The unPAved as the name implies is a bike race/adventure/journey that takes place in the heart of the Susquehanna River Valley in Central Pennsylvania. As you might guess, it takes place off the beaten path. Covering some of the most scenic areas that the Northeast has to offer. As director, Dave Pryor so eloquently said, “If the climbs don’t take your breath away, the fall foliage will.” (Well I think he said it, because it was on his website…)

As most of you reading this already know, Gravel racing is on the rise. Those bunch of weirdo’s ten years ago who you thought were being lame are now the coolest and hippest around. No longer are they looked at as shirking the road racing scene because it was too “intense”, but instead looked at as innovators. Look no further for this legitimization than World Tour cycling teams planning seasons around having their riders attend such races as Dirty Kanza, Leadville, and The Belgian Waffle Ride to name a few. Gravel is the here and know, and it’s a great time to jump aboard this pirate ship.

Let’s get down to business.

Did the inaugural edition of unPAved Pennsylvania deliver?

You bet it did. With route options ranging from the 30, 54, 90 and the Full 120 there was something for everybody. I have to take a moment here and mention why something like this is so appealing to future-Matt. Future-Matt is expecting his first child, a baby girl at the end of January 2019. Once this little bundle enters the world there is going to be a lot more planning and scheduling involved when I race bikes. With an event like this that is so family friendly (and within 2 hours of my hometown, where my parents still live – shout out to the Finger Lakes of NY) I have a good chance at convincing my wife that a 54 mile off-road gravel ride would be an awesome way for her to break into the bike racing/gravel riding scene. It’s long enough to be a worthy adventure, technical enough to feel proud that she could handle it, but yet not so much that I’d be scared that I am sending her off to impending doom…and the best part is that she can nail down the 54 mile loop and be back in a few hours to our little girl. All the while I will be out hammering away at my pedals, doing my best to defend my title…and hopefully getting back only a couple hours after my wife does. At the end of the day we both get to race our bikes, our child is loved by family all day and we do it all in the awesome community of like minded cyclists. Soooo, how about it honey? 🙂 Sounds perfect, eh?

Getting back on track, my choice at the 2018 unPAved was the 120 “FULL” route. I’m a glutton for miles and hours on the bike and was super excited to mash away through terrain that is very similar to the kind that I grew up around in the Finger Lakes of NY. I had this race circled on my calendar for almost all of 2018, however since I procrastinated the dang thing sold out for the Full edition. Thankfully my good buddy Chris (more on him later) alerted me to this and I was able to find my way into the race via the generous offer of someone who could no longer make the trip. Thank you to Tatsuo and Dave for giving me the chance to take part in the first edition.

Making the trip down on Saturday from Boston was a pretty non-eventful 6.5 hours capped off with a lovely lunch at Friendly’s, the only restaurant I could find within 10 minutes of my hotel. It turns out that at 32 years old, the Friendly’s menu just isn’t as appealing as it was to my 14 year old, American Legion playing self. In any case, my buddy Chris showed up shortly after at our luxurious Hampton Inn and we went out for a spin before heading to registration. One of the most telling signs of being in a truly fantastic places to ride bikes is that without any pre-mapping or anything we stumbled out of the parking lot, took a right hand turn, rode about 1-2 miles on some “busy” road and then immediately found ourselves on a secluded paved climb of a mile or so that ended up dumping us on yet another road that turned into unPAved glory for a solid 45 minutes. That’s what it is like out there in Central PA. Throw a dart out and you’ll hit some epic gravel road that will keep you smiling for miles and miles.

Fast forward to race morning and its 40’ish degrees with the sun just barely starting to creep out. It’s going to be a fantastic day, but admittedly its freezing for a cyclist clad in spandex. The weather will be in the mid 50’s all day, so at a solid effort that will be fine, especially with the 10k or so of vertical gain we would be accumulating over the 120 miles, but for now I’m cold. The mellow vibe that the start of a 120 mile race offers is something that was very welcome when compared to the craziness of the road/crit scene.

