The 'evolution' of gravel racing-Opinion

[ptourkin]

Originally Posted by DrSpoke

First off, I have been following the career of Amanda "Panda" Nauman for more than a few years and have a lot of respect for her and her opinions. It started with her participation, and winner of along w/a couple of 2nd place finishes, in the Belgian Waffle Ride here in Southern California. It's an event I've participated in 3 times - the full Waffle distance (144mi total, 40+mi on dirt, 13,000+') twice and the shorter Wafer distance once. It's a grueling event. Amanda is a world class cyclocross racer and a long time participant in gravel and mtn bike events. I also follow her on Strava and her training rides are amazing. All this while maintaining a full time job - so not a "professional" in the true sense, and, of course, limiting her ability to compete full time in the European Cx events.

Most, though not all (Dave Kirk, among others), of the posts here remind me of the television talking heads who weighed in on the Lance Armstrong doping drama all the while knowing basically nothing of the of the sport. The DK200 has not been advertised as a race - the winner gets a belt buckle for cryin' out loud. There are no points for a season/world championship, etc. It's just an event, like many gravel rides, where for most it's a personal test but for more elite riders it's the prestige of a win. I don't know much about the R2D2 but would guess it's similar. I do know that many randonnee events are like this - no winner, but there is a winner. Say, Paris-Brest-Paris.

I don't think her post was sour grapes. She has placed 2nd or worse in many events and I've never seen a response like this. The last 80 or so miles of the course were into very stiff headwinds. And this, of course, after 120 miles of dirt, mud, hills and water. So there is a very real advantage to a draft. And the lament is that the women's winner was drafting her husband who, I will assume, was a stronger rider. I was also assume he was riding to assist her in her winning aspirations rather than his own. That is, she was beaten by a team rather than an individual. I think she is basically saying is that, as a long time gravel racer, she doesn't agree with those types of tactics.

I do agree with other here in that the sport is changing as it becomes more well know and bigger names are coming into the events. I suspect that there will be more rules in the future tough no idea what those might be. It certainly could include those re team tactics, drafting, etc. Triathalon, for example, does not allow drafting and seems to be working.

Kind of. Luke rides for UHC and was badly injured in a crash. Before the race, he and Katie decided to ride together as part of his comeback. They wanted to finish together. By all reports, she was taking pulls too, not simply drafting him. They both fell out of the lead pack and caught on with a chase group. Allison and Amanda have both used the tactic of riding with the lead pack in the past. They didn't or couldn't this year.

I've been following Amanda for a while too, since she raced in Dorothy Wong's SoCal Cross series. I think her statements in the past few days after the dust settled have been more diplomatic and reasoned. Katie was able to catch and ride with the front group because she's fast, not because of who she is married to. Amanda was accused to the same tactics last year. Nobody has mentioned that Matt Stevens grabbed a wheel from an actual teammate this year, of if they have, I didn't see it.

Whatever happens at the front of this event has very little impact on the vast majority of people participating. In the end, it's just food for the internet.

[ptourkin]

Interesting aside for anyone who watched the GCN videos of their Dirty Kanza rider (who finished, unlike a certain pair of touring social media celebrities) - in the videos, she was shown consuming pickles. This was apparently from some kind of illegal support, probably to do with the cameras, and she was DQ'd this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC4t-nF-0tw

[Macadamia]

idk unless they put together some rules anything goes.

velonews covered this, that with any sort of mass start race, there's an added dynamic for women trying to hang with the men's front group for as long as possible, you can end up blowing up, or get the cover of the strongest group on the road and end up winning.

who is helping who is pretty ambiguous and hard to ever get a handle on for spectators, there are inter-team and rider alliances in just about any race that nobody would officially admit to

[DrSpoke]

Originally Posted by ptourkin

Kind of. Luke rides for UHC and was badly injured in a crash. Before the race, he and Katie decided to ride together as part of his comeback. They wanted to finish together. By all reports, she was taking pulls too, not simply drafting him. They both fell out of the lead pack and caught on with a chase group. Allison and Amanda have both used the tactic of riding with the lead pack in the past. They didn't or couldn't this year.

I've been following Amanda for a while too, since she raced in Dorothy Wong's SoCal Cross series. I think her statements in the past few days after the dust settled have been more diplomatic and reasoned. Katie was able to catch and ride with the front group because she's fast, not because of who she is married to. Amanda was accused to the same tactics last year. Nobody has mentioned that Matt Stevens grabbed a wheel from an actual teammate this year, of if they have, I didn't see it.

Whatever happens at the front of this event has very little impact on the vast majority of people participating. In the end, it's just food for the internet.

Nice response, thanks. I think what I was trying to say was that Amanda doesn't seem like a "sour grapes" kind of person. She is a competitor and I'm sure doesn't like to lose either. But for her to write this sort of essay I would assume that it wasn't merely losing but something more. Then again, it certainly could have been the heat of the moment too.