emilio700

iTrader: (3)

My set up for Belgian Waffle Ride Sand Diego this year. S5 road race bike with big tires. I have always run a cross or gravel bike. Wanted to mix it up for this years course that has less technical dirt than ever before. 70% paved and most of it is very fast country roads.
Course is 119 miles, 8600'. 5 short steep road climbs. A few sections of dirt singletrack. Test riding the bike, those 32's and quick road bike handling make for sketchy dirt handling compared to my usual stable Checkpoint SLR, 45c gravel tires and 40mm suspension fork.
So the tradeoff is big aero gains at the 18-24mph I'll be doing on the road vs losing time in some of the dirt sectors. Much of the dirt is still hardpack and non-techincal so the S5 is actually faster than the Chekpoint there. It's the single track and twisty sections where I will be slower, probably a lot slower.

In years past with my big tired gravel bike, I suffered most and got dropped on the road sectors, but caught and passed riders in the dirt. That's a great strategy for course with little pavement but backwards on this course.. I think.
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/46234731

2023 Cervelo S5 - 58cm
40cm bars
Dura Ace 12s
46/30 Absolute Black oval rings
11-36 105 12s cassette
Crank Bros Egg Beater ti pedals
Arundel bandoi cages off the gravel bike
30 oz Zefal bottles
2L USWE hydration pack
32c Conti GP5000 A/S with around 38/42psi
Light Bicycle 35x25mm DT240/CX-Ray wheelset
140m rotors
172.5 Rotor Aldhu Carbon cranks
Sigeyi meter
BB Infinite

Hydration pack will have about 1400cal of Skratch High Carb. Bottles have about 650 calories each but will be dry at the start. Too hard to drink from bottles early in race so I'll save the weight and add water late in the race. USWE should last for about 3-3.5hrs

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

Floyd Landis: checkpoint missed?! Geez, I was about to buy some CBD.

Nice job Emilio, #1 age group. Race report? Did you pick the right bike?

EDIT: you mention no shimano GRX clutched 12speed DI2 RD in your video, is there not a XTR Di2 12 speed? i'm not up to speed on what's been out the last few years. I'm not familar with the grx series at all, how that's different from road and mountain.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

Bike was great. As expected, I dropped the chain a bunch of times. But could always guide it back on with the FD. Chain catcher kept it from dropping inside.

While the dirt sections were definitely a lot sketchier than my gravel bike, it turned out to not be as bad as I had feared. I was really nervous about some of the sandy, off camber, steep downhill turns on Raptor Ridge. Had a few moments at the beginning of the descent, leg out two wheel drifts that spooked me so I dialed it waaay back and just picked my way down. At that point about 2hrs in I felt strong and was having a great race so I didn't want to toss it away. It's funny, I'm always among the fastest in the dirt. So it was a mental reset to let guys past in the dirt. That said, I was still passing a lot of riders in the dirt. I wonder how they might feel knowing a skinny *** 61 year old dude on a full aero road bike just passed them on a singletrack.. On then road, it was just so fast. It was never difficult to hold a wheel or bridge a small gap. When on my own, I was flying.

For a unique event like BWR California that has so much road, I think it's the fastest option. That said, if you are not a confident bike handler off-road, I'd stick with a gravel bike and bigger tires with some tread. I can't think of any other gravel race where a road bike might be faster. BWR CA is an anomaly that way. Shimano released 12 GRX mechanical but no Di2 yet.

I caught then leader in my age group, Louie on the super steep Highland Valley Road climb and rolled right past. About an 40min later I was out of water so made my only stop in Ramona. Louie went by on the back of a group and put a few minutes on me. I spent maybe 4- minutes at that aid station. Way too long. Chased and finally caught Louie at the base of a steep 1 mile road climb at around the halfway point. He was just leaving an aid station as I rolled past. I pushed too hard on that climb, started overheating near the top (86-89°) and he repassed me. I chased him back again and saw he was fading. Caught him and a little group formed with some other riders. I still felt good so I waited for the short climb before the ripping fast descent down Highland Valley. Right near the top I started lifting the pace to force some splits in the group. I wanted to not have a group together to chase me. When the group started splintering behind me I attacked hard out of then saddle over the last kicker and bombed the descent. By the bottom I had probably a minute. One guy eventually caught and passed me but Louie was gone. From there is was just fighting cramps and trying to cram down every calorie I had with me.

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

I just checked their website and that's...wow. No 12 speed xtr di2. Interesting.

In that case, is 12 speed that much worthwhile over 11 speed clutched di2 RD?

here I am still rocking 10 speed on all my road bikes.

emilio700

iTrader: (3)

No, or I would be on it. My gravel bike has 11s Di2:
Dura Ace 11s shifters
GRX RD
GRX FD
11-42 GRX cassette
175mm GRX cranks with 48/31 rings

With 12s I could maybe get the 11-46 XTR cassette to work 2x.
XTR 12 is also still mechanical so I suspect there will be some crossover with GRX 12s Di2 when XTR goes Di2.
There are still old 11s XTR Di2 available new. That's almost 10 years old now.