Smartly, nicely and thoughtfully, Dave and his crew had us start the race from the beautiful The Miller Center for Recreation and Wellness that was situated right smack dab on a rail trail. The local Bucknell cycling team led out the caravan of riders over the initial 5 miles. Riding 2 wide on the gravel/cinder path, fellow riders chatted, got warmed up and debated the biggest question of them all. Were the big things at the road intersections bollards or barriers. I said barriers, because WTF are bollards? I mean seriously, who screams that out on a bike ride without laughing to themselves. (OK, after reading Wikipedia, it appears these aren’t that strange and its pretty normal and accepted to call them bollards..I guess it had just passed me by in my youth) So yeah, the race had the kind of chill roll-out that a 120 mile race should, and I applaud that.

Although the first five miles were mellow, you’d be dead wrong if it was setting the tone for the day. Just a few miles later the world would get tipped UP, quickly! At 14 miles in we hit the first climb. My light research on the course told me that it was both one of the steepest and longest of the day. Yup, the first hill we saw was the longest. That sounds about right. Playing off the countless Overlands, Rasputitsa’s and Vermont 50’s I’ve done over the past three years I knew that a similar recipe of success that the leaders always use might have a chance to break things wide open here as well…even if it was only 14 miles into a 120 day. So as the grade increased I looked to make the pace a high tempo effort and a gap opened pretty quickly. Why wouldn’t it though, it was only 14 miles in. What kind of crazy person would try to go clear that early? This guy would! However, I was thankfully and luckily joined by my roomate for the weekend Chris Ganter, who quickly got on my wheel. We rolled together for the next couple of minutes hoping to entice a couple others to join us. Two is nice, but three, four or even five people at this juncture would give us a nice rotation to separate ourselves. In the end only Michael (in the Panaracer kit – see podium pic below) made the bridge, and with that we three amigos were off!

After what for all intents and purposes was a 20 minute power test (see Strava Segment – Brandon to Jonestown) we had a bit of a gap, and hit the downhill pretty hard. As you can see in my beautifully mocked up course profile, the downhill after the initial climb launched us from the rest of the chasers. Rolling that downhill and flat strongly we hit the next set of hills and maintained our gap. Taking turns pulling, the three of us worked really well. Every time Chris started to chat I made sure to up the pace a bit….i mean this is serious business! Ha…i’m kidding. Well kind of 🙂

As we made our way over the course we moved along on the flats and took the hills at a steady tempo. With only three of us, everyone wanted the company of other riders to help move things along and no one made any crazy attacks up the hills. It was as enjoyable as a hard race effort can be….but that’s also because the dream scenario for me in any race is a small break consisting of just a few people who like to do work. (Shrug/sigh)

I don’t precisely remember when we hit it, but somewhere around the 48-50 mile mark we hit some of the gnarliest terrain out there. Full on jeep road/Vermont Pave style stuff. Complete with giant rocks, huge ruts and washed out sections from the rain. Not only was it like this as we nuked it UP but the downhill was just as crazy. Meandering through the minefield of boulders and standing water at light-speed, I was left crossing my fingers and praying that my wheels would not explode. Thankfully the bombproof NEXT wheels Jerry made for me held up like champs. However, even though my wheels made it through, my chain was sucked up into my crank when we exited this treacherous sector. Through amazing foresight by the director, a mechanic was placed at the bottom of the descent. (AKA – the middle of nowhere) God bless them as they were quickly able to fix my mechanical which allowed me to chase back to Chris and Michael within 5 minutes or so. Crisis adverted.

Once I was back on and attached to the other two we hit the meat of the race, miles 60-100 where things would naturally shake themselves out. The climbs now began to be more of a “can you keep up pace” as opposed to “lets keep this together pace”. This went on for a couple climbs and eventually Michael and I shed Chris at around mile 70-75. I’ve got to say that Chris’s effort was massive. Having started a new job this summer and on minimal training he not only made it 70+ miles into a 120 miles race at the pointy end but was able to rally from getting dropped to hold onto third place. He was solo for like 40-45 miles I think. That’s one hell of an effort dude!

Michael and I ran into the next climb together and stuck close. We flew down the descent together at ludicrous speed and finally approached the last climb of the day. Although not as long as the first climb, it was pretty steep and included pitches that were pretty devastating to tired legs. As things go in a 120 mile race, my “break-away” uphill was more or less the equivalent to a turtle speeding away from another turtle who got sidetracked by eating some grass….But really, two tired dudes going up a hill and one of them was able to inch away. Then the inch grew and with that separation comes that little boost of adrenaline that lets you fires on all cylinders to the top of the climb, 95 miles in.

Riding solo over the highest point of the race, I completely blew by the masses of riders from the shorter fields who were grouped together enjoying food and drink while gazing at the beautiful vista. (I should really stop at this next year…maybe…) Still riding on the high of getting free I kept the pedal down as much as possible while covering the final 20 miles. I was flying high and feeling great until about 7-8 miles to go. I had this vision in my brain that once I hit the rail trail it would basically be like I was done. It was good bait for me to chase, however the fact was that once I hit the rail trail I was NOT done. I had those 7-8 miles of flat land riding where I had to produce all the power. I didn’t know what kind of gap I had so as I always say (to myself mostly) “when in doubt, pedal harder”….and so I did.

I crossed the line in just under 7 hours and officially became the first ever champion of unPAved Pennsylvania. I’d like to say I was ceremoniously doused in champagne and put on the shoulders of the adoring fans. Alas, that was not the case this year….but maybe in 2019? What do you say Dave?

Be sure to check out this awesome video recap of the event from The Gravel Cyclist.

Training Peaks Stuff – (The numbers and whatnot)

Full Results

The Superbowl of gravel cycling. The Ironman of cycling. Whatever you want to call it, The Dirty Kanza200 which covers 206 miles of Flint Rock Hills gravel, has now firmly staked its claim as the premier gravel event in the US. Dare I say the world? After having spent the weekend in Emporia and raced the DK 200, I find myself wondering “Was this what Ironman was like in the late 80s, early 90’s?” I just don’t know, I got into triathlon when it had already been well established, had a peak and valley and was rising to its highest high (2009-2012) which since has not been matched. I make this statement due to the pulsating vibe that resounded throughout the small Midwest town stuck in between Kansas City and Wichita, KS. This race is not new, it’s been around for more than a decade. Yet in just the past 3 years if you look at the results you can see the race taking on a completely different look. Riders with backgrounds in professional road cycling, cyclocross and even triathlon can be seen integrating into the lead pack and drastically changing the dynamic. With that said, I just wonder…is this the big wave that will truly move the needle of cycling in America? Will we, in the near future see a true race series that is all raced on dusty, rock laden roads where traffic does not exist and racers are directed via Garmins and Wahoos as opposed to lead vehicles and arrow signs?

 

I came into the Dirty Kanza not quite knowing what I was getting myself into. I signed up on a relative whim with my buddies from The Cycling Formula. Lucky for me I got in via the lottery and figured I’d give it a shot. Looking at the race, the distance or potential time on the bike didn’t faze me. Having raced countless Ironman distance races I’ve had the experience of doing a physical activity for 10 or 11 hours straight. I know the nutritional requirements…I know pacing. That seemed like the easy part. The stuff you could plan for. The scary part was the potential for mechanical issues. I’m talking about ripping the sidewall of your tire when you’re 30 miles away from the nearest checkpoint and having no way to repair it or having your rear derailleur be torn off while riding through a knee deep river crossing with branches floating around like land mines. The potential for disaster is everywhere out there in the Flint Rock Hills. But what the hell, this kind of thing is right up my alley. I was going to go out there and SEND IT!

