Getting Schooled At My First Gravel Race - Maurienne Gravel 2024

[@fondoquest]

Watch me eat a serious slice of humble pie during my first gravel race in the French Alps! Thanks for subscribing and liking.

[@Jo1338]

Quality video 🙂 interesting to watch. Good job!

[@fondoquest]

@@Jo1338 thank you 🙏 glad you like it

[@ReneKopeinig]

Very interesting to watch. Having been a professional cyclist a long time ago makes me even wanna start in races like that again. Looks fun. Good job man!

[@fondoquest]

go for it, it's great fun! Provided you are sensible with your pacing and awareness of your own ability lol.

[@SwimBikeRunStu]

What a mega route. 😮

[@fondoquest]

@@SwimBikeRunStu spicy indeed yes 😅

[@johnwong3514]

I noticed that you were turning the lever of the tthru axle the wrong way (righty tighty, lefty loosey) @12:06 and beyond. Might have has something to do with it not taking purchase

[@fondoquest]

@@johnwong3514 as far as I can remember I turned it every possible way lol to little avail until it grabbed. My heartrate at 175 bpm didn’t help in steadying my nerves. But yes, I did probably end up turning it the wrong way more than I needed to

[@adamkubiak1933]

That's an awesome clip, great foottage and off-camera comments. As you climb, your FTP should be re-calculated to factor in decrease in oxygen density. The decline is even larger, if you are not acclimated. Enjoy your rides and thank you for the clip again!

[@fondoquest]

thank you, Adam! Yes, I very ignorantly somehow completed ignored the altitude element. Also having only arrived 3 days before the event wouldn't have helped I guess :)

[@Greg.Sutton]

Having not long returned from a gravel trip to the Pyrenees i can sympathise just how blinking hard proper mountain gravel is. 2 of my 7 days were the hardest thing i have ever done on a bike. Its unlikley i will ever do a trip like that again as its really affected my mojo to ride a bike. I shall be sticking to road riding in the mountians going forwards i think.

[@fondoquest]

boy can I relate to this.... safe to say my mojo was at an all time low after this ride here lol.... good thing the next day I had a road fondo to not dwell too long... thanks for watching!

[@RobertLamb-q1j]

Is this an older race that you just uploaded? The last time I saw you had got some bad news about your father 😢and you were going to take a break. If this is a new race I’m glad to see you back on the bike. If not then thoughts are with you.

[@fondoquest]

thank you, Robert, it is in fact an older race that I've only recently gotten around to creating a video for. Dates from before 'the bad news' when I was still in prep mode. Just didn't want to 'waste' the footage I guess.

[@zwamman]

You are not deteriorating as much as you think during that first big climb. Adjust your power for altitude when analyzing (use Peronnet values): - First part of big climb is 253 when adjusted for altitude - Second part is 238 when adjusted Also there is a 0 section in that second part due to a small descent, so look at NP rather than avg P.

[@fondoquest]

@@zwamman thanks for this! Really interesting. Makes me feel a touch better but the feeling still wasn’t great although I’m now thinking did I let the numbers get in my head

[@JDAvant06]

Looks though but fun nonetheless. I just discovered your channel, on the outtro you seam puzzled by those low relative numbers, the following would be a possible explanation. I, by no mean, want to judge your performances, I am just formulating my thoughts on matter : I suspect your FTP measurement of 260 w was done at sea level and this gravel race took place at roughly 700 m of altitude. Not super high but one must adjust their targeted power output with altitude. At 700 m of altitude you can only produce 95% of that FTP and it goes down to 80% when you reach 2450 m atop the Galibier. So, pushing 250 w up that second climb (which was probably at higher elevation) was above your threshold on that day and judging by the piloting mistake you did on that right hander you already had dug your own grave at that point by staying on the gas above threshold for too long.

[@fondoquest]

@@JDAvant06 I think you might be spot on with your analysis… It never dawned on me to take elevation into account… in hindsight incredibly ignorant of course, thanks for watching.