Originally Posted by
Ironfish653
Probably nothing dramatically different than what they’re riding now.
You think that everyone is counting on having a mechanical during the race? They’re setting up the bikes to be as fast as possible, but still go the distance.
They’re not going to ride 25lb steel frames and 36h wheels with airless tires to be ‘bomb proof;’ If carbon and 28’s made it to the finish without breaking, then it was enough, not that they got lucky.
Even with support cars, it’s a pretty significant penalty to have to stop and change wheels, and then go ‘full hero mode’ to pull yourself back up to the end of the line, especially if it’s late in the race.
I guess.. but if you go by BF wisdom, and if you were to describe a hypothetical type of riding you do, using the terrain of P-R for this description, you'd be getting all sorts of recommendations for a bike out of the Adventure/Gravel lineups, with probably 32-40mm tires. Would the advice be different from the LBS, or a manufacturer at a bike show? If P-R isn't the kind of course suited to a Gravel Bike setup, are gravel bikes just snake oil?