Wayne77
07-11-2019, 01:23 PM
Would love to hear from you:
- Bike run-down, eg tires, gearing, and anything else interesting. A picture would be great!
- Where you're from
- Past experiences, how many times you've done it, race category, etc
- Any advice for others doing it for the first time
- Big mistakes and lessons learned
I'm so excited! This will be my 4th time doing it. The Crusher (http://tusharcrusher.com/) is a special race. Infused with personality, style, and a wonderful spirit. Here's my rundown:
Bike: Norco Search XR (LOVE this bike) with 700x Enve XC rims shod with 43mm WTB Resolute tires. These tires are my holy grail. Prior holy grail tire was the Gravel King SK so that says a lot about the Resolute. Also, this year I'm running road pedals and road shoes. I will only be walking around at the finish line and love the stiffness to weight factor of my road shoes. Plus it allows me to run my pedal-based power meter (Assioma Favero)
- From SLC, Utah. Driving the 3.5 hr trip to Beaver tomorrow morning. There's a hosted pre-ride w/ Dave Zabriskie around 2PM I'd like to join. Not because I'm a fan per-se, buy it sounds like an interesting ride with an interesting character.
- I've done the race 3 times prior (2016, 2017, 2018). Racing 45+ this year. I'm squarely a meat n' taters mid-pack guy. I've never managed to crack top 20 but I've come close. Best time is 5:45. Hoping to break 5:30 this year.
- My main advice is heat management, heat management, heat management. Other than last year, the Sarlac pit and Col de Crush ascent portions get brutally hot. I still haven't figured out the best strategy here, but the FZ areas here I always take hand up bottles for my cages and two extra for my jersey pockets that I incrementally dump on my legs and down my back.
- Mistakes: Running a 650B 2.1' Thunder Burt up front and 40mm Schwalbe G-One in the rear. My thinking was the big fat tire in front would help with the washboard, but I was slower on the descent then the prior year with 700c wheels w/40mm tires. I've found that large diameter wheels work far batter on washboard than smaller wheels w/fat tires. Not sure why, but the above combo didn't work out well at all. Other big mistake in 2017; bottle cages that didn't hold bottles very securely. You'll see hundreds of bottles (literally) all over the road when descending the Col de Crush. I lost both that year and suffered until the next FZ.
Photo:
- Bike run-down, eg tires, gearing, and anything else interesting. A picture would be great!
- Where you're from
- Past experiences, how many times you've done it, race category, etc
- Any advice for others doing it for the first time
- Big mistakes and lessons learned
I'm so excited! This will be my 4th time doing it. The Crusher (http://tusharcrusher.com/) is a special race. Infused with personality, style, and a wonderful spirit. Here's my rundown:
Bike: Norco Search XR (LOVE this bike) with 700x Enve XC rims shod with 43mm WTB Resolute tires. These tires are my holy grail. Prior holy grail tire was the Gravel King SK so that says a lot about the Resolute. Also, this year I'm running road pedals and road shoes. I will only be walking around at the finish line and love the stiffness to weight factor of my road shoes. Plus it allows me to run my pedal-based power meter (Assioma Favero)
- From SLC, Utah. Driving the 3.5 hr trip to Beaver tomorrow morning. There's a hosted pre-ride w/ Dave Zabriskie around 2PM I'd like to join. Not because I'm a fan per-se, buy it sounds like an interesting ride with an interesting character.
- I've done the race 3 times prior (2016, 2017, 2018). Racing 45+ this year. I'm squarely a meat n' taters mid-pack guy. I've never managed to crack top 20 but I've come close. Best time is 5:45. Hoping to break 5:30 this year.
- My main advice is heat management, heat management, heat management. Other than last year, the Sarlac pit and Col de Crush ascent portions get brutally hot. I still haven't figured out the best strategy here, but the FZ areas here I always take hand up bottles for my cages and two extra for my jersey pockets that I incrementally dump on my legs and down my back.
- Mistakes: Running a 650B 2.1' Thunder Burt up front and 40mm Schwalbe G-One in the rear. My thinking was the big fat tire in front would help with the washboard, but I was slower on the descent then the prior year with 700c wheels w/40mm tires. I've found that large diameter wheels work far batter on washboard than smaller wheels w/fat tires. Not sure why, but the above combo didn't work out well at all. Other big mistake in 2017; bottle cages that didn't hold bottles very securely. You'll see hundreds of bottles (literally) all over the road when descending the Col de Crush. I lost both that year and suffered until the next FZ.
Photo: