Truckee Tahoe Gravel Race Report from Glen A (2022)

Is “Gravel Cycling” new? What is a “Gravel Race”? What is a “Gravel Bike”?

“Gravel Cycling” has become a big thing over the last few years. “Gravel Racing” has grown over the last few decades. Marketing of “Gravel Bikes” has been going strong for about ten years.

Some personal gravel history:

1976 My gravel riding started with a car ride to the top of the Berkeley hills. I was a ten year old dressed in tight jeans, with overgrown 70s hair but no helmet, on a single speed, 20” wheel BMX bike. I rode down dirt trails with friends. We walked some, crashed lots and didn’t stick with it over time. 

1985 Mountain Bikes arrived: 26” wheels and gears. I tried again. Ever try friction shifting with thumb shifters while flying down a fire trail on a rigid 26er with overinflated tires? It doesn’t work. Sold that mountain bike.

1989 Index shifting came. Now I could shift so I tried racing. My 1st race was at Kirkwood Meadows ski resort in the summer. The course: rough granite rocks and gravel on access roads around the ski hill with some single track. Still on a rigid 26er, I rode hard, crashed lots and finished near the bottom of the “Sport Class” covered in dust. 

Divergence: That bike, aside from the flat bars and small wheels, was a pretty good modern “Gravel Bike”, rigid, solid, functional, geometry close to a road bike and not too heavy. Don Myrah won the “Mountain Bike World Championships” that year on a similar bike. Modern Mountain Bikes are not like that. Bigger wheels, mountain bike specific geometry and functional suspension allow normal people to ride technical trails, which only top riders could manage in the 80s. 

My current gravel bike is very much like those 80s mountain bikes: close to road geometry, very low gears, rigid, steel, but with drop bars, 700x42 tires and STI shifters. I ride this bike on the same dirt roads and trails I rode on the old mountain bike. 

Gravel Racing seems to have come from several places at once - the US Midwest, Norcal, SoCal and Northeast. Each region has different geology and weather and so each region has different gravel race courses. Modern Gravel Bikes are designed to work best on the Midwestern courses: long races on mostly smooth dirt, some rocks, rolling hills and a few short steep climbs. Modern Gravel Bikes are essentially rigid road bikes (including low road bike gearing), with huge tire clearance. They work great on those Midwestern courses.  

But not all gravel is Midwestern. The course for Truckee Tahoe Gravel? “We have designed these three amazing routes that feature some of the prettiest and toughest stuff you can find in Tahoe National Forest.” https://www.truckeetahoegravel.com/

The Truckee Tahoe Gravel Race: over 500 people started together. It was “normal” at first: some paved roads, some proper - even slightly “Midwestern” style gravel roads. At mile 18, we turned onto the Forest Service “Roads”. Back to 1989. For the next 25 miles I was on roads very much like the access roads around Kirkwood Meadows, on a similar bike, but now I’m 50 something, not 20 something. No rolling gravel roads, no short power climbs, no small chips of flint rock. Steady and steep climbs, miles long and thousands of feet high. Climbing and descending difficult, steep, loose, rocky access roads. Constantly crossing back and forth in a seemingly random pattern over the roads looking for the smooth line, but there was rarely a smooth line. I would not want to drive those roads in anything but a Jeep or ATV. The feeling of my wheels bouncing off the ground and locking up while in air and skidding as they landed, brought me right back to that Kirkwood race in 1989. My body became the suspension and I got pounded! I rode carefully this time and didn’t crash, but still finished covered in dust.

The race officially ended at mile 50 after about 5400 feet of climbing. I finished in 4:29, 40th of 81 in men 50+, about 11 miles per hour. At the unofficial finish, where we started, I came in a little under 6 hours for the 67 miles, with 5700 feet of climbing. 

For me Gravel Cycling is not new. My Gravel Races have ranged from smooth roads of gravel and dirt with moderate climbs, like the Grasshopper Huffmaster to near mountain bike courses like Truckee Tahoe Gravel.

What is a Gravel Bike? The short answer: any bike you like to ride on unpaved roads. For me it will be closer to a drop bar mountain bike than to an off the shelf big brand Gravel Bike. I need mountain bike gears, low enough for long, steep climbs. I’ve crashed - flying over my handlebars - while descending on both the 89 mountain bike and on my current gravel bike, because of the road style, forward weight bias. I prefer mountain bike style rearward weight bias in order to be safe on steep descents. Suspension is also necessary for comfort and control at speed over the rough trails and during fast, rough descents. Drop bars, yes! After about 2 hours of racing with flat bars my triceps and back ache. For me, the obvious first step is to simply put drop bars and 700x42 or 45 gravel tires on a hardtail mountain bike. The next step may be a front suspension gravel bike, like the Lauf Seigla or Canyon Grizl with a Rock Shox Rudy. What a gravel bike is for you depends on your dirt and how you ride. 

Race Report From Glen A.

https://www.truckeegravel.com/