinder 2024 - Elite Men

Date: June 2, 2024

Written By: Flo Costa

Result: 5/16 (98 men overall)

Course: 90 mile gravel race in the Central Oregon Cascades with 9000 ft of vert. Chunky gravel with lots of climbing and great mountain views.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11559639468

Race:

Previously in 2023 the Cascade Gravel Grinder was a 3 day stage race, but in 2024 they decided to make it a single day event to put more focus on one big day. For me, this was an important training race in preparation for the Oregon Trail less than one month later. The idea was to get a sense for where my fitness was and what I needed to work on in my last training block leading up to Oregon Trail. After doing some solid openers the day before my body felt ready to go.

Things seemed to be going quite well in the lead up to the race until about 5 min into my warm up when my rear derailleur stopped working. The shifter was completely unresponsive. I pulled over to see what was going on, and in doing so I discovered my cable had completely snapped (thanks Shimano). Oh boy. An extra cable is not something I typically carry with me and even if I did, I don’t think I would have been able to fix it in time before the start of the race. This meant I was completely stuck with a single speed in the rear cassette and thankfully a 2x chainring in front. I was also thankfully able to adjust the derailleur to put it in a middle cog so at least I could make it up the climbs.

This completely changed my mindset going into the race. Now there was no pressure to perform and all I could do was give it my best shot. I’m also pretty sure people have done much harder races on single speed bikes, so surely this couldn’t be too bad. Overall, I would completely spin out over 18mph and would have to average 50rpm or less on the climbs. 

I was able to hang with the front group on the first gentle climb of the day, while spinning out, but immediately got dropped on the first descent. I felt pretty helpless but didn’t give up. Over the next couple climbs I would go nearly as hard as I could to catch back up to people who previously passed me in the flats or descents. I was feeling pretty good overall, but every climb was a grind and it was only a matter of time before my legs exploded.

The implosion came after about 3 hours on the fourth climb of the day. Physically, my body didn’t feel cracked but muscularly my legs couldn’t produce power at threshold. The low cadence of each climb completely sapped my legs. At this point, the race had completely blown apart but I was still somewhere in the top 10.

After this fourth climb there was a very rocky 4 mile descent. It was incredibly difficult to pick a line without hitting these huge rocks that were scattered everywhere. Pretty much the limit of what I think is doable on a gravel bike. Thankfully, I had recently installed tire inserts which gave me more confidence. I was also still motivated and had nothing to lose, so I went full send. In this section alone I managed to pass 3 guys who either had completely flatted or were more hesitant in the downhill.

This small win gave me even more motivation to keep pushing on the final 7 mile climb. I made sure to keep eating and grinded all the way to the top. The final descent was long, technical, and super fun. It was still annoying to be stuck in an easy gear on the descent, which definitely felt less stable, but despite this I really enjoyed this rip on a beautiful red cinder gravel road. I managed to pass another guy on the descent, which meant I couldn’t let up the pace. After the descent there were a few final miles of flat which I powered through (while spinning out). I crossed the line with a time of 5:48.

Somehow I managed to finish 5th overall on the day, with 3rd place less than 3 minutes in front of me. On the bright side, this may have been the best result possible for me with a single gear. I ended up having quite a good day physically which also makes me wonder what could have been possible without the mechanical. Nevertheless, I was happy with the effort, the result, and the workout. Can’t ask for much more (except for maybe an electronic groupset)!

Thanks for reading,

Flo