Jay Petervary has a long history of organizing innovative bicycle events in Southeast Idaho. Jeff and I were pretty excited about the return of the Gravel Pursuit, in distances of 30, 60, and 120 miles, after an absence of several years.
We opted for the 60 mile option. Rounding a corner at about ten miles, I hit a rock resulting in significant damage to the sidewall of my rear tire. Things did not go well in a long improvised repair, but miraculously, it held to the finish.
The original Gravel Pursuit was a fairly traditional bike race on mostly good gravel roads and some pavement. The new Gravel Pursuit is significantly less conventional with Jeep roads, long steep hike-a-bike, singletrack, traverse through a marsh, and 4000 feet of climbing in the pebbly black sand that proliferates on Island Park roads late season.
Props to Jay P on some epic and imaginative route finding, even if you have ridden quite a bit in Island Park, significant sections of the new route will almost certainly be unfamiliar to you. The course got mixed reviews from most of the people we talked to. People liked its epic nature, but regretted their choice of bicycle. I get the idea that a good rider can ride any bike anywhere typified by the story of a road pro riding the Crusher on 23 mm road tires, but that does not change the fact that a mountain bike would have been a better match for the majority of riders in the middle part of the course.
As always Jay P's support was outstanding. I had a commitment in Boise afterward, so we were not able to stay for the potato bar. Jeff started the day stronger than me and that gap only widened over the course of the day. Nevertheless, he cheerfully dragged me all the way to the finish.
My takeaways from the new course are these. Think of it as more of an adventure ride than a gravel race. Strongly consider riding a mountain bike.
