I also know MMX (Michael) as I was on the first year of the Spy Elite cycling team when that was still a thing and when he was still the CEO. He had a lot of funds for us an even though we were 3's at the time he treated us like rock stars
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I'm not sure what the cost is for BWR as last year Spinergy paid for some of the SDBC 1/2/3's to ride as long as we rode their wheels. I did it last year on a 2013 Giant TCR that barely clears 25's on some tubeless Spinergy Z-lites with IRC tires.
I was in great shape last year but rarely (if ever) rode > 6 hours in preparation, which is about how long I trained for road anyway. I didn't prepare for the gravel/dirt, figured I'd be fine since I was acquainted with the trails on my MTB, haha nope. Turns out doing them on 25's warrants some practice.
I approached the event cautiously and didn't really ever over extend myself or force it to stay at front. Stopped to help some LA Legion dude with a flat from the front group at literally the first dirt section. I lost tons of time on the rocky/rooty sections and on gravel descents, and also burped my rear (road) tubeless twice going through Hodges on the way back which was good for another 15 minutes of frustration. But by the end I felt pretty good and had fun just flying by tons of people that weren't as fit as me during the final 20 miles or so of road. I'll be back next year.