juggernaut
Member
Gravel racing is not something I've seen on this forum since most are into single track riding, but anyway.
A friend of mine mentioned he was participating in his first gravel race with his Amflow Pro. I had a look at the courses which varied in distance - 25klm, 49klm, 90klm and 125klm.
I entered in the 90klm race with 2025 vertical metres of climbing as I thought this would give the greatest personal challenge and really test out the Frey Beast. This also happened to be the same race my friend entered with his Amflow.
I only had a few days to prepare for the race and strapped on an additional bottle holder on the top tube and changed out the Magura rotors and pads for new ones. I left everything else as is.
The gravel race had over 2,000 competitors over the four distances and there were 436 cyclists in my race. The 125 klm race drew the largest contingent and included cyclists from all over Australia and some from other parts of the world. This race was also enable cyclists to qualify for the UCI world gravel championships which were being hosted at this location later in the year.
The 90 klm course also formed a majority of the 125 klm race. There were staggered starts for the various distances and ages. I was in the last group to leave, but were mixing with the 125 klm competitors further up the track.
Given I had never ridden the Beast 90 klm neverlone including 2025 of vm's I had no idea whether I or the battery would last the difference. I did the vast majority of the race in Eco 1 with Eco 2 used half way up a few climbs and Eco 3 with about 3 klm's to go. I crossed the line with 20% battery remaining! I was quite surprise how the big Bafang Ultra motor sipped away at the battery, even more so that I was running a tubed setup with the Schwalbe Radial Alberts Pro's in a gravity casing 27.5 x 2.6 (rear) and 29 x 2.6 (front).
Some of the downhill sections were quite fast and I reached rolling speeds approaching 55 klm/hr and was generally able to keep pace with the traditional gravel cyclists. I mainly lost ground on the straights and fast uphill sections against the faster traditional gravel cyclists who were riding in groups taking turns at the front whereas I was riding solo. I was able to make up some ground on the steeper gravel climbs.
The race certainly took a toll on my body. At around the 42 klm mark I stopped to refill my water bottles and could hardly walk to the refill station then suffered a leg cramp when I got back on. All in all it was a great personal challenge, I also had a lot of fun and would look forward to competing again next year.
My only goal was to finish the race........but to my surprise I actually won the ebike category!!
I also finished 114th outright out of the 436 competitors, and 12th in my age group (55-59).
In case you were wondering, my friend with his Amflow finished over an hour behind me with 3% battery left.
A friend of mine mentioned he was participating in his first gravel race with his Amflow Pro. I had a look at the courses which varied in distance - 25klm, 49klm, 90klm and 125klm.
I entered in the 90klm race with 2025 vertical metres of climbing as I thought this would give the greatest personal challenge and really test out the Frey Beast. This also happened to be the same race my friend entered with his Amflow.
I only had a few days to prepare for the race and strapped on an additional bottle holder on the top tube and changed out the Magura rotors and pads for new ones. I left everything else as is.
The gravel race had over 2,000 competitors over the four distances and there were 436 cyclists in my race. The 125 klm race drew the largest contingent and included cyclists from all over Australia and some from other parts of the world. This race was also enable cyclists to qualify for the UCI world gravel championships which were being hosted at this location later in the year.
The 90 klm course also formed a majority of the 125 klm race. There were staggered starts for the various distances and ages. I was in the last group to leave, but were mixing with the 125 klm competitors further up the track.
Given I had never ridden the Beast 90 klm neverlone including 2025 of vm's I had no idea whether I or the battery would last the difference. I did the vast majority of the race in Eco 1 with Eco 2 used half way up a few climbs and Eco 3 with about 3 klm's to go. I crossed the line with 20% battery remaining! I was quite surprise how the big Bafang Ultra motor sipped away at the battery, even more so that I was running a tubed setup with the Schwalbe Radial Alberts Pro's in a gravity casing 27.5 x 2.6 (rear) and 29 x 2.6 (front).
Some of the downhill sections were quite fast and I reached rolling speeds approaching 55 klm/hr and was generally able to keep pace with the traditional gravel cyclists. I mainly lost ground on the straights and fast uphill sections against the faster traditional gravel cyclists who were riding in groups taking turns at the front whereas I was riding solo. I was able to make up some ground on the steeper gravel climbs.
The race certainly took a toll on my body. At around the 42 klm mark I stopped to refill my water bottles and could hardly walk to the refill station then suffered a leg cramp when I got back on. All in all it was a great personal challenge, I also had a lot of fun and would look forward to competing again next year.
My only goal was to finish the race........but to my surprise I actually won the ebike category!!
I also finished 114th outright out of the 436 competitors, and 12th in my age group (55-59).
In case you were wondering, my friend with his Amflow finished over an hour behind me with 3% battery left.
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