Yesterday I did the Canyon "Belgian Waffle Ride" and I'm still trying to eat my way out of it today. I was riding it as a "team" with a few lower (racing) cat. teammates and just having fun. It features 40 miles of dirt/gravel/single track, some of which is MTB worthy (Lake Hodges). Doing it on 25 c tires on a rim brake road bike was not the best choice, but with 100 miles of road a full on gravel bike is a bit slow. Interesting mix of setups out there, really unique ride.
I had two rear flats within ~10 mi of eachother near the end which kinda pissed me off, but you can kinda expect to "burp" a tubeless road tire when you're constantly slamming it on rocks. The endless dirt lake hodges section really took it out of me.
After that (~100 miles in) I was so far back (about halfway down the starters) that I just hammered the remaining miles and just caught and passed tons of people which was kind of exciting I guess. I wasn't really hurting until the top of double peak (final steep climb) but at that point you're pretty much done.
Unique event! Honestly it made me want a more modern disc brake road bike so that I could run 28s or even 30s for it next year. Total blast!
Summary
Total time: 9:10:13
Duration: 8:25:25 (92%)
Moving time: 8:17:38 (90%)
Distance: 131.8mi
Climbing: 10262ft
RPE: -
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"Your beauty is an aeroplane;
so high, my heart cannot bear the strain." -A.C. Jobim, Triste