Midsouth Gravel 100 2024
 

Anyone else going to be in Stillwater OK this weekend? :hello:

I'm headed there with 1 other buddy and it'll be his first Midsouth, and first event of this magnitude at all! I'm so excited already. :banana:

The Bike.
2019 Trek Crockett
Singlespeed 40x18
42mm Terravail Cannonballs
EESilk Carbon seatpost (i love this thing)
Repair Stuff: 2 tubes with Park Boots taped under toptube. Dart and Dynaplug. 2 CO2's ready. Plus my Lezyne minipump and a small Sram mini-tool.


The Plan.
I had very good luck with bottles only at Skyway 100 last year, so I'm going with this same plan for Midsouth. Goal time is 7 hours, so I'll probably be using several aide stations to refill, and will pre-prepare baggies of Tailwind (regular and caffeine), some extra pouches of SIS Beta powder and a few SIS gels for backup.

I'm not trying to RACE race. So I have not problem stopping a few minutes to refill and stretch and take off layers. Still need to decide exactly how to carry those layers after I take them off, but that'll depend on the exact weather at the start.

But I AM riding that creek this year. Not standing around for 15 mintues waiting to shuffle across the shallow part again. ONE GEAR NO FEAR.


Not THIS creek... this is from a preride last weekend at home. I love fast singletrack on this SSCX setup.
https://i.imgur.com/6yP6CXb.jpg

Looks like the weather and temps are favorable this year. Sunny, 60s, and no wind.
So no drivetrain ruining peanut butter roads.

Hope it goes well!

Thanks! I have a buddy that's actually bailing because the weather is "too nice" and he wanted a slog. Geezz...

Bold move going with the single speed, best of luck. I'm too lazy to go and look at the route profile, how much total elevation and are there any portions that you're concerned about handling with 40x18?

Well, I was registered again for this year, but an emergency here has kept me from going. Very disappointed. Last year temps hit 90's and got to this Northeast boy. Should be perfect this year as it is a bit cooler. Course should be dry and fast. Best of luck.

Best of luck and have fun!

Remember to give us a post-race update - it will be fun to hear the details.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/41812450

5600' total over 101 miles. Max grade is just under 6%. I don't remember any killer climbs last year, just rollers over and over and over all day. If it were wet, I thought about going 40x20, but in the dry I'm not to worried about it. I rode this same gear for 3600' in 50 miles in a wet & heavy gravel race back in Jan and felt good to the end. Accounting for more distance, but less average elevation/mile should be a good gear.

I'm a single speed lover and after doing it with gears last year, this seemed like the logical way to go.

BUMMER!!

Will do. I'll just use this thread for all my over-sharing this weekend. :)

I'm here every weekend!

You can totally ride Karsten Creek. What nobody knows is that under that murky water is solid, flat rock that is very grippy. JUST SEND IT!

Very impressed with the pre-race briefing course descriptions and general gravel racing info.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXjyyDiBEkQ

Sounds like a well-considered plan, good luck with it.

:beer: Great to know! We got held up by helping someone fix a double-flat last year before the creek, so were kinda just going with the crowd since we didn't know what to expect. this year I'm def sending it!

that's very cool. I'll finish watching the vid after my next meeting.

Last year's aftermath...........

Just don't lose a bottle like that guy did ^^ haha