Dirty Donut Preview

 Great...another preview....

I am not sue if people like these or not....but I know from my experience that if I have another rider's perspective going into an event that I generally feel a bit better. I actually used to reach out to complete strangers (facebook friends) and ask them for their cliff notes on courses or events. Most were friendly and would give me some idea of what was going to happen. Others would just not respond. Life. lol.

So next up for me is the Dirty Donut just down the road from me in Martin, MI. I am doing one last pre-ride on the short course tonight to test my setup. Its gonna be hot, so it should be an interesting ride. I also want to check out the gravel conditions. It has been dry here for weeks so it could be dusty and loose gravel for 60 miles on Saturday.  (EDIT: it started to downpour after I typed this)

This is probably the flattest gravel race of the year for me. The 60 mile course has roughly 37 feet of climbing per mile. Compare that to the nearly 77 feet per mile in Barry Roubaix and this race is flat. Add in that about 45% is pavement and its even faster yet. 

The draw for this race is the donut eating side of things. I won't be partaking in the Donut contest. For those that choose to do so they get a full 5 minutes taken off of their time! This means if they make the Dirty Dozen Club (12 donuts) that their time drops by a whopping HOUR! That is a crazy amount of time. There are rules of course...lol. They witness you eat them for starters. And you can't toss your donuts along the way and still get time for them. Interesting....but not for me. lol. I remember in 2021 watching the people at the last donut station forcing them down and wondering how they were no hurling. Still, people seem to have fun doing this....lol. More power to them! 

Weird rain cloud...poured for 15 minutes and the sun came back out. lol. I headed out on the 22 mile route from Allegan. I picked up the course where on the left of the image where the cross is. 

Overall the gravel is a decent mix. There is some hard pack that is smooth. Some of the hard pack is rough. There are sections that are loose and chunky. And there are some areas where its just normal gravel. Don't always aim for the smooth looking hard packed areas. Sometimes the looser areas are a bit smoother and faster than the hard pack. 

I know the 22 mile course very well. But I am doing the 60 tomorrow so it will be a different deal. More miles, more climbing, and unknown conditions. Weather Channel is calling for Northeasterly or East Northeasterly winds tomorrow, but under 10mph. So it shouldn't be a factor and it might actually help on the way back to Martin. 

Ride with GPS doesn't accurately show the elevation gain. My Strava (for what its worth) shows about 2200ft on the 60 mile course. I know mot of the roads leading into Hopkins (where the middle I is in the image above). After that I will not have that knowledge but I will just pedal away.

My goal is to try to stay with the main group as long as I can. Not being a climber I am hoping I can hang on until around mile 12 where the section has some rollers. I will get dumped here for sure, but hopefully I will have a few people to work with until this point. 

I am happy with an 8am start time for this event for 2 reasons. First, I live 15 minutes from the start. So I don't have to be up stupid early to get there at a decent time. Second, its supposed to touch 90 degrees tomorrow. With that early start time I won't notice that I am being baked until the race is over. Should be Mid 60's at the start and likely well into the 80's at the finish. Plan on lots of water friends! 

So, goal time? Well....that is a good question. If you look at the route that I ride from home I have been fairly consistent (not fast....but consistent). A few things to note here....this is the shorter route...and it includes 10 miles more pavement when I ride from home. So a bit different than what the actual race will be. My fastest was perfect conditions in cooler weather. My slowest was nasty gravel and last night when it was pushing 90 degrees. I have shown steady improvement though, which is always my goal.

With the race being 60 miles and the higher temps I am going to aim for a finish time of sub 4:10 (average 14.5mph). Not fast, just steady for this distance. In 2021 when I did this race my time was 4:33 (average 13.4mph). So the plan is to be faster than I was last time here. Looking at my Dirty 30 time I averaged under 13mph over 50 miles. I am much stronger and lighter now.

No matter what, I will be out there doing what I can. Say Hi if you see me. Good luck to those that are racing! Keep the rubber side down!