 

I probably should have done some more research…and maybe not raced a 3 day stage race the weekend before…and maybe not raced 1 or 2 times each weekend for the 2 months leading into this race. A lot of things I “could have” done differently for sure, but the fact is. I went into this thing thinking of it as more of a fun challenge than anything else. Sure I wanted to be competitive but that wasn’t really my main goal when I had signed up. That slowly changed as I saw the people who were at the event and the vibe that was being generated. Don’t get me wrong this is still a mass start event where people are just there for the adventure, the experience and the glory of just doing something that is just a little bit on the crazy spectrum….and frankly, that’s the beauty of it. One event to rule them all.

 

Anyway, race morning rolls along and after a 30 minute delay due to a crazy thunderstorm rolling through we were off. All 1,000+ of us DK200 participants ripping down Main Street, Emporia all fighting to be at the front. It starts out as a neutral roll on pavement, but is more or less a moderately paced CX race where unless you’re a known quantity whom people are too scared to touch…you’re getting bumped and jostled for position. No joke, elbows being thrown and moderate chops being employed. One woman did this no less than 3 times to be in the neutral roll. Once you make the turn onto the first gravel road things thin out as there are really only two lanes two ride. Those are the worn in tire tracks and you basically slot in behind someone and hope it’s a good spot. Minimal passing is done over the first 10-15 miles. After an hour or so the group of 1000+ naturally slims down to a couple hundred or so with that being whittled down yet again at about the 60-90 minute mark. There is a place called the pens where the cattle roam free (literally right across the road you’re riding on) and wild horses run along side of you. It was at this point where the race had its first real efforts being made. Treating this as any other bike race where I was at without teammates I tried to stay as close to the front as possible to be sure I wasn’t gapped by any other group. Becoming detached that early in a 200 mile race would be VERY BAD. Luckily my tires stayed inflated and I rolled through this section unscathed. Using Ted King as a measuring stick, I made sure to keep within a safe distance of any effort he made and also held back when I could see he was. It was a long day ahead and he’s done this thing a couple times already. I had not. Once our pack was down to 20-30 riders there was an easing of the pace, people peed and I even had a nice chat with Jens Voigt….yup that Jens from pro cycling fame. Super nice guy, very friendly to everyone…and I am sure was compensated accordingly by Trek.

 

Heading into checkpoint 1 in Madison is where my naivety came to light. I rolled over the timing mat in 3rd right behind Ted. I knew that I needed to find my drop bag and get my fuel for the next 65 miles to Eureka. However, the crew-for-hire option where I leave them a bag and they bring it out to the checkpoint was nowhere to be found. I had no idea where they were. Riders were stopping at their own tents, with their own crews and getting everything they needed. All while I was wandering around trying to find my bag. Long story short, I had no luck. I was at the end of the checkpoint and no one knew anything. I begged a lady for some water and she filled one bottle for me. One bottle and half a 50oz camelbak plus 3-4 gels was all I had. This was not good. Then the leaders went by me, they had made their stop and were heading out and my options were either to make sure I stayed in the front pack or waste more time looking for my drop bag. I made the decision to risk my low fuel and just ensure I maintained contact with the front pack. The speed and placement was just too valuable. In the long run it was indeed a dumb move, as we started the leg that goes from miles 48-103 we immediately hit a mug bog and I took on so much mud between my rear wheel and bike frame that I had to completely remove my thru axle wheel, scoop all the clay-like mud out and then reassemble everything and make a 15 minute chase back onto the group. So in the end I didn’t get the fuel I needed and ended up wasting a bullet having to chase back onto the main group. BUMMER! In any case I was still in the lead pack and just knew that I needed to ration my hydration and gels. If I could just make it to checkpoint 2 in contact I’d be alright.

 

As we went from miles 48 to about 95 the group was down to about 15-18 of us. Whether due to intensity, mechanical or otherwise, that was where we were at. This race, other than the odd very bad mechanical has a funny way of just kind of putting people into the groups they belong within the first 100 miles. Unlike a road race where if you get dropped early on your day is over, here its not that big of a deal you just find another group to ride with that is more your pace….no biggy. In any case back to the race. A long stretch of crosswind strung things out a bit as we neared Eureka and checkpoint #2. Ted King put in a little dig and distanced himself from the group. At this point I had already begged him for a gel, and by god the dude was so nice he gave me one of his Untapped Gels. He didn’t have to, but he did. I owe him for that. However, having been out of hydration since about mile 80 I was running on fumes and decided to hang back just a bit. I knew that I’d probably get into checkpoint 2 about a minute behind but I wasn’t too worried. I knew that I’d be able to fuel up, grab the second camelbak I had stored along with a nice snickers bar and a full pocket of Untapped gels and waffles. I was going to be alright. Then the realization of my mistakes happened. I did not research the race enough, I did not know that having a support crew or even a single helper would be such a big deal. After finding my bag I had to fill each bottle I had with water into the mix I had put in there the day before (no water allowed in bags beforehand), sort through and get the food I needed, lube my chain and all that other stuff. It might have only been 5 or 6 minutes…but in that time my seat at the front of the class was gone. I left checkpoint 2 and the race was up the road. I was solo and had 103 miles to go. NOT GOOD!

 

Being alone with 100 miles to go quite frankly sucked. I was starting to hit the beginnings of the headwind that would be plaguing us for the remainder of the ride back north to Emporia so I just dug in and focused on keeping my heart rate and cadence up. Through the next 30 miles I caught one other rider who had blown sky high. He latched on for a bit, but when he asked me “How much farther the next stop was”, my reply of “about 30 miles” was not what he wanted to hear. Shortly after informing him of the bad news we hit a pretty sizable water crossing. I road straight through it and he stopped before getting wet. He was never seen again. Well I mean he didn’t disappear into the abyss, he just probably stopped for a break or something.

 

A little while after the water crossing a lone rider past me, kind of out of nowhere. This was music to my ears because shortly after he went by I saw that a group of 5-6 riders were approaching. I decided to take a quick nature break and wait for the group to come by so I could ride with some friends for a while. We all banded together at what must have been between mile 130-135. The group was rolling along nicely along and with Matt Lieto, Paul Shirley and Cory Wallace we had some diesel power to barrel through the headwinds. Somewhere along the way the group was down to about 4 of us as we hit the third and last checkpoint in Madison at about mile 161. I made sure to restock my supplies as best as possible and got back on the road. In the shuffle Paul got out in front of the group and ended up latching on to another pack that ended up finishing about 10 minutes ahead of us. Kudos to him for being prepared and making quick work of the stop. That left Cory, Jesse  and myself together for the final push to the finish. Honestly, at that point I was super thankful to have some companions as the headwinds were in full force. Cory was definitely the strongest of us, which after I learned of his background made sense as he is the current 24 hour MTB World Champion…so basically at hour 8-9 he was just coming alive, and also had flatted earlier…so it all kinda made sense. None the less I had these guys to keep me company and we all traded turns at the front to be a wind block. We even took the opportunity to commemorate our little crew with a nice picture at Salsa’s “chasethechaise” photo op. A very cool idea by the company that only took a matter of seconds and an awesome photo came from it, along with a nice little patch. Thanks Salsa!

 

The final miles were pretty uneventful. Cory, the strongest put up manly surge up the final 100m long hill into town with Jesse chasing shortly behind. My legs however were just fine with keeping it steady to the finish. A small bummer as both were in my age group and I went from a podium 5th place to 7th due to this, but the reality was that Cory deserved it anyways. He did the most work on the way home, so kudos to him!

 

Looking back at how the race went I definitely am happy and proud of my result. Of course I had ambitions of a better finish but it is what it is. I did a few things wrong and those few things ended up making a big difference.

Lesson learned and I will certainly not let that happen again. God willing I will be at DK200 2019 and with one of these things under my belt and a large amount of LUCK, I hope to be right up there sprinting for the win down Main Street, Emporia.

 

A HUGE thank you to Adam at Gravel City Adventure & Supply Co. I needed some help with my bike and Adam took care of me big time. Not only did he fix the issue (and fast) he also made the recommendation of putting some different tires on. More suitable for the terrain. I told him “you’re the local, I trust you. If you’ve got time to do it, go for it.” He simply told me “I’ll get it done”…and he did. And I am very thankful for the advice!!

 

Thanks for the hospitality Emporia! See you next year.

 

The Gear I used:

• Velocio Radiator Jersey, Signature Bibs, Bretton Socks, POC Ventral
• 2 Chase Camelbaks, and a lot of flat repair supplies
• Untapped Maple (Regular and Coffee Version)
• Untapped Ginger Mapleaid and Lemon Tea Mapleaid (Mixed for taste and sodium content)
• Maxxis Rambler 38’s  – per expert recommendation by Adam Blake of Gravel City Adventure and Supply
• Bike: Felt F3X with Shimano Ultegra Components, 11-28 cassette on 46×36 with Quarq Dzero
• Wheels: NEXT XPLOR – Setup as tubeless 1 Snickers

 

NormaTec Numbers:

In its travel case its a carry on approved size, which is awesome.

Thursday – 75 minutes in the evening.

Friday – (Day Before the race) Used two times for 60 minutes each. While watching SAFE on Netflix, good show.

Saturday – (Race day)

• Used for 30 minutes prior to the race. 4:45-5:15 am. Serves as a warm-up before the actual warm-up on the bike. As the blood is moved in the legs without actually moving my body it’s a nice way to get the body awake without having to do too much effort and I was able to finish my pre-race breakfast while doing so.
• Used again for 60 minutes after returning from the race before bed. I really like having the ability to do this after an effort like DK, just to head off any inflammation and swelling that is beginning.

Sunday – Used 90 minutes before heading to the airport. Again, nice to get ahead of the swelling that can be induced by sitting in a plane for 2+ hours.

 

Full Results  – 11:51, 16th Overall

Strava File

 

Hello World,

I am officially back on the blog circuit. A lot has gone on since I last regularly posted stuff here but the short of it is that I am now a full on cyclist who can’t get enough of it. I race with my buddies on the Velocio Northeast Cycling squad most every weekend. I’m spending my days as an Accountant with NormaTec (makers of those magical boots that give you “fresh legs faster”) and filling in all the other hours on the bike or with my beautiful wife Kaitlin.

The plan is to get things rolling on here again and let you all now how the cycling scene here in the US is going. It is an interesting time with road racing seeming to have a lull in participation while the enthusiasm for off road gravel/adventure style racing is off the charts. No matter the industry feelings, I am 100% committed to racing on two wheels and plan to share it all with you. (Whether you like it or not)

See you out there!

-Matt

Then I pretty much stopped. Life got busy, got engaged, bought a house and finished that up with a Wedding last September (yes, there is a new Mrs. Curbeau). There was also the fact that I went back to being a full-time number cruncher.

Lately though, I’ve been riding my bike….a lot. Well, as much as I can fit in and still get a little sleep here and there. This past fall brought Cyclocross into my life, which was awesome and this spring brings Road Racing. So until I destroy my bike or body (or both) I’ll be putting the pedals down on the open road.

If nothing else, Cycling has a lot of race options at cheap prices and you usually get a ton of free photos taken of you….which is sweet.

I’ll try to be a little more current with the website and get this rolling right proper again.

See you out on the roads!

-MC

ps. Vermont Beer Is Pretty Awesome (And Trillium in Boston too